Aug. 12: The morning papers
I think, but I am not sure, that theCalgary Herald used to have two
newspapers a day – one in themorning and one in the evening. I have a
vague recollection of seeingmy father read the newspaper after he
returned home from work. I waspuzzled because I saw him read the paper
in the morning. I asked himwhy and he said: “That was the morning paper.
This is the eveningpaper.”
I am too lazy to Google right now, butI think there was an era when issuing morning papers and eveningpapers was a common practice. Today it’s becoming a common practicenot to issue newspapers at all. Thanks to the advent of the Internet,social media, and 24-hour news networks, people aren’t relying onnewspapers anymore as their primary news source. I have been workingat my present newspaper for 11 years now and I think it would becrazy for me to jump to another paper. With all the layoffs takingplace in the newspaper world, I’d be one of the first to fall underthe ax.
The first newspaper I ever worked forwas a twice-a-week paper in Saskatchewan. I was sports editor and Iwas probably the worst S.E. in the history of the business. I wroteevery story like I was writing for People Magazine. I never told myreaders what happened in the baseball game or the hockey game, but Idid do features on a retired NHL linesman and did pictorials on alocal girls’ softball team.
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In junior high school, a friend had apaper route. His family was going to Disneyland for a week and he hadto find someone to cover for him. I was his last choice.
“Please,” he begged me over thephone and I said that I would.
“You realize you’ll have to get upat five in the morning,” my dad said. “Better get to bed now.”
It was raining the next morning.
I went to my friend’s house –pulling the wagon I’d received for Christmas when I was five –and loaded the papers in it. I looked at the list of houses on theroute and it seemed impossibly long to me. I sighed and trundled on.It was not fun. Two bad things happened that morning. A mean old ladychastised me for being 10 minutes later than usual. “What took youso long?” she demanded. “You know I like to have the paper by6:30 so I can enjoy it with my coffee and toast.” Evidently, thelady didn’t even notice that there was a new paperboy that day –one that was surely entirely unfamiliar with her early morninghabits. I apologized to the grumpy old harridan and she harrumphed meand told me to be there on time the next morning.
The second bad thing was I delivered apaper to Debbi’s house. Debbi was one of those junior highprincesses who gets to decide who is cool and who is not cool. Shesaw me with the papers and my little boy wagon and she teased meabout it at school later that day.
I don’t think I got paid for my weekon the paper route. My friend just promised to return the favour forme but he never did.
-
Before that, another friend had a paperroute. He delivered the Calgary Sun and his mother helped him. Byhelp him I mean that she did half of the route. There were these twohigh-rise apartments that stood side-by-side and my friend did onewhile his mom did the other. I used to think his mom was encouraginghis son to be lazy but now I’m not so sure. I think she did itbecause it gave her about two hours every morning that she couldspend with her boy.
-
I remember when the Calgary Heraldstarted publishing on Sundays. The advertising campaign adopted thisslogan: “Because we live in a seven-day world.”
So it used to have 12 papers a week(maybe 11 because I think Saturday only had one paper in thetwo-papers-a-day era) and now it has seven. I don’t think that’sa bad thing and I don’t see the need to have two newspapers a dayanyway.
And 30.
I am too lazy to Google right now, butI think there was an era when issuing morning papers and eveningpapers was a common practice. Today it’s becoming a common practicenot to issue newspapers at all. Thanks to the advent of the Internet,social media, and 24-hour news networks, people aren’t relying onnewspapers anymore as their primary news source. I have been workingat my present newspaper for 11 years now and I think it would becrazy for me to jump to another paper. With all the layoffs takingplace in the newspaper world, I’d be one of the first to fall underthe ax.
The first newspaper I ever worked forwas a twice-a-week paper in Saskatchewan. I was sports editor and Iwas probably the worst S.E. in the history of the business. I wroteevery story like I was writing for People Magazine. I never told myreaders what happened in the baseball game or the hockey game, but Idid do features on a retired NHL linesman and did pictorials on alocal girls’ softball team.
-
In junior high school, a friend had apaper route. His family was going to Disneyland for a week and he hadto find someone to cover for him. I was his last choice.
“Please,” he begged me over thephone and I said that I would.
“You realize you’ll have to get upat five in the morning,” my dad said. “Better get to bed now.”
It was raining the next morning.
I went to my friend’s house –pulling the wagon I’d received for Christmas when I was five –and loaded the papers in it. I looked at the list of houses on theroute and it seemed impossibly long to me. I sighed and trundled on.It was not fun. Two bad things happened that morning. A mean old ladychastised me for being 10 minutes later than usual. “What took youso long?” she demanded. “You know I like to have the paper by6:30 so I can enjoy it with my coffee and toast.” Evidently, thelady didn’t even notice that there was a new paperboy that day –one that was surely entirely unfamiliar with her early morninghabits. I apologized to the grumpy old harridan and she harrumphed meand told me to be there on time the next morning.
The second bad thing was I delivered apaper to Debbi’s house. Debbi was one of those junior highprincesses who gets to decide who is cool and who is not cool. Shesaw me with the papers and my little boy wagon and she teased meabout it at school later that day.
I don’t think I got paid for my weekon the paper route. My friend just promised to return the favour forme but he never did.
-
Before that, another friend had a paperroute. He delivered the Calgary Sun and his mother helped him. Byhelp him I mean that she did half of the route. There were these twohigh-rise apartments that stood side-by-side and my friend did onewhile his mom did the other. I used to think his mom was encouraginghis son to be lazy but now I’m not so sure. I think she did itbecause it gave her about two hours every morning that she couldspend with her boy.
-
I remember when the Calgary Heraldstarted publishing on Sundays. The advertising campaign adopted thisslogan: “Because we live in a seven-day world.”
So it used to have 12 papers a week(maybe 11 because I think Saturday only had one paper in thetwo-papers-a-day era) and now it has seven. I don’t think that’sa bad thing and I don’t see the need to have two newspapers a dayanyway.
And 30.
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