Tennessean happyspeak

You know, for all the crap Gannett papers get, the ones I read online have done a kick-ass job. Granted, it's only Cincy, Indianapolis and Louisville, but there's not a lot of fluff in those editions...

EDIT: Oh, and the Freep in Detroit.

 

Ugh, a storyteller coach? Are you serious? Newspapers supposedly are going out of business soon and that's a position? I sure as hell hope the storyteller coach is ONLY working with the new hires who can't write a story and have no concept of Journalism, you know, the citizen journalist types? A storyteller coach messes with a veteran writer/columnist who works 60 hours and gets paid for 40 and that veteran should give the higher ups what they want - a veteran's resignation.

 

Ahem ... (kidding)

 

LOL!! Matt, you guys do a great job out there.

 

The paper from the town where I grew up is a Gannett rag that has been doing some very, very good local journalism lately. Some very impressive deep dives into homelessness, local politics, and several slice-of-life features that will never be Pulitzer winners but give a great feel for what the community is all about. Its new editor is like 34 and took over a year or two ago, and I've noticed a significant uptick in the quality of stories since his arrival.

 

He's a good guy and a great editor. Turned quite a few shops around.

 

Gannett papers are very capable of doing good journalism. It usually happens when they're able to ignore Gannett's stupid initiatives and actually do real work instead of wasting time.

 

In my experience, the best Gannett editors were good at trying to keep their shops from wallowing too much in the flavor-of-the-month corporate BS.

The worst cared only about pleasing the folks above them and interacted as little as possible with the staff, who -- not being in the corporate office -- couldn't be expected to have any good idea.

 

What was especially fun was working at a Gannett shop where the executive editor was a prime example of the former, and the managing editor was a prime example of the latter. Unfortunately, the EE was closing in on retirement, let the ME have too much control, and the whole thing fell apart. Fortunately, the ME was involuntarily separated ... but it took FAR too long for it to happen.

 

She gone....
BREAKING: VP/Editor Stefanie Murray Departing Tennessean | Pith in the Wind | Nashville Scene

 

Murray might be a lock for this year's Don't Let the Door Hit You in the Ass Award.

 

Update (3:34 p.m.): Word is that the feeling in the newsroom is “maybe even a little upbeat” after the news of Murray's departure. According to a Tennessean employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity: “I would say maybe 5 percent of the newsroom is shocked, and it’s all that’s being talked about today, but if anyone’s sad they’re not really showing it.”