A year after my Chicago Tribune layoff, the lessons I've learned

One year ago, I made dubious journalism history as one of 53 people laid off by the Chicago Tribune. That's my desk in the photo, minutes before I had to clear out of the Tribune Tower and end a 16-year run as a Tribune staff writer and editor.

April 22, 2009 marked the single biggest day of layoffs in the Tribune Company's history. And as writer of "The Recession Diaries" blog, I went from covering the news to making it. Suddenly I became one of those ironic economic punch lines: "Hey, the recession is so bad, even the Tribune's recession columnist got laid off." My story got picked up by NPR, Jim Romenesko's media news column on Poynter Online, Mother Jones and a host of blogs, publications and TV stations.