A new journey for Ed

This is my entry into the world of blogging. God help me.

Since leaving the Daily Mountain Eagle in October 2008, I've been trying to decide the next step in my life. It has not been easy, as the newspaper industry that I've been committed to for 27 years has been in more of a slump. It's been an outright free fall. Major newspapers that we thought would last forever are facing bankruptcy or huge losses. The New York Times is accepting ads on its front page. Detroit's newspaper won't deliver to subscribers except for the weekend, leaving only street sales and its Web site. The Birmingham News is using more part-time help than ever before. Buyouts are now common for staffs. The Christian Science Monitor is going to a Web-only publication. I applied for a couple of newspapers that had posted positions, only to hear they had changed their minds due to economic circumstances.

That's not to say I would rule out joining a newspaper in the future. I just worry about newspapers being there to want me or anyone else.

This has led to sleepless nights and anxious days, but in the meantime I've created Ed Howell Communications, where I am doing freelance work in writing, photography and public relations. For the last three months of 2008, I have performed publicity and administrative work for the new Walker County Political Accountability Coalition in its fight against electronic bingo halls. (I will still voluntarily help them as I can I believe in their cause.) On Jan. 5, I took on state Sen. Charles Bishop, R-Arley, as a client, doing political consulting work.

Moreover, also on Jan. 5, I agreed to start hosting a one-hour afternoon radio news/interview program on WJLX-AM in Jasper. We expect this to go on the air Jan. 19. It is a new thing for me altogether, but I'm excited to get back into the swing of covering Walker County and also trying my hand at something new. Hopefully for those of you outside the county, I can have the broadcast streamed for listening on the station Web site.

I've also been involved in developing Web sites for Ed Howell Communications and the coalition. It is no piece of cake. If anyone wants you to develop a Web site for them, do yourself a favor and shoot him on the spot, because he is probably satanic and wants you to suffer. I actually enjoyed the designing and learning how to use Publisher, but connecting to the Web is still one of my shortfalls. I get oh-so-EVER-close, and then I get it finally on the Web -- with no photos appearing, only outlines. Twice I've had to ask Jeff Blell to come to the apartment and straighten it out. The last time he started doing repetitive motions himself and said, "Go figure." When the expert is stumped, you're in deep trouble. Thankfully, he figured away around it and did me a great favor. I hope to continue to learn more as I go along, and I've had many nice remarks about the designs.

Jeff also got me to go to Bible Fellowship Study in Birmingham on Monday, and I was blown away by it. It is the best Bible study I've seen in eight years and maybe the most disciplined. I'm planning to carpool with Jeff and Bob Sanders to continue this, and it should lift my spirits a lot.

So many of you have said you missed my columns, and some of you appeared sane at the time. I hope to continue that tradition here on this blog, which can be found at http://edhowell.blogspot.com or through a link on my Web site at http://www.edhowellcommunications.com. I'll try to update it often. Also, I hope to do commentaries on the show, much like David Brinkley used to do. (May I never be like Eric Sevareid at CBS, who never, ever made any sense to an 10-year-old kid with his lumbering, pontificating. I'm not sure I would understand it today.)

This is not the end of the journey, and events may still be fluid. But I'd like to say many thanks to many people who have been helpful and expressed good wishes over the past few months. I am much like the character in "City Slickers" who goes through a personal crisis, and his friends tell him that life is a "do-over." I feel I am opening a new chapter in my life, and it is a do-over. It is exciting, new and scary, but it is a journey. Most of all, I think God is directing the boat now, and I am beginning to trust Him to do the steering. If I seem out of place for a while, I am, but hopefully we'll make the journey together.