By The River

I've been a bit distracted lately, which is why I haven't written anything. The newsroom of the paper where I work, The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., has been in turmoil since buy-out offers were given to the entire staff last Tuesday. The family that owns The Patriot-News and a couple of dozen other papers across the country like the Cleveland Plain-Dealer have a policy of not laying off for economic reasons. Thus the "voluntary" buy-outs. But that policy doesn't limit them from indirectly making it clear to many that they should take the buy-out. Pressure on the staff has been intense. There is a widespead feeling among the staff that the company wants most of us in the newsroom to leave. And I do plan to go and begin a new life doing somethng else, either in public or government relations or writing books. At age 55 with two daughters to educate, I can't just rest on my laurels, tempting as that is. I'll have a year to figure it out.