Layoffs coming at the OCR...

No way. That's like talking about a no-hitter in the seventh inning. Those in places that are avoiding the layoff/furlough bug don't want to jinx anything.

 

I respectfully disagree. It's not our job to "restore some faith in our industry to the young reporters," especially when the hatchet men have gone after all of us again and again and again and again ...

 

Why should young reporters -- or anyone else, for that matter -- have any faith in the industry?

 

For those, like me, in their 50s: Did you start to lose faith in the industry in the 1980s when all these midsize cities went from two-newspaper towns to one-newspaper towns?

I believe this industry's brief explosion in the 1990s (great economy, near-monopoly in all cities, pre-internet) has clouded our point of reference. In fact, it's almost always been in upheaval and at the mercy of the public's habits on how they get their news.

 

Yeah, that's it. This is just a blip.

 

I thought this was interesting.

http://www.losangelesregister.com/articles/bill-600846-journalist-dwyre.html?page=1

This was in the L.A Register edition and I don't know if it appeared in the Orange County one (although I'm guessing it did), but I find it highly unusual that a reporter -- even a columnist -- at a major paper got a go-ahead to write about a former sports editor of the major competitor when there was no real news peg, like, say, the subject had either quit, or died.

It's Simers' last week, so he's probably getting a pass, but still, I take it as a rare, genuine tip of the cap, not only by Simers to his "idol," but also by the Register.

The column is kind of playful in that it harkens back to Simers' constant inclusion/jabbing of Dwyre in his columns back when he was at the L.A. Times, of course, but I nonetheless find this rare, and real.

 

That's the opposite of what I said.

The mid-1990s were the blip. It just happens to be the point of reference for so many on this board who started their careers around that time.

Every other era has seen major upheaval in the newspaper industry. My first assistant sports editor worked at two newspapers that folded within a few years of one another (Baltimore News-American, Dallas Times-Herald). And this was during some pretty good economic times. When I was growing up even the most modest-sized cities (Knoxville, Chattanooga, Charlotte, Fort Wayne, Charleston, SC) were two-newspaper towns.

 

The early 1980s are a great example of some great papers closing up shop... Washington Star, Philadelphia Bulletin, Cleveland Press...

 

That's a really nice column. Glad to know that Simers was ripping Dwyre just for laughs all those years.

And a good punchline here:

Newspapers might be dying, but Journalist Bill has his own ideas.

I’m not surprised. When he made his first appearance as a newborn in Sheboygan, Wis., he arrived butt first.

 

And yet throughout the down times you mentioned, there remained a very solid core of newspaper folks -- many without college degrees -- who could live a very nice life on good (union) wages. House, car, college education for the kids, retirement, etc.

To act like the last five years are business as usual and that the wizened old vets have seen this before, that's just ridiculous.

 

Help restore some faith in the industry, you cynical bastard.

 

Don't know what else I can say.

Paper after paper after paper folded up shop as I was entering the business. An entire genre of newspapers (PM) withered and died. To me, a newspaper folding is a bit more traumatic than XX% of a newsroom getting laid off.

And most of my colleagues and former colleagues live very nice lives and put their kids through college, too.

Yeah, some were laid off. My former supervisor was laid off in 2009, caught on at the newspaper 20 miles away a few weeks later and has been there ever since. Our baseball writer was laid off last year, a few weeks later was hired as a baseball writer in Minneapolis. People move around. The ones who are determined to stay in the business usually do. And the ones who leave the business --- according to this board, at least --- almost all seem happier. Yes, the OCR layoffs are bad news. But there are openings all over, too, many recently posted on this board.