Amy Koczera: Strategic Writer & Storyteller

Tag: blog

  • The Bite Back: The newsroom exodus and the rise of transparent bias

    The Bite Back: The newsroom exodus and the rise of transparent bias

    How the fall of institutional trust and the rise of direct-to-audience storytelling are redefining what it means to be a journalist.

    The legacy news industry has continued on its downward spiral throughout 2025. Major outlets like The Washington Post, CNN, Vox, NBC, HuffPost, and more announced widespread buyouts and layoffs, prompting waves of veteran journalists to exit newsrooms en masse. For many, the choice to leave wasn’t just about shrinking budgets or fewer resources. It was about no longer being able to do the kind of journalism they once promised themselves they would.

    At The Washington Post alone, longtime reporters and columnists like Glenn Kessler, Jonathan Capehart, and Sally Jenkins accepted voluntary separation packages (aka buyouts). Their departures signal critical inflection points. Some went on to join other publications like The Atlantic, or to start independent podcasts, newsletters, consulting practices, or media criticism platforms. Others simply stepped away for the near future.

    The mass departure of experienced journalists with decades of institutional knowledge signals a broader, industry-wide reckoning with how news is created, consumed, and trusted in the future. Plus, it’s fueling the rise of something else entirely: the storyteller economy.

    Read the full blog on the Bite Back Substack.

  • The Bite Back: Disillusioned: Did I get the sound, or did the sound get me?

    The Bite Back: Disillusioned: Did I get the sound, or did the sound get me?

    When you’re trained to chase soundbites, it’s easy to lose your own voice.

    “Did you get the sound?”

    That was the question. After every interview—“Did you get the sound?”

    Translation: Did you get someone to cry? Break down? Get emotional on camera? You know, the kind of soundbite that makes viewers stop scrolling, or makes the 5 o’clock producer say, “Perfect. This is our A-block.” Emotion sells. It’s called “good sound.” But somewhere along the line, it started to feel… off.

    I got the soundbite.

    But after a while, I started to wonder—did I get the sound, or did the sound get me?

    I thought leaving TV news was the hardest part of my career pivot. It wasn’t.

    I expected leaving journalism to sting for a second and then feel like relief. Sure, this identity I spent years building for myself would hurt to give up…but in the name of work-life balance, it would definitely be worth it. But instead, it felt more like waking up to the fact that the thing I thought was sustaining me was still slowly wearing me down. Yes, even after I wasn’t in it any more.

    At first, I felt a weird mix of freedom and FOMO. I had time off for holidays and I didn’t wake up with a pit in my stomach every morning. I wasn’t constantly bracing for breaking news or preparing to knock on the door of someone who’d just lost a family member to a tragic accident. I should have felt great.

    But instead, I felt… guilty? Like I’d let something go I was supposed to hang onto no matter how much it hurt. Meanwhile, many of my friends and former colleagues were still hanging on—and I wondered if I just wasn’t tough enough.

    But then I started talking to them. Quietly. Over DMs or coffee.

    Most of them weren’t fulfilled. They were exhausted. Disillusioned. Ready to leave, too. And one by one, they did.

    It didn’t make me feel better. It made me sad because we all got into this field with big hopes. We wanted to tell stories that mattered. Hold people accountable. Shine a light on the important news that wasn’t being reported. All that good, noble stuff. But the system we entered had changed. Or maybe it was never what we thought it was to begin with.

    Read the full blog on the Bite Back on Substack.

  • The Bite Back: The era of the ex-journalist

    The Bite Back: The era of the ex-journalist

    When I first decided I wanted to be a journalist, I felt like it was a highly respected profession that carried weight. Not just in a professional sense, but in a deeply personal one. For me, it meant something to be a watchdog, a gatekeeper. I wanted to chase the truth, question authority, and serve the public.

    But for a growing number of ex-reporters like me, the former title now feels more like a ghost—a past identity left behind in the name of survival.

    Welcome to the era of the ex-journalist.

    The deeper I got into the job, the further I felt from the purpose that brought me into it. It became painfully clear that the intention I started with, the belief that journalism could make things better, would never be fulfilled if I stayed in the industry.

    Over the last decade, my dream of building a career in traditional journalism has morphed from a calling into a cautionary tale. It’s not just the vanishing local newsrooms or the industry’s digital death spiral perpetrated by the rise of a social-first world, but the sheer emotional and financial cost of staying in it.

    Read the full blog post on the Bite Back on Substack.