Copy editor, New Jersey

Last time I checked, that intimidating softball writer had 3 different aliases, plus one he uses when he freelances for a local competitor. He writes those freelance pieces, however, while on the clock at The Trentonian. Unfortunately, it seems that the powers that be are aware of all this, yet allow him to continue, because he runs the "big" softball tournament that rakes in a couple thousand each year.

 

I would have to think at some point Phil Nelson and Bracy are gonna have to learn how to paginate. There's no one left.

 

I don't know what else there is to say. Congrats to Chris Collins and Linda Dougherty for getting out. Poor George O'Gorman, the hardest-working, most professional guy I have met in this business, will be the last man standing.

I will add that those of you who were tsk-tsking the Bracy naysayers early on were complete idiots. This was completely predictable from the very start and if you didn't realize he was a disaster hire -- completely unqualified, arrogant and incapable of improving the section -- you really have no business working in journalism.

 

I guess in some ways I agree, the sports section wasn't much to speak of, but whose fault is that? Is it the CE/PAGs fault? No I don't think so. The blame there belongs directly on Murray. As for fixing a disaster, CE/PAGs leaving would have been like trying to slap some crazy glue on the Titanic. And all these employees are disgruntled for a reason, right? I mean most people, especially ones who have been there for close to a decade or more, obviously didn't have problems in the past, otherwise they wouldn't have stayed that long. All I can speak of is that I drove 1800 miles to work there. I was thrilled, telling everyone I was going to work for the best sports section in the tri-state region. It was great, I grew up reading the paper and read it all through college. I was just so damn excited, just goes to show you how much of an idiot I am. After about two months I was dreading going to work. Not because of the people in the sports department, because of the shoddy way I saw all of them, including myself, treated. Management has no clue what it's doing. I mean the publisher is the publisher because he's a kiss ass, not because he has any experience running a newspaper. I'm not even sure he has a college degree, but he sure knows how to pucker up. I dunno it just seems like that having some kind of solid background in journalism and business is the way to go, but then a publisher like that would last all of a week with Jellyneck. As for ripping Aaron, maybe he should pull his head out of his ass, because who do you think is going to get the blame for more than half the sports department leaving. Well, probably not, from what I hear he's as big a kiss ass as the publisher. Instead of defending JRC and management, maybe he should have been defending his direct underlings and deflecting blame from them. Unless you are Aaron, then I just feel really, really bad for you ... pity you would be the correct way of putting it.

 

Sandy Schwartz was a publisher who was a true journalist and he lasted 10 years with Jelenic.

 

That's impressive from what I know about Jellyneck

 

Once again, as did the previous one, this thread is degenerating into a personal crucifixion of Aaron Bracy, who is not really the issue here.

Bracy, whose career, like everyone working at any JRC paper, has now been infected with the journalistic equivalent of syphllis, is powerless to do anything to change the situation.

He could be the greatest journalist who ever drew breath, but working for the malignant malevolent abortion of a company he is, it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference.

JRC papers are looked upon as jokes, disgraces and disasters by anyone with any competence or knowledge in legitimate journalism. They know the company is run by corrupted imbeciles with not even the slightest interest in producing a passable newspaper. Working for a JRC paper, in the eyes of hiring managers at real newspapers, is the same thing as working for an animal-sex hobbyist newsletter -- you better have a damn good excuse for how you got there in the first place.


But Bracy knew -- he had to know -- what he was getting into. And from all appearances, hasn't improved things much, or any (from all evidence, it's much worse). So he's drawing on a very limited bank of sympathy here.

Focus on the real problem -- the cannibalistic Hitler running the whole show.

 

You may believe that this thread is degenerating into a personal crucifixion of Aaron Bracy, whom you believe is not really the issue here, but he is the only one of the 21 sports editors who preceded him in a 13 year time span who told people they were doing lousy jobs (when they weren't), who told people if they didn't like it at the paper to leave (which some did), brought some of them to tears and never acted as part of the team ... only acted in his own self-interests. And this was all in a three-month time span, not long enough for him to get to know any of his employees very well. And can you tell me why Aaron assigned himself stories and features to write when full-time writers (some who won awards for their writing) were sitting on the copy desk, forced to perform the mundane duties of adding up boxscores and assorted sports agate? I dunno, seems like an exercise in egotism to me. Maybe those are some of the reasons why he was so vilified.

 

Rick Fortenbaugh never freelances for The Times. Don't know if he freelances for any of the Packet publications.

 

From the count above, in 90 calendar days (say 65 working days), he's assigned himself a grand total of about nine stories to write, so I doubt the staff writers are missing out on any chances for Pulitzers. Given the fact that under JRC's coverage strategies, the stories are probably on 6th-grade girls lacrosse games and junior-high kickball tournaments, I'd guess the Pulitzers are still pretty safe.

Nobody from any JRC papers wins any legitimate awards anyway. I know state association contests where the judges just throw out entries from JRC papers. Just throw 'em out. They know the score.

 

To cut back on newsprint costs, like most papers they reduced the size of the pages. However in their case they reduced it too much and it looks awful compared to how it used to look.

Yes, Bracy did work at The Times in the late 90s (or maybe it was the early 00s). Bracy is closer to 30 than 25. I think he's early 30s. He was a writer at The Times and a copy editor with the Courier in Camden before returning to Trenton to take the sports editorship at the Trentonian.

 

Looks like the fundamental difference in perspective is that some ex-Trentonian people found the product to be acceptable and think the SE's job is to perpetuate below avg, using the excuse that JRC sucks. Some of us will say that these same people who have been "victimized" for all these years are the reason the paper has a long way to go before being mediocre. If the SE isn't going to be the one who tried to change that, then who will? If there's one thing he should be criticized for it's not getting rid of someone who works under aliases so he can collect extra paychecks. That's just absurd if it's true and probably illegal. If there's something he should get credit for is finding a guy who appears to have a ton of local knowledge, as well as George, who everyone in the state knows is too good and too hard working to be surrounded by such garbage for so long.