I spent 24 years working for the St. Petersburg Times. (They became Tampa Bay Times after I left)
I started my career at the printing plant and finished at the downtown office. I was unceremoniously downsized in the end but I never lost my love and appreciation for the Company, its editorial philosophies and their commitment to staff.
Their mistake was to treat the electronic media explosion as a step child, instead of the runaway train it was and is. First it was Craig's list that decimated the classified section with free ads and much wider reach than the newspaper could provide. Then competition came at them from every direction like a pack of hyenas.
Reading this article made me sad and nostalgic for an era that has passed. I hope the News room will continue to produce the kind of Pulitzer Prize winning writing that made the paper so important to the folks in the Tampa Bay area and beyond. Lucy Morgan, Jack Reed, Howard Troxler, Clay Bennett, Jeff Klinkenberg and others made the paper a must read if you wanted to understand what was happening and why/how it should matter to you.
The smell of newsprint and ink and paper dust will be forever etched in my memory and I will remember fondly those insane Saturday nights trying to get a newspaper stuffed full of slick and slippery inserts stacked, wrapped and delivered onto trucks for delivery the next morning.
I hope the TBT will continue to do what is necessary to deliver quality news to those who still value in depth and independent reporting.
= new reply since forum marked as read
