The thrill is gone

How bad can it get? Apparently plenty, as Gannett Co. announces it will cut up to 2,000 more jobs in the coming week. That's in addition to the 3,600 other positions already lost. On a lesser scale, the St. Paul Pioneer Press continues to shed jobs from its incredibly shrinking work force, and Freedom Communications (Orange County Register) boss Burl Osborne (formerly of the Belo's Dallas Morning News) announces across-the-board paycuts of 5 percent. (I wonder what ol' Burl is getting paid after the cuts?)

And my friends wonder why I took a break from blogging about the business.

But the time off has led me to reflect on my three decades in journalism. In particular, it has led me to reflect about those incredibly long hours at my first job, a weekly in northern San Diego County that no longer exists.

We had a tiny staff - three news reporters, a photographer a graphic artist and an editor - and the pay was shit. $150 a week, if I recall correctly, which came out to about $2.50 an hour. But I was young and couldn't believe people would pay me to write. Reporters never hesitated to ask for or offer suggestions on how to phrase a sentence, paragraph or story. We never worried about being criticized for taking chances. And we never thought twice about our commitment to the profession.

Paying rent, buying gas and eating even the basics was sometimes a challenge on a salary that paid less than the minimum wage, but it didn't matter. We loved our job. We loved what we did. And we dreamed about the future.

Today, with the future very much in doubt, I often find myself wondering if the thrill is gone.