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Ok, so we were wandering the halls of the Mediabistro Circus on Wednesday, getting our mingle on, and we noticed a lot of name tags that said something like:
John Doe, CEO/Founder, John Doe Enterprises
When John Doe would be questioned about his company, the answer was invariably “Well, I’m just getting off the ground now—I was laid off last month and I thought I’d give this a try.”

Still trying to figure out whether this is depressing or promising; I’m leaning toward promising.

Obviously, the insane number of layoffs in media is not a happy thing to think about. But thank goodness for all these people who aren’t giving up and who are trying to do something new. Maybe they’re mostly going to try the same old things—there’s no guarantee that laid-off newspaper reporter Jane Doe will do anything but focus on writing for established print outlets—but maybe she’ll invent something new or create a new business model.

We need a new word for this: Laidoffpreneur? It’s so ridiculous it just might work.

Laidoffpreneurs of the Circus, we salute you.