Topchik: Into the darkness

I purchased my first newspaper at the behest of my father at the age of 6. The newspaper was the New York Daily News, known as the paper of the working man. At the time, the early 1950s, there was an astonishing array of newspapers covering the entire range of political sentiment, including foreign language publications that served ethnic and immigrant communities. Record-breaking union bargaining agreements in the 1960s led to the demise of a number of daily newspapers. It was the beginning of a trend that continues today. Two significant changes have been the loss of afternoon newspapers (no one at home to read them) and two-newspaper cities. For those readers who wish to condemn unions for destroying daily journalism, readers should know that the average pay for an entry-level newspaper reporter and editor in 1953 was around $60 a week in major cities and less elsewhere.