Newspapers continue to change
When longtime friends ask, and they often do, "How's business?" our stock answer is "different." Running small town newspapers is not better than before nor worse, it's different.
When your Ol' Editor started in this business soon after returning from World War II there was a newspaper in every small town. Each had a cantankerous Linotype, a sheet-fed press, a "snapper" job press, and a Dr. Miles Nervine proof press. The editor did it mostly alone, with sleeve protectors and apron to guard against ink, and perhaps a boy who helped as the "devil." It was a life of community service, low revenues, and long hours. But it "got in your blood" as they say. And that blood had ink in it.
During later years after computers were used for generating copy and pages were put together electronically with neither lead nor paper, the business changed. Most of the smaller weeklies disappeared and the strong ones grew stronger. Business was not good nor bad, it was different.
The hours continued long with no holiday breaks, often midnight work, and cash rewards less than a full time position. Most editors have the educational equivalent of their neighbors who earn twice as much, but wouldn't consider swapping jobs.
What's the mystique? What caused early editors to come to Kansas with a "bed sheet full of type" and a head full of ideas? It wasn't the money, nor the hours. It was a zeal difficult to explain.
What causes modern editors to do the same. The answer's the same. But it's difficult to explain. It's different.
— BILL MEYER
