Of all the stories that landed in my inbox during our holiday break — both those within and outside the tire industry — one was of particular interest.
It was telling the end of the device simply known as a BlackBerry.
Those of us married to the latest portable devices — everyone, it seems, with a pulse — fondly remember the iconic BlackBerry smartphone that debuted in 1999. No user will ever forget its design, with the keypad built into the phone, making it convenient to type text messages and emails, fat fingers be damned.
Back in the days when I would search for unencrypted free Wi-Fi with my cumbersome work laptop while on vacation in upper Ontario, my Canadian friends would implore me to buy a BlackBerry. Made by a Canadian company, the device was especially popular there.
Word came late last year that as of Jan. 4, any phones or tablets running BlackBerry's software — BlackBerry 7.1 or earlier, BlackBerry 10, or its tablet operating system BlackBerry PlayBook — would "no longer reliably function," according to the company.
Dinosaurs still using those devices can't even call 911, let alone perform any of the other functions.
Steve Jobs' invention mortally wounded the BlackBerry, but it took 14 years after the first iPhone debuted before the BlackBerry finally turned the corner from innovation to 2000s pop culture.
The news reminded me of something we — the editorial team who brings you Tire Business and tirebusiness.com — decided to do, just around that time.
We have deemed courtesy titles our BlackBerry: We are rendering them obsolete.
Thus, we no longer will be using courtesy titles — Mr. Smith, Ms. Jones, Messrs. Smith and Jones — in our printed work. Instead, we will do what every other publication not named The New York Times does: We will use a surname only to identify someone referenced a second time.
So when John Smith from Acme Tire Co. tells us his company has unveiled the latest light truck tire product, we will call him John Smith the first time, and refer to him as Smith thereafter.
You might think, what's the big deal. You might not even notice it, nor care.
We get it. Perhaps it's inside baseball, so to speak.
But veteran journalists, like veteran tire dealers, take great pride in what they do and how they treat their customers.
Remember how you were taught to turn a wrench? Or tighten lug nuts? Or create that business plan?
We were taught similar rules in our field, and they were made never to be broken. I will never forgot an editor pointing out some "trapped white space" — journalese for an area of a page with no color or type — on one of the pages I designed. I was ordered to change it. That was not allowed back in the day.
Tire Business began using courtesy titles on second reference back in the 1990s. After more than two decades, we believe it's a rule that has run its course over time. Just like the BlackBerry.
There is, however, one rule that I learned way back from my first journalism teacher in high school, Bill Schmidt, that I believe holds true today: Journalism rules are made to be broken.
I think Mr. Schmidt, ... er, Schmidt, would be happy to learn that is one rule to live by.
