From a Newspaper Draft Post in 2014

My local newspaper recently sent us (subscribers since the mid 1980's) a letter telling us about a rate increase for subscriptions effective next month. They also thanked us for supporting local journalism.

In the same week, I found out (from a local radio station's post on Facebook) that the offices for this newspaper are being vacated.  Some of this is pandemic related - people work remotely now.  But it also means it's the end of our local physical newsroom.

Somehow, this isn't a surprise.  For months now, if our local newspaper runs an article on a local problem (high rental costs, drug addiction, homelessness, you name it), the examples it gives aren't local - they are articles about places and people who live over 100 miles (160 km) from here.  My guess is, they take one article and run it in all newspapers for miles around.

Or, if they run a "fun" feature - like "local ice cream places" they give shoutouts to businesses in at least a 50 mile radius. (Yes, they actually ran a feature on local ice cream parlors earlier this spring and they did just that).  I don't know about you, but my ice cream purchased 50 miles from here would have melted long before I got home with it.

So, let's take a short trip down memory lane.

I was cleaning out my draft posts the other day and found the below.  I never published it.  Maybe it felt too "whiny" but I now realize, from what I know today, that I was looking into the future.

From a January 2014 draft post:

Recently, when I tried to put my newspaper on vacation hold to be delivered upon my return, no one seemed to pay attention.  This is not an isolated occurrence and I know other people who have had various service problems with the paper.

The other times, after they delivered the paper on the first day of the hold, I was able to reach someone by phone or chat and the paper was finally stopped.

This last time was the final straw.  I just got home from a four day trip out of town, one that was draining on a number of levels.

In preparing for the trip, I went online two days before I left (a Tuesday) and asked that the paper be stopped as of Thursday.  Thursday (I was still at home when the paper comes so I wanted to see if the paper was stopped or not due to my previous experiences in the paper not being stopped) the paper came. I had to leave soon after that, and ended up online chatting with a customer service rep later that day (I had to wait a few minutes, so I have a feeling that rep was quite busy).    The rep promised to contact someone.  OK...

When I came home, there were three papers on my porch.  That is a good way of telling a potential burglar "welcome to my house!"

I went online to find my only option at that time of day was chat. No customer service email address.  I already (from previous experience) knew I was outside of the phone customer service hours, which seem to be fewer each time I need to call them.   So I emailed the executive editor, who I realize is going to direct my email to someone else. But I wanted them to know that I, a customer of over 25 years, was ready to quit doing business with them.  It appears that is the only way I will get the newspaper to stop delivery.  I am a long distance caregiver, I must travel sometimes to give care, and I need to be able to stop the paper.  Every time I need to.  Period."

Now, back to the present.

I had no way of knowing that when I finally posted this, our paper wouldn't print on holidays, or on Saturdays.  And that our newsroom was moving to parts unknown.

I suppose we are fortunate to be subscribing to a six day a week paper - when it is delivered, that is.

Complaining about a missing paper (yes, our paper wasn't delivered - again - yesterday) almost seems nostalgic.

Sometimes I do miss the good old days.  Nostalgia.

Sometimes.

The Fall of Newspapers Continues

The more things change, the more things stay the same (or so the saying goes).

I found a draft of a blog post I was planning, back in 2014.  If only I had known what the next few years would bring.

This is from that forgotten draft:

" Newspapers shrink. Newspaper employees in the thousands have been laid off.  Some newspapers are no longer published in hard copy.  Prices go up. Some papers in the area (not ours - not yet) are no longer delivering daily.  Our paper here in the Binghamton, New York area is now a mashup of local and a national publication, USA Today. And, service is more and more nonexistent.  No service given by a dying industry to the remainder of their faithful customers.

I really wonder if the industry will exist at all five years from now.  We need journalists for many reasons.  Our society will be poorer for the disappearance of the newspaper.  Is it too late for the industry to turn things around?  More and more, I think the answer is "yes, it's too late."

So, here in 2022, I can tell you that our local newspaper is still publishing, but, it seems, just barely.

News stories, more and more, seem to concentrate on examples happening in the Hudson Valley, a part of New York State over 100 miles from where I live in New York.  Restaurants closing?  Schools experiencing difficulties?  Whatever the topic, they rarely aren't interviewing anyone local.

Our local newspaper printing plant closed years ago (it's currently owned by Binghamton University and is, at this time, hosting a COVID testing site) so if we have bad weather the newspaper doesn't get delivered.  Instead, we are expected to go online and read the website.  There is no refund.  Over the last thirty days, there have been several times we haven't gotten the paper until the next day, if at all.

They do advise us by email that we won't get the paper, but no worries! We can read it online!  But there is something about reading something you hold in your hands, or can take (ahem!) into another room to read.

For Christmas and New Years 2021, the newspaper published a combined edition, three days all crammed into one little paper for each holiday. Or, should I add, one paper for the price of three, because they charged subscribers three papers for that one.  Want more than the print edition?  Well, subscriber, go online.

And, best (or worst) of all, our newspaper will no longer be publishing on Saturdays, starting in March.

We need journalists more than ever.  But with the death of a lot of local papers, including many in small towns, we don't have the journalism we need in print form anymore.  I saw an interview Sunday that explained that over 2,200 local newspapers have folded since the early 21st century.  In fact, there is a bill called the "Local Journalism Sustainability Act" before Congress right now, which has some bipartisan support.

Perhaps I'm old fashioned, given that I'm in my late 60's, but I would miss my daily paper if it disappeared.

But, most of all, I would miss the local investigative reporting we so need in this country.  The local scandal.  For those in small towns, the police blotter.  Even the "Mrs. Smith went shopping with Mrs. Jones and then had lunch at the Burger Barn" I thought was so cheesy when I lived in the countryside of Northwest Arkansas years ago.

It wasn't cheesy.

Is it too late to revive the local newspaper?

An Anniversary and a Death

Today is the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city of Hiroshima, Japan, by the United States.

August 6, 1945 was a Monday morning.  At the time, Hiroshima had a population of about 300,000.    Here is one eyewitness account.  It is not easy reading.  Those who survived suffered unimaginable mental anguish for the rest of their lives (as did many of those who fought in World War II and all other wars.)

Survivors, most of whom are in their 80's and 90's, are still dying from effects of the bomb.

Years ago, I was able to see the Enola Gay, the airplane from which the bomb had dropped.  It's in a Smithsonian museum in Virginia (one well worth the visit).  Very, very sobering.  There is a memorial each year in Hiroshima, which has been rebuilt, but due to COVID-19, it had to be scaled way back.

It is also worthy to note that a number of the killed and survivors were Korean, forced by the Japanese to work in Hiroshima.

It's estimated that 2/3 of the population of Hiroshima died as a result of the bombing.

Soon, we will commemorate the 75th anniversary of V-J Day (the ending of World War II), with hopes that eventually our human race will find a way to permanent peace. 

More eyewitness accounts of the bombing.

And yesterday....

The world of journalism mourns another great:  Pete Hamill, dead at the age of 85.

Anyone who grew up in New York City during the 50's and 60's recognizes the name immediately.

He was the voice of New York, a journalist and novelist who spent part of his life at various New York City area papers - the New York Post, New York Newsday, and the New York Daily News.

One of my childhood memories is of my Dad, leaving for work five days a week.  Before climbing the steps of our elevated subway train station, he would stop at a "sweet shop" and get his New York Daily News.  He would read it on the subway ride from our apartment in the Bronx to his job in lower Manhattan, a commute which, many times, took more than an hour. 

On the way home, he would read the New York Post, which was an afternoon paper.

Then, he'd get home and give me the newspapers.  Back then, you got much of your news from the newspaper, and newspapers provided a lot of my early reading material.  Hamill became a reporter (he didn't want to be called a "journalist") for the Post in 1960 but eventually branched out into magazine article writing, and, later, became a novelist.

Pete worked for New York newspapers (including Newsday, a Long Island paper), New York magazines, and is said to have inspired Robert F. Kennedy to run for President.  Hamill was present when Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.  It is also said that Hamill's memoir inspired Frank McCourt to finish his best selling memoir, Angela's Ashes.

He witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11.

RIP, Pete Hamill.  You will be missed.

Now the Journalists

This time, the shooting was in a newspaper office in Annapolis, Maryland. 

Editors, journalists, and a sales associate had not gone out to get the news.  The news came to them.  And, five dead  later, the survivors joined with a sister newspaper, the Baltimore Sun, to report on the news that had just happened right before them.

This shooting was a little different, though, because a close in law was visiting us, and she worked for a suburban New York City newspaper for many years.  She, through her words, had taken me into a newsroom on the morning of September 11, 2001, as she and fellow staff members gathered around a television set, watching the aftermath of a plane that rammed into One World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, wondering if it could have been an accident.  Minutes later, as they watched (live on television) a plane hit Two World Trade Center, they had their answer.

They all scattered, journalists, editors, other support staff.  They did their jobs, as if they had been trained for this moment, and returned that night to commuter parking lots full of cars that would never be driven by their owners again.

My in law told me of the threats her paper had received after a particular story had run, not too many years before she was laid off.  She edited her social media so that people would not know she worked for that paper.  Now, her worst fear had come true - a man with a vendetta against his local paper had taken action.

I don't know what it is like to be a journalist, but I do know what it is like to be a bystander (several blocks away, and I was not a direct witness) as respects an active shooter situation - in fact, it was the topic of my very first blog post in April of 2009.  Other people did their job that day - police, medical personnel, and - yes - journalists.

Now, we need newspapers more than ever, but journalism (in this I include support staff) has become a more deadly field than ever before.

The shooting joins all the other ones - in churches, in schools, at concerts, at nightclubs, in movie theatres, at a military base, so many that we can't even remember them all any more.

The names blur.   We hold demonstrations and nothing happens.  We send our thoughts and prayers and that keeps us going until the next time.

Our President said on Thursday: "Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their jobs."  The Governor of Maryland said  "There is no amount of clarity that will ever explain or nullify the pain that comes with losing so many lives for so little reason,"  in a statement Friday morning.  He went on to say that "journalism is a noble profession upon which our democracy depends, and we will fight to defend it."

But the dead are still as dead, and their families, their friends, their other loved ones, cry out to us, the American public, to do whatever it takes to make it stop.

Will we answer the call this time?

Echo and the Future

Last night, I found myself pondering the purchase of an Amazon Echo Dot. I know someone whose daughter has one, and here I am pondering the purchase of one.  I could sure use a digital assistant always connected to the Internet, and ready to make my every wish come true, couldn't I?

Now that few of us could imagine a life without the Internet, it can be informative to look back and see the types of predictions that were made in the 1980's and 1990's about online life (yes, there was online life before the Internet).

Check out these predictions from 1990-1995. 

But what seems to be missing is the realization that evil hacks into what we now call The Internet of Things could change our world in an instant.  Or that technology could take us over if we weren't careful.  Imagine a homicidal Dot.  Go to Amazon's Echo Dot page and read the comments.  Interesting.

Or, read a book called 1984.

Or just think of the possibility that hackers influenced the outcome of our recent Presidential election in the United States.  At this time, all that is certain is that all our elections need to be audited, according to some experts, although at least one state has agreed to a recount.  Electronic elections are just too vulnerable not to have safeguards. But just the fact that we are having this conversation tells us something.

The future is here, whether we like it or not.  And we'd better pay close attention.

Finally:

I originally blogged about Newspapers Circa 1981 - Cutting Edge! in January of 2010. Just think - newspapers trying to position themselves online. Little could they have known....and perhaps it is best that they didn't know.

Hey, it's the wave of the future! 

Too bad the reporter didn't have a crystal ball.  Or a link into the future.  If he did, he'd hear a lot of laid off newspaper people screaming to him "Don't do it!"


Watch the person dial into an online service (CompuServe?) using a rotary phone and then reading a paper online.  It only took two hours to download.

If the man in this clip is still around he may be wondering "What was I thinking?  I should have waited for 2016 and bought an Echo Dot!"

Did the late Steve Jobs know something the rest of us didn't?  You decide. 

But, as for that Echo Dot - I'll let you know.

Day 29 of NaBloPoMo.

Civil War Sunday - Thrust into History

I am going to pause my Civil War Sunday post this Sunday due to the events in France this past week.

I have a small personal link to France through family.  One of my cousins married a man born in France to a French mother and an American father.  I met his mother and sisters when they came from France to the the United States to attend his wedding.  The children of that union have visited France to meet their French relatives.

I watched the rally in Paris tonight, live on CNN.  I saw the faces of the thousands there, mirroring sadness, fear, exhaustion, and determination.  The CNN headline read "Standing with France."


A number of French bloggers have read my posts, and I have read theirs.  Through the Internet, we interact with people all over the world every day, and think nothing of it.  It's such a different world than the world I was born into 62 years ago.

So, instead of blogging about a Civil War peace initiative, I would like to blog instead about the fickle finger of history.  

History has a way of taking ordinary people and thrusting them into the front lines of history.  This has happened so many times, and this past week is no exception.

Staff members of a Paris satirical publication.  Shoppers in a kosher supermarket.  A policeman in the wrong place at the wrong time who died in the line of duty, caught on video.  A kosher supermarket clerk who saved upwards of 15 shoppers by hiding them in a freezer.

The events of this week in France, in a strange way, have something in common with the study of the United States Civil War.

When history calls, ordinary people act heroically.
Nothing is ever as clear cut as it seems.
We must not ever give in to fear.  And we realize how hard that can be.
Stereotypes are just that, stereotypes, but they can cause immense damage. 
And, sadly, a country can be ripped apart by hate. But it can also grow stronger from the struggle to understand and overcome.
And, sometimes we don't know what we had until we have lost it.

In our Civil War, history touched the lives of so many people (I have blogged about some of them and hope to blog about others before the end of March), who may have been unknown to history.  But, instead, we study them and learn from their actions.

We in the United States must stand united with the people of France.

Next week, perhaps I will blog about what I intended to blog about this week - a Civil War peace initiative started by a man no longer a household name, but once well known in the United States, and an amazing link this man has with a modern actor once a household name in our country.

One Sunday Away

Are you one Sunday away from losing your job?

Or, have you found yourself no longer doing business with a business you have been doing business with for many years?

A relative who worked in the newspaper business for over 25 years was laid off last week.   More and more, newspapers do not do their own editing or many other functions - everything is done from a centralized location. My relative was caught in the latest of many downsizings.

More and more, I see grammar and spelling errors in headlines and in newspaper articles. I am far from a grammar geek.   If I can see the errors they are plainly obvious.  Quality does not seem to count any more.  Someone I follow on Facebook likes to hunt these errors down and post them.

Someone I work with who lives about an hour from me says that in her city (which is bigger than mine), newspapers only get delivered three days a week.  The other four days, this woman says, the newspaper is barely worth purchasing.  And, if you want to read it, you go to a store.

I've had experiences surrounding my need to stop newspaper delivery, sometimes on short notice (for various personal reasons), and the problems I've encountered with what should have been a simple customer service transaction could fill their own blog.


There is even a website called "Newspaper Death Watch", which chronicles the decline and fall of the newspaper industry.

It is easy enough for industry people to see what is wrong.  My relative knew for years that the job was in jeopardy.   I have read that even the Sunday paper, the day of the week that keeps the rest of the newspapers day financially afloat, is in jeopardy.  Those Sunday advertising inserts are what keep newspapers alive nowadays, but even they may be disappearing soon.

I would be sweating if my industry was one Sunday away from disappearing.

So, do print newspapers have a chance at survival?  I am not in that industry, and so I can not give you an informed opinion.

Where my relative will end up working, and the process the relative will have to go through to get that job, will be of much interest to me.

But in the meantime, I was reminded of a blog post from 2010, which I am repeating below.  Here we are, four years later, and little has changed. When you are a dying industry, it's not a good idea to tick off your faithful customers.  Although, if your faithful customers are getting older and older, maybe it makes some kind of warped business sense. At least the newspaper we had the problem with, below, is still publishing.  But maybe, one Sunday, the last of their advertisers will decide it isn't worth using papers for advertising anymore.

Attention Newspapers: This is Why You are Going to Die

So....why would a relative of mine, who has a grown child in the newspaper industry, cancel her subscription to the paper her child works for?

I imagine, too, that this relative has had this subscription for....oh, maybe 40 or 45 years?

Now why would a loving mother do that to the employer of her child?  Because....

Said relative, an elderly stroke survivor, got tired of fishing her paper out of snowdrifts, hiking to the far end of a very long driveway, or not finding it at all.  She called the paper and said she was going to cancel.  The paper asked why, and she told them.  The customer service rep said something like "well, if that was taken care of, would you continue your subscription?"

Relative said yes.  Subscription continued.

Relative kept fishing her paper out of snowdrifts or (if lucky) finding it at the far end of her long driveway.  It's long for her; she can't walk long distances due to said stroke.  And she's not exaggerating this to us either; we visited her recently and found, sticking out of the melting snow, a paper dated from almost 30 days before.  But look on the bright side; it was in a plastic bag.

Relative told us never mind, throw it out.

Anyway, she's canceling her subscription soon.

Yes, that is how to reward a long standing customer.  Alienate them!  Don't keep your promises either.  But who cares about old people?
Maybe an industry that depends on them should care.

Because I can tell you (from knowing my son and others his age) the young people aren't reading the paper any more. 

I guess, newspaper industry, you are just going through the motions.  Too bad.  You are needed.  But you've lost the will to live.

Saturdat In the Park

When I was young, my Dad would leave the house every day to commute to his job in Manhattan.

He always made one stop before heading towards the "El" station where he caught his train downtown.  It was to Manny's candy store on White Plains Road in the Bronx.  Dad had Manny hold a copy of the New York Daily News newspaper for him to read on the trip to work.  He would pay Manny a week ahead of time so he wouldn't lose a minute in the tightly choreographed dance of leaving our apartment at just the right time, spending a few seconds at Manny's, and then climbing several flights of stairs to the Gun Hill Road platform where he hoped he hadn't missed his train.

(This was my elementary school. In the last second of the video, you see the train passing by the city housing project where I grew up.)

The newspaper was his link to the world.  He would usually be able to grab a seat, and he would spend the next hour reading that newspaper from cover to cover.

He never missed a day of reading his newspaper.

Now, skip forward a generation.

Newspapers? My son (mid 20's) doesn't read them at all.  I still do. But when I do, I am shocked at the errors I find.  I'm not even a professional writer, or a professional proofreader.  If I find the most obvious, how many more are there that I miss?

On Thursday, I was greeted by this headline for a local event:  "PAST tour Saturdat looks at 'Mad Men'-era homes".

At first, I thought they had declared a new, eighth day of the week.  I could use an additional day, especially if it is one where I don't have to go to my paying job.  Just imagine the possibilities...

We could have a new take on a popular song of the 1970's - Saturdat in the Park.

All those songs about Saturday night?  Time to redo them, too.

But let's be serious for a moment.  Why should I care if there is a typo in the local newspaper?

Because it HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. 

I was brought up to believe that journalism is all about accuracy.  Newspapers had an important function in our society. Doing investigative reporting. Getting "the scoop". Keeping us informed.

In our day, though, we depend on other media - media that seems to have turned news into entertainment.  It's killing the newspaper industry, so they flail around, trying to find something, anything, to cling to.  So far, the industry hasn't found its life line.


Sadly, so many people I know have given up on our local newspaper.  How can you depend on a story being accurate if a newspaper can't even properly proofread their own stories and headlines?

 Newspapers all over the country are dying, shutting their doors, laying off people who care about the written word. And meantime, they are consolidating operations.  I suspect these errors are slipping through because there's a proofreader somewhere - let's say, in Asbury Park, New Jersey, who is now doing the proofreading for umpteen newspapers where, in the past, each paper did its own.

Or, worse - maybe that story was written by a robot.


No, I'm not in the news business.  Never have been. But newspapers have been a part of my life from the moment I was born.  I wish I had something concrete to suggest.  I'm fresh out of ideas.

If my father was alive, he would be shaking his head.   He loved his morning paper so much.

Will you be sorry to see newspapers go, if they do go?  Or, do you think there is hope for them?

The Decline and Fall of the Local Newspaper Revisited

Three years ago, I wrote the below (slightly edited) post.  I'm pleased (?) to report that our local newspaper has continued to find new, creative ways of alienating their remaining audience, including continued shrinking accompanied by regular price increases.  Yes, they are proving that a declining industry can continue to do everything wrong.

Our paper's latest stunt is to send their design to a centralized site. (I'm sure they laid off the local designers but the newspaper, in  the spirit of journalism, isn't reporting that if it did happen.)  The paper is now published in creative, unreadable fonts.  Some of the contact information at the bottom of certain articles is practically microscopic.

But that is nothing new, as this blog post from July, 2009 bears witness to.

The Decline and Fall of The Local Newspaper

Much has been written about the decline of print media. Our newspaper has found new, creative ways to alienate their remaining, loyal audience. What do I mean by loyal? Well, I've subscribed to home delivery of the paper for over 21 years. If that isn't loyal, what is? So let's count the ways our local paper is using to ensure that continued loyalty.

Old Service Method: Classifieds daily, and you could find what you wanted
New Service Method: No classifieds on Monday and Tuesday. I know someone in the newspaper business so I know why they are doing this. There is a logic to this. But what about the other days?

 Last Saturday I looked fruitlessly (no pun intended) for the listing of local farms that were offering U-Pick fruit. I guess they eliminated that too. News Bulletin: people do read the classifieds for reasons other than purchasing cars.

Old Service Method: The comics were visible without a microscope
New Service Method: why has "Cathy" shrunk to a size that middle aged eyes barely can make out while "Baby Blues"has panels twice the size? Is there any logic to the big comic/small comic thing?

Old Service Method: Deliver the paper daily, usually by 5am
New Service Method: For some reason, the last few Thursdays and Fridays, the paper doesn't get delivered until after I leave for work, which....well it's way after 5am. I used to sit down with the morning paper while I ate my cereal. Now, sometimes, it doesn't get read at all. Maybe one day they won't deliver it at all. Let's see if I notice. (and yes, we tip the carrier. My spouse delivered papers as a teen and he remembers it well.)

We won't mention the Incredible Shrinking Newspaper Width (one reduction in December, one reduction this week), the Let's Play with the Fonts so People Can't Read our Paper, and the other games the paper is playing.

I have read newspapers all of my life. My young adult son, on the other hand, has barely opened a paper in my sight, ever, in his lifetime. He isn't alone. And if you keep up the not so great service, Dear Newspaper, the 50 year olds won't be reading your paper either.

Read All About it!

I write this post with a heavy heart, because I have subscribed to my local newspaper (no matter where I have lived) for over 35 years. 

I know the newspaper industry is in deep trouble.  (Disclaimer, I have a relative who works for a major newspaper publisher, but I did not discuss this post with her.  I may, once I post it.)  And, I realize businesses can't give away content online without a financial return.  The "free" model works for many industries - apparently it doesn't for the newspaper industry.  Ok, fine. But....


Yesterday, I received a letter from my paper.  "I'm writing to announce some energizing news!" it began.  As someone a little wise to the ways of the world (I hope) my inner voice said "Uh-oh."

Sure enough.  Our newspaper will continue to be printed (or so they say).  It will also be available "across all devices 24/7"  In other worlds I'll be able to get it on the tablet I don't own, the smart phone I don't have, plus the computer I do have, for only (unless my math is wrong) an additional $10 a month.

No choice to just be a paper subscriber. Or just an electronic subscriber.  All or nothing.

So, what happened to choice?

I would like to point out a few things:

1.  My spouse, who is the main newspaper reader in my family, does not use the computer for news.  Period. (he doesn't even use email.  It falls to me to manage his email.)
2.  My son, who is a young adult, probably has never read a paper in his life, unless forced to at school, and he doesn't read the paper on line either.   My son is far from alone, although he grew up in a household where he saw both parents buried in newspapers.  So why would he  pay $23 a month to get the newspaper delivered on his smartphone or computer?
3.  If I want news online, I don't choose my newspaper website as my first choice.  I get immediate news from Twitter.  I get internet news from a variety of sources including television websites (local and cable.)

I don't want the electronic stuff.  I don't want to pay extra for things I am not using.

I've supported my paper for years through my subscription, and this is the thanks I get for my brand loyalty.

I wonder how many of this paper's subscribers are older people, who have subscribed for years, who still read the paper paper, and wouldn't be able to read news on their phones without a magnifying glass.  Our region has a higher than average population of elderly. 

Young people don't read newspapers so they aren't going to add readership by doing this, either.

So what happens when the paper alienates their loyal readers and doesn't do anything to attract the young? 

I would love to know the logic, the research the industry has done, to support this decision.

Our paper is a Gannett paper, so I have to know this is coming down from "Corporate".

So this is my message to the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin:  No wonder your industry is dying.  You have no imagination.  You punch your loyal customers in the stomach.

Am I alone in feeling this way?

Do you still read newspapers? (If you do, would you mind sharing your decade - 20's, 40's, 60's or whatever, with me? )  Is your paper doing something like this?  If not, how would you react if they did?

The Night They Almost Burned Old Binghamton Down

A Soggy, Not So Jolly, Christmas for Downtown Binghamton.
I delayed posting this because I was hoping to get some pictures from someone, but I probably won't be getting the pictures until next week.

Downtown Binghamton could have burned down Tuesday night.

That's an exaggeration, but not as much as an exaggeration as one might think.

The headlines could have been "The Midtown Mall, the Perry Building and the Press Building burnt down Tuesday night, along with the old Strand Theatre, and other buildings on once-historic Chenango Street".  It would have served Binghamton right.  This city has a long track record of disrespecting its heritage.  Strong words?  Well, let's see.  How about the O'Neill/Ross Building, demolished several years ago in two stages after many years of vacancy and neglect - and the destruction of almost all of their Green Men.

And, let's not forget the Alms House, demolished earlier this year, unwanted by Broome Community College? (not downtown, but not completely off topic.)

So why not some instant urban renewal?

However, please don't cry just yet, Binghamton. We will get through this.  (I hope).

Why didn't the block go?  Because, to be blunt, they knew how to build in those days.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.  And a lot of spectators enjoyed watching the firefighters labor through a cold night of fire fighting.  (I arrived about 7:15 am on my way to work, and I will blog about it another time.).  But one wall of the Press Building (former office and plant of our local newspaper, and the second tallest building in Binghamton) has a lot of broken windows and blackened walls - it had just been renovated itself.

So much for student housing on Court Street, at least for now.  Downtown was depending so much on that for revival.

It's deja vu all over again. 
This is far from the first time fire has struck downtown.

About two weeks ago, I was privileged to view some photos of turn of the century (early 20th century, that is) downtown Binghamton, taken from around 1898 to 1913.  I still hope to get those pictures from a person who got them from the family.  The pictures have no copyright and I am assured they can be shared freely.

Three of the pictures deal with fire.  One fire wasn't all that far from Tuesday's blaze, another one was further down on Court Street.  Some things never change; these fires were a spectator sport too.  Just change the clothing and get rid of the color film.....

And then there was the third picture.  Dressed in long dresses and heavy wool suits, the long procession wound down Court Street to honor the victims of another fire that afternoon day of July, 1913:  the 33 dead in the Binghamton Clothing Company fire, which I blogged about last year.

Thankfully, this fire caught at night.  What caused it?  We still don't know.

But it wasn't fun breathing in that smoke at work yesterday.

Goodbye Matt Davies

From time to time, I have enjoyed the editorial cartoons of Matt Davies, a Putlizer prize award editorial cartoonist.  Our local newspaper (yes, I read the newspaper!) runs him from time to time.

Oops, I mean "ran".

Ran, because Matt Davies has lost his job.  And it would seem he's not the only one.  Editorial cartoonists are a dying breed.  Sometimes, literally.  Other times, they just are laid off and never replaced.

We as a country, a people, are diminished because of it.

Think about it.  Editorial cartoonists, in a way, are like political comedians.  They make us think.  They point out absurdities.  They are controversial.

Sometimes, I guess, they make us think too much.

But, why lay them off?  Seems that they make a lot of money.  Of course, so do movie stars, producers, and professional athletes.  But is anyone laying off Harrison Ford?  James Cameron?  Or Eli Manning?  Oh, wait.  Those are people in successful industries.

Newspapers, on the other hand are dying.

So what should a dying industry do?  That's right, get rid of their prize performers.  "Ditch" the remaining people that make you want to read a paper.  After all, some wag once said that all newspaper stories are good for is to keep the ads from bumping into each other.  So what do you need prize winning writers in a newspaper for?  Anything will do to fill up the space.

So newspapers continue their death spiral, with more layoffs, leading to less readers. 

One day we will wake up and the daily paper won't be at our doorstep.  Will we miss it then?

Attention Newspapers: This is Why You are Going to Die

So....why would a relative of mine, who has a grown child in the newspaper industry, cancel her subscription to the paper her child works for?

I imagine, too, that this relative has had this subscription for....oh, maybe 40 or 45 years?

Now why would a loving mother do that to the employer of her child?  Because....

Said relative, an elderly stroke survivor, got tired of fishing her paper out of snowdrifts, hiking to the far end of a very long driveway, or not finding it at all.  She called the paper and said she was going to cancel.  The paper asked why, and she told them.  The customer service rep said something like "well, if that was taken care of, would you continue your subscription?"

Relative said yes.  Subscription continued.

Relative kept fishing her paper out of snowdrifts or (if lucky) finding it at the far end of her long driveway.  It's long for her; she can't walk long distances due to said stroke.  And she's not exaggerating this to us either; we visited her recently and found, sticking out of the melting snow, a paper dated from almost 30 days before.  But look on the bright side; it was in a plastic bag.

Relative told us never mind, throw it out.

Anyway, she's canceling her subscription soon.

Yes, that is how to reward a long standing customer.  Alienate them!  Don't keep your promises either.  But who cares about old people?
Maybe an industry that depends on them should care.

Because I can tell you (from knowing my son and others his age) the young people aren't reading the paper any more. 

I guess, newspaper industry, you are just going through the motions.  Too bad.  You are needed.  But you've lost the will to live.

The Attack of the Killed Tomatoes and the Future of Newspapers

Now that my spouse's picture was featured in a local article about the tomato blight, I've had people at work, a neighbor, even staff at my chiropractor's, come to me to say "I saw (spouse's) picture in the paper!" (it was a picture of him pointing out one of our plants, dead from the blight). This, along with their stories of their killed tomatoes. Tomato season RIP.

So what is the significance of this? How can blighted tomatoes be related to the blighted newspaper industry? (since I have a relative who works for a newspaper, who lost her position but was able to stay on-at least for now-in another position, I do care very much).

The good news: this picture didn't appear in the online edition. So if they saw it it means that they saw it in the print newspaper....although maybe only people who work with me or help keep my back operational still read it. Maybe no one else is. My 19 year old son certainly is not.

The bad news:

1. If our local paper doesn't stop delivering the paper to my co workers at 9:30 am, 10:30 am or never, they are going to lose their remaining readers. For some reason, this got shared as they shared their experiences with their late tomato plants. This means, maybe, that people my age care just as much about their missing newspapers as their dead tomato plants. Press and Sun Bulletin, take note!

2. One person told me "she heard" that the paper is using employees to deliver papers "on the side" (I guess before work). Is this what the newspaper industry has come to?

3. My relative, above, reports that her co-workers are being "encouraged" to set up Facebook and Twitter accounts. Well if her local paper is looking to Facebook and Twitter as a lifeline (drowning people grab onto anything in reach)...I don't think it is going to happen. As an example, I can point to the Press and Sun Bulletin website during the mass shooting in Binghamton back in April - they carried a Twitter feed from witnesses. A number of these witnesses were people (my guess from the maturity of the posts, students) locked down at Binghamton High School, who were able to see the ACA from their building. Most of the twits...I mean, tweets... were either snarky comments directed to previous commenters, or tweets that were totally random and meaningless. Finding actual news on the Twitter feed was like panning for gold. The reason may well have been because not that much was visible from the outside. My favorite part was the tweet announcing that the tweeter had just seen a sniper on the roof of a nearby building. Thanks for sharing!

As for Facebook, I am (really, I am) going to post my experiences. It is wonderful for what it can do, but it is not a newspaper. I don't think it will work for newspapers the way that blogs on newspaper websites have. Stay tuned for my report.

Hmmm....switching from blighted tomato plants to the future of newspapers all in one blog post. That's ramblin' at its best. But not journalism...which is the point of all of this. Journalism is not Facebook. It is not Twitter. I don't have the answer for the decline of newspapers. But embracing sites that may hardly exist in 5 years (think about MySpace) is not the answer.

I hope very much that the newspaper industry does find the answer. And soon.