I got "The Call" almost 2 weeks ago. I didn't get fired, and I didn't quit.
The paper's owners in Wyoming called the local publisher/editor and said to eliminate the local opinion columnists; they are choosing to go with nationally syndicated columns instead. It's cheaper for them.
The paper has been cutting expenses as long as I've been writing the columns. Going from a daily to a twice-weekly to a weekly. Getting rid of half the writers (and staff) every couple of years. Every time they did, I thought, "This is it", but they always kept me. Until now.
I rode it out to the end, just one month short of 16 years, and I'm happy with myself for doing so. I'm sadder over this ending than I thought I would be.
Last year, I went through a rough spell where I dreaded the deadline and trying to come up with a column topic every week. I really wanted to quit writing the column. I just couldn't afford to. (On a related note, if anyone would consider subscribing to this blog, now would be an excellent time to do so because this additional setback puts me in a bind!)
I eventually got over that hump, and things have been going smoothly with the column since then. Until this happened.
The paper's publisher/editor was very apologetic and said he hated to let me go. He said I did exactly what he had hoped I would do.
He also said they got a lot of emails about my column- mostly negative. He said I was "famous" locally and that the local officials hate me. I told him that if they didn't, I would know I was doing something wrong.
I appreciate that he stuck up for me. I got some of the hate mail he referred to. Some of it was pretty nasty. I got positive emails, too, though. Those took away the sting of the hate mail. Plus, seeing the kind of people who hate me has been like a compliment.
I thanked him for this opportunity. He wished things could be different and said if things change, he'd hire me again. (Things won't change for newspapers.) We parted on good terms, and that's that.
I'll still be posting the previous month's columns in full on Tuesday evening, as I've been doing, until they run out in a month.
The blog continues.
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Thank you for reading.
Thank you for reading.
Sixteen years is a great run.
ReplyDeleteAnd if I'm reading your post correctly, you got PAID to write op-eds. That's something most writers never achieve, especially on a regular basis.
So, with sadness, congratulations twice over.
Yes, sixteen years is much longer than I expected it to last, and getting paid was an awesome perk.
DeleteReally sorry to see your columns in the newspaper ending. Not just because I liked reading them myself, but because you gave mainstream readers something to think about that I doubt they encountered anywhere else. Kudos to your editor/publisher for sticking by you all of these years in spite of the hate mail.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I never underestimated his bravery. He used to have to stick up for me against the previous publisher (when he was "only" the editor), so it wasn't just local officials.
DeleteIf he'd allowed a goodbye column, I would have directed readers to my blog. Not that many would have gone to it, but it would have given them the opportunity.
If not for "the dog that doesn't bark" factor, when readers notice that my columns aren't there anymore, they can go to a back issue, find my email address, and write to ask what happened. But I suspect few will notice until much time has gone by.
What's the point of a local paper if local voices are not featured? I sure it would be cheaper to just re-run stories from New York, too. Oh well. We live in a post-literate society. What will be lost will never be fully understood.
ReplyDeleteI think they might be keeping the local religion columnists. But I'm not sure about even that.
DeletePost-literate, indeed. The world isn't going back to what it was. It's good to avoid the mistakes of the past, but it's a tragedy to lose the value the past held. The people who've never read anything of substance are very impressed with how enlightened they are, compared to people of the past.