It’s county fair time in Macon County and it reminds of when my life changed courses and took a path I could not have predicted.
I was walking through the educational booth area of the fair when I encountered the Southwestern Community College booth. As a mom with three growing young children, I knew I wanted to go back to school and perhaps make a better life for them and our family. SCC was the obvious choice for its affordability and location but they had never offered anything I was interested in – until I saw that shiny brochure touting the Commercial Art & Advertising Design program and my life changed forever.
It took me two and a half years due to financial considerations and child care availability but I graduated with an associate’s degree with no idea what I was going to do with it. However, about that time, a local newspaper ran a help wanted ad for a layout person. That was in the day of “paste-up” where the paper was literally put together by physically cutting and pasting the pieces together like a puzzle. I worked there for nine years, going from paste-up girl to copy editor and even did a weekly column. I discovered I was better at editorial than art and design although my design skills were utilized as well. Under the tutelage of editor Scott McRae and the gentle managing skills of publisher Ken Hudgins, I learned a great deal about what counts as news and what makes a cohesive community newspaper. I also learned what it was like to make mistakes that live in perpetuity in print. Like leaving the “l” out of public. Once in an across-the-page headline, I left an “s” off in the word “assess.” I got a phone call on that one. We had a reporter at that time who told the story of putting “bow-wow” under the photo of the homecoming queen as a joke and forgot to correct it.
That job also taught me the perils of attempting to make yourself indispensible. I made it my mission to learn everything there was to know and every job in the house. In fact, two members of our main production team went on vacation in a very busy week and I put together a two section newspaper and a 110-page, four-fold information booklet by myself. Needless to say, burnout is inevitable with that kind of mindset.
After a five-year break from the newspaper business during which my family ran a restaurant called “Mama’s” I went to work for The Macon County News & Shopping Guide as a copy editor. By that time, page layout was digital, with everything being done on a computer and emailed to the printer. MCN was very popular in those days, sometimes having as many as 80 pages or more. It contained a TV guide at one time and many, many ads and it flew off the racks. Real estate was big and it was not unusual to have a dozen or more full page ads. And the best part was that it was free. That concept had never been tried and other papers followed suit with the idea that if the paper were free, it would reach more people and the ads would pay for it without having to charge. The advertising practically sold itself.
Fast forward to 2008 when real estate hit rock bottom, jobs were scarce and suddenly newspaper advertising was a luxury not a necessity. Through many struggles and personal sacrifices, including the death of her husband, owner/publisher Betsey Gooder kept going for the next 15 years trying to keep the paper alive, finally throwing in the towel in 2023.
Now here we are, two years into Macon Sense and once more I am at a crossroads. Newspapers have been a part of my life for more than 30 years. My habit has been to look around to see what we can bring to the people to inform them and maybe improve their lives and the lives of others, like the perfect photo, a community event, or breaking news. A newspaper does more than just carry news; it entertains, it informs, and it connects a community in a way social media never will.
It will be a hard habit to break and I will miss it.