Sure I have had setbacks. There have been a couple of times when my jobs ended and it was not my choice. There have been some medical difficulties and it has only been a year and a half since an unwelcome visitor to my apartment attempted to improve my appearance by punching me in the face.
But since I was hired for my first adult job 42 years ago at the Newton County News, I have never had a job that I did not like.
I worked in newspapers for 22 years and as an English teacher for 14 years and for the past six years I have worked as a writer/blogger.
No two days were ever the same and something challenging was always on the horizon.
That was especially true in the newspaper business.
It's a shame the opportunities I had as a reporter may not be available to young people in the near future.
The last few years have been devastating for newspapers, with most of the problems brought on by the chains that have bought one paper after another, cannibalized them, slashed their staffs and their local news content, lied to the public, and all of the while had no concept whatsoever on what local news is.
Not only have newsroom staffs been decimated, but it was not that many years ago that these out-of-town owners realized they did not need to have a publisher in every community. One publisher would run three or four or even six or seven newspapers.
Soon, that practice extended to editors. At about the same time, GateHouse Media completed its mission to destroy the Carthage Press, where i worked for nine and a half years, it offered a buyout to Neosho Daily News Editor Todd Higdon and the Daily now has an out-of-town editor.
The situation appears destined to get worse.
GateHouse recently posted an advertisement for an editor to run all of its Missouri newspapers out of Columbia, where it owns the Tribune. The company has more than 20 newspapers in the state, including the Daily (which is still called the Daily for some inexplicable reason even though it is only published twice weekly) and the Aurora Advertiser.
A company memo indicated that GateHouse plans to take 50 weekly newspapers in New England, combine them and end up with 18 newspapers. This will enable GateHouse to publish better products, company officials said.
Sure, it will.
What it will do is hasten the departure of hundreds of journalists while GateHouse's death spiral continues.
Of course, cutting costs makes it that much more desirable to Gannett, which has been discussing a merger with GateHouse. That would combine the two chains that publish more newspapers than any other companies in the U. S.
And it would cost even more jobs and continue to decrease the value of community newspapers.
It was not my choice to leave the Carthage Press at 1999, but I have always said it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Not only did I get a chance to go into teaching, an experience I would not trade for the world, but I did not have to participate in the slow suicide of the newspaper industry.
It is not just the companies like GateHouse Media and Gannett (which owns the Springfield News-Leader) that have fallen on hard times.
It has even happened to companies that have continued to battle for good community journalism.
One of those companies, Wehco Publishing, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, is trying a radical approach to stave off obsolescence.
Publisher Walter Hussman announced to readers of the company's flagship newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, that it would soon stop publishing its weekday papers and only publish one print edition, on Sunday, each week.
Despite that announcement, Hussman told readers the Democrat-Gazette will still publish a full edition every day- online.
That approach has been tried in other markets with little success, but none of them have tried the approach Hussman is using.
The weekday print edition of the Democrat-Gazette will soon be no more, replaced by an "iPad replica newspaper experience."
"It's not a website. It's not a blog. It's the paper," Hussman pointed out. "You're going to see every page on the iPad exactly like you see it in print."
The price of a subscription will remain unchanged at $36 a month. For that money, the reader will receive access to the paper and a free iPad. And for anyone unfamiliar with the popular tablets free training is available as well.Is the answer all-digital and free iPads?
Or is it too late to save community newspapers?
This week's most visited posts for the Turner Report, Inside Joplin and Inside Joplin Obituaries and links to each of them are posted below:
The Turner Report
1. Joplin babysitter's friend faces child pornography charges, allegedly fondled underage boys
2. Galena man whose 20-year prison sentenced was commuted by President Obama pleads guilty to new meth trafficking charge
3. Carthage man arrested on felony DWI, auto theft charges in Cooper County
4. Complete text of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's statement provided
5. Ed Emery on Missouri's anti-abortion law: It's not the unborn child's fault if the mother was raped or an incest victim
6. Government asks for 46-month sentence for embezzling Vernon County Ambulance District bookkeeper
7. FBI offers $5,000 reward for information on missing Joplin woman Sarah Burton
8. Billy Long after tornado: Just as Joplin did, I have no doubt Carl Junction will recover and rebuild
9. Death of beloved doctors, violent tornadoes among most visited Turner Report/Inside Joplin posts this week
10. Agenda posted for tonight's Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting
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Thanks for supporting the Turner Report, Inside Joplin and Inside Joplin Obituaries.
Inside Joplin
1. Joplin baby injured in accident on I-49
2. Columbus man wanted for probation violation on indecent solicitation of a child
3. Jasper County Dissolution of Marriage Petitions
4. Joplin Police Department Holiday Weekend Arrests
5. Joplin Police Department Arrests May 29-30
6. Jasper County Sheriff's Office Arrests
7. Joplin Police Department Arrests May 30-31
8. Two arrested at Jasper home on meth trafficking charges
9. U. S. Bankruptcy Court Petitions- Joplin
10. Newton County Dissolution of Marriage Petitions
Inside Joplin Obituaries
1. Cody Weatherman
2. Larry Glaze
3. Everett Vance
4. Gene and Opal Harris
5. Angela Graham
6. Jeanie Morris
7. Judy Merriman
8. Betty Berg
9. Chad Hallam
10. Freddy Gonzales
1 comment:
How should newspapers be run today in light of all the online competition?
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