Sorry, the delivery of the message was funny, but I can't get myself to lol at this....Just like the effects the web has on the Newspaper industry, the higher profits margins had on the mfg community, the import auto advantages had on the American Auto industry and it's suppliers are just to name a few unfortunate victims of the unemployment bug. Losing your job is no laughing matter, as I feel we all take it for granted working for a somewhat effected but a rock solid juggernaut in UPS.
There will be casulties in the newspaper industry, but there will always be a segment of the population who like the feel of the newspaper in their hand, who collect and save important headlines and events, frolic thru the sales and bargin coupons, and my favorite, the crosswords and word jumbles over a cup of java, fresh bake bread with a seasoned olive oil dip on a weekend morning.....
As a former newspaper delivery boy I never understood why the old business model of "paperboys" was abandoned. I mean, it literally was my own business if you will and the only thing the newspaper did was give me the number of papers I ordered based on my customer base. I was in charge of obtaining customers, collecting payment every month and there was no such thing as holidays or vacation. You were in every real sense a small business owner and it taught lots of lessons you would value later in life IMO. Not to mention the "green" aspect of pedal power (bicycle) verses the common version today in the auto mobile. It also made the end business person with the customer a local transaction, not some distant act of faceless beings as it is now.
You also learned how certain people would pay extra for special services (paper place in specific location) or that act of kindness of placing the paper by the door for an elderly lady would get you the best glass of fresh lemonade in the heat of summer or the cup of hot chocolate in the cold of winter. Being the sample man of fresh baked cookies, pies and cakes was another constant perk of the job.
At the same time, the news business has consolidated into ever smaller hands and to hands that benefit from certain political outcomes if you will and that goes both ways IMO politically speaking. Like so many other things that consolidate and centralize into over stuffed monsters, they in time lose appeal to the broader masses. I won't mention names for obvious reasons but one of our neighbors brothers is a major sports writer for one of the big new mega monsters and being from Alabama himself, boy the conversations we have about SEC football (our religion
) gets pretty intense. Recently I asked him about the newspaper business and what I found of interest most was his description of how they covered the news when papers were under smaller ownership verses now where a handfull of owners control the bulk of what's out there. Just from a sports perspective, you can understand why newspapers are being cast aside and I'm a fan of holding that newsprint myself.
Before I came to work at UPS, I worked at a printing company maintaining printing presses and binders for a company that printed Time, Sports Illustrated, People, US and other various publication. It's been a while since I picked up a SI or even Time (never had much use for People/US) but I was shocked as the much smaller size of SI and even Time compared to what is was back in the 70's. I'm not one to buy that the news media is all about the liberal agenda but as the last 8 years has shown, they are about carrying forth the State's message without hard questioning and in as much as anything else, when they stopped being the guardian of the public gate, that in itself has done more to harm them than anything else and it was centralization of ownership that helped to speed that process. The writers still want to guard the gates but the editors fear the owners who want to maintain their political connections for the purpose of market monopoly.
As the "free market" (so far people can still choice information outlets) pressures the trend of monopoly into a "death zone" it's moreso sad that those of us who enjoy the old local model and the folks who worked to give us that model will likely have to suffer. More and more, many writers and newspaper folks are starting up local weekly publication in a manner of the old local model. Check them out because there is a lot of good stuff in those publications and lots of local flavor too. Local talk radio use to do that and I also enjoyed that "MUCH" more than the nonsense we have now in the super national syndications. The good newspaper people are finding niche markets and filling them and with growing success so yes on one hand your sadness is justified but on the other there is still hope.
Therefore for me, I find reason to laugh.
jmo
