A reflection And then there were none. The executives at Lee Enterprises, which bought the Post-Dispatch in 2005, have been sloughing off accomplished journalists, writers and copy editors, helter-skelter, like a pine tree shedding cones in a hurricane. And they’re still at it. Lee announced, on Feb. 16, that the few, the proud, the survivors…
“Those were the days my friend; we thought they’d never end…”
And although no one at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat’s recent reunion actually uttered that melancholy phrase — that was the tenor of the evening. The literati and glitterati, past and present, of that spittoon-laden, hurly-burly, competing-paper era gathered in St. Louis Saturday, Oct. 29. The event was sponsored by the St. Louis Media History Foundation under the dedicated leadership of Frank Absher.
“This is what our foundation exists to do — preserve history,” Absher said of the gathering.
From hot lead to computers; from a p.m. newspaper to an a.m.; from Pulitzer ownership to Lee Enterprises, four veterans who have written and edited for a total of 135 years, recently walked out of the Post-Dispatch for the last time. It was a big loss of talent, experience and institutional memory. They are: Phil…