I'm still here . . .

A lot has happened in the past seven months. It is time to consider whether to continue this blog, and if so, what purpose it might serve.

At the end of September, in the wake of steadily declining circulation and ad revenue, management at the newspaper made the inevitable cuts to its small staff: one from classified and two from editorial. Clearly there had not been enough editorial space over the past year to justify two full time staff photographers, but what I had expected was a reduction in hours for one or both of us, rather than outright elimination. Thankful as I am to be left fully employed, I am now left with a workload spanning six and seven days a week and the certainty that – given the grim turn in our national economy – the next shoe will land on me. When the newspaper's budget needs to be cut again, a seasoned community photojournalist will be viewed as a luxury in light of reporters with cameras and a steady supply of photos submitted from outside the staff that can fill editorial space so much more economically.

Like so many other community newspapers across the country, our newspaper is dying, and apparently management anticipates no future beyond newsprint. There appears to be no preparation in the works for a transition to a next life on the Internet, which is what most community newspapers are scrambling to achieve. I'm left to contemplate what future I have beyond this newspaper and what preparations I should be making for that inevitable transition.

I'm now working as long and hard as I did at my first newspaper job, but that only serves to remind me just how much I relish the role of community photojournalist and how much I will miss that work in the event I'm laid off or the newspaper closes. Apart from the prospect of finding another income, I need to develop a practical outlet for documenting my community. If this blog has taught me nothing else, it is that I don't want to devote the sheer production time and work necessary to produce decent audio slide shows. I'm not even sure I want to take the time and effort to write about my community. I'd rather be out in the community shooting.

Perhaps the blog can become such an outlet.