When I was 8 years old and out of school for the summer, most of my summer mornings began with me running next door to grandmas after breakfast so that I could read the comics in the morning paper. I just had to read Mandrake the Magician, Blondie, Beetle Bailey and the others. When the paperboy delivered the evening paper at our house I got to read a totally different set of comics. Back then you could get a morning and evening edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and there was even the Fort Worth Press in the evening. Sadly that has changed to only a morning edition of the Star-Telegram which is only a shell of its former self.
We have endured at least four major changes to the paper in the last two years. First they changed the type face and made the paper a “new, more manageable size.” Then they had a round of staff cuts. Next came even more staff cuts and a reorganization of the sections in the paper. Some sections were merged, some were split and placed in non traditional sections making it harder than ever to find the incredible shrinking content. I think the following Pearls Before Swine strip by Stephan Pastis pretty well sums it up.
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis 05-03-09
I know that the world moves on and that change is inevitable but it’s hard to accept the decline of institutions that have been such a great part of my life. Just as party lines, operators and dial phones have all but disappeared from the landscape can the newspaper as we once knew it be that far behind?
Lettin’ out the clutch, steppin’ on the gas and movin’ a bit further down the highway.