I haven't posted in awhile.

And now I have.

-Zube.








OK, I'll post.

Interesting days at work. Layoffs. 20something companywide, only 8 in the newsoom, only 3 in my newsroom (5 from the bureaus).

I say "only" but don't mean to be crass. 8 people DID lose their jobs. But in the newspaper world of late, that's not bad. Recently, Philadelphia laid off 40 newsroom positions.

People don't read newspapers like they used to. I read an analysis about that, blaming it on the shift to a white-collar economy.

Back when we were all blue-collar, everybody went to the factory from 8 to 5, came home, read the afternoon paper for an hour to catch up on what happened in the world while they were working, then had dinner.

In a white-collar world, we go to work earlier, stay later. More than 40 hours a week. We can keep up to date on our cell phones or Blackberries or Internet or television. And nobody has an hour to kill reading the paper anymore. That's why afternoon dailies died, and morning dailies will follow.

A friend and I were discussing this right after the layoffs. I told him we're making buggy whips and buttonhooks here. We're obsolete.

Sigh.

-Zube.