Goodbye to The Vindy, Like Family

Newsrooms don't look like this anymore.  Soon, this particular newsroom won't exist at all.

This is The Youngstown Vindicator newsroom circa 1953.  My grandfather, Dick Platt, is depicted at the "State Desk" where he served as assistant state editor.

My grandpa worked 43 years with The Vindy.  As a young reporter, he covered the infamous Little Steel Strike in 1937, later telling us kids of bullets buzzing past his ears.  As copy editor, he wrote the headlines for Black Monday in 1977, a sad day for the economy of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.  He retired in 1979 two years after VCTs (computers) confoundedly came to his copy desk.

With 43 years of employment at one place, the history of The Vindicator is family history to the Platt family.

It's been a reservoir of Ohio History.

In less than 60 days, only the history will remain.  The Vindicator will cease to produce a newspaper in August 2019.  After 150 years of print publication, it will stop printing.

I wrote to Bertram de Souza, the editorial page editor whom I met 30 years ago and who recalled stories about my grandfather, "Be proud of all you have done.  Know that what you reported and deterred by the threat of reporting made Youngstown and Ohio a better place."

God bless.