Yes, that is a redesign, all right

Wilson newspaper readers now have their choice of two morning papers. The Wilson Times, known for 107 years as The Wilson Daily Times, switched today to a.m. delivery and touted a garishly colorful new design that management says readers will like better. We'll see.

Today's Wilson Times front page is dominated by four headlines with accompanying photos that "tease" articles that run inside the paper. The biggest headlines on the front page are not for front-page stories. They're for 3A stories. The largest photo on the front page accompanies a story on 2A. Get your hand exercise flipping back and forth between the article and the photo that should accompany it.

The blue and the orange colors (is this the Clemson football team?) leap out of the news box at readers. Much more subtle is the paper's switch to "ragged right" type instead of the traditional justified type, in which each line of type ends at the same point. This is not revolutionary. I attended a seminar in 1981 in which the Biloxi, Miss., paper touted its switch to ragged right. I think Biloxi's ragged-right type lasted only a short while.

The Times' layoff-depleted staff put extra effort into today's edition, which has an unusually high local story count. Don't expect it every day. That front-page headline about Craven County is actually locally written, though the headline writer ignored the local angle (Flu medicines arrive in Wilson) and went for the statewide angle (though no credit is given to Associated Press or wherever the comment originated).

You'd think that the decision by local physicians not to provide free physicals for public school athletes would have warranted mention on the front page, but it was relegated to 3A. This could have a huge impact on high school sports and many hundreds of local families.

World and state briefs have been repackaged, but the packaging leaves no space for important state or national news that requires more than a brief. And three-line headlines on many of the briefs detract from the package's look. As for the roundup of small, tightly cropped AP photos from around the world? Who needs them? The space could be used to serve readers' information needs better.

The Sports front gives a hint of what's in store: Ads climbing to the top of the section fronts. Until relatively recently, no self-respecting newspaper would have allowed ads on the front page. Now everybody, even the New York Times, is doing it. The initial, fairly unobtrusive ads at the bottom of the page have given way to ads climbing the page. In the name of serving the advertiser (and collecting a premium payment for placement), newspapers are shortchanging their readers' news space.

My vote for the most intriguing aspect of the Times' redesign: The folio lines (the small type at the top of the page that gives the date, page number and name of the paper) make no mention of the paper's name or of its point of origin. Instead, it says "wilsontimes.com." In my 33 years in the newspaper business, I was always told that it was important to have the newspaper's name and hometown in the folio lines so that a clipping or tear sheet could be readily identified. Also, the only mention of the city and state from which the paper originates is in the small type on page 2A in what is known as the second-class mailing permit box. It includes the paper's street address, but it also refers to the paper as The Wilson Daily Times. The N.C. Secretary of State's Office reports that the corporate name of this company is still The Wilson Daily Times, despite what you might read on the front page.

By whatever name, the Wilson paper has cast its lot with a New York Post look and a printing schedule that competes directly with a much larger and more complete (but diminished) newspaper. Readers will decide whether it works.

Newspaper flips over old toll road plan

It looks like The Wilson Daily Times is flip-flopping on its once-strongly stated contention that Interstate 95 should not become a toll road. In a Wednesday editorial, the struggling newspaper has very nearly endorsed toll booths on the interstate that cuts through Wilson County. (Typically of recent editorials, this one can't quite make up its mind one way or the other.)

That's a sharp departure from the newspaper's frequently state previous position that tolls for an interstate highway were not a good idea, and an especially bad idea for eastern North Carolina. That position reflected the opinion of most local governments along the I-95 corridor. Tolls on the interstate would make it less attractive to tourists and a real burden to local commuters.

The state's 21st Century Transportation Committee, which seems oddly mired in 19th-century thinking (tolls financed the plank roads that linked towns, such as Wilson, in the early 1800s), contends most of the tolls will be paid by motorists from out-of-state. If that sounds like a painless tax (in their broadest sense, taxes includes tolls), you're not listening to the businesses that rely on tourism dollars. Tourists provide millions of dollars in revenues to businesses at Interstate 95 interchanges and to the governments along the corridor who collect sales, income and property taxes from those businesses.

In its previous opinions, the Daily Times, agreeing with other critics of the toll plan, pointed out that Interstate 95 is in dire need of multi-million-dollar improvements precisely because state officials have ignored I-95's narrow, crowded lanes and archaic traffic designs. While Interstate 85 and Interstate 40 received billions in improvements and additional lanes, I-95, cutting through some of the state's poorest counties, was ignored. Rather than making amends for this discrimination, the 21st Century Transportation Committee proposes to punish residents and businesses along the I-95 corridor for the state's own malfeasance.

The toll road plan was raised again just as President-elect Barack Obama was proposing billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements, which could include enough money to upgrade I-95 to modern standards and widths. If used wisely, along with sensible prioritization by the state Department of Transportation, this infrastructure stimulus could fix I-95 for 21st century motorists without resorting to tolls.

The only real hope for stamping out the I-95 toll proposal, which keeps popping back up like a Hydra, is a united opposition involving all entities along the I-95 corridor and adjacent eastern North Carolina. With its new revelation that "the state would be smart to take a closer look at the toll road concept," The Wilson Daily Times has reneged on its previous strong opposition and has betrayed the interests of its readers and its advertisers.

More upheaval at the local newspaper

You didn't read it in the newspaper, but there have been more changes at The Wilson Daily Times. I was told on Monday that Wayne Johnson, sales and marketing director (otherwise known as advertising director), was sent packing. Those who informed me of this unannounced change did not know the circumstances or the reasons for Wayne's departure, whether it was another layoff or something else. I'm told that Wayne's successor has already been hired. It will be interesting to see whether the paper announces this new hire (an experienced and probably expensive N.C. newspaper executive) and, if so, whether the announcement mentions whom she is replacing.

Over the nearly three months since I was laid off along with at least four others, I have repeatedly had to tell people that, no, I have not retired; I did not want to leave gainful employment. I'm convinced that the newspaper encouraged the misconception that I had retired early. The only mention of my departure was in one sentence at the end of a long and rambling "editor's note" without a headline or any real point. Obviously, few people even saw that article or read to the end of it. No mention at all was made of the departure of Adrienne Gaskins-Smith, the city editor, or others who were let go at the same time. Adrienne had spent more than a decade at the newspaper in increasingly responsible positions. Four days from today would have marked my 29th anniversary at the paper.

Certainly, I had expected my departure from half a lifetime's work in a very public position to be more noted, if not celebrated. To be found expendable after so long a period of loyalty and dedication is demoralizing, but I realize that I am not the only person in this situation as America endures its economic nausea. I've been gratified by the many people, some of them strangers, who have expressed their disappointment and even anger at my departure from the newspaper. But what's done is done. I'm moving on.

Although I have almost no information about or insight into the machinations at the Daily Times — excuse me, the Wilson Times — I would not be surprised if readers saw more upheaval. The paper gets thinner and thinner as advertisers abandon ship. Vacant news positions (including my old one) are not being filled, and writing or editing errors provide daily chuckles or shrieks.

And even more than the uncertainties of being unemployed with few prospects in sight, the demise of good journalism in my adopted hometown, to whose betterment and illumination I had dedicated my career, depresses me.

Much to be thankful for

Thanksgiving Day arrives with an obligation to be thankful for all that we have, and I can affirm that I have much to be thankful for. I am grateful for family and friends, for good health, for the quiet harmony of a long marriage, for grandchildren, for a home that truly feels like home, for adequate food to eat, for a future to look forward to.

But for the first time in nearly 30 years, I can't be thankful for work. For the second Thanksgiving since graduating from college, I find myself unemployed. In 1979, I had just resigned from editing a newspaper in Virginia. I had assigned a reporter to get the goods on a local politician who was rumored to be corrupt. He got the story. The attorneys okayed it. The publisher killed it. He and I resigned in protest. Three weeks later, it was Thanksgiving, and I had no job. Looking back, that holiday does not seem particularly eventful. We traveled for a big gathering of my wife's family. I do not recall being particularly anxious about my unemployment, although I had three small children and a wife who stayed home with them (putting three kids in day care would have been a fiscal negative). I picked up some work helping out at a couple of small newspapers who could use my services. Today, we'd call that consulting, but I never used the term. It was just a way to bring in some money until I found a permanent job.

That permanent job came as an offer to be managing editor at The Wilson Daily Times. It looked like a job I could stick with for a lifetime. It looked like a good town, a good place to raise children, as then-editor John Scott told me. So I planted roots here, expecting to retire, perhaps even do some work in retirement for the paper, take on a title of editor emeritus. And for a long time, that looked like a good plan. It was not a lack of ambition that  kept me at a small daily. I had opportunities to go elsewhere, to climb the ladder at metropolitan  dailies, but I was satisfied at the Daily Times. My wife and children were satisfied with Wilson, and so I settled in.

Being laid off from the Daily Times before the age of 60 was not part of the plan, but here I am. Just as happened 29 years ago, I don't feel particularly anxious about finances. My seven-week job search has not been fruitful, but I feel an inexplicable confidence that this situation will resolve itself, that it will all work out. "All things work for good for those who love God," I've been reminded frequently. I will continue to check job listings and pigeonhole anyone I can about a job, but on this Thanksgiving I have much to be thankful for, even if a steady job is not one of them.