And then, inspiration struck

NEW YORK -- In a competitive and youth-obsessed business, most everyone gets The Call sometime. For ex-CNN daytime anchor Daryn Kagan, it came in January 2006.

She was brought into an office and told that CNN would not renew her contract when it expired at the end of the year. Kagan was lucky in one sense -- she wasn’t escorted out that day by security -- but by the first of September, she was gone.

Left with a personal crisis sadly familiar to many, Kagan reinvented herself with a website devoted to telling inspirational stories. With a book that went on sale last week, two TV documentaries and a planned show for broadcast, she’s trying to build an empire.

“I don’t have a website,” she says now. “I have a media company.”

DarynKagan.com explodes onto the screen in a sunburst of orange, yellow and red. She has a centerpiece story of the day and an archive of dozens more: a man with two amputated legs who competed in an Ironman triathlon; a woman who sends donated breast milk to Africa; a man who rehabilitated Michael Vick’s pit bulls; a coffee shop worker who donated a kidney to a regular customer.

They’re the kinds of stories she loved doing for television. They didn’t have the import of war and peace but, she said, were “the ones that made my heart go zing.”

Kagan was initially inspired by former NBC correspondent Kevin Sites’ website about war zones. At first, she wanted to sell the idea to Yahoo. After the company passed, Kagan decided to do it herself from her Atlanta home.

Most of the story ideas for DarynKagan.com (“show the world what’s possible” is the motto) come from readers, who are encouraged to write in. The site is not religious, although Kagan, who is Jewish, says she believes the mainstream media does a poor job of covering spiritual matters that are an important part of many people’s lives.

They’re the types of stories many hard-bitten journalists roll their eyes at. Kagan says it’s an important part of the media mix.

“If you’re really invested in feeling bad about the world, there are a lot of media outlets out there that you can turn to,” she said.

She had never thought of starting her own business before. A small staff helps her, but Kagan has discovered an exhausting reality of the blogging life. The day doesn’t really end; you just have to decide when to shut it down.

There are advantages, though.

“In the news business, you have to get picked,” said Kagan. “You have to get hired. There’s a lot of heartbreak in that process. If I do it this way, I don’t have to get picked. I can pick me.”

Given the way the traditional news business is shrinking, Kagan said she’d be more scared to have taken another job in television.

Kagan, 45, has made two documentaries as part of her new business. “Breaking the Curse,” which aired on PBS, was about an Atlanta-area woman working to end leprosy in India. “Solartown USA,” which hasn’t found a TV home yet, is about a Wisconsin town that made a commitment to solar power in the 1970s.

Her book, “What’s Possible,” was released last week and has 50 stories about people who overcame obstacles to achieve dreams -- starting with her own. Kagan is also shopping for a broadcast component to her new brand, either a syndicated TV or radio show.

She’s become a go-to person for people who have lost their jobs in broadcasting, or fear losing their jobs and don’t know what they will do next. She frequently takes their calls.

“All gigs end,” she said. “I think people take it personally when it does happen, and they shouldn’t take it personally. All of these things have a beginning, a middle and an end.”

Sugar-shock might be an occupational hazard of her new work telling inspirational stories. But there’s one very positive byproduct, she said: “It’s really hard to have a bad day.”