Can a Reporter Trade Newswriting for a Song?

So what are you going to do?" my colleagues asked me when I took a buyout from the Los Angeles Times.

I'm going to become a songwriter," I said to several of them -- the ones I knew would be sympathetic enough to answer with a nod of encouragement and without a roll of their eyes.

"That's a pretty big stretch from newswriting," one of them said.

Not really.

My experience (from which I have yet to earn a dime) has been that most of the structural values reporters bring to newswriting apply to songwriting, too. You have to (1) grab the listener's attention immediately, (2) establish context, (3) develop your thesis and (4) construct an ending that resonates back to your lead. [Click for MORE]

Bob Baker sings Handicapped

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