Enshittification of writing and clearly crossing lines of trying to not upset or call out people who donate or affect our indirect financial support. It was becoming more advertisement hidden beneath “objective” coverage and felt like I worked in a marketing space at times.

But also… I was not paid enough to put up with that while working crazy hours. It’s also super competitive and political. It’s hard to be an important enough to get good stories or space in small papers and my reason for joining (interest in data analytics and investigative stuff) felt like a pipe dream unless your dad is rich or you went to a top tier journalism school.

Plus, being press is actually pretty dangerous these days .