The item with Rich is over the line ... certainly the layoff environment wasn't helping him cope with whatever demons were terrorizing him to such a degree that he had only one way out, but still.

We laugh, we tell jokes, we have humor at each other's expense ... frankly, to a far greater degree than we did when there was sane staffing.

Having worked at far lesser rags, I couldn't believe what a cauldron of crybabies the Merc was at full employment during the good years (I'm no shirker in the complaints department, but they took it to a whole new level).

I'm not sugarcoating the way it is now. We lost two of the best food writers in the country, we no longer have a full-time movie critic, we have garish, appalling page one ads, we have an owner who took on far too much debt and bought at the top of a market for properties whose value has cratered since then. We'll be fortunate if the company avoids bankruptcy.

Dwelling on doom is not healthy, even if the doom is real and even if it's unavoidable.

I agree that anytime you try to link a suicide to something like a layoff, you're on thin ice. Most people bounce back from (or, to put it less frivolously, stay alive, and keep plugging away in the wake of) the severest blows, including the death of a child or a spouse. Other people seem outwardly content, on top of the world, and then off themselves one day anyway. Maybe the layoff contributed to this journalist's depression, maybe he would have killed himself anyway; God only knows. Yet there's something unseemly in using his suicide for one's own polemical purposes.

To be clear, the mention of death was reported publicly by a Mercury News staffer via his photo captions in Flickr and transmitted via his Facebook postings.
He visually documented and commented on the reality surrounding him as he saw it.

When the LA Times vacated the newsroom at the San Fernando Valley facility some years ago, it was only a matter of time until the presses were shut down, too. Here's a slide show of the last night http://chatsworth91311.tripod.com/.

i don't think the use of the suicide was quite that gratuitous. but anyway nice photos that need to be seen. what's happening in our field is sad and bad. maybe someone should send these pics to craig newmark of craigslist fame.

Sorry, not much sympathy here. I feel for the family of the person who committed suicide.

The paper, though, brought this upon itself. I'm sure if one took a time-machine ride back to 1999 or 2000, we'd be hearing about how shrewd the Merc was (is) and how everyone else should be imitating it.

Also, people who can't start sentences or independent thoughts with capital letters probably shouldn't be working at a newspaper.

Robb: I wasn't ragging on Martin for including the Rich pic in his slide show... it worked fine within context, one slide out of 30.

Using it as a break-out in your blog posting was what crossed the line. By pulling it out of context you're saying "this is what the layoffs drove people to." You can say "that's not what I intended" all you want, but the effect on me, and I'm sure anybody who knew Rich and still mourn his passing, is the same.

Don't be so quick to let the paper off the hook in regard to the reporter's suicide. I am also a victim of layoffs, and I grew depressed and suicidal as a result. Luckily, I got help in time. But there's no doubt in my mind -- the disintegration of the newspaper industry has been like enduring the slow death of an old, dear friend. For those of us who devoted our lives to our profession, losing it is unbearably sad.

Physical breakdowns such as suicides, heart attacks and strokes in both the young and old are no strangers to any newsroom. That is also the reality.

As such, I applaud Robb's use of the suicide picture in this photo collection. Like layoffs, it speaks to the reality of the situation. To some viewers the photo was run out of context. To others it may tell a different story. Perhaps a Merc employee (or ex-employee) who knew the suicide victim might feel one way. Not having worked at the Merc, I don't feel that way.

Yes, it was gratuitous and misleading to highlight the suicide in the package regarding layoffs. Especially since he wasn't laid off and wasn't going to be laid off and never was in danger of that happening.

Guess what: Lots of industries are going down. A huge car plant in my state just shut down. Thousands of people lost their jobs. Unfortunately, journalists can document their own demise. I've worked in three industries and I've never seen a worse group of whiny babies.

Sad to be present at the slow death march of an industry we loved. Young reporters and editors: get out while you still can.

I agree with Tom that the insert about Rich was a mistake. But I'm particularly sorry that it has distracted so many people from the power of these photographs, which brought tears to my eyes. And, yeah, it's in the nature of newspeople to bitch when times are good, and to joke through the apocalypse. But what happened to the Merc -- and to so many other newspapers -- is no laughing matter. It's the consequence of so many years of lack of foresight and planning, of corporate greed and incompetence, and all the other ills that beset American business. And as usual, the ones who pay the price have no golden parachutes to let them down easy.

Having been through a few journalism layoffs or paper closures myself, I know first hand how stressful the loss of a job can be for some people. I finally left the industry because I spent nearly nine months out of full-time work after my last layoff, even though I had national awards. The few papers interested in hiring me didn't want to pay a livable wage, so I finally sold my soul and went into public relations.

That said, I know a couple of former co-workers who wound up living in the street after one newspaper closure. One of these people already had some issues with alcohol, and when the paper closed he started drinking heavier. I did see this person's byline recently, so I think he's over the worst part. But layoffs can be a big stress causer, especially when money's tight and there might be existing problems.

Regarding the previous comment, the person who took his life had indeed been told that his job was being eliminated and he would be moved into a position he didn't want to be in. The suicide obviously can't be blamed entirely on that, but he had been informed of his job status not long before the suicide.

Having worked in newspapers for some 25 years, and having had W. Dean Singleton buy up each and every one of them, I'm familiar with being laid off. I worked in the backshop making up the pages, and when pagination came and put many of us out of work, After working for the Merc for 10 years, Singleton bought the paper and shipped all the ad work to India. Lucky for me I retired early. However, for the 28 other compositors/graphic production artists, it wouldn't be that easy. I can't imagine working there now and seeing the skeleton of a once proud paper. I still can't bring myself to go back and look.