The manufactured pomp and circumstance of Valentine’s Day has come and gone but this essay, written by Mimi Johnson, the wife of Steve Buttry, a lifelong newspaperman who finally fell out of love with a business that did not love him back, is a true valentine to the passion that motivates working journalists everywhere - and to the people who love them even when print journalism cannot.

Buttry recently started a job with a new, online Washington, D.C. news project being launched by Allbritton Communications, Politico’s parent company. Johnson writes:

Do I think this will be our last move? Maybe. Do I think this upstart start-up will be successful? I hope so. Do I think other news organizations follow? Beats me. The truth is, there’re only three things I can say with certainty about this new endeavor:

1. My husband will throw himself into his new job and he will love it.

2. This new business will not love him back.

3. I will.

(h/t Esmé E. Deprez)