I know a guy who went to work for a large newspaper right out of high school (not sure how he landed that job as he did not even have a college degree). He ended up becoming one of their most prominent reporters and columnists for the next couple of decades.
Then financial reality hit the newspaper business and they laid him off. The paper has since ceased publishing. I have absolutely no idea what he’s doing these days as his whole life had been writing for a newspaper. Unemployed newspaper columnists without a degree don’t have a lot of good options.
It’s too bad about guys like that. There were some good ones back in the day. I could go back to reading a newspaper if one gave me a good enough reason.