As a recently “bought-out” reporter with 30 years experience I would say that much of what is being listed as anger is really frustration.
Frustration with:
Editors who are clueless to confront the emerging new media.
Editors and managers who believe gutting a newsroom of its most experienced writing talent is the way to success.
Editors and managers who believe American Idol and movie premiers rank about investigative reporting that uncovers corruption and public official wrong doing.
Features have their place, I’ve done thousands in my career, but there is nothing like a breaking news story - murder, fatal car and industrial accidents and a “good” tornado - to really garner readers and interest.
When I started my first reporting job in 1977 I had a stormy, but respectful relationship with my editor. That continued through much of the 1990s when that older generation of editors began to retire.
Now what we have are pretty boys in empty suits (I know there are girls too, but I’ve only had boy bosses) who are stumbling in the dark trying to figure out what the next best trend is.
Trend newspapering is a joke. Get back to basics and tell people what happened in the accident or fire they drove by this morning. That’s why I buy a newspaper.
Online efforts will have to be led by younger, brighter minds. Right now older newspapers assign incompetent reporters and editors to the “Internet desk” to find a place for them. That is precisely the wrong way to fix what is ailing newspapers.
Anyway, I’m not angry. I had a wonderful fulfilling career and am now drawing a nice retirement check two years earlier than I planned.
I’m not angry for me, I’m frustrated for the young people to come.
I like your site and would like to link to it from my site: Freefromeditors.blogspot.com. With your permission, of course.

Jim

@joe I just checked all those links and they seem to be working fine from here? Which link were you referring to? — Also, re:mildlyenthusiasticjournalist, it’s a bit long. We need some cool Web 2.0 name for it to really catch on. I’ll get on that. ;) Thanks again for creating this.

The reasons to be angry are too many to count, but I dont get the value of the constant moaning that goes on, mostly because the moaners dont seem to have any ideas about improving things.

My attitude is to work hard and make myself the best reporter I can, and if I still can’t make a decent living in a few years I’ll do something else.