By Tim Timmons
I don’t know about you, but I get frustrated reading about the demise of our newspaper world.
It’s just my humble opinion, but it seems like every time I read some new doom and gloom story about newspapers dying, I’m reading it in a newspaper.
Turns out irony doesn’t mean what it used to.
The thing is, some smart folks in the biz have been saying for years that we’re not necessarily in the newsprint business – we’re in the information business.
And there’s never been a time in human history when information is thriving more than today.
So, with my most sincere apologies to Billy Joel, here’s a new version of “Keeping the Faith” in honor of today’s times in our business:
If it seems like I’m fading away then let’s remember
If you think I’m out of touch and falling an app or two away
Oh then you shouldn’t toss me aside
Cause my future is coming alive and it’s today
Oh yeah
Still I would not be here now if I never had the hunger
And I’m not ashamed to say that “Woodstein” was my friend
Oh, ’cause I never felt the desire til their words set me on fire
And then I was saved, yeah
That’s why I’m keeping the faith
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, keeping the faith
We used spiral notebooks
That fit in the back of a pair of jeans
Bass Weejun shoes without any socks
And a blue denim shirt
Oh I put on a corduroy jacket
You know the kind with the elbow patch
And a micro-cassette, oh yeah
I had a desk in the back and a thing called a VDT
My editor used to scream & cuss my name
Oh I wrote my stories way too long
And found what a red pen was for
Cutting away, yeah
We were keeping the faith
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, keeping the faith
You can get just so much from a good thing
You can linger too long in your dreams
Say goodbye to the “Oldies But Goodies”
Cause the good ole days weren’t always good
And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems
Learned a pica pole was the way to measure
Copy got waxed and then pasted on the page
OK
Oh, I heard about SAU but not enough
I found you could sell and still lose touch
Anyway, oh yes I did
I found out a press can’t just print out the dough
Ate an awful lot of press box food
Drank a lot of take-home pay
I thought I was going to hurl
When my mistake made the top of the page
Oh yeah, we were keeping the faith
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, keeping the faith
You know the good ole days weren’t always good
And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems
And now the world is changing and a turning
And everyone says that newspapers have had their day
But I’ve got all the info to stay alive
In print, web and even a flash drive
Readers are ours to keep alive
Doing it every day, yeah,
I’m keeping the faith
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, keeping the faith
I’m keeping the faith, yes I am
You know I’m keeping the faith, oh yes I am
You know I’m keeping the faith, oh you are
You know I’m keeping the faith, oh yeah …
Tim Timmons is publisher of The Paper of Montgomery County (Crawfordsville) and The Times (Noblesville) and president of the HSPA board of directors.
