Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville to publish three days a week

I remember tearing up while watching that RMN video. Watching the first major paper in this country fold, I always thought was the beginning of the end for the business. It was kind of a turning point for me, because at that point, I was still freelancing and trying to get back into the business. After the RMN folded, I kind of decided that pursuing a future in journalism was futile at that point, and truth be told it's been futile for a long time...

This one is brutal and it's probably a sign of things to come as well. Papers are going to follow the model of the Bama papers and the Times-Picayune and you're going to see similar cuts at those places...

 

Damn. Just getting a chance to read some of the stuff on this thread and it just makes me shake my head. I feel very sad for those affected by all this craziness.
There was a time where I wondered whether my joining the Army in order to make sure my family was provided for was what I really wanted to do. After all, I really did and still do like being a sports writer and journalist.
But after seeing what happened today and what's been happening over the past few years, I can't help but think I made the right decision, both for me and my family.

 

I was just telling someone that there are definitely times where I feel lucky that I was taken out early (end of 2008).

 

First ASE I worked for landed at the Baltimore News-American (which folded) and then landed at the Dallas Times-Herald (which folded) before going back to the paper I started at.

Cities used to have several newspapers. When I was in school almost all medium-sized cities had 2.

Horrible as today is, it's really No. 876 in this industry's death by a thousand cuts.

 

Obviously the RMN wasn't the first major paper to fold, but it was the first major paper to fold due to current economic conditions, or the first major paper to fold from the Internet Era or however you want to look at it...

 

Mizzou,

The RMN was not the first major paper to fold. I recall calling a friend who worked at the Dallas Times-Herald when it folded in 1991. And again when the Houston Post folded in 1994. Before that came the San Antonio Light, as well as others.

I'm old enough to remember when many cities were two newspaper towns. Now I can count that number on two hands (NY, Boston, Chicago, LA, Detroit, San Fran, Washington, Philly... maybe a couple more that escape me at the moment).

It is, of course, not the only industry to go through stuff like this. Nothing is constant except change. It would be interesting to have a crystal ball and see what the future of journalism will be, say, 10 years from now.

 

Obviously, I know that... I worded it poorly. I meant from this stretch, era or whatever... Hell, I worked with enough Times-Herald employees at my first job...

I meant from this (internet) era.

 

Sorry, mate. You posted while I was typing.

 

Suffice to say this is the single worst day a state has gone through, although Michigan may be an overall match. The three biggest dailies in Alabama will now be Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and ... hell if I know. Anniston? Decatur? Dothan?

 

Throw Florence in there.

 

Dothan takes the prize at 28k, about 2k ahead of the TimesDaily. Sheesh.

 

mobile sports did get hit hard. I don't know that staff as well but from what I've been told two writers definitely gone, two others offered different positions and might have to move to retain those jobs.
I'm pretty sure the alabama sports writers convention was this past sunday and monday. a lot of commiserating went on, I'm sure.