This morning on NPR "Morning Edition" they were talking about the LA Times newspaper and it started me thinking back when newspapers were a main source of news.
As a child growing up our house was full of newspapers. My parents took the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, The Decatur Herald, The Wall Street Journal, The Effingham Daily News, The Clay County Republican, The Flora Daily News Record, The Wayne County Press and The Clay City Advocate Press. The Globe and Decatur Herald were morning papers. The Flora and Effingham papers were evening. The Clay County was a weekly and I don't remember how many times the Clay City paper was printed. So there was never any shortage of papers to read in my house. As a child I started reading the comics, especially Peanuts. As I grew up I started reading more news stories. My first exposure to a newspaper office was in grade school when we took a field trip to The Clay County Republican to see how a newspaper was made. The type machine made a big impression on all of us, with it's molten lead pot and the reversed letters. I will never forget seeing the masthead which looked to be gold, although it probably was brass, but as a kid it looked like gold to me. That was back when most papers did their own printing; although I don't remember if we got to see the press run. That was also the time of paper boys delivering papers to people's houses. My parents always wanted the Sunday Globe which you had to pickup at someone's home or a restaurant in my home town of 1000 people, as they did not have home delivery on Sundays. In a few years that stopped and we had to travel seven miles to Flora to get one. One Sunday after a big snow storm my dad and I piled into my four wheel drive Jimmy and drove to Flora to get a paper. Probably not the smartest thing to do but we had fun. The Sunday Globe was at least an inch thick or more, which was mostly coupons and store ads. Oh and color cartoons. I understand that today you can't buy any Sunday papers in Flora.
Later when I was in high school I was asked by the editor of the Clay County Advocate Press (the Advocate Press bought out the Flora Daily News and changed their name.) Jack Thatcher to shoot basketball games for him. It was my first paying photography job and my first time being published in the newspaper. I will never forget how proud I was when I saw my name in print. Jack would stop by the high school office the day after a game and pick up my film leaving me an new roll for the next game. This also taught me to get the shot, because if he didn't use any of my pictures I didn't make any money. By the time basketball season was over there were editions where my photos filled a page.
I thought about going into photojournalism at that time but my high school English teacher told me I couldn't write and never gave me a grade above a C on any paper (you may agree with her after reading this). In college I found out that she was teaching an outdated style of writing that no one used anymore and by the end of the quarter I was getting A's and B's in my writing class. When I transferred to Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, I stopped by the office of the photographer for the school to introduce myself to him. He was from my home town and his mother insisted I stop by his office. We talked photography for a while and for a brief moment I almost asked him how I could get on working for him. That was a different time in news photography. The term "photojournalist" was being used to describe photographers who also wrote the story. I was never interested in writing the stories so I did't ask him for a job or change my major to Journalism.
Today many newspapers have eliminated their photography departments. As well as cutting the number of staff just trying to make a profit and stay alive. Their reporters use iphones so they can shoot their own photos and papers buy the work of freelance photographers. I have not helped out the industry. Like most people I now read my news on the internet. The only paper I subscribe to is The Clay County Republican which is emailed to me every week, so I don't even get it in print. We will never again see the time when big city newspapers were published sometimes twice a day, and the newsstand is also becoming a thing of the past. However, I will admit when I stay in a motel that has that provides USA Today I will pick it up and read it, even though I also have it on my ipad. I guess there is just something about the smell of news print and getting ink on your fingers.
