On Topic: The more things change …

Within a stretch of, say, two weeks, we had something like 20 guests at our Cedar Rapids home. Not all at once, mind you - some came for dinner, some stayed over for a single night or a long weekend, and one took up residence for nigh onto those full two weeks. (The duration of stay for that long-lasting visitor was not really an issue as he was relatively quiet, pretty much kept to our den and spent nights in his cage.)

It was during one of those dinners that a guest asked the question that, in one form or another, I darned near always seem to get asked, as sure as Disney made cute little anthropomorphic animals: 'You work at The Gazette? Newspapers are hurting these days, aren't they? Because of the Internet, right?”

This is not a new line of inquiry, and it's been cropping up for more than a few years - usually right after dessert. It generally is asked sympathetically, and almost as often as a statement rather than a question.

I usually reply that, well, yes, things are not as certain or robust in the journalism business today as they used to be a few decades back. And that while the Internet hasn't been anyone's idea of an innocent bystander in these proceedings, many factors have been at play, including an overall decline in circulation since a big spike right after World War II.

Late-1940s American families multiplied and spread forth, baby boomers got their start in increasing numbers and, statistics suggest, breadwinners wanted to come home from work, sit back in their easy chairs and read the news, sports and the funnies, by golly. But by the mid-1950s, other interests - TV and automobile rides among them - began to compete for attention. Newspaper circ numbers began to back level out.

This was long before the Internet lurked everywhere and even became a magical concept you could access on your phone. Who would have seen that coming, right?

And I add that many newspapers such as The Gazette haven't given up and are trying all sorts of worthy notions to retain current readers and build interest among potential new ones.

But then - and this is assuming my guest still is listening and hasn't by now regretted bringing up the topic and subsequently wandered off to some other corner of the house in search of a different conversation and, maybe, more dessert - I confess that, yes, things are different in this line of work.

Well, some things. You probably saw the flurry of attention Rick Friday in Fort Dodge received earlier this month when Farm News canceled his 21-years-long weekly editorial cartoons.

In what became his final cartoon published in Farm News, Friday had poked fun at the salaries of the CEOs of Monsanto, John Deere and DuPont Pioneer. As reported by KCCI TV in Des Moines and on Facebook, Farm News informed Friday via email that a seed dealer was not amused by the cartoon and had pulled its advertising from the publication.

Friday, involuntarily, had to take one for the team.

But, see, this sort of outcome isn't new for editorial cartoonists or other media employees whose task it is to express an opinion. That's been the case since newspapers first came into being.

Satire can be a tough sell, especially in a medium that depends on its advertisers for sustenance more than ever.

And I surely don't claim to know everything that transpired at Farm News in regard to Friday's cartoons, nor am I second-guessing decisions made there. Hey, maybe by now that relationship has been repaired, and the cartoonist is back to drawing about life on the modern-day farm for the publication.

But I do know that not everything going on today is new in the news business. And I also know we're doing what we can to deliver a valuable service to current and future readers.

We're working on it.

l Comments: Michael Chevy Castranova is Sunday business editor, among other things, for The Gazette, (319) 398-5873, michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com