The Capital Times rides into the sunset

Today The Capital Times rolled off the presses for the last time.

Oh, they will say it's not really gone, that the voice of The Capital Times will still be heard. But it will be a ghost of itself, living on in name, but no longer master of anyone's destiny, least of all its own. Henceforth, it will be an arm of the Capital Newspapers media conglomerate and the money that formerly went for newsprint and salaries of news-gatherers will be available for an endless series of redesigned web sites, each trying to fill some niche that some 56 year old publisher believes will surely appeal to 26 year old consumers. But the truth is it has been heard less and less anyway. Once it thundered and Washington heard the echo. Lately it's hardly heard beyond East Washington Avenue.

When I joined The Capital Times in 1971, circulation stood at about 40,000. No one knew it, of course, but the paper was at an apogee; there was nowhere to go but down. Evjue had just died in June. Miles McMillan had moved into the publisher's office, Elliott Maraniss became Executive Editor, Dave Zweifel was named City Editor and I got Dave's old desk behind the post, in front of Whitney Gould and next to Jeff Smoller. I think it may have been Aldric Ravell's old desk too, though he was gone by then. The glorious Watergate years followed, but so did the newspaper strike in 1977. If nothing else, the strike revealed that Madison was nowhere near as liberal as it was reputed to be and nowhere near as liberal as The Capital Times needed it to be. Few cancelled their subscriptions. Professors sent their students to apply for jobs as scabs. It was a cold winter.

So there's an element of inevitability in this last edition.

The Times it is a'changin'. I'm just sad to see it go.