The Tribune Says Goodbye

What remains of the Tribune is an empty newsroom and memories

by DESIREE POLONIS

Desolate.

That’s one word which can be used to describe the newsroom of the now-extinct Albuquerque Tribune.

Though all of the computers are turned off and the telephones aren’t ringing, there are still signs that the Tribune was once a thriving newsroom — the stained coffee pot and the bottle of anti-acids speak for themselves.

But maybe the bottle of anti-acids shouldn’t be tossed out just yet. Phill Casaus, the former editor of the Tribune, and Louise Kutz, the former office manager for the Tribune, are still working on cleaning out the newsroom, including copies of the past 15 issues of the Tribune that lie on a table outside of Casaus’ office.

“I think we’re trying to delay what we know we have to do. We have to leave the newsroom pretty soon. It’s a little like a sad rummage sale in some ways,” Casaus said.

Casaus said they can’t spend too much time in the newsroom because it can get really depressing — perhaps this is when the anti-acid tablets will be useful, as well as the small Everlast punching bag that was given to Casaus.

Casaus started working at the Tribune in February of 1997 as a deputy sports editor, and then became the editor in May 2003. He worked at the Tribune for 11 years, and he cherishes most of the memories and the people he met along the way.

“The thing that I’m taking with me is just great friends. There’s some memories the last six months that I’d like to forget, but 99.9 percent of the memories I have at the Tribune I’ll keep forever,” Casaus said.

Though it isn’t a good memory, Casaus will always remember what he felt when he found out the Tribune would be closing.

“My initial reaction was, and I found out before everyone else did, that it was devastating. It was very painful for different reasons. Initially, it was panic. Then I felt very sad and bad for our staff. We’re all in the same boat. We all have families and bills and mortgages to pay,” Casaus said. “I think I felt every emotion you can imagine —shock, anger, rage and an incredible amount of sadness came into play.”

Over the past 11 years, Casaus explained that it’s hard to choose only one favorite issue of the Tribune, and said there were “probably a bazillion” great issues.

“We did a lot of stuff and I think we had really good coverage. Even in our last few months, I think we had some knockout editions. We were a really good newspaper on any day in Albuquerque. We had some really great writers at the Tribune over the years, even up until the last day,” Casaus said.

The Tribune had great writers, even while journalism continued to change.

“I think there were concerns in the last few years about if the Tribune could survive in this era of changing journalism. It was not the primary concern at that point, it was a secondary concern. After Aug. 28, it became the primary concern,” Casaus said.

After Aug. 28, a lot of things changed in the newsroom. Casaus said the Tribune had lost eight or nine employees in a matter of four to six months, adding they couldn’t be replaced.

“It was definitely a different kind of newsroom. I don’t think anyone can be serious or honest and say that things didn’t change. I think everyone worked well under those circumstances,” Casaus said.

The reason why the employees of the Tribune operated so well after they heard the news that the paper was closing was because they felt like they had an “absolute mission forever,” as Casaus explained it.

“I know for a fact that the standards at the Tribune have always been really high. You don’t just forget all you history in one day or one month,” Casaus said. “Clearly, people were concerned, but they were also committed to doing a very good job. We tried very hard to be as good and complete of an operation as we could be at the time.”

And it really was a complete operation. Casaus explained the last day of work was in some ways, just another day. He said he went to work around 4:45 a.m. that day, discussed with his staff what they were going to do for the day, and then saved the “celebrating” until the end of the day.

“We had planned a party for families for after the edition was complete. I think the newspaper deserved that, and I think the people who worked at the paper deserved that,” Casaus said.

One of the many employees deserving a celebration included Jim Montalbano, a former features writer and editor who has worked at the Tribune since 2002. He experienced sadness just as Casaus did, but approached the whole situation a little bit differently when he found out the paper was closing.

“It was just an adrenalin rush. I thought, “Wow, this is finally it. Now I’m going to get on with my life,”” Montalbano said.
Montalbano explained that he did have a private “breakdown” after hearing the news of the closing because the Tribune is the job that brought him to Albuquerque, and he said he loves the city.

But Montalbano had other plans even before he knew the Tribune was closing.

“I had decided about a month before the announcement that I was going to apply for law school. I had it in my head that this was going to be my last year in newspapers, so it wasn’t a big shock to me. I felt like I was at the end of another chapter,” Montalbano said. “I still enjoy writing, but I don’t enjoy daily corporate newspapers.”

Though Montalbano isn’t too passionate about the corporate world of newspapers, he said Casaus had a big role in the way he and the other employees felt about their job.

“I was surprised that so many people stayed and the quality of the paper stayed as high as it did. I know there were times a lot of us came to work and said, “What’s the point?” After all of that, people still brought passion to the job. Phill was an important part of that,” Montalbano said.

Passion is something that rarely exists in newspapers and Montalbano said there’s going to be a “big shakeout” in the next five years, and only good newspapers will survive.

“I think there’s going to be a big gap. Some will move toward good old fashioned quality, and then you’ll have just plain crappy papers. I think quality publications will survive in print, as well as on the Internet,” Montalbano said.

The Tribune produced a good old fashioned quality newspaper, and was “a Pulitzer finalist in 1993 and 1996, and was a first-place winner in the 1998 and 2001 National Headliner Awards” (Scripps.com).

So what happened?

“In the end, we probably hit a wall. But we didn’t hit it with our foot on the brake. And if you’ve got to go out, that’s the way you have to go out,” Casaus said.

The Tribune hit the wall on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008.

Written March 13, 2008

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