I wish I missed you, NC8

It's nice to be told you're missed by former co-workers. I'm not going to lie, I secretly hoped my replacement sucked so my weekend cohorts would think "Gee, I wish Sam was still here." Clearly selfish of me, I admit it.

My colleagues have also been keeping me up to date on the "news within the newsroom", and the most recent tidbit really frustrated me.

Apparently, the powers that be at my old station severely demoted a non-contract reporter to the point where he would have little to no choice but to quit, thus avoiding giving him a severance package. The same thing also happened to an amazing producer I had the honor of working with and learning from.

I understand that, from a business perspective, this is a gain. Higher someone cheaper to do the same job or get rid of the position. Makes sense in these economic times. But what happened to appreciating the employee? You give more than a decade of your life, working overnights, weekends and holidays to report and produce quality news and at the end get tossed out like last week's smelly garbage? I'm not saying everyone should get a parade for actually "doing" their job correctly, but is it wrong to receive a "thank you?"

UM's College of Journalism just opened up a new building on campus that will mold and teach tomorrow's journalists, but do these students realize that the industry is totally different from when they started at the j-school?

I also checked out last year's State of the News Media address, and they cite decreased revenue, new ways to receive news, the digital transmission switch as well as other problems has led the broadcast news industry into uncharted land. So now the question becomes will these "not normal times" actually change back to what we remember, or become our new reality?