I applied for a job at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 1998.
They, um, did not bestow an offer upon me (it was for an online gig) -- but they were very nice about it. :)
Today, the paper went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
I used to work in forestry in another life -- which proves I have a nose for picking declining industries. :)
I spent the summer of 1981 in Golden, B.C. When I drove through in 2004, Evans Forest Products (my employer at the time) was gone.
I did some firefighting for a buddy of mine in Valemount, B.C. while on my way down to Vancouver in '83. The sawmill that employed him is gone.
Actually, I didn't see one working sawmill along the CN line between Jasper, Alta. and Prince George, B.C. this past summer. The mill sites not only looked shut down, they looked abandoned.
The tiny hamlets and villages through the Fraser River Valley look impoverished. The Northern Interior's Appalachia. :(
However, Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake, B.C. (where I spent another summer) appears to be still going strong.
The thing is, many of the problems facing forestry today were predicted back when I was a student. And a big problem was short-sighted greed.
The executives of failed newspaper and forestry companies should get together to talk, compare notes.
