The call came from an editor at my syndicate, Creators Syndicate, the other day.

She said simply, "I know that this is the first time we have talked and I am sorry to bring bad news. But we are no longer going to be using your column."

Copley News Service of San Diego had sold its syndicate to Creators last summer. I had been one of the columns in the deal.

After almost half a century in the news business, I am now out of work. The editor didn't go into detail, but said that Creators already had columns that overlapped with mine, particularly in the health field. And, well, the syndicate was doing a year-end review.

I had become part of the story I've been covering these many years; I had been forced into retirement. Actually, it didn't come as too much of a surprise. I had managed to work on five newspapers and two syndicates, which had gone out of business over the years, even before the Internet. Somehow, I have always survived. Who knows what will happen this time?

I remember most vividly the demise of the Washington Daily News, an afternoon Scripps-Howard tabloid with a 200,000 circulation that folded in 1972. When covering the Democratic convention in Miami Beach, the final headline blared "Farewell." It was the day George McGovern was nominated for the presidency.

I hooked on with the Washington Star, but it was clear from the start that the Star didn't have much time left. Then I jumped to the New York Daily News a few years before the Star closed shop.

The Daily News is still in business. I worked in the Washington bureau for 15 years, becoming a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series on the Pentagon. But the news was struggling, and I took a buyout just before Christmas in 1987.

I worked on three papers in New Jersey, including the esteemed Newark News that also died.

I have advised my readers over the years not to spend too much time looking back, though. Figure out what you want to do next: Another job in the same field? Something new? Maybe some volunteer work at a school or a hospital?

I will be taking my own advice. Maybe, I will head off to Ireland a bit or take a cruise. I definitely will not be playing golf — a sport I gave up at 20 years of age because the ball refused to follow my commands. But whatever I do, I will always cherish our weekly time together. And maybe I will be seeing you down the road.

When the bad news came, I was reading "How Starbucks Saved My Life," a bestseller by Michael Gates Gill, who was let go by a high-powered New York advertising agency after 25 years. Attempts to survive as a consultant failed. One day, while feeling sorry for himself and drinking a latte in a Manhattan Starbucks, Gill was offered a job — at Starbucks.

He took it and says he has never been happier.

Well, we have four Starbucks here in my hometown of Frederick, Md. And I do love coffee ...

E-mail Joe Volz at volzjoe2003@yahoo.com or write to 2528 Five Shillings Rd, Frederick, MD 21701. To find out more about Joe Volz and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.