I'm officially a reformed newspaper man

It's a time of excitement and sadness at the same time for me.

I'm looking forward to the challenge of my first professional non-newspaper job, as a proofreader with AICPA. But this feels like a divorce from a profession I loved. I still love it, but it's just too painful to give it another chance.

When I was a little kid, I looked forward to reading the newspaper each day. The business fascinated me and I knew at a very young age that I wanted a career in newspapers.

I've been lucky enough to spend 27 years in the business and, until the last 10, couldn't imagine doing anything else.

You don't work for newspapers unless you have a passion for it. It's certainly not for the money, the work on nights and weekends and the numerous holidays spent at the office. There were countless nights coming back from work when I truly felt fortunate to be able to do make a living in newspapers.

My first jolt of the new newspaper reality came in 2005 shortly after Paxton Media Group bought The (Durham, N.C.) Herald-Sun. The new owners laid off many good people that first week in January, and I was stunned to suddenly be looking for a job.

It started more of a love/hate relationship with the business. It's fun work, but I hate where the business is going. It's sad to see the damage it inflicts on the lives of the people trying to do good journalism and on the product weakened with every cut.

I realize that newspapers are struggling to make money and that they have no choice but to cut budgets. But  newspaper companies around the country are making curious decisions as they continue to lose readers.

If your cable or satellite TV provider cuts numerous channels from your package but keeps the price the same (or even increases the price), you'd be outraged. Newspapers, while giving executives bonuses in some cases, basically are doing something similar and shouldn't be surprised that the drop in readership is accelerating. The future is online, but how many newspapers are generating much website revenue?

I never seriously discussed any job outside of newspapers in 2005. My job search produced seven interviews in five states, three job offers and a sports copy-editing job at the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press.

I enjoyed the challenges there, learned a lot and had the privilege of working with some terrific journalists. There were numerous good times in Newport News. But in my five years at the Daily Press, I survived six rounds of layoffs/buyouts before Tribune Company, which owns the newspaper, came up with an outsourcing plan that led to the elimination of my job and the jobs of many others.

I actually had an interview for a newspaper job on the day I got laid off in March. But I reluctantly came to the conclusion that if I wanted some sort of job stability, I'd probably have to look outside of the industry.

The difference in the economy in general and the newspaper business in particular from five years ago was obvious. I only had three interviews in two states, although I canceled a fourth interview in a third state when I accepted the AICPA job. My discussions with several newspapers were short once I realized the money they were offering.

I applied for an out-of-state newspaper copy-editing job weeks ago and was told in an e-mail message this week that I was one of 28 people who still were under consideration. I'm obviously no longer interested, but that's pretty competitive!

That number illustrates to me how many good out-of work newspaper people are out there and how few good jobs are available. There also are scores of talented journalists who are employed, but miserable. Their companies handcuff their ability to produce a newspaper that is even close to the same quality of years ago. But the jobs that could look good today, could be the target of corporate brass tomorrow.

Do people still working at a newspaper look elsewhere in the industry? These days, comparing which newspaper company is better is like me debating which Cubs failure frustrated me the most. Nearly all are bad. Few can promise much stability and most lack the financial commitment to good journalism.

Before interviewing with AICPA, my last previous non-newspaper job interview was for a public-relations position with the LPGA in 1983. Earlier that year, I had interviewed for a PR job with the Denver Nuggets. Neither worked out, but that was fine because I began my newspaper career that year.

A career ended this year.

There were so many highlights. I felt like a kid on Christmas day covering ACC basketball and football games and, in particular, the ACC tournament. Covering the Stanley Cup finals in 2002 was incredible for somebody like me who loves hockey, even the game that ended after 1 a.m.

I wrote the first story ever written about a kid who was then a dazzling freshman at Kinston High School by the name of Jerry Stackhouse. I covered Mike Hargrove in his first year as a professional manager with the Kinston Indians, and Kinston's Carolina League championship team in 1988.

I remember sitting in the Kinston Indians office one Friday afternoon watching a few innings of a Cubs game with Joey Belle just days before he went AWOL in 1988. He had a torrid relationship with the press in the major leagues as Albert Belle, but we always got a long fine.

One morning in 1993 at the Burlington Times-News, when it was an afternoon paper, I made a call to the pressroom to tell them to "stop the presses!" It was the only time I made that call to change A1 to get a breaking story into the newspaper. Jim Valvano had died.

More memorable than the games was the camaraderie with many terrific people I was fortunate to work with at five newspapers. Every newsroom was a little different, but the commitment to readers was the same. 

But I'm officially a reformed newspaper person as I begin a new challenge next week with AICPA. I'm excited to get started. Clearly, I won't miss working nights, weekends and holidays and the anxiety of wondering when (not if) more layoffs will go down.

I feel fortunate to be starting a job just two months after getting laid off and to be working for a company that's been around for more than 100 years.

When there is a big story breaking, I'm going to miss the adrenaline of being in the newsroom as the story is coming together. I'll miss trying to come up with the perfect headline or the best possible display for a story. I'll miss facing seemingly impossible deadlines on a nightly basis and somehow making it anyway.

But when my Tar Heels play next season, it will be nice that the bulk of my game viewing won't happen via the DVR the next day.

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