The decline and imminent death of daily newspapers is always on my mind, for reasons that should be understandable since I spent the first 25 years of my working life at them. But last week was especially devastating.
Sam Zell, the white knight of Tribune Company, announced a very un-white-knightly cutback of 500 jobs, with this follow-up appearing today. The New York Times announced 100 positions to be whacked from its newsroom -- huge! The Minneapolis Star Tribune announced 58 firings and a general wage freeze for those employees unfortunate enough not to belong to a union.
I have been pondering, heart-aching and thinking about all of this for the last couple years, but mainly I have been writing about it -- that’s sort of how I think and feel. It would be unfair of me to try to unload all of my maundering on Unfair Park, since I doubt the death of daily newspapers is a hot topic for non-newspaper people. If it were, they wouldn’t be dead. And anyway, Wilonsky wouldn’t publish them.
So...
So I have launched my own blog, called Death of Dailies, which I hope some of you -- those who do have an interest -- will take a look at. I especially hope other newspaper types will visit.
There are also links to some autobiographical stuff -- I know, huge mistake –--just in case you want to get to know me better ... or, alternatively, get something you can use against me. It’s all there.
See you in the funny papers. What's left of 'em, anyway. --Jim Schutze
