A reporter steps back while still rooting for those who carry on

Just as with other life lessons, it took me too long to grasp this one: I’m one lucky guy.

But it’s undeniable. The seeming serendipity of birth dropped me into a free land that can be great enough to rectify its problems. I had two loving, supportive parents who never went to college but encouraged an education. Let’s face it, being a white male helped, too.

The journalism bug bit me when I was young and never let go. Out of it grew interest in politics and civic affairs. I covered Chicago’s City Hall for the Southtown Economist, later called the Daily Southtown, during the raucous Council Wars. And I revered the Sun-Times, with its brilliant columnists and bold investigations. It was where I wanted to be.

The City Hall work drew me to business issues, first by absorbing the immense power government has through zoning and other regulations to make or break fortunes. It’s no wonder so many alderpersons have gone to the clink for trying to get a cut.

It’s hard to believe now, but in the 1980s and ‘90s, journalism was financially healthy and the job market was intensely competitive. I had a couple of stopovers after the Southtown — very important as it turned out — and landed at the Sun-Times in 1996. The editors gave me wide leeway from the start and a column after a couple years. I was that rare person doing exactly what he wanted where he wanted it.

I’ve called it luck, but that doesn’t do it justice. My blessings include a dear and wise wife and two children who have grown into hard-working, caring adults.

With this new year, I’m ending my full-time schedule at the Sun-Times and this weekly Chicago Enterprise column, which I’ve tried to craft as a diary of the city’s changing economy.

I’ll be retiring but offering occasional pieces as a “contributor at large,” which suggests I’m either an escapee or larger in the waistline because working from home means easy access to the kitchen.

It’ll be the second time I’ve left my dream job. The first was in 2013. The Sun-Times now has positive, stable ownership as a nonprofit. But 10 years ago, the Sun-Times owner was destructive. He would later sell his newspaper holdings and lower his public profile following “me too” allegations.

I left the paper to work for then-Gov. Pat Quinn for a couple years promoting job growth. That ended with a change in administrations. The Chicago News Guild, the union for editorial workers at the Sun-Times, asked me to help. Job No. 1 was to hunt for better owners for the Sun-Times itself.

The paper was destined to be merged into the Chicago Tribune, which Craig Rosenbaum, the News Guild’s executive director, and I knew would mean the end. With his legal chops, Rosenbaum worked the antitrust angle, and I worked business and civic contacts. We later talked about how it seemed we both were supposed to be there at that given time.

It was like being a matchmaker, putting people together in a room to see if they would click. We got it done, but all credit goes to those who put up the money: unions and the Chicago Federation of Labor, former Ald. Edwin Eisendrath and others at first, followed by private equity executive Michael Sacks and the late Rocky Wirtz. It led to today’s affiliation with Chicago Public Media and WBEZ, with revenue from foundations and readers.

The episode proved how organized labor can do more to protect jobs than just strike or enforce contracts. And it struck a blow for competitive news in town.

Many Chicagoans don’t realize it because they can access several sources of print or digital news, but journalism as done by humans and not AI is still in a free fall. Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism found that more than half of U.S. counties barely have access to local news, and the nationwide employment of newspaper journalists has fallen by two-thirds, or 43,000 jobs, since 2005.

There is no intent here to hold that journalism is more important than any other job. Goodness knows, that’s annoying. We can be myopic and arrogant, even amid our reduced circumstances.

But I also know most are intently serious about what they do and examine themselves to a fault. The 3 a.m. panics are common in this work — the ones where you bolt awake to say, “Did I double-check that fact?” or “I forgot to mention that other thing.” It happens a lot.

Yet, here I am on my own terms able to anticipate more leisure and less hunching over a laptop.

Those so inclined can look up prayers for journalists. The prayers ask for God’s grace that we write with compassion and with courage to confront injustice. I would ask also that those who do this good and sometimes dangerous work be fulfilled and have the comfort of family, friends and a decent standard of living. It’s a lot to ask, but divine help and a fighting spirit moves mountains.