For forty, fifty and sixty-something-year-olds who have watched the change towards the digital and information revolution unfold have a very different sentiment toward the recent changes in the publishing world. My peers and I can only watch the subtle but steady collapse of the industry, not truly understanding it, while our parents live the change everyday.
Last night, I met up with a friend who was visiting town for a few days. Karen Escalona, an accomplished journalist and striving literary writer, has been a part of the industry since she left Julliard in the late 60s to purse another passion: writing. Once our catch-up conversation died down a bit, I decided to tae the plunge and ask Karen her thoughts about the continual decline of the publishing industry.. Ass so as the question was in the open, she hesitated for a moment, aced her cup of tea on the bar top before raising her heard and said: "Let me tell you a story about my neighbor, Roberta">
Roberta Valvarez* was a beat reporter at the Miami Herald for over fifteen years before coming a syndicated columnist in 1992. She is a veteran of the newspaper industry, having been an active journalist for over thirty years. Her bilingual skills allow Roberta to do two jobs for the price of one employee. She writes for both the Miami Herald and the Nuevo Herald- the paper's Spanish edition. Roberta first noticed the industry changes when other publications began paying the Herald for the rights to publish her column in their newspaper. This change was quiet and did not affect anyone else's job, but Roberta never saw an extra dollar for these additional publications.
The first officially market shift in the newspaper industry took place five years ago. The Miami Herald began to downsize, the known and feared first sign of trouble in the workforce. Now, the Herald was in the "red"- the industry's term for a substantial loss in revenue. The Herald's advertisements were not accumulating enough revenue, so in its bleak effort to compensate for the loss in profit, it began replacing article space with advertisements. But the Herald has such a large financial obligation that its marketing strategy could not save it from the quicksand of debt, leaving the newspaper with no other chose but to sell its rights to Knight Ridder.
The second marked industry change occurred exactly five years preceding the first, as if the timing was planned. Instead of The Change taking shape in the form of downsizing, the newspaper was giving itself a "makeover", complete with a new boss and the dismissal of reporters. To encourage the leave of certain employees, the paper supplemented the resign with a large financial package. The strategy was to dismiss those who could not take on more responsibilities, thus leaving the remaining employees with double- or triple- the workload.
Roberta Valvarez was considered an employee of value. After working her way up to an accomplished syndicated columnist of the paper's most popular column, Roberta was forced to take on beat journalism in addition to her current work, the entry-level position she long abandoned. Once again, Roberta did not see an extra dollar for her time.
Like so many writers in Roberta's position, she cannot afford to abandon her job and career. Widowed as a young mother of five, she still has children to send to college and a standard of life to uphold. Roberta compared the Herald's situation to walking through a morgue. Everyone is digging their own graves, waiting, waiting, for their turn to come.
Stay Tuned! As I find out more about the story, I'll post what happens next.
*name changed
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