I love this business, but I am so depressed

[The Last Boy Scout]

As a news writer, I never worried about stuff like this. Maybe I just had a good editor to keep the bull**** away so we could report. With a little more than a year as a sports writer, I'm always concerned with page hits, downloads, how many ads the tab sold, how much it cost in overtime and paper and ink to put it out, stuff like that.

Right now, my paper is on a figurative island. However, Big **** Daily and Channel "1" from 150 miles away is starting to move into the backyard and compete for those advertising dollars. There are rumors of bureaus forming. I wonder how long before the layoffs come. And frankly, I want to go back to the news side before that happens. The high school sports beat has got to be the most inconsequential that the paper has. It has been left unfilled before, and it will likely be frozen if I transfer or leave.

Sure, I'm scared for the future, and a lot of the situation is out my hands.

 

[FileNotFound]

If your paper leaves the high school sports beat unfilled, that would be an incredible example of short-sightedness. At any paper of less than 100,000 circulation, I'd argue it's one of the most important areas of coverage to the readers; at larger papers, it's still near the top 10. Everybody identifies with it.

I'd love to see a day when the primary advertising channel is the web, and the paper product is presented to advertisers as the "upsell."

And, web reader, if you don't want to see ads? Fine. Pay. (Not unlike this place, actually.) Otherwise, accept the intrusion (not that they couldn't be made somewhat less annoying) as the price you pay for "free" content.

The thing that will be most important as the media industry moves forward is the writing. Good writing is good writing, no matter the delivery method. Yahoo Sports has certainly figured that out, based on the recent hires it has made. As a guy who made a pretty good living off the design revolution, I have to concede that some of that emphasis was misplaced. The words matter, and those who can string the words together the best will get rewarded, no matter how those words are delivered to the reader.