From glue pots to icons: 30 years in the newspaper biz
Thirty years.
For some, sadly, that's more than a lifetime. For me yesterday, it marked how long I've worked for the Daily Herald. So, please indulge a trip down newspaper memory lane.
When I got here, there was no DuPage bureau. The entire editorial staff was housed in an old, two-story brick building, now demolished, in downtown Arlington Heights. The Daily Herald was on the cusp of becoming technically true to its name - the first Sunday edition of the paper debuted about a month after I got here.
We had a circulation of 57,576 and were well down the list of largest papers in Illinois. In 1978, we used manual Royal typewriters, scissors and glue pots to literally "cut and paste" our stories. Metal desks and a linoleum floor. None of this cubicle stuff. I had a city editor who made Lou Grant look like a cupcake. On my first day, he showed me the newspaper library, where my desk was and told me to call in a story from the Wheeling village board meeting that night. I honestly remember - without having to go to the library - what it was about: A controversial rezoning that would allow some developers to build a bunch of apartments, to the dismay of residents who lived in nearby houses.
Today, we have a daily circulation of 144,000 and are the third-largest paper in Illinois, 62nd in the nation. As I write this column, I see at the top of my computer screen no less than 18 icons, some of which I actually know how to use. There's a program that checks spelling, grammar and style in one fell swoop, and another push of a few buttons that directs a story to the appropriate places on our Web site, which can be viewed by anyone in the world with a computer.
While the technology and the newsgathering process has changed dramatically, the news itself is remarkably the same. The Wheeling rezoning I covered 30 years ago came to mind as I read one of the letters to the editor that appears on this very page. It's from a Naperville man, thanking the park district and developer for agreeing to a deal that would keep some vacant land from being developed, something the nearby residents adamantly opposed.
Early in my career, I discovered there was quite a bit of competition in the medical community. In Wheeling, there was a lot of discussion about a shortage of doctors and medical facilities. A Chicago hospital wanted to build a new branch in Wheeling, but the local hospitals fought that tooth and nail. Soon after running the Chicago hospital out of town, the locals began making plans to stake out the turf. In fact, only because I stumbled upon what was then, to me, an obscure state agency called the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board did I discover two emergency walk-in clinics were being planned right across the street from one and other. One had to go away for reasons I can't immediately recall.
That same health board, you may have heard, did an abrupt about face this week on whether we need two state-of-the art, innovative proton therapy cancer treatment centers in DuPage County. The board decided competing facilities, one already started by Northern Illinois University in West Chicago and another one planned by Central DuPage Hospital for Warrenville, can both survive in this market. I guess only time will tell, assuming both projects are completed.
The newspaper's role hasn't changed a bit in that regard. This is a hugely important story, one about big business, money, politics and people's health; "all the elements" as we sometimes say in the business.
And it's still our job to try to bring it to you first and with the most insight and detail.
Thirty years. As much as things have changed, they're still the same.