Comic (and Column) Confessional

Book excerpt: When you stay in one job for a quarter century, it helps to have good reasons for doing so. Here are a few: Heloise, Arianna Huffington, Gary Larson ("The Far Side"), Lynn Johnston ("For Better or For Worse"), Mort Walker ("Beetle Bailey"), Abigail Van Buren ("Dear Abby"), Ann Landers, Hillary Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Martha Stewart, Coretta Scott King, Herblock, Charles Schulz ("Peanuts"), Stan Lee ("Spider-Man"), Garry Trudeau ("Doonesbury"), and Bill Watterson ("Calvin and Hobbes"). The part-humorous Comic (and Column) Confessional chronicles Astor's twenty-five years as newspaper-syndication reporter for Editor & Publisher magazine with candor - and anecdotes about famous people such as those named above. The important period in media history covered shows how the digital revolution, media mergers, and the shrinking newspaper business changed journalism forever.