News anchor Daryn Kagan had worked at CNN twelve years when network executives told her they weren’t renewing her contract. She was out of a job.
Kagan, in her early forties, continued to work on CNN’s air for most of the remaining ten months of her contract, keeping her upcoming departure quiet. At the same time, she searched for what to do next. She finally decided to start her own Web site dedicated to good news and inspirational stories, which launched in late 2006.
Kagan is funding the Atlanta-based venture herself. Her business plan calls for revenue through sponsorships, book deals and speaking engagements. The site includes video starring Kagan, as well as stories. She is the only full-time employee, though she has hired a handful of freelancers.
I chatted with Kagan recently about her new gig—and the journey that led her to entrepreneurship.
You say a lot of women can relate to your experiences during the past year. Why is that?
My story is one of reinvention. A lot of women have to reinvent themselves, for whatever reason. Maybe it is because they were stay-at-home moms and now they are re-entering the workforce. For me, it started a year ago when CNN told me they weren’t renewing my contract. I had my sad, probably a good three months of it.
Having to reinvent yourself is scary. No one told you this could happen. It will either be an amazing journey or it will do you in. It is a choice.
How’d you figure out what to do next?
It was a process. First, I figured out what I wasn’t going to do. I wasn’t going to go find another network news job.
Why not?
For one thing, it would have meant moving, probably to the Northeast where MSNBC and Fox News are based. Or going into local news.
Also, I understand that I’d probably be in the same position again in a few years. The same things that led to the end of my CNN career—age, the fact that they could pay someone younger a quarter of my salary, and just the way technology is changing the news business—those things would have continued to be issues. Traditional TV news is a dinosaur.
