As one era ends, another begins

“It’s the end of an era,” the guy in California said.
And as someone who has been proud to be a part of that era, I’m sorry to see it go.
Something like 20 years ago, I received a phone call from a newspaper publisher in Riverside, California.
She was a friend of friend, and she had a request. Would I be willing, she asked, to serve as one of the judges of the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s annual Better Newspaper Contest?
I was flattered, and a moment later I was excited when I found out the gig involved free airfare to San Francisco and hotel accommodations.
Of course, I said yes.
That was back about 1995, according to my increasingly sketchy memory, and over the past 20 years or so I’ve helped with the CNPA judging something like a dozen times.
Because the hotel has always been the same and the judging process has been the same, the trips blur together.
(My wife accompanied me a couple of times, and we brought our daughter Sally along — on our nickel — another year. Twice the judging was held in the spring, and I was able to catch a Giants game when I was in town. But for the most part, each year’s judging process is much like the year before.)
Last year, I had to cancel out on judging at the last minute because of a newsroom staffing shortage.
And now, perhaps inevitably, the era has come to an end.
My CNPA contact informed me last week that next year’s judging will be done entirely via the Internet.
There will be no early morning gathering in the owner’s suite of the Handlery Hotel, no pencil sharpeners, no stacks of envelopes bearing the finalists, no debates about the quality of the entries over lunch at Lefty O’Doul’s, no catching up with other judges about their lives.
And I’m sorry to see it all go.
Over the years, I’ve become friends with editors from Texas, Connecticut, Tennessee, South Dakota, Washington, Vermont, Minnesota and elsewhere.
I’ve enjoyed a late-night Anchor Steam with Rem Reider, then publisher of American Journalism Review and now a columnist with USA Today.
I’ve hung out on the cable car as the gang headed down to Ghirardelli Square for dinner together after a long day of judging.
And along the way, I’ve read some great, great American journalism.
My focus has been primarily on small daily newspapers and weeklies, and I’ve picked up new ideas every step of the way.
You read a great story while judging, and you can’t help but wonder, “Why didn’t we think of that?” or “Can we attempt something along those lines?” You see a tremendous photograph while working your way through the stacks of envelopes, and you wonder, “How did the shooter get that shot?” or “What lens was used for that effect?”
Sometimes, of course, there’s disappointment.
I’ve seen newspapers that were outstanding 20 years ago become hollowed out as chain ownership squeezed them for profit. I’ve seen the impact of bean counting on the news gathering process, and it hasn’t been pretty.
But the good still outweighs the bad, and the very good is still very good indeed.
So now the question presents itself: When the email comes from that guy in California asking if I’ll help with the judging again next year — when there is no free trip to San Francisco, when there is no conference room camaraderie, when it’s just a matter of sitting in front of my computer at home and reading and reviewing and judging and taking notes — what will I say?
My guess is, the answer is yes.
After all, it’s the start of a new era.