Sad day for regional news coverage

I guess the lesson is that no matter how well you do your job, you are expendable when a bottom line rules over the principle of quality journalism. Both "Huckleberries Online" and the Spokesman-Review have announced significant lay-offs in their news-gathering department, leaving a major chasm in the North Idaho office. I haven't heard all the names, but those I know are nothing less than phenomenal reporters and photographers.

I'm happy to hear that my own journalism student, Erica Curless, remains on board, but knowing Erica, I also how difficult and agonizing this sad situation is for her. Her colleagues, some of her best friends no less, will no longer be digging, sleuthing and writing alongside Erica to provide the continued topnotch, professional news coverage we've all expected for years from our morning regional paper.

When you're left behind, and the powers-that-be say to their faithful readers that they'll strive to continue providing quality news coverage, that doesn't bode well for your own future. Fewer people covering the fastest growing area in the region; somehow the scenario spells future burn-out for those still on board. Seems like a Peter-at-the-dike situation to me.

I always viewed the Spokesman as several "cuts-above" the other major area news organization because it had the resources and professional know-how to provide that extra edge in virtually all of its coverage. Plus, it had the undying support of its owners. Well, the folks who buy the ink and produce the newsprint have done the cuts, and I'm sure we'll notice the results very dramatically and soon.

"Watered down" is probably too kind of a term in predicting the quality and amount of information we'll have sitting in our paper boxes in the near future. And, when it gets so watered down, I wonder how many subscribers will stay on board. After all, when you're constantly headed to the transfer station with those piles and piles of ads sprinkled with a few tidbits of news, you think about the gas you're using and that gets you to thinking about your own bottom line.

So, you say to heck with it, and you cancel your subscription, and others do the same. Soon, all those ads you've been hauling to the dump have fewer and fewer viewers. Then, the folks who buy the ink will be really smearing it all over their desks with their "ain't it awful" tears.

These are those same people who've been celebrating 125 years of regional coverage. Is this the birthday present they have bestowed on their readers who have stuck with them through thick and thin? My, what a way to celebrate.

Why are they so proud? They're proud because they know they've been an institution here in the Inland Northwest since the 1880s. They're proud because of the respect they've earned through all those years of putting out quality newspapers. They're proud because of the service they've offered to their readers. They're proud because they've chronicled the history of our area, and they're sure proud to show it off with those occasional page inserts from past issues.

I wonder how proud they're going to be 25 years from now---when and if they celebrate their 150th birthday.