My first real job – other than mowing lawns in the summer – was also my introduction to the newspaper world.
I delivered 44 Philadelphia Evening Bulletins.
The ink must have gotten in my veins. I’ve been in newspapers ever since.
I’ve now spent more than three decades as an ink-stained wretch, although today I probably spend more time every day working online, writing this blog among other things.
I was thinking about that whole notion of the past 30 years this weekend.
That’s because it was 30 years ago yesterday that the Bulletin closed its doors forever. I still have a copy of the last edition of the paper.
There was a time when I could not fathom the notion of a newspaper as grand as the Bulletin going under.
Not anymore.
The newspaper where I cut my teeth in the business, the place where I started my career after getting out of college, was The Record in Coatesville.
It has something in common with the Bulletin. It no longer exists, either.
This morning there is word that Philadelphia Media Holdings, the company that owns the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, may be putting those venerable institutions back on the market.
They are owned, in part, by the same people that own us.
These are very difficult times for newspapers. Readers’ habits are changing. They are much more likely to get their information online than in print.
That means fewer readers in print, which means fewer ads. That means less revenue.
The good news is that advertising and readership online is exploding. I’m still amazed that in any month four million people now go to DelcoTimes.com.
The problem, in the short term, is that the print ads are much more lucrative for our industry than online ads. There also is the notion that many online readers hate the pop-ups and other devices we use to create revenue online.
The saying in the industry is that while we traditionally dealt with print dollars, we are now in competition for digital dimes.
So we are stacking the dimes.
I’ve never done anything else in my adult life aside from newspaper work.
I sure as hell don’t want to start now.
I’m a lifer.
Even if some of the places I once toiled are not.
I delivered 44 Philadelphia Evening Bulletins.
The ink must have gotten in my veins. I’ve been in newspapers ever since.
I’ve now spent more than three decades as an ink-stained wretch, although today I probably spend more time every day working online, writing this blog among other things.
I was thinking about that whole notion of the past 30 years this weekend.
That’s because it was 30 years ago yesterday that the Bulletin closed its doors forever. I still have a copy of the last edition of the paper.
There was a time when I could not fathom the notion of a newspaper as grand as the Bulletin going under.
Not anymore.
The newspaper where I cut my teeth in the business, the place where I started my career after getting out of college, was The Record in Coatesville.
It has something in common with the Bulletin. It no longer exists, either.
This morning there is word that Philadelphia Media Holdings, the company that owns the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, may be putting those venerable institutions back on the market.
They are owned, in part, by the same people that own us.
These are very difficult times for newspapers. Readers’ habits are changing. They are much more likely to get their information online than in print.
That means fewer readers in print, which means fewer ads. That means less revenue.
The good news is that advertising and readership online is exploding. I’m still amazed that in any month four million people now go to DelcoTimes.com.
The problem, in the short term, is that the print ads are much more lucrative for our industry than online ads. There also is the notion that many online readers hate the pop-ups and other devices we use to create revenue online.
The saying in the industry is that while we traditionally dealt with print dollars, we are now in competition for digital dimes.
So we are stacking the dimes.
I’ve never done anything else in my adult life aside from newspaper work.
I sure as hell don’t want to start now.
I’m a lifer.
Even if some of the places I once toiled are not.
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