NON-PAPER NEWSPAPER COLUMN: I'm Out of Print

By Tobin Barnes

Well, either the paper-newspaper business is dying before our eyes or it's me (or maybe it's a combination of the two).


Here's the story:

I never knew when one paper was going to run my stuff or, more importantly, pay me, so I quit that outfit a few years ago. Another publisher hasn't paid me for my columns for over a year (my work appeared in two of their newspapers), so I'm writing that off as bad debt. And now a local paper, the Northern Hills Journal, has suddenly gone belly up (hastily announced the day of its last issue), so that's gone, too.

Are we detecting a trend here?

The Northern Hills Journal was an adjunct of the Rapid City Journal, which seems to be pulling in its resources, as are most newspapers, for the last onslaught of the inevitable trend toward digital media.

All I was left with was the good-old Yankton Press & Dakotan, which has always been efficient and dependable for me. Good folks down there.


But writing for one publication, which I would have jumped at 18 years ago--in fact, I did--no longer appeals to me.

Believe it or not, putting out a column almost every week, takes a certain amount of work, enjoyable though it may be. My compensation always has been figurative peanuts compared to almost any other kind of effort, including a kid mowing the yard, and if I continued for one paper, it would be very few peanuts, indeed. So few that it wouldn't be worth being locked into a regular schedule.


All that being said, I'm leaving the paper-newspaper business to its ultimate fate, but will continue to amuse myself--and occasionally you too, hopefully--with this blog.  I'm certain that something like this will continue for the rest of my life, albeit serving a much smaller audience. I've always been addicted to putting something of myself out there, even when it's been for myself only.

The full-length columns will probably be much more irregular, but shorter commentaries may often take their place--long or short, I'll never shut up. That, perhaps, may be more interesting for all concerned anyway in this shorter-attention-span age.


If you've contributed ideas and links and things before, I hope you will continue to do so, as I've greatly enjoyed sharing them and hearing from you. And I also hope you will check in every once in a while to see what's going on.

Catch you later.