Bill Sloat: Buyout at PD after 20 years

Here's an update from former Beacon Journal reporter Bill Sloat, one of those who took a buyout at the Plain Dealer:

I have been in Cincinnati for over 20 years as the Plain Dealer's one-person bureau covering the Midwest and the state. One son has finished college, one is halfway through, and another is getting ready to start in a few years. My wife, France Griggs, is a p.r. lady for Xavier University and the kids can go for free to Jesuit schools, plus a few hundred others that do tuition exchange like the Univesity of Florida.

II have loved my job with the Plain Dealer, but, as we all know, the newspaper biz looks not to have much of a future. I think that the industry has been way too focused on publishing. Perhaps it should be thinking about "information," which can be gathered, sorted and distributed now without much of an investment in publishing.

So I think we are already into an era of breaking the rules of normal thinking and the publishing/media companies -- as others have said -- loath risk and have systems in place to stifle or discourage innovation. In other words, what's been the normal environment for years is having the air sucked out of it now, and nobody seems to know what to do about it.

I was just in San Francisco and saw the Tower Records shops on Columbus Avenue going out of business. They used to be stocked with vinyl. Then they made the switch to CDs, a new technology that replaced vinyl. Then came the iPods and blew past CDs. Change arrived so fast that an entire industry croaked before it knew what hit it.

I'm afraid I can see that happening to newspapers. It seemed that in San Fran hardly anybody read the Chronicle anymore. It was passe.

So, I'm going to take my buyout and try to figure out how to stay in the information business, which still has value. Maybe a Web site. Maybe something with a group that needs to share info -- sort of like Romenesko, who serves a small but important community. Maybe teach. I plan to stay busy, though.

I've enrolled in college again and am quite energized. I'm sad that the news biz we all knew is down. But the change can also spur creative risk taking.

~Bill

His e-mail address for the moment is bsloat@plaind.com