They say manufacturing is the backbone of this country, but as we all know (or should) by now, that backbone is disintegrating. I spent almost 10 years living and/or reporting in the so-called rust belt: Detroit. Buffalo. Rochester. Syracuse. You know what I spent most of my time telling people? The number of people getting laid off....laid off at Kodak, laid off at Carrier....laid off at GM.
And then there were the stories on how the unions were working to save jobs, the strikes, the walk-outs. I remember one Christmas, spending time with a family who's children volunteered to forego more than one present and ask for something the 'needed' rather than 'wanted' just so the family could continue paying the bills. Their father's eyes filled with tears as he told me how proud and yet how ashamed he was at how his children sacrificed.
Now, I'm one of them.
Yeah 'them.' The growing number of people who've been laid off from a job. I won't pretend it's exactly the same. That would be dishonest. I am single, have no dependents, and am a freelance journalist, so my work is inherently less stable. Still. In one year, I've been laid off from steady work twice. And I think I share some of the same concerns, like: How am I going to pay the bills? How am I going to maintain health insurance? What if my health insurance runs out and something terrible happens to me? Will I have to retrain so I can get a new job? Am I even qualified to do anything else than I'm already doing? And then there's, how did I just become a number? I'm a person, and this company isn't treating me like one? Where was the union? Was it too strong? too weak? What about retirement planning? Why me?
After years of being strict observers of downsizing industries, the media is now in a financial crunch of its own. Gone are the days of high circulation, lots of eyeballs, and two newspaper towns. As a television journalist, I've benefitted from TV being the last ones to succumb. By now, print and radio outlets are already consolidated. Now, it's our turn. Where once we had 20% profit margins in local television news, advertisers are now fleeing to the web, or, since a large number of them are local car dealers, are fleeing period. Cutbacks and forced retooling are rampant. More and more larger market stations are "encouraging" reporters to shoot and edit their own video, employees are required to write stories for a variety of platforms, and retiring photographers are going unreplaced. But when the economic collapse happened, our industry like so many others, had the bottom drop out. The fact is, we sell information. If people don't care that they're uninformed, they won't buy a paper; they won't subscribe to an Internet service; they won't pay for cable; they'll drop their satellite radio. It's discretionary income. And advertisers know it.
So on some level, I understand what led us here, but what will lead us out? The answer seems to be technology. Trouble is, there are thousands who will have to relearn their jobs in order to be able to deliver news in these new formats. Is there time to catch up? And even though we alone are the only profession with Constitutional protection and legitimacy, where's the offer of help from government now?
I just wonder what the response would be if the presidents of ABC, CBS, CNN, and FOX News Channel were to testify in front of congress, asking for a bailout.
I suppose as long as they don't fly to Washington in corporate jets, we might have a shot.
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