Life Aftetr 50 column wmkvfm.org Internet

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Added: Mon. May 28, 2012 6:42pm
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ALICE HORNBAKER

“Life After 50” column

ON AIR wmkvfm.org and

WMKVFM. 89.3 FM/Cincinnati

5-28-12

Hello again. This is Alice Hornbaker for wmkv 89.3 FM and wmkvfm.org streaming around the world in the Internet Mondays and Thursdays at 2:20 p.m. and Fridays at 8:50 a.m. and as a blog on growingbolder.com under blogs/life after 50/ajhornbaker and on Twitter, Facebook and linkedin.com

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I wept this week, silently.

I read in my newspaper: “Times-Picayune to cut printed paper to 3 days a week.” One of America’s oldest daily newspapers in New Orleans, come this fall, will no longer print seven days a week. Instead it will offer 3 days of newspapering. Lots of reporters will lose their jobs.

Thus New Orleans has the unique distinction of becoming the largest metro area in the nation without a daily newspaper in the digital age.

Sitting over coffee with some senior friends later on that day, I listened to their reactions to this news. Many wondered if our own daily newspaper was next. Why? The Cincinnati Enquirer (where I worked for 17 years) often shrinks down to about eight pages during the week. Tuesdays there isn’t enough paper to line a bird case. Already the Cincinnati Post, where I had written a column for nine years, had folded up their newsprint tent and faded away.

It seems the handwriting is on the wall for a lot of America’s daily newspapers. Another senior sitting nearby me wondered, “Who will write up the obituaries when we die and print them ? If our newspapers are gone, our passing won’t even be known by friends.” She sighed. “I guess we are to become as invisible as the papers are to advertisers. I guess nobody cares.”

I do. I comforted her with the thought perhaps some entrepreneur TV reporter will offer to write and do the obits on the evening news by running a banner strip at the bottom of the screen, like they used to do with school closings before there were websites. That did not seem to console her. She said she felt a friend had died when the Post folded.

Me, too. Newspapers punctuated most my life. Without them, the younger set’s lives will be far duller and far less informed.

“Today’s daily newspapers are like dinosaurs,” one senior added. “Our great grandchildren will never know what it feels like to enjoy breakfast and read the daily paper. A big loss.”

Maybe. Maybe not. You can’t miss what you never had.

All this talk about newspapers’ demise went right into focus after a letter arrived from a former Cincinnati Enquirer colleague of mine. In it was a clipping dated Thursday, Jan 23. 1975, written by The Enquirer book columnist Owen Findsen. He reviewed my first book, “Preventive Care: Easy Exercise Against Aging” and had a photo of me with it. (That book, way ahead of its time, predicted exercise would help keep Americans healthy into old age.)

My newspaper friend said after his father’s death, he’d found the clipping among his Dad’s things. His parents saved it all this time and now he thought I’d like to read it again.

I did.

And you know. that will never happen with a story heard on television news, a website or a smart phone, will it?

--------------------------------------------

If you would like to contact me send an email to: ajhornbaker@yahoo.com or leave a message for me at the Cincinnati WMKV studios 782-2427.

For WMKV 89.3 FM this is Alice Hornbaker.

(Order Alice Hornbaker’s new novel about seniors who are hot, and some criminal, and about radio station “WOLD In Cincinnati” available at amazon.com, wmkvfm.org (click Amazon button), iuniverse.com, ebook or any book store)

ALICE HORNBAKER

 

“Life After 50” column

 

ON AIR wmkvfm.org and

 

WMKVFM. 89.3 FM/Cincinnati

 

5-28-12

 

 

Hello again. This is Alice Hornbaker for wmkv 89.3 FM and

 

wmkvfm.org streaming around the world in the Internet Mondays and Thursdays at 2:20 p.m. and Fridays at 8:50 a.m. and as a blog on growingbolder.com under blogs/life after 50/ajhornbaker and on Twitter, Facebook and linkedin.com

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

I wept this week, silently.

 

 

I read in my newspaper: “Times-Picayune to cut printed paper to 3 days a week.” One of America’s oldest daily newspapers in New Orleans, come this fall, will no longer print seven days a week. Instead it will offer 3 days of newspapering. Lots of reporters will lose their jobs.

 

 

Thus New Orleans has the unique distinction of becoming the largest metro area in the nation without a daily newspaper in the digital age.

 

 

Sitting over coffee with some senior friends later on that day, I listened to their reactions to this news. Many wondered if our own daily newspaper was next. Why? The Cincinnati Enquirer (where I worked for 17 years) often shrinks down to about eight pages during the week. Tuesdays there isn’t enough paper to line a bird case. Already the Cincinnati Post, where I had written a column for nine years, had folded up their newsprint tent and faded away.

 

 

It seems the handwriting is on the wall for a lot of America’s daily newspapers. Another senior sitting nearby me wondered, “Who will write up the obituaries when we die and print them ? If our newspapers are gone, our passing won’t even be known by friends.” She sighed. “I guess we are to become as invisible as the papers are to advertisers. I guess nobody cares.”

 

 

I do. I comforted her with the thought perhaps some entrepreneur TV reporter will offer to write and do the obits on the evening news by running a banner strip at the bottom of the screen, like they used to do with school closings before there were websites. That did not seem to console her. She said she felt a friend had died when the Post folded.

 

 

Me, too. Newspapers punctuated most my life. Without them, the younger set’s lives will be far duller and far less informed.

 

 

“Today’s daily newspapers are like dinosaurs,” one senior added. “Our great grandchildren will never know what it feels like to enjoy breakfast and read the daily paper. A big loss.”

 

 

Maybe. Maybe not. You can’t miss what you never had.

 

 

All this talk about newspapers’ demise went right into focus after a letter arrived from a former Cincinnati Enquirer colleague of mine. In it was a clipping dated Thursday, Jan 23. 1975, written by The Enquirer book columnist Owen Findsen. He reviewed my first book, “Preventive Care: Easy Exercise Against Aging” and had a photo of me with it. (That book, way ahead of its time, predicted exercise would help keep American healthy into old age.)

 

 

My newspaper friend said after his father’s death, he’d found the clipping among his Dad’s things. His parents saved it all this time and now he thought I’d like to read it again.

 

 

I did.

 

 

And you know. that will never happen with a story heard on television news, a website or a smart phone, will it?

 

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

If you would like to contact me send an email to: ajhornbaker@yahoo.com or leave a message for me at the Cincinnati WMKV studios 782-2427.

 

For WMKV 89.3 FM this is Alice Hornbaker.

 

 

(Order Alice Hornbaker’s new novel about seniors who are hot, and some criminal, and about radio station “WOLD In Cincinnati” available at amazon.com, wmkvfm.org (click Amazon button), iuniverse.com, ebook or any book store)