Write Again … Change must come

Published 8:45 am Saturday, April 18, 2020

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When I read in last weekend’s paper that the frequency of print publications was being diminished significantly — by 60% — I was not so much surprised as I was saddened.

It seems for the past decade or more newspapers, as we’ve known them to be, were struggling to survive, especially smaller ones. This was in large measure due to the explosion of online opportunities, 24-7 as they say, where one could turn for news. I suspect those generations younger than I are more apt to bypass the news and go straight to the far more important, to them, “social media.”

All of this, and especially now in the scourge of the “virus,” has led to a genuine diminution of advertising revenue, without which newspapers cannot exist. This you all know as well as I, of course.

Should news space be a problem with only two print issues a week, I will understand if my meager weekly contribution has to be discontinued.

The Washington Daily News has been around a long time, reader friends. Over a century. It has changed with the times, of course. The biggest of these content changes has been the almost exclusive focus on local news and events. National and world news is easily obtained 24 hours a day online. A traditional newspaper, as many of us have known for so long, just can’t compete with other information sources. That’s simply how it is.

And … if we think this latest change in format, frequency, and delivery is the “last” change, then we delude ourselves. As the saying goes, “The only thing that doesn’t change is change itself.” Mostly.

What is not going to change, please be assured, is my appreciation of you who have read “Write Again” through the years; and the good folks at the Daily News who have allowed me to be a small part of their world.

May we all stay well.

Peace.

APROPOS — “All is change; all yields its place and goes.”

— Euripedes (circa 422 B.C.)