Visit me at entertainment website “We Got This Covered”
Screenshot on the new website; that's my "House" article on the front page
Dear Readers,
I have written for three organizations in my life. The first was the Denver Post’s Colorado Kids, a youth-oriented section of the paper that I joined at age nine. The second was the Denver Post’s YourHub, the community journalism website and print section where I spent five years honing my craft and expanding my critical horizons (and in which my work still appears as a weekly column). The third was and is my own organization: this website, Jonathan Lack at the Movies, created out of a desire for total creative freedom and the undeniably narcissistic need to establish my name as one worth listening to, a tool I hoped would benefit me in future career endeavors.
Today, I am announcing that a fourth organization has been added to that list. The entertainment website We Got This Covered has asked me to join their writing staff, and I accepted their offer. In the past two days, I have already published nine articles for them, and I look forward to seeing where this new professional opportunity will take me in the weeks and months to come.
I know you must have a lot of questions. Patience. They will be answered momentarily. First, I want to assure you that this does not mean the end of Jonathan Lack at the Movies, nor does it necessarily mark the end of my relationship with YourHub. It just means things are going to be a little different. For details, continue reading after the jump…
Let me begin by explaining why I made this decision. There were, as there always are, pros and cons to consider. The biggest Con, of course, is that I will have to take at least some attention away from this website, which I have spent months devoting nearly all my time to. That was a tough call to consider. I am proud of this blog. I am proud of the audience I have built in a relatively short amount of time. And the admitted narcissistic tendencies that led me to put my name at the top of every page in giant red letters did give me pause when considering whether I should write for a website where I would be decidedly more anonymous.
But ultimately, there were many more positives to consider. First and foremost, We Got This Covered gives me the chance to reach a broader audience. They have a built-in reader base and marketing resources that I simply cannot compete with at this time. They also have basic journalistic resources, like access to press screenings, review copies of movies, interview opportunities, etc. that are more ideal than current circumstances. They cover a broader swath of content than I do, which gives me opportunity to write on topics I’ve never been able to in the past, such as entertainment news stories. In that way, the site also allows me to hone certain journalistic skills that I’ve wanted to exercise. It is also, admittedly, nice to have an editing staff, as it takes away much of the pressure I’ve often experienced running my own site. I am rather adept, at this point, at copyediting my own posts, and I pride myself in the general lack of typos or mistakes found on this website. But there’s still pressure involved in covering all that by oneself, especially when you consider the other responsibilities I have at this blog, like attracting traffic, coming up with headlines, finding images, and all sorts of other tasks I now have editors and other writers to assist me with.
Most importantly, We Got This Covered has offered me a similar level of creative freedom as I have right now. I have been instructed to write the stories and reviews that interest me, rather than following a strict set of guidelines. This is important. Had I been offered a position with less freedom, I would not have taken it. As you may be able to infer by some of my actions – like leaving a Denver Post subsidiary to start my own blog – I need to be able to write what I want to write. I’m prickly in that way. I produce quality writing, but that’s largely because it’s all self-started; I have a passion for the things I write that comes from my sense of independence. There are obviously going to be certain kinds of articles I can’t publish on We Got This Covered, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing them; I’ll just post them here instead.
And that leads me to discuss the role of this blog going forward. In the immediate future, I don’t expect you’ll notice much of a change for Jonathan Lack at the Movies. The Mad Men reviews will continue through the end of the season. They will not be moving anywhere. We have not yet figured out film review logistics at We Got This Covered, so all movie reviews will continue to appear here for a few weeks or so. And even if I commit myself more fully to the new website, I won’t be abandoning this blog entirely. There will always be new content here. I have a giant project for the month of August, for instance, that is very personal to me, and it will appear here on the blog. The number of posts here will probably go down as time goes by, but I won’t forget this website entirely. I fully intend on finishing the Archive project I’ve been working on so that, no matter what, Jonathan Lack at the Movies will stand as an online compendium of all the journalistic work I have ever done.
And of course, there’s always the chance the new gig won’t work out perfectly, and I’ll re-commit myself fully to this website. Like I said, I’m prickly, and fond of my independence, and in the worst-case scenario, I’ll just find new ways to make my own website work. We’ll just have to wait and see.
But for now, I suggest you bookmark We Got This Covered, and check the website out to see all the daily news updates, opinion pieces, and reviews I have provided and will provide in the future. It’s a pretty neat place. I hope to see you there.
Love,
Jonathan R. Lack
P.S.
Here’s a couple of articles I published on the new website you might want to check out, as they give a good idea of the kind of work I’ll be doing:
1. My review of the House M.D. series finale