FNP 51 Page 36 P: You started a newspaper without any journalistic training and sort of learned on the job. Do you think in newspapers today that people in the business need a journalism degree? G: Not to knock our J[ournalism] schools because they may [have] changed from some time back, but the first thing we tried to do was de-program them. The problem with the Tallahassee Democrat today, and I think they now realize it, is that they're getting these young journalism students out of FAMU over there that come in with all the answers. By their own admission, they've lost circulation. They've absolutely lost respect in the community. I think that each individual is a different case, and they need to look at it. Our problem, and we made some changes, and, thank the good Lord above, the University of Florida worked with us hand-in-glove, because that was something else the Florida Press Association worked at. The Florida Press Association and the University of Florida J-school worked together during those years, and we got this thing around because we [were] having students, J-school graduates, come to us that had not taken a photographic course. It was their understanding that when they went off, they did the writing. They may not have even had a speed-writing course. I was going to send a photographer with them. Now, last St. Patrick's Day-because of my all-green doings [referring to Mr. Greene's total use of the color green], I'm always interviewed around those days-they sent two people to cover one story. They sent a photographer and they sent a newswriter. That would've never happened, and does not happen, in our business because the same person [who is] going to write that story is going to take that picture. We're not going to have two people on the payroll doing the same job. I think what we need to get down to doing is they just need to handle more of it. You don't see one of our reporters...they leave here with a pad, a pencil and a camera, or they leave with a laptop and a camera. P: Have you had difficulty hiring people to work for the newspaper? G: Our problem right here at this place, same as other places, is just as soon as we can get somebody trained, then either the Department of Corrections, the courthouse, some government agency [who is] paying more money with all the benefits, because they can, with our taxes, continue to raise these salaries and raise these prices, we aren't able to keep good people unless they're totally dedicated to the newspaper industry and [have] a spouse [who is] basically supporting the family. We find our major competitors are not other independent businesses but our government agencies. P: They don't go to bigger newspapers? G: No, sir. Now, occasionally, we'll have someone that we've hired that's come in, but, no, we don't find them running to other newspapers. We find them leaving here going to more secured jobs that the state can provide for them because they don't have any limit to their budgets.