The Allure of Printer's Ink and End of an Era

By Tom Morrow

  Today's effort isn't going to mean much to those of you who've never been in or around the newspaper business -- an age-old tradition and profession that is fast leaving the world scene. H.L. Mencken, Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, and Horace Greeley are, no doubt, rolling in their graves.
 
  A week doesn't go by that a former reader(s) will come up to me and say how much they enjoyed my work at the newspaper. Some still think the newspaper (North County Times) and I are still grinding away. Those are the people I know aren't avid readers. I retired four years ago; the paper went bye-bye four months ago.

  I thought I'd miss the daily newspaper work, but not nearly as much as I miss the smell of printer's ink when you walk into the newsroom -- any newsroom that has a back shop and press attached.

  There's something about that aroma that is intoxicating when encountered. It means you're about to have a day of excitement, even if nothing big actually happens. There's always a chance a breaking story will emerge that will send the newsroom to buzzing and fingers flying.

  There's not much left to be said that wouldn't sound maudlin, so I'll just give a little advice to those young people thinking about getting into the news business: don't put all your eggs in one basket. By that I mean when choosing your college course of study, "minor" in journalism or communications."Major" in something that will help you get a job because the jobs in the news business are shrinking rapidly. Of course, journalism jobs are and will be available but a great deal of them will be those delivering words such as I'm doing in this blog effort. Television? Even those are shrinking. People under 40 aren't getting the news the way those of us older folks have done all of our lives.

  Just about the only place one can truly enjoy the smell of printer's ink will be in the small weekly and bi-weekly papers. They'll survive -- for now, but there days are numbered as well.

  Remember the buggy whip? When Henry Ford and the Dodge Brothers revolutionized the industrial world and changed society, those who made that age-old device refused to realize they hadn't been in the buggy whip business, rather they were part of the "transportation" business. Rather than change their production skills to more meaningful and modern needs, they faded from existence.

Stay tuned...