Two years before the masthead, part 2

That's what I meant to title my original piece, instead of "Two Years a Publisher," with a hat tip to Richard Henry Dana.

But, I'll start that now.

A publishers' meeting in a small newspaper group.

An advance assignment of "10 challenges you face."

Look, we're small town papers. We probably don't have a list of 10. In a small town paper, you face the challenges of:
1. Postal Service getting crappier by the day, especially if you're in a definitely rural area; in turn, old folks born here but now moved away eventually get frustrated and stop subscriptions.
2. Old folks dying, and thus auto-stopping subscriptions.
3. Small towns still recovering from the Great Recession more slowly than cities.
3A. Double this if you're in a town or county with a static, even declining, population.

Asking for a full list of 10 almost sounds like an invitation to publishers to start self-flagellating. Because, anything below this, with the exception of "making sure my office manager/bookkeeper is doing her job," is small potatoes.

Maybe I'll find out differently at the actual conference. Maybe I'll be more optimistic after I get back.

And, maybe I'll vote Republican in 2016.

Re-reading the assignment sheet, I can include editorial as well as publishing issues, and it's called "goals," not "challenges." Maybe I'll think New Agey bright thoughts.