What’s next?

As you may know, yesterday was my last day of work at Reportedly-as-you-know-it. We’re sad, but we’re also determined to stick together and…

As you may know, yesterday was my last day of work at Reportedly-as-you-know-it. We’re sad, but we’re also determined to stick together and we are working on ways to keep our work going. So, on that front, stay tuned. In the meantime, I just want to say again how lucky I feel to be a part of such a team of highly talented, tormentously ethical, seriously loyal and hilariously funny people. It was thrilling and humbling and I still believe we went to the Moon and back — we really did, no matter how it ends. And ours is not a farewell.

In these last few days, our “packing” days, I was amazed at how little we really had to take care of before stepping down. Because at the end of the day, Reported.ly was, really, just a blessed bunch of people with specific skills, plus a few tools. Really. Led by Andy’s vision, which time proved right again and again, we built a sort of remote pop-up newsroom — so it suits that status that we can imagine ourselves popping up again, no matter where or when.

What I’ve learnt from this amazing experience, which was also a real-time deep dive into a very particular moment in history, I’m planning to write in another piece soon. For now, I want to tell you about my near future.

In a few days, we are going to be graced by our peers with being possibly the coolest unemployed team ever when we hit the ONA conference in Denver, with both an award nomination *and* the conference final keynote speech. To all of you friends who’ll be there, I’m looking forward to spending some time with you again, on our caffeinated afternoons hunting for vacant wall sockets.

For all the rest, there’s a few things I plan to spend September and October doing. Resting a bit and taking better care of myself, which recently I wasn’t very good at (I can safely say none of us were), spending more time with the people I love, finish writing my book which progressed in fits and starts in the last three years, and resume my long-form writing, podcasting, spoken word, photography and teaching in a sustainable way. My next speaking engagement is a panel on digital tools on the refugees crisis with MSF at Internazionale festival in Ferrara on Sept 30 — if you’re there, by all means stop by and say hello.

I plan to explore the subjects I’m passionate about — public space, art and journalism, Egypt, refugees — in a different way for a while and also, to ponder and research larger contexts (I have a nagging feeling that our shared ‘morsel’ experience of news is damaging our larger knowledge in the long run).

For the time being, my real-time coverage heart is taken by reported.ly, and some detox from breaking news won’t hurt. But for all the rest, I’d love to start new collaborations in both art and journalism and I’m already exploring some promising ones, so if you have ideas, just ping me and we can talk over a coffee or Skype.

And to all of you who took the time for a sweet hug or a pat on the back these last few weeks: thank you, I really appreciated and it made all the difference in the world.

love,

Marina