Editor & Publisher magazine, the “insider” bible of the newspaper industry for the past 126 years, shipped its last issue to the printers today. The magazine is ceasing publication and shuttering its web site after the owner, Nielsen & Company, pulled the plug.
Some involved with the operation vow they will find a way to keep E&P alive but the odds are long. Like the industry it covers, E&P is a dinosaur destined for the scrap heap.
The end comes 40 years after I used E&P’s classified ads to find a new job. In 1969, the managing editor at The Roanoke Times decided my services were no longer needed because I failed to tell them I had dropped out of college and wasn’t actively pursuing a degree — a condition of my employment.
I got the word on a Friday morning, pulled the latest issue of E&P out of my desk and found an ad from The Alton Telegraph. They were looking for a reporter. I called the phone number and they invited me out for an interview the following Monday. I flew into St. Louis, was picked up by a newsroom assistant who drove me across the Mississippi River to Alton and an interview with managing editor John Focht. He looked over my clips and offered me a job on the spot, at double the salary I was earning at the Times. Two weeks later, I drove the 670 miles from Roanoke to Alton and started a new job that lasted nearly 12 years.
Things were different in those days. Jobs were plentiful and a reporter with a folder full of clips could move from paper to paper with ease.
Those days are gone and, apparently, is E&P after the upcoming issue.
Goodbye old friend. You were there when I needed you. I wish I could return the favor somehow today.