Editor’s Note: The National Press Club Journalism Institute is committed to providing journalists resources and connections that support their personal and professional lives. In 2025, we are collaborating with several groups to widen those networks of support.
My name is Taylor Six, and I am an alcoholic. I am also a crime and courts journalist at the Lexington Herald-Leader. But when I began my recovery three years ago, I was surprised and disappointed to find that the journalism profession has few — if any — resources to help people like me find information, mentors, and community to help continue to do the work that I love while staying sober.
Sharing my story and struggles with addiction is what I had in mind when in 2024 I created the Journalists Recovery Network, a group designed to educate, empower, and support journalists in recovery by connecting them with a community and offering resources.
JRN aims to help journalists navigate the particular issues those of us in recovery may face as we do our work:
- What if a source asks me out for a beer?
- How will I navigate an alcohol-steeped conference?
- Is my lived experience a bias or a benefit?
- How do I fit into a newsroom in which social occasions revolve around alcohol?
- And what about that persistent myth so many of us must grapple with — that our creativity and writing skills will dim or vanish without alcohol or drugs to fuel them?
These are all the questions our group aims to discuss and offer support to grapple with.
The JRN also offers support to other journalists in recovery with lived experience and expertise on navigating these matters. We are available to help and to recommend resources that we have found valuable in our own path to navigating sobriety in the industry.
We recognize the range of recovery experiences and needs. We aren’t affiliated with any 12-step program. We take no position on abstinence or how anyone should pursue their own healing and recovery. Our advisory committee is searching for ways to be of service to our peers and we would love to know what resources and questions other journalists in recovery could use and benefit from by being a member of our group.
Please contact us at [email protected] with any thoughts or suggestions or just to let us know you think a group like ours is needed.
The work of journalism has never been more important but also never been more demanding or stressful. For journalists in recovery, let’s create a community where we can all have each other’s backs.