Hard times for the tribune

Many of you probably heard about the Tribune filing for bankruptcy last month. We live very close to the Tribune building, but I had not seen or felt any repercussions myself until today. I receive most of my news in digital form these days and I consider "the paper" a small luxury I do not often afford myself. I, and people like myself, are the reason that news companies are struggling. For this I apologize. We have come to demand top notch reporting without any personal investment, which brings an interesting question: when does the bottom run out? When will we be forced to pay for the news digitally so that reporters can remain solvent? I don't have an answer.
As I alluded to earlier, this morning I witnessed my first repercussion of the Tribune's financial woes. (For Chicagoans) I walk down Clinton from Fulton to Madison every morning. There is an El stop at Clinton & Lake along the way. Every morning I pass by the stop and give a nod and a smile to the guy selling newspapers on the street. He is there rain, shine or cold and it always makes me a little warmer knowing that he can brave the elements for hours on end. Suddenly, my bus stop does not seem so far. I do not know his name. I do not even know if he is (or was) employed by the Tribune, or if he was just selling papers to make a living. I do know he is friendly. There is a blind man that lives somewhere close. I have seen him talking with the newspaper peddler. This morning the newspaper peddler was not there, nor had he been there prior this week. The blind man and his seeing eye dog were waiting there, searching. He couldn't know that the crate was missing. With sad reverence, I informed the blind man. He nodded and we both trudged on. If you are out there newspaper peddler man, I want you to know that you matter. You made a difference in people's lives in ways that you probably do not appreciate.