Farewell E&P

All of my colleagues in this every-changing, ever-challenged newspaper business probably know this already, but just in case....
It was announced today that Editor & Publisher, which has been THE newspaper industry trade journal for something like 125 years, is shutting down.
No print. No online. Not even a lingering tweet or two.
The news came from by parent company The Nielsen Co. this morning.
In a bitter bit of irony, I learned this news not from the E&P website, but from The Poynter Institute's Romenesko media news site.
How sad that this iconic newspaper industry outlet was beat to the punch on the story of its own demise.
Maybe they were too stunned to post or thought that if they didn't publish the news right away somebody in corporate might change their minds.
It is sad to see. When I was starting out, trying to land my first job in newspapers, it was the place to learn what was hot and important in the industry. The classified section at the back of the-then weekly magazine was the ultimate source for jobs. Few editors with openings -- we had them back then -- ever let a job search proceed without posting a classified ad in E&P.
When I grew to be an editor I did so too, until cheaper online sites like journalismjobs.com came along.
I must admit, I went for cheaper there and I stopped my print subscription to E&P a couple of years ago once it went from weekly to monthly in print. It was just to easy -- and too free -- to read it online. And online was updated every day.
So what killed E&P is pretty much what is challenging all print publications these days.
For too long we have given our valuable content away for free. Some efforts are under way now to try to erect pay walls. My sense is that will be of limited success, but it is worth exploring.
As for the end of E&P, it will be missed by people like me who have been in this business for decades and grew up on it.
But as we are learning increasingly, nostalgia doesn't pay the bills. Original content people can't get elsewhere -- at least for a few seconds after it is posted on your web site -- and plenty of it is key.
E&P no longer had enough of that. Just ask Romenesko.