This is a guest post by Ruth Teichroeb, an award winning reporter formerly with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She now blogs at Safety Net Seattle.

In March, Hearst closed the 146-year-old Post-Intelligencer newspaper and dumped 140 of us onto the street in the depths of the recession.

Instead of filing stories, we filed for unemployment. Instead of interviewing politicians, we took classes in How to Interview for a Job. Instead of rushing to cover the next story, we became the story.