In today’s column Mike announced his departure from the paper after not making it through the latest budget cuts.
On Monday, I learned that my position is being eliminated by the paper. There will still be an outdoors section of some sort, but it will be someone else’s baby.
In these days of declining revenues and circulation, the decision does surprise me, but I won’t dwell on the economics. Having won a company-wide award for outstanding performance and winning multiple writing awards doesn’t prevent you from getting a pink slip. That’s life at a newspaper, and I’m certainly not the first to get canned.
It was a heck of a good ride, and I appreciate the fact that for seven years the company gave me this sandbox to play in, and the reader support was overwhelming at times and very gratifying.
It’s a sad day as far as I’m concerned because the Outdoor Section and Mike’s articles were always the highlight of the week in the N&O. Thursday’s I’d race to hopefully get the sports section before it disappeared from the office copy at the start of the day. Today my day started with a downer when I read this. We’ll see what kind of Outdoor section gets produced without Mike I like many fear the local aspect will be lost.
Over his seven years he covered a lot of stories one of my favorite things was not a story he wrote but something he did. Mike took Ruth, one of the liberal columnists from the paper, out shooting at the Wake County Firearm Training Center. A great example for all of us to get those non shooting friends and colleagues out on the range to learn to shoot and to have an opportunity to experience a sport most of us love.
I wish Mike the best and hope this leads to bigger and better things for him and his family.
