Roy Exum
For the majority of my life, I would get out of bed before 4 a.m., take a hurried shower and be at the newspaper by 4:30. For years the former Chattanooga News-Free Press was an afternoon edition and our first deadline of the day was 7 a.m. and, man oh man, I loved every precious moment of it. But sooner than you think, newspapers as we have known them all of our lives will be extinct and it breaks my heart.
Over the weekend the Pew Research Center revealed that newspaper circulation across the United States is the lowest it has been since 1940, when records were first kept. Only 34.7 million newspapers are being sold today, a drop of 8 percent since last year. Worse, in 2004 there were 65,440 editors and writers but – 12 years later, the number had fallen 37 percent (41,400). The equation is simple: Less readers, less writers equals a downhill slide that smaller newspapers can’t survive.
Gannett, a huge conglomerate which now owns the Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville newspapers, has seen its stock fall 50 percent this year and the chain’s ad revenue has tumbled from $6 billion in 2005 to $1.6 billion in 2016. And, advertising revenues for the industry overall have dropped over 10 percent since last year.
The reason, of course, is the Internet. The World Wide Web is accessed through a cable company (varying rates) but a one-year subscription to USA TODAY is now $225. The New York Times for a year is $910 (all access). The Chattanooga Times Free Press is roughly $200 a year (discounted). I know the costs associated with a newspaper and, without circulation and ad revenue, I don’t think many broadsheets will be able to take the devastating hits much longer.
Not having a newspaper to actually hold, fold up and read later, is almost unthinkable to me.
* * *
It was 13 years ago when Jason Galyer walked his daughter to kindergarten and last week, when Brittany walked out of Alvord (Texas) High School as a senior, her dad was standing on the lawn. “What cha say we walk back home today?” Both choked back tears as they walked home together. Brittany called it a “moment I’ll never forget” while Jason said, “I can hope that one day when I am old, I can look back on this and smile.”
* * *
The teacher in Toronto, Canada, tells the class she wants their very best essay at the end of the semester. You’ll love what one 15-year-old girl handed in -- read aloud to the cadence of the children’s poem, “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.”)
Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God,
Finds mention of Him very odd.
If scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow,
It becomes a Federal matter now.
Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
that's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.
For praying in a public hall
might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the State.
We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
and the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong,
we're taught that such 'judgments' do not belong.
We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.
It's scary here, I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!
Amen!
(The author, unknown, reportedly got an A+)
royexum@aol.com