Amy Koczera: Strategic Writer & Storyteller

Tag: journalism

  • The Bite Back: How the #HireAJournalist initiative is writing the media industry’s next chapter

    The Bite Back: How the #HireAJournalist initiative is writing the media industry’s next chapter

    Ex-journalists should be thriving outside the newsroom, what’s stopping them?

    It’s no secret the journalism industry has been struggling to find its place in the modern media world. Once viewed as a credible and admirable line of work, the profession is now often weaponized – used to prove credibility in one breath and discredited in the next. The version of journalism I grew up believing in feels like it no longer exists, and with it, the place of the people who made it possible: journalists themselves.

    From the day I expressed interest in becoming a journalist, before I even started high school, I was told the career would be a sacrifice. This was reinforced in all my undergrad journalism classes. The low pay, the long hours, the missed holidays, the unpaid overtime – none of that came as a surprise. What drew me in was the mission. In the same way teachers or doctors feel called to serve, I felt called to journalism as my purpose in life. I felt that reporting the news and investigating stories to inform local communities was part of a greater mission to serve the greater good. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I believed it would be worth it.

    What I didn’t realize until I was in the field was that the “greater mission” I believed in was more complicated than any college class, freelance job, or internship could have prepared me for. The media industry itself was changing faster than any syllabus could keep up with. Newsrooms were shrinking, social media algorithms becoming more sophisticated, and the entire legacy news system was on a downward spiral–slowly transforming into something unrecognizable from what we idolized in the Cronkite-era.

    As a result, over four years ago, I walked away from what I thought was my dream job as a multimedia journalist. I didn’t leave because I wasn’t cut out for it. I left because of disillusionment and disappointment. Every day, I faced accusations from friends, family members, and strangers in comments sections that I was pushing “fake news.” I endured politicians ridiculing reporters, myself included, for asking tough questions, and watched the public cheer them on. Meanwhile, unverified “influencer” accounts and social media algorithms fed audiences a steady stream of outrage and half-truths, eroding trust in both outlets and the journalists inside them.

    Today, no one consumes news the way they did when I fell in love with the industry over 15 years ago. The shared-experience of the nightly news and centralized model of mainstream media has collapsed, replaced by personalized “news” feeds. The dangers of this new media world are obvious to those who created it and lived inside of it, but invisible to those consuming it: polarization, disinformation, and deeper societal division.

    Read the full blog on the Bite Back Substack.

  • 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.