A Slow Death

  Twelve years ago this week I graduated from USF and looked forward to starting what I thought would be a career as a newspaper photographer. The next month I was hired as the staff photographer at the Leesburg Daily Commercial. Three years later I got out and haven't regretted one day.

  You see as most people have read or heard newspapers have been suffering from declining circulation for years. And with it they also were losing on advertising revenue. Now factor in the tanking economy and you can imagine the slashing that is going on in the newsrooms these days.

  Call it divine intuition or dumb luck on my part (and that is always likely with me) but I'm glad that I made the decision 10 years ago to resign my staff photographer's position at the Warren Tribune-Chronicle and go it alone. 

  I know the primary reason for my leaving Warren was I was unhappy with the job and the area. I knew that I wanted to be in Pittsburgh with Cathy and that was my future not Trumbull County, OH.

  But in the back of my mind I saw that this career would never afford me the ability to achieve the financial goals I had set for myself of homeownership, secure retirement and providing for my family. At the time, I was making $23k a year and with hard work and moving to a big city paper I might be making $45k by the time I was 35. Might! This wouldn't do.

  In my opinion, newspapers lacked the vision of how integral the web would be to today's newsreader. They should have been pushing hard for it ten years ago. They should have taken the attitude of every minute is a deadline on the first day they wrote html code.

  Instead they viewed it as a supplement to the printed edition at best. I remember most editors' opinions in the late 90s was that it should appear first in the paper and then on the web. Now news breaks the opposite way. Had they taken the approach of getting it out on the web first and then the printed edition maybe they would be in a better situation now.

  In the last few years newspapers have jumped on to every internet news bandwagon there is. They have anyone associated with the newsroom write a blog (Which I hate as it goes against journalistic teachings of objectivity. Let columnist write blogs and not the cops beat reporter. It compromises the reporter's objectivity.). They make staff photographers shoot video (Which I think is good but give them time to tell a story not make a YouTube video.). And they promote the hell out of celebrity news. (Come on. If I want to know what Brittney is doing I'll go to TMZ.com not orlandosentienl.com)

  So now Detroit's two major daily newspapers are cutting back to three home deliveries a week and transitioning more to a web presence. I think you'll find this trend continue to most of the nation's papers. It just makes since that the incoming generations are accustom to reading their news on websites and RSS feeds. 

  I've said for a long time that I think you will also see newspapers come in and do away with their staff. Like the magazines did in the 70s, some bean counter will realize that journalist are scared of unemployment and they'll take whatever you give them. My guess is you'll see a major newspaper tell their remaining staff of photographers, reporters and editors that they are all fired and the paper will now allow them to bid for a contract. This will help reduce a significant piece of overhead for the paper which is labor costs. 

  The paper will no longer have to worry about certain taxes, benefits and other costs associated with labor. Everyone will be on contract and be responsible for making those payments. 

  Knowing the people in the industry who are presently trying to fly low under the radar in the newsroom in the hopes of not getting axed they'll take the contract. Some of those I know who have been let go from the paper where they worked for years have told me they don't know what they're going to do.

  "I guess I'll go freelance," is usually their response. The problem is that it's just not as simple as that. Trust me I know. It takes years to build up a clientele that'll keep you busy throughout the entire year.

  So here I am ten years after leaving the newspaper industry reflecting on the road I didn't take. I feel that I made the right choice in my life. It's kind of funny when you think about it, I've been unemployed for the last ten years.