Still supporting my ‘good friend’

I’ve been thinking about my friend lately. She’s been a big part of my life for five decades, reliably there through thick and thin. Soon, she will be making some changes, as she has before. Like a good friend, so will I.

My “friend” is The Gazette, my employer for 25 years and a steady part of my life for longer. The paper announced recently it intends to trim publication of the print version from seven to three days per week. Given the economic conditions of publishing today and the way in which we’ve come to consume news, I’m surprised the move didn’t come sooner.

The paper has been as much a part of my morning as coffee and creamer. I’m one of those among the growing minority who have subscribed to the print version since the 1970s. The day doesn’t seem complete unless I start it at the kitchen table, sip some coffee, and peruse the sections from cover to cover.

I’m a bit different than other subscribers since I know what it’s like to crank out a story on deadline, write accurate headlines, check and double-check facts, and assemble a section that is as interesting and aesthetically pleasing as possible.

As a consumer like you, I read these pages to not only be informed, but to think. I don’t agree with every paragraph on these pages, but what good would that do me? It reminds me of conversations I had with readers who weren’t thrilled with opinions of one of my sportswriters. My response was, “Well, do you read him?’’ Usually the response was, “Well, yes.’’ To which I said, “That’s all I need to know.’’

Change is difficult. Our natural inclination often is to resist it. The comfort zone is what we know and like. Whether it’s this paper or almost everything else, we often find our hesitancies largely were ill-founded and, in the end, not a bad thing after all.

Way back when, The Gazette arrived at doorsteps in the afternoon. Then, change. It first published a Saturday morning edition in 1975. Then, more change. The Gazette became a seven-day morning paper in 1981. We once composed our stories with a manual typewriter, marked up the paper with a pencil, and rolled up the pages and placed them in a pneumatic tube. It landed in the composing room, where operators of the clanky linotype machines set the pages and sent trays of metal type off to the press room. But manual and electric typewriters gave way to more sophisticated word processing machines. Computer pagination replaced those old type-setting contraptions.

Through each change, journalists and readers alike adapted. Like so many aspects of our life, technology drove it and dictated it. You know, 8-track players were once a thing too. Vinyls have become mostly collectibles. Cell phones have become preferred over landlines.

We just must come to grips with reality and the future. In this case, for four days a week, we will no longer retrieve the newspaper from the doorstep, spread it out on the table and pour a cup. Instead, we’ll open our laptops and consume the same product – the digital Green Gazette. The other three days – Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays – we’ll be looking at good ol’ newsprint and be able to fold it up and carry it from room to room.

In whatever form it is presented, a local newspaper – and the people who present it – should continue to receive our support. Like any good friend.

Mark Dukes began his sports writing career at The Gazette in 1972 as a high school junior. He served as Gazette sports editor from 1985 to 1998.