Part of our "family" has died, and it has caused much sadness and the jobs of 56 employees.

I'm writing here about the March 9, 2012 announcement from the publisher of the Village Soup print and online papers that, effective immediately, they are going out of business.

That group includes the century-old Bar Harbor Times, as well as the VillageSoup Journal that covered Belfast, Augusta's Capital Weekly, and VillageSoup Gazette, which covered local news and features in the Rockland area.

Not that I've always shown respect for weeklies, including the first one for which I wrote -- also my first journalism job -- in Norway, Maine, the Advertiser-Democrat. I had taken my elementary-school-age son with me during an interview of the Norway town manager, and my son made himself comfortable by sitting in the town manger's very comfortable desk chair.

"You can sit there," the town manager told him,"but your father can't. He works for that awful weekly."

I remember little about that "awful" weekly, but I do remember the upstairs corner office in which the two or three of us who wrote for the paper tippy-tapped our stories. My desk was about 30 feet from one of those round metal things that take up space on electric poles, and in summer during thunder bumpers that round metal thing would occasionally blast off like a cannon. We knew it wasn't a reader shooting at us, because even though we misspelled their names a fair amount and reported embarrassing things about them, they were too polite to be shooting at the weekly's news staff.

I also remember a fellow reporter, who seemed to love embarrassing people when he wrote about them. (This was before he left the paper to study journalism at a Christian college in some other state.) On one occasion, his antique -- not actually, just in mileage and our opinion of it -- auto caught fire while parked across the street from our building. I took the photos and wrote the story.

He objected, but I explained that embarrassment for readers that goes around eventually comes around to embarrass the reporter who wrote those stories. He mumbled some unChristian comments, which I will not repeat here. (I would if I could remember them.)

I also remember resigning because the publisher was upset with me as news editor for being unable to cover the 20 towns in our area with the one reporter remaining on the staff. Even then, money was a major problem for weeklies.

Which brings me to a major problem for weeklies. Dolores and I love to have our coffee with our feet up on chairs and reading the paper. The problem with the weeklies we read -- or did read until the March 9 announcement of the end of these papers -- was that there was little actual news. Anything newsworthy had already been published in a daily, the same problem we faced in Norway.

That problem also leads to a shortage of advertisers, who, in fact pay the publishing bill. We mute the ads on TV because they are so annoying, but in print we glance at them in passing as we flip the page.

Advertisers get much more for their money in print newspapers than on our TV.

While with the Norway weekly, the publisher complained a lot that we couldn't keep up with the two area dailies in the matter of news coverage. Awhile after resigning, I obtained a position with a daily, the Lewiston Sun Journal.

While with the Sun Journal, at some point in the news cycle I would sometimes share information with a reporter from the Advertiser. All of us who knew the routine would chuckle about this strange feeding-the-bedfellow routine. But all of us had been and were sharing the same would-be news.

One reporter, who wrote for the other daily, the Portland Press Herald, was very competitive about news gathering. He was so competitive that at press conferences, fires, or other hot tales of some interest, he would position himself in front of me, spread his elbows to both sides to block my photo-taking view, and probably laughed at how important he was on the local news scene.

He was eventually laid off and went back to logging his woodlot, as far as rumor revealed.

I got to know the Belfast Republican Journal, the forerunner of the VillageSoup Journal, when I lived in Swanville, taught at Mt. View Junior High (anyone nowadays recall what a junior high was?), and served as a part-time stringer for the Bangor Daily News. To my and acquaintances' keen, knowing minds, the news and opinions the Belfast paper published were generally negative and full of errors. Therefore it earned the nickname the Belfast Bellyache.

This is too bad, because many weeklies get the same treatment from locals, although they are working their hearts out to produce a good weekly product.

With the Village Soup papers gone from the scene, Dolores and I have to wait for Saturday morning for the feet-on-the-chair with coffee routine, using the Bangor Daily News weekend edition as our remaining instrument of said pleasant morning occupation.

Too bad.

Our regret having just been written, I would like to share what may be the final words we'll read from the publisher of the print and online papers going out of business at this moment. Below, copied from the Village Soup website, are those sad words:

"It is with deep regret that I inform you that effective Friday, March 9, 2012, we will discontinue these publications. The company will cease operation beyond that which is necessary to complete the closure process.

The profound changes in the newspaper publishing business, a weak economy and our investment in new products created severe financial challenges. Over the recent months, I have worked with outside professionals to achieve a financial restructuring that would allow us to continue. These efforts failed as of 3 p.m. today, March 9, 2012. We can no longer sustain our operations.

I am deeply saddened by the disruption this brings to the lives of our 56 dedicated staff members.

"I am grateful for the loyal support and participation of current subscribers, members, users, advertisers, vendors and my staff. I am confident that others will step forward and replace the loss of professional journalism and community service previously provided by our publications."

"Respectfully,
Richard M. Anderson"

I'm aware that some people do the news-reading routine with their cellphone computer, their laptop, or even their desktop beast. But how can that be compared with putting your feet up on a chair, sipping coffee, sharing various sections of the print newspaper, and discussing the stories we find therein? (Of course, our desktop computer is the only way we can read the Magic City News, since it is an online paper.)

But think of the health benefits print papers provide. Putting your feet up is good for your legs, gives them a break from sitting or standing and improves the circulation a wee bit.

If all the papers go out of business or even go online, we'll have to resort to the same computer-reading position the rest of the civilized world uses.

That means we'll have to read books with our Saturday-morning coffee.

What if print books also disappear?

What will we do with our feet on Saturday morning?

Milt Gross can be reached for corrections, harassment, or other purposes at lesstraveledway@midmaine.com.