Sitting down to write this post, word came through on the radio that the New York Times has laid off 100 of the staff , having earlier sacked a similar number and reduced pay by five percent. Sad indeed is the plight of newspapers in America . Recently we heard that the Miami Herald , which has a long record of embracing new technology , was in deep financial trouble. A friend of ours , seeking fame and fortune in America, both of which he achieved, undergoing a vasectomy and a divorce in the process, worked on the Miami paper decades ago . At the forefront of computerised production, the paper impressed our journo buddy who sent us an interesting letter about the innovative publication. One snippet of information he supplied was that when you wrote a story for the Herald it immediately went into a computer,was lodged in a subject file, and could be called up instantly. Wow? What would those Yanks think of next ? we wondered in our IT ignorance.
On the subject of crime in Miami, he said car stealing was highly organised. If you wanted a part for your Cadillac, you could ring up a number of places and they would arrange to knock off a Caddy for you and strip out the part you wanted, or just remove a panel from a parked car, if that was what you required. Of the 21 Pulitzer Prizes for journalism the Herald has received over its long history , one was for reporting the extent of organised crime in l950. That propensity for illegal activities obviously grew and spawned the modern Miami Vice TV series. Falling on hard times, the paper has sacked 17 percent of the staff and , if it can still afford the distribution costs, also circulates in the Caribbean and Latin America.
On the subject of crime in Miami, he said car stealing was highly organised. If you wanted a part for your Cadillac, you could ring up a number of places and they would arrange to knock off a Caddy for you and strip out the part you wanted, or just remove a panel from a parked car, if that was what you required. Of the 21 Pulitzer Prizes for journalism the Herald has received over its long history , one was for reporting the extent of organised crime in l950. That propensity for illegal activities obviously grew and spawned the modern Miami Vice TV series. Falling on hard times, the paper has sacked 17 percent of the staff and , if it can still afford the distribution costs, also circulates in the Caribbean and Latin America.
