Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

I was talking to a longtime friend the other day. We hadn’t talked in a while.

We first met when I was working for Lerner Newspapers in Norridge. Above a lumber yard office. But it was near the Maurice Lenell factory. So, there was that.

Anyway, she was one of my freelancers. Very talented writer. Second generation Italian. So, we got to be great friends.

She wound up working at the Sun-Times as an entertainment writer, talking to celebrities, visiting fun areas. Still, it was a tough job. Seriously, as the newspaper environment changed. “Fun” assignments became more challenging … and fewer and far between.

I reached out a few weeks ago to ask if she were going to take the buyouts the Sun-Times was offering. She said she was, but she couldn’t talk about it right then. She was too emotional.

When we did talk, I asked her how it felt to take the buyout, which is getting delayed a bit at their request. She said it hurt like hell, and she still tears up when she thinks about ultimately leaving.

Forty years of her life. It doesn’t matter how much pain was intertwined with the good and the fun. Writing becomes a part of you. What you do is who you are. It’s how people relate to you, at least on the surface.

I told her I can relate to her.

My wife Tammy just retired at the end of last year. It hasn’t been all great, with her father passing in January. But at least she gets to stay up late, and most days, not set an alarm.

I’ve thought about retiring when I get to my full Social Security age, 66 and eight-tenths, or something like that. Unless, of course, they move the goalposts by then. Or, my health changes, or … whatever.

I have a side gig that should be enough along with full Social Security. Investments? Well, I try not to look.

So, yeah, as long as the health holds and there are no major financial issues, I could retire next year as editor of Farmers Weekly Review. But that would mean not being involved in newspapers for the first time in some 45 years.

You would think with the way things are going with newspapers in the past 20 years or so, it would be an easy decision. A good number of my colleagues, those who already hadn’t lost their jobs to the dwindling newspaper market, bowed out to become doctors, lawyers, public info officers, or just regular, normal people.

And there have been times I have applied for other jobs. In most cases, I thank God each day I didn’t get them, for one reason or another.

Even at Farmers Weekly, this has not always been an easy job. Covering politics, especially in the last 10 years or so, has not been fun. NorthPoint. But, there have been some fine people.

There was a time during COVID that the only other employee and I took turns giving chest compressions to the paper to help keep it going week to week as advertisers held on to bucks to stay alive themselves.

But we made it, thanks to a hardy group of advertisers and subscribers. Yet, the war still goes on. Newspapers, even with websites, have a hard time of it, as many people denigrate what they disagree with as “fake news.”

Sure seems like a good time to ride off into the sunset, no?

No. Part of me would feel like a deserter in this battle. Also, and maybe more importantly, I would lose my connection to the Will County community. To all of you.

I’m not as involved as I used to be. I don’t get around to as many events or even issues to cover. With Facebook, I keep abreast of a lot of issues. … And friends. And colleagues. But at a distance.

I don’t expect all of these people to go away when I leave the newspaper. I expect to be less relevant to some. And vice versa.

But how will I keep a lifeline to all that I’ve culled in 45 years? A couple friends have suggested I write a blog. Considering some of the restrictions I’ve had on my writing over the years, I could call it “Nick Unchained.”

My good friend doesn’t know what she’ll do when she finally leaves, either. All those connections. All the relevancy. The good memories rising to the top as the bad fade away.

So, we ask ourselves: How do we shed our skin from the inside?

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.