'Bloody Monday at Kansas City Star'

David Boyce isn't just one of the finest pros I've ever worked with, he's a gentleman in every sense of the word. When I went to the Star our desks were diagonally across from each other, and from day one he would joke with me, talk music with me, talk baseball with me ... I don't know that I've ever had a colleague make me feel more at home, ever, and this for a guy he didn't know from Adam when I showed up.

Godspeed, my friend. Good things do happen to and for good people, eventually.

Mike Vaccaro

 

My thoughts go to Mike Fitzgerald, too, a pro's pro, and the best friend any kid on the come ever had when they walked in the door at the Star thinking they had the business down cold. Mike's wisdom, kindness and patience touched so many people through the years that his legacy was always going to survive; it's just a shame that legacy gets too quick a head start now.

Never worked with Pedley, our paths never crossed at 1729 Grand, but have heard only good things about him, too.

---Vac

 

So why bother anymore? If this is what you get for pouring your heart and soul into something for many years, working to get better, sacrificing your personal and family life to put out a better product. And this is what you get in return?

Maybe it's time for all of us to become bean-counters. Hey, if we can compute an ERA or quarterback rating, we can learn to figure out a few interest and depreciation rates, eh?

 

Incredibly sad and ironic that this thread was started by our young friend Simon, a mere high school kid when SJ began, whose only dream was to write for a newspaper.

How many of us read his terrific work, encouraged him, celebrated when he got into Mizzou? We did everything but buy his dorm bedding for him, and we would have done that if he'd asked.

I wonder what we'd tell him now.

 

There's still time to change your major?

 

I do bad about not mentioning Fitz and Boyce (and Kent)

Fitz was great to me when I was at the Star in high school through now, and Boyce was always willing to talk trash with me about the Chickensquawks. I didn't know Kent real well, but I remember reading his name in the Star's sports section for what seems like forever.

Ugh. Today sucked.

 

i'm plum out of answers to that one, 21. i've been at this since '78 and have prided myself in always encouraging young ones to chase the dream, that i am proof it can happen, that this is a dream job and dream professsion, that no matter how much we're underpaid, we get to make a living and be the envy of every working stiff we know who can buy us out 10 times over.

i'm finally beaten down, among those clinging to life with retirement still too far off. don't know that i can do anything else and darn sure i don't want to do anyything else.

my boys have been blessed to see their dad do what he truly loves, all the while feeling like he's never really worked a day in his life. when the rug gets pulled out from under me in this biz, i honestly have no clue what will be next.

but i'm darn sure it won't be anything nearly as fulfilling, fun or to be envied by others. it literally keeps me up for a good 30 minutes once my head hit the pillow every night/early morning.

going on this site every day is torturous, an exercise akin to rubbernecking. i have no idea how to console others in the same predicament, other than to tell them, in the tradition of lou grant, "i cherish you people."

and pray i get through another day.

 

this, indeed, is becoming a torturous site.

 

been skipping days logging on here and there lately. just don't wanna see the latest.

 

I don't know Mike Fannin but have always heard good things about him.

And, damn, those are some great stories posted on this thread.

I worked for an editor like him once, and you never forget what you learn from people like that. Nothing like a great editor who always has your back.

 

Me too, Shockey.

It's been a great ride, and I don't want it to end yet.
I'm ready if it does, but there's something wrong with that.

Love your post. Good luck to you, too.

 

Whoa. Let's go back only 10 years, when profits were 20-30 percent at many places, maybe most places.

I worked at a shop in the 1980s where our profits were above 40 percent two years in a row.

Here's the nut: The late Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) spelled it out in his book: Most retailers, and other businesses, are doing fine when they can make 3-5 percent profit every year. What made Wal-Mart great was that it could make 5-7 percent profit with volume buying and centralized distribution points.

Stood the retail industry on its head.

Now here came newspapers, where profit margins started to go lower when corporations took over. Lower than 30 percent, that is.

Too much trying to satisfy Wall Street, too much trying to spread out and take over the world or whatever. Instead of concentrating on core markets and satisfying the customers in their core markets.

The meltdown is hard on everyone now, but Sam Walton would laugh at any chain or newspaper that still can turn a profit more than 5 or 7 percent. We can't tell sometimes, unless they totally open the books. But I suspect that some of these chains are still making enough profits to forge on. They just aren't making the profits they want to make.

I wish I could be in the boardrooms and hear what they really talk about.