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http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/sam_fulwood/index.ssf?/base/opinion/116367077464530.xml&coll=2
Colleagues leaving the saddest news
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Sam Fulwood III
Plain Dealer Columnist

Gone forever are the pals that I love

There isn't a trace or a sign

Of that honest to goodness old bunch

I called that old gang of mine.

- World War I era poem

It has been a sad struggle at work lately.

Almost daily, to our applause and cheers, once-valued colleagues walk out the big door, never to return as members of the Plain Dealer staff.

Gone already are some remarkable reporters, editors, photographers, researchers and clerical staffers. More will leave by year's end. Sixty-four accepted a company buyout.

I'm not one of them. I don't blame those who did. I guess it was too good a deal to pass up.

But I'm not happy about it, either. I've spent most waking hours during the past six years in their company. I hate seeing them go, leaving me behind.

While I don't fully understand the economic reality that made this necessary, I know more about it than I want. Good journalism is expensive to produce, but the company felt the need to cut costs. It wasn't personal; it was business.

Some 30 years ago, when I started, I had no clue about the business of newspapers. All I knew - or cared to know - was that being a reporter was great fun. I never paid a moment's attention to whether the paper made or lost money.

But somewhere along the way, that changed. I began to realize that newspapers are businesses and I began to care whether the owners pocketed enough to pay me - and all of my buddies.

I don't need to tell that to the folks in the steel and auto industries, who watched co-workers leave again and again. They knew better than I, that when things don't go well, people lose their jobs. Now I understand.

My bosses tell me it's an evolution, not a death spiral. They say newspapers will survive because people need the daily information we provide.

But, they insist, we must change to compete better with the Internet and 600-plus channels of television.

That's why I'm so sad to bid farewell to the best bunch of foxhole buddies I've ever known. They won't be in the trenches when we need them most.

Instead, they're packing up and moving off the front lines, from the life and battles we've shared together.

From my less-than-private desk on the edge of a thinning newsroom, I see them put their world into cardboard boxes.

Details are important to journalists. We don't let them go easily. That's why my old friends carefully place every wire-bound notebook or yellowed clipping, the souvenirs of a well-spent life, into take-home containers.

I watched one old-timer gingerly kiss a coffee-stained cup before placing it on top of his bundle to be carted out. I'd swear his lips trembled and his eyes brimmed with tears.

Another friend, colleague and editor didn't try to hold back her emotions. When everyone in the newsroom stood and applauded for her goodbye walk, she refused to look at us. Her shoulders slumped and heaved as she disappeared under the exit sign.

It doesn't help knowing that The Plain Dealer isn't alone in losing good people. In fact, we're better off than most other daily newspapers. Our circulation is dipping, but not as fast or as steeply as in some other cities.

No, Cleveland is the right place to make a stand.

I just wish that old gang of mine was still in the fight beside me.

To reach Sam Fulwood III:

sfulwood@plaind.com, 216-999-5250