Apologies for not keeping my blog current. I decided that I should tell the story of how I ended up being an over the road truck driver.
Now some of those reading this will have heard the tale but not most and certainly not in the boring detail I’m liable to put down here.
A long time ago (OK about three years ago), in the far away land of Port Edwards, WI, a less than happy photographer was watching his income flatline as the newspaper industry struggled to maintain viability and decide which employees it could do without.
The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, my employer for 8 years, had been purchased by the Gannett Corp. shortly after I started. A building housing about 100 people at it’s peak had already been reduced to 40-45 by 2000. Changes in print technology and computers were the cause of that reduction of staff. But when Gannett took over, the first thing to go was the press itself, thereby ensuring that no other entity could purchase the paper and begin competing in the newspaper industry. Granted, the press, relatively new, had been idled a few years prior when the Tribune began being printed in Stevens Point, home of a sister paper.
Shortly after the press was disassembled and shipped out, the layoffs began. A few individuals deemed expendable, then it was entire departments as they moved them to other papers around the state. You see, when Gannett came in, they bought ten papers in the eastern and central areas of Wisconsin. As operations moved, they offered positions to the folks being cut.
They then had to re-apply and if they got the job, they would now have to commute 30 to 60 miles. Yeah, thanks a lot, I get to keep the poorly paid position and add the expense of driving? No thanks. Most opted for unemployment and sought work in the free-falling economy of central Wisconsin. An added bonus for Gannett, they shed the older employees for younger and cheaper ones.
By the time I left, the 30-35 people had been reduced to less than 20. The area residents complained about the lack of service the paper now provided to the community. All advertising had to be called into an 800 # to a town 100 miles distant, locals had no idea to whom they were talking and errors, while always present, became much worse.
Reporters now had to shoot photos, photographers had to shoot video and write stories. Quality of the paper continued to decline, the actual physical size of the paper declined, readership declined, advertising declined and the possibility of long-term employment for me declined. I decided, with much discussion with my wife, it was time to seek other opportunities. I would leave before I was downsized.
So what to do? The Wisconsin Rapids area had seen it’s major industry, paper production, go through the same process I just described about newspapers. Hostile take-overs and outright sales of the paper mills to larger, outside corporations resulted in the loss of many hundreds, perhaps thousands of local jobs. The mill in Port Edwards was closed accounting for 500+ alone!
I could go back to school and get a degree in some field of interest??? OK, 2-3 years to flesh out some sort of degree, no income for that time period, accrue several thousands of dollars in debt and come out a 50-something year-old college grad trying to compete in the economy that was just crashing?
Or, since I enjoy driving, go to school for 3 weeks, learn to drive a big rig, and start bringing in more money than the newspaper would ever pay? Duh! So, here I am, driving a giant, pumpkin-colored rig across the country.
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