Tammy Swift is returning to the Fargo (North Dakota) Forum newspaper as a business reporter.
She writes, “This Monday, Jan. 4, will be my first one as a new ‘old’ reporter, working on a beat I’ve never covered before.
“This will be my fourth time to ‘start’ at The Forum since my very first gig as a bashful Lifestyle clerk, way back in 1985. Each time I have returned to the paper, the newsroom has changed significantly — reflecting the emergence of new media and changing readership.
“Considering the furious pace of technology these days, I anticipate that the change from 2012 to 2021 will be the most dramatic. I’ve joked that reporters must now travel with jetpacks and compose all stories via nanochips implanted in their brains.
“In fact, I will be working virtually for at least a few months. There will be no casually rolling my chair back to ask the person next to me who the best person is to call for a certain topic or story. The pace of the news cycle is surely much faster and — sigh — I will have to learn yet another whole new computer system (something that seems to get slightly tougher with each year that I age.)”
Read more here.