In the constant evaluation of the pros and cons of working in journalism in which I’ve engaged for more than 40 years, the pros always outnumber the cons.

It’s not the attractive hours, prestigious titles or enticing perks. Or even the fat paychecks, if you can believe that.

Rather, I count myself among the fortunate few who’ve discovered something they enjoy and found a way to making a living at it. I like to write. I like to design newspaper pages. More than anything, I like to meet interesting people and talk with them about their interesting endeavors. People who own and operate businesses are particularly interesting. Entrepreneurs who start ventures because they believe they can offer better products and services are downright fascinating.

There’s yet another pro to journalism, though, one that continues to motivate me two score years after I brought forth my degree from Colorado State University. That’s the opportunity to learn new things, often directly from subject matter experts. It’s like going to college on a scholarship. Or getting paid to attend TED talks or watch those MasterClass presentations.

As is usually the case, my experiences are hardly unique. 

Every job involves learning, doesn’t it? Especially jobs in business management. Those who aren’t constantly learning about changing markets and how to best serve them risk falling behind those who do. Among other things, the coronavirus pandemic presented a perilously steep learning curve, one which nimble businesses surmounted. Thank goodness.

Learning is an aggregative process, too, one step building on the next. It’s the difference between bringing 10 years worth of expertise to a position and a year’s worth of expertise gained 10 times.

It’s been my experience the most successful people in business are those who love learning, who are excited about that prospect and eager to profit from the knowledge they’ve gained.

Still, I’d wager few jobs offer more varied learning opportunities than journalism. Coming to work at a newspaper is a lot like opening a box of Forrest Gump’s chocolates: You never know what you’re gonna get.

Some journalists have experienced more notable opportunities. But a few memorable examples — memorable at least for me — come to mind:

Suspended in a bucket high above the ground, I reached out and latched on with my bare hand to a transmission line through which hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity coursed.

I prowled the brush-covered hills of Northwest Colorado with a bow hunter stalking elk.

I soared over the rimrocks of the Colorado National Monument in the open cockpit of a Stearman biplane.

Those were remarkable opportunities not just because of the experiences they afforded, but also what I learned. To wit:

The safety protocols crews follow to work on overhead power lines. 

The stealth required to hunt elk with a bow.

The business of selling rides in a vintage aircraft.

Of course, not all learning occurs while hunting elk or flying in airplanes. I wish. Most learning occurs plopped down in a chair.

When I started out in this business, that meant tedious hours spent hunched over dusty books in government offices or squinting at microfilm readers in libraries. The good old days were anything but.
The internet and search engines have made research not only more efficient, but also more enjoyable. The challenge these days is determining whether or not a source of information is trustworthy.

The best learning opportunities of all come from talking to people.

I’ve interviewed some prominent business executives. Count among them Kenneth “Hap” Klopp, founder and former chief executive of The North Face outdoor products company, and Jerry Greenfield, who joined with Ben Cohen to turn an ice cream shop into an ice cream empire. 

My brief brushes with fame notwithstanding, the most rewarding interviews are those with local business owners and managers, the remarkable people who take risks, create jobs and serve their communities in so many ways. Better still are those opportunities to reconnect with business owners and find out how their ventures have evolved.

There are a lot of pros to working in journalism. But if I’ve learned one thing over the course of my career, the best pro of all is the opportunity to learn new things.

Phil Castle is editor of the Business Times. Reach him at phil@thebusinesstimes.com
or 424-5133.