Last one out, please turn off the lights

The industry was a day late and a dollar short...five years ago.

Now it's already too late for many.

 

yes, you still have your agate to type.

 

No, actually I don't.

 

It's a Register thing, based on its libertarian roots. It would mean "employee" to you or me, but the Register says workers are free to associate with the paper -- er, content provider -- and it is free to associate with whatever workers it chooses.

 

The Wal*Martization of the newspaper industry continues.

 

Blaming existing, worker-bee journalists for the decline of the industry is like blaming the assembly-line worker for the decline of the American car. The fact that "we" are no longer producting something the public consumes is not our fault; we're doing our jobs as we have been told to do them. We cannot create the infrastructure for forward-thinking, technologically prescient journalism if those who control the purse strings refuse to let us do so. Hold out and then blame those in the field. Great line of reasoning.

 

That's a great point. Take it a little further: We learn what the job is and then embrace it completely, do it with passion, throw oodles of hours (paid and unpaid) into doing it, and do it extremely well, all things considered. Then someone sends down a memo that we're supposed to turn on a dime and do something much, much different, as well as do a hell of a lot more in our eight-hour shift to account for downsized staffs and a sudden appetite for blogs, podcasts, video and 24/7 coverage. We look up to utter a momentary, "Huh?" And immediately we're accused of being "resistant to change" and "stuck in the past" and "unwilling or unable to come up with the creative solutions this industry needs, by God!"

Yeah, it's our fault, you suit-wearing mofos.

 

then you're a lying bastard.

 

Uh, no. I have a different job, ok?

 

what a difference a week makes.

 

I think you misunderstood. I'm pretty sure that I clearly stated that I used to work at a place where we got rid of AP and had to type boxes and standings. I don't work there anymore. The new place I work is in the process of dumping AP.

If the day comes where I have to lie about shit on SportsJournalists.com, I swear I'll kill myself.

 

i'm pretty sure you wrote it in the present tense.

and you answer pretty damn quickly for not giving two shits.