Leather-wearing four-column features

It is 6:23 p.m. on a Friday and I am staring at a blank Word document and a shell of tomorrow’s newspaper. One of the holes on my front page needs to be filled by the article that should be appearing on that Word document, but for some reason I cannot bring myself to write it.
Why is the Word document blank? The same reason why the front page of tomorrow’s edition was torn apart the first time I laid it out, only to be rebuilt and torn apart again.
As much as I love this job, it is easy to get stuck in a personal rut. I thought my front page was too similar to one I laid out several weeks ago and my story about bikers donating food to the homeless was using too many of the same phrases that I wrote during a Bike Week piece in July.
Four column feature story with three column picture sits next to a two-column hard new piece. Leather-wearing visitors roar into town. No good, no good.
What the hell does it matter, I ask myself? Is the public going to know you laid out that front page? No. Is there even a slim chance Adams County readers will notice it resembles the front page of the July 31 edition? Hell no.
There is even less of a chance that they will notice my biker story is similar to one I wrote in July. But I do not care, I will know. Tonight I will go home and look at that newspaper a dozen times as my wife drifts off to sleep and I will know my creative juices went on vacation a week before the rest of my body will.
It is now 11:50 p.m. and the paper has been put to bed. The story is written and the page is designed. One I am pleased with, the other could be better.

The meeting

The dismal economy and ever-dwindling state of the newspaper industry finally had an effect on me today; luckily in the least damaging way possible.
The boss hung a mysterious note yesterday announcing a 9 a.m. staff meeting on Friday. All of our staff meetings are at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and usually only once a month, if that. We just had one Tuesday.
My coworkers and I have heard from industry colleagues at other papers about "the meeting" and we knew our time had come.
Most of us spent Thursday night pondering what Friday morning would bring - layoffs? furloughs? worse? We discussed the possibilities with each other and went to bed wondering.
Unfortunately, I had to attend a Chamber of Commerce breakfast before the big meeting. I never enjoy these assignments. There is a lot of hobnobbing and small talk, plus they force me to start work at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m. To make matters worse, they took the coffee pots away at 7:30 a.m., and I was left in a decaffeinated state, wondering what my professional future held.
At 9 a.m., we slowly walked into the conference room with blank stares on our face. Since we were all summoned at once, I assumed layoffs were not a possibility. They could not can us all, and they certainly would not announce a man's demise in front of his peers.
The result wasn't pretty, but certainly bearable. Until the end of June, we will work 37.5 hours a week instead of 40. There will be financial consequences, but luckily in the smallest increments imaginable. Other newspapers have implemented five consecutive day furloughs, having a daunting effect on paychecks. Five hours a pay period is doable.
Hopefully the newspaper industry will bounce back. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone reads the news online; but what is even more sad is that not too many people read the news. Every week, I hear people gossip about local affairs. While they ponder about what is really happening, I tell them the answer was in the newspaper.
Reporters are only human, and we do make mistakes or miss news; but we also clear up the rampant rumors, tell you who died the day before and who got a DUI on the weekend. The newspaper is also there when you want to announce your child's birthday, brag about the service award you received or announce your support for a local candidate.