Out of the fire: My last days in the newsroom

Well, it's done. Today I wrote my last two editorials, handed in my office key and said my goodbyes. Time and God alone will tell what I accomplished by being at WCN.

It was a long, draining haul, but I'd like to think that some good came of it. An editor with the same ridiculous work load as me has given notice; another told me he plans to give notice in two more weeks. And I know of two different reporters who have refused promotions because they want more money than the company is willing to give them. (That apparently caught management off-guard, but I find it encouraging. People are catching on that we get change when we stop playing by the rules that other people set.)

My reporter is one of those who has been telling them that she's not taking my job unless they pay her better for it than they've offered. I may have earned a reputation as an agitator.

In my editorials and columns, I strove to uphold basic truths about our obligations to care for the needy. I issued calls for change, and sometimes that alone was enough to stir other people to action.

I made fun of Elmo in front of more than 100,000 readers.

I trained two reporters and made them stronger writers, shored up two sagging newspapers and gave them renewed vision and respect within the community, by bringing in local columnists, and making the papers into a voice for the community and within the community.

It still angers me that the owners work only 40 hours a week, take the inflated salaries that they do, and then have the gall to say that there's no money in the budget to provide better resources, hire more than a skeleton crew or pay us better.

That's just bad business. If you want your venture to succeed, you need to give your workers a living wage commensurate with the work they do, and not just live off their labor. "A worker is worthy of his hire" and "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain."

It's done, though. My wife starts full-time at Rutgers on Monday. It turns out that she actually will make more than I have been, and she's going to get better benefits than I had too. (And there's no commute, since she can walk to work, which means we'll save on gas.)

Thanks to everyone who's put up with me through this. It's been a long and torturous road, but it's finally over.