Extra, Extra

I worked for a newspaper for 17 years, so it's kind of strange that I don't read the newspaper much now. Judging by the size of The Pampa News, I don't think I'm missing anything. The mantra of newspapers used to be "All the news that's fit to print." Now, it's just "All the news that fits."

I was one of the copy editors at the Amarillo Globe-News for those 17 years. It was our job to find mistakes and correct them before they got into the paper. We were the last line defense. We weren't perfect, but we worked hard to put out a good paper.

Copy editors seem to be a dying breed at many newspapers today. That is evident by the number of mistakes I see in The Pampa Snooze. That trend is happening at bigger newspapers, too.

When the Globe-News merged its morning and afternoon papers in 2001, we had more than a dozen copy editors. That number has steadily declined since then. Just last week, two of the best copy editors I worked with at the Globe-News were let go. One of them had more than 20 years experience. I think that leaves just two copy editors and the janitor to edit the whole paper. Wait, I forgot, they canned the janitor, too. Staffers have to empty their own trash. (I'm serious. That actually happened before I left a year and a half ago.)

It's all about making more money for the greedy newspaper owners. They will cut faithful long-time employees to boost the bottom line. It's not right. I saw it happen over and over at the Globe-News. It happens in other industries, too.

Owners have a right to make a good profit, but it shouldn't come at the expense of long-time employees. People dedicate their lives to a company, and then they are thrown out like the trash. It's sad.

Newspaper circulation is declining every year as its readership dies off and younger generations turn to the Internet for their news. I miss the way things used to be when I started in the newspaper business. But newspapers will never be that way again. The printed newspaper may even become extinct, much like eight-track tapes and cassettes. And that would be a very sad day.