Tools of the Trade

When the dust from the media layoffs, downsizings and closures has finally settled, this year might well be remembered as the one in which the print landscape confronted its future. The Web has encroached upon traditional media, leaving newspapers on life support and magazines reeling from the sharp decline in advertising revenue. Still, through it all, I find myself going back to why wanted to be in this business in the first place. After graduating from college, I talked my mom into buying me a laptop. Like a carpenter with his tool belt, I thought any writer worth her salt should first invest in the tools of her trade. She acquiesced and got me a PC - not the citrus-colored iMac I had seen the fictional Carrie Bradshaw writing her relationship articles on for her New York Star column, in early episodes of Sex & the City. But I was thrilled to have the clunky book; took some turns in publishing and eventually learned the gratification of reporting, the dignity of honest work, chasing stories, and the quiet satisfaction of a page 1 byline. "Don't you just love the newspaper life?" our editor-in-chief would ask. Still do.