Or fired, but I prefer the other term. And it's also more accurate. The infamous free newspaper 'dato' reached a total of 166 editions, and was a part of the fabled 'paperwar' for eight months, before the board in 'The Berlingske Officin' decided enough was enough. It was a sad day, when the talking suits visited our little newsroom and pulled the plug exactly 14 days ago, but it wasn't entirely unexpected.
We (the editorial staff) knew that it probably wasn't going to last for too long, when we arrived at the konference room in 'Berlingske Hus, in mid-August last year', and 'dato' actually held on longer than I thought. But it was, as every socalled expert said from the beginning, only a matter of time, before one of the three new mailbox-delivered papers went under. And two days after we made our hastened debut (we built the paper from scratch in four days), a bookmaker decided to take bets on which paper would 'die' first, as they put it. We (dato) were huge favourites.
Now, while I sit at home centemplating the near future, I have fond memories of the weird little orange pamphlet I was very much a part of for three quarters of a year. Even though it could be frustrating as hell, when the rest of the Danish press, used every opportunity to figuratively speaking, kick us in the groin, and we were always understaffed, I realise that it was the most fun I've ever had. I loved going to work, and I miss it terribly now. Mainly because of my colleagues. A possitive that I derived from the cancellation of 'dato' was that I realised that many of them weren't just colleagues, but friends. And besides not sharing my day with this group of friends every day, it's just incredibly boring not having anything to do.
Luckily I'm still on the payroll for a few more months, but I'm about to decide what to do now. I'l let you know.