Newspapers going the way of the pay phone

Barb and I were invited to speak to students during career day at the high school last week.

The author of more than 115 books, she had quite a bit to say. As a former newspaperman I didn’t.

As much as I enjoyed my time in the business, it’s hard to seriously encourage young folks to get newspaper jobs.

Newspapers are fast going the way of the pay phone.

I kept thinking about my visit to the Bozeman Chronicle last month. I’d spent 20 years there as a reporter and editor during which time circulation grew to the point that a new facility was deemed necessary.

I remember moving into that new building on Bozeman’s west side and how cavernous it felt. But soon it became home, bustling with folks writing the news, selling ads, and answering phones. Once the press started the building literally hummed.

Last month, however, as I walked through the Chronicle, it was simply cavernous. Only a handful of employees sat at the few desks that still had computer monitors on them. Much of the building was dark, the lights left off as a cost-saving measure.

I'm concerned that my first newspaper job in 1985 heralded the beginning of the end for the industry. It’s certainly gone downhill since then.

I continued to write a weekly column for the Chronicle until March, 2020, when the pandemic hit, and fearing financial ruin, the paper immediately fired the columnists.

It made no sense in economically booming Bozeman, but neither had the decades-old industry business model of offering less while charging more.

There are still a few newspaper jobs out there. The Billings Gazette is advertising for a night editor, a job that includes a lot of the duties I used to have, and amazingly pays the same as it did when I quit 17 years ago.

The handful of students that Barb and I talked to were far more interested in how to write a novel than how to write a news story in inverted pyramid style. I doubt any of them read newspapers.

Had I been a high school senior attending the career fair, I doubt I would have had any interest in what I was selling either. After all, the Space Force was in attendance. Reading and writing pale in comparison.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]