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OREGONIAN OF RECORD

April 14, 2015 by

When News Leads, The Oregonian Gets There First.

via oregonancestery.com

via oregonancestery.com

Before the internet we watched television news.

Walter Cronkite explained how it was before signing off each night with, “And that’s the way it is.”

Baby boomers got used to watching the non-telegenic Cronkite’s newscast.

No need for a pretty boy like Brian Williams giving the news of the day, and his part in it.

Before television the news came over the radio.

In broad terms, newspapers have been there from the beginning, and is still there.

Like newspapers across the digital landscape, The Oregonian struggles.

Struggle means shrinkage. Shrinking readership, shrinking ad dollars, and now a shrinking staff.

Call it reassigned, laid off, or retired. It all means pack your gear and leave. Fired.

Getting fired feels better to the ex-employee when described otherwise. Anything except, “YOUR FIRED, GET OUT.”

No one likes that.

Hearing The Oregonian treats people with that send off wouldn’t be good for readership either.

Though Walter Cronkite wasn’t part of The Oregonian reporting team, he did start in print.

One of the top reporters during WWII, Cronkite reported bombing missions from a seat in a B-17, landed in enemy territory in a glider, and reported on war crimes after Victory in Europe.

A reporter with a list of bona fides from the last century, Mr. Cronkite would look at the news industry today and probably get fired.

News hounds with a nose for news do one thing better than any other: they find the news and report. Where’s the news? Follow a news hound.

The Oregonian dropped decades of institutional memory recently. Call it staff cuts. Some had a couple of decades on the job. Some had more.

Now there’s much less.

You might say this opens the door for new writing and reporting talent. Except when a paper moves from the traditional broadsheet to tabloid format, the T word scares some off.

Inquiring minds don’t always look past the changes.

Let’s hope the departing writers and photographers don’t go bitter and prove their exit was a needed tonic for the old newsroom.

Let’s skip the tired ink stained wretch reviews, the unfairness of it all, the lawsuits that won’t get covered by the regional newspaper of record.

Instead, why not celebrate The Oregonian for the good times, the Pulitzer Prizes, and the stories they printed from local writers with an interest in things Oregonian. Namely me, David Gillaspie, aka, Guest Opinion Gillaspie, the award winning writer behind the famous blog BoomerPDX.com

Russian tourists, a language barrier and a very Portland moment: Guest opinion didn’t win an award, but I did toast publication with vodka. It seemed like the right choice.

A Father’s Day task for baby boomers: Guest opinion found readers in the sweet spot of generational dispute. I cooked a macro-biotic bowl of rice and veggies, all organic and free roaming, to celebrate.

The right gym matters came from the experience of saving someone’s life. Now I’m introduced as,” The man who saved my life.” I made a friend for life.

Compound your interest in the Oregon Historical Society. I worked at OHS for nineteen years.

Nineteen years of history made, history making, and history as life. The change is leadership showed me the door.

Instead of wallowing in bitterness and unfairness of it all, I took up for place. It’s like the Army when you’ve got a bad officer. Respect the uniform no matter your feelings about the man or woman.

History is ours and we belong to history.

That I was history at a history museum wasn’t lost.

If I’d have spent thirty years at The Oregonian the door would have hit me on the way out much sooner.

One of the sharpest businessmen in town said these important words to his new hires, which are words to live by:

“This is (X) Corp. Read your employee manual to see how we do things here. It works, and has worked this way for quite a while. If you’ve got a better idea on how to do things, or how you’d like to do things, start your own company. It’s a big world and it needs new thinking and innovation. We’re doing that here, but if you’ve got a better idea, go make it happen.”

Reading between the lines explains all there is to know.

Here’s hoping The Oregonian starts building a new reputation that will last as long as the old one.

If you’ve had the experience of getting fired from a job you loved, a job you sacrificed for, a job you felt as much loyalty for you as you do a favorite team, let’s hear about it in comments.

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About David Gillaspie

I am a writer. This is my blog story day by day.