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Blog Entry 27 of 29 You call this work?
I'm a community journalist for Denver, South Denver and Glendale here at YourHub.com. I'll write here occasionally about fun stuff I do around the city, life here at YourHub.com world headquarters, my cat and dog, movies, television and the occasional domestic rant. You will most likely find me blogging when I'm on deadline and should probably be doing more urgent things.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~BlogginItUp

So long, farewell, aufedersein, goodbye

Contributed by: Annie Hundley   on 6/26/2006

Well the time has come to open the next chapter in my life. I'm leaving my job and leaving Denver for a new job and new life in Los Angeles.

I never thought I'd say that. I had a brief run-in with LA straight out of college and Los Angeles most certainly won. This time, I plan to show it what I'm made of.

Leaving my co-workers here in Denver makes me sad. I've never had two better bosses than Travis and Fairlight. I'll miss how much fun we have here in the office - e-mailing funny videos to each other, laughing at goofy news headlines and teasing each other.

And I'll miss how inspired I get when someone comes out of the blue and posts a story, column or blog that makes me realize, once again, how cool people in Denver are.

I'll be honest - I came by this job as a complete fluke. I had left my job as a reporter at the Greeley Tribune with no job prospects in Denver. My husband and I had finally had enough of all the driving and all the waiting, so we decided to make our goal of being with family and friends in Denver a reality on our own. I really wrote off my career in journalism. Over the past year, I hadn't gotten several jobs I thought I would have been great for. I thought things were probably over for me.

I spent months not working. At first I loved it. I was swimming at the Washington Park Rec Center, watching cooking shows on PBS, staying out late and sleeping in even later. But after a while the itch came back. I missed journalism. A friend told me about this newfangled project the Rocky Mountain News was working on. She said it was a Web site that was going to do community journalism. My interest piqued. I had written my first freshman paper on community journalism and had always been intrigued by the concept. So I sent my stuff in and pretty soon I had myself a job.

What followed amazed me. I found that what you in the community could write was riveting - funny - intelligent - cute - sincere - and important. I found out some of you can write better movie reviews that what I see in the regular old paper. Most of you are touching so much more deeply on what's important to me, and a lot of people, on an everyday level with what you write. You tell me about amazing people in the city who have accomplished great things. You tell me about programs that exist in our city to help people, and how I can help too. You tell me about how you spend your days and I feel you becoming a friend. What you are doing certainly doesn't replace what newspapers do (that's what the people at newspapers worry about) but you augment it and elevate it to a level that is more personal and more priceless.

What started out to be a make-do, fill-the-gap job turned into a passion. Isn't it great how things work out?

You may or may not know this, but YourHub.com is catching on. Dozens of newspapers across the country are syndicating (i.e. replicating) YourHub.com in their communities. I'm lucky enough to have been asked to go to Los Angeles and be the editor of the new YourHub.com for the Los Angeles Daily News. I am beyond excited. I'm excited to hear what people in LA have to say. And I'm excited that I can show up already knowing that this little experiment works - and it works well.

The fact that this new job is also where American Idol is filmed also rocks my world.

If I ever dealt with your directly, whether it was just catching you by picking up the general line ("YourHub.com, this is Annie.") or by sending you an e-mail saying I liked something you wrote, I say farewell. If I didn't get to meet you, I hope you get to know my replacement - whoever that may be. (If you need help in the imminent future, please contact Community Assistant Eric Lubbers for help.)

Thank you for making this experiment work. Thank you for showing me that journalism can be more than what it was. Thanks for sharing your stories.


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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Annie Hundley
posted on 6/26/2006 @ 5:06:54 PM
(Not Rated)
I knew that. :)
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Submitted By: John Zwick
posted on 6/26/2006 @ 3:06:18 PM
(Not Rated)
That's "auf widersehen"
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Annie Hundley has posted 29 blog entries and 20 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. Annie Hundley's average blog rating is 4.7.
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