It is the new mantra of those of us who work in the news racket.
Actually, it's always been that way, but increasingly it is part and parcel of our working lives.
That is, there is no time off.
Hell, these days there aren't even any hours off.
It used to be fairly simple. You had a print deadline every night. We delivered information to our readers once every day in our print edition.
Pretty simple, huh?
Unfortunately, that concept today seems incredibly quaint.
Now we deliver information every five seconds.
We Tweet. We post on Facebook.
When news breaks, we are on it and delivering it to readers, sometimes at frightening speeds.
So, yes, to those loyal readers of this blog, you may have noticed I did not write there for a couple of days.
In fact, I was not in the office.
I was not off.
I am not "off" anymore.
I am perpetually plugged.
That is the other aspect of this job that has changed radically.
Technology has now not only changed how we deliver the news and how often, it has seeped into other aspects of our lives as well.
There was a time when we had to literally be in the office to work on the newspaper. It tended to be a problem in winter, especially during snowstorms. First, you literally had to get staff into the office. Then you had to go right back out to cover the story.
We were slaves to our old building in Primos.
Today, all that has changed. Yes, I still go into the office most days.
But it's no longer a necessity.
I can put the entire newspaper out from my kitchen table if I had to. The same goes for the website.
Today the essential for creating the newspaper and website is access to the Internet.
That and power.
That's why you see so many people hanging out in Starbucks these days. It's the new office.
So while I was technically "off" the last couple of days over the Christmas holiday, I wasn't really "off." I wonder more and more what this notion of being "plugged-in" 24 hours a day is doing to us all.
I can tell you from a first person point of view that it takes its toll - both physically and emotionally. And yes, my wife, who once lamented the fact that I would get up in the midst of a nasty winter storm in order to head into the office, now rues the day they ever invented the laptop. Somedays she thinks she's married to one.
All of this was prompted by a letter we received this week.
A writer was taking the newspaper to task for not coming out forcefully on our editorial page against the racist acts that recently rocked Strath Haven High School, along with the Nether Providence and Swarthmore communities.
He noted that he believed it was part of the crucial role of a community newspaper to do just that.
He was right.
But he was wrong that I had not pointed it out. Actually, I had, in this very blog. He had not seen it, and apologized after I pointed it out.
The truth is with the size of our staff these days, I write nearly all the local editorials that appear in the Daily Times.
When I'm "off," we substitute with editorials from other regional and national newspapers.
We have stayed on top of the Strath Haven situation, and noted the community the is being planned for early January to allow the community to address the situation.
And we will address it on our editorial page.
Just as soon as I get around to it.
As I said, there are no "off" days anymore.
Just one more aspect of this business that has changed forever.
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