80-90 cuts expected at the OC Register (story published April 28)

The sad thing is OCR at one point was a damn good paper. It still is in spots, even if a nick here and a hacked limb there are slowly eating away at it.

 

Mid, while it sounds like you work there and obviously have feeling about some of this stuff, I'm hearing a different story. Sounds like you have a beef, and I can respect that.
Word I'm hearing is the concensus there was not one of relief when Gibson was let go. It appeared to be more of shock. I've been told the deputy SEs (team leaders, etc.) were not prepared for this and didn't think this could happen. A majority of people weren't sure why it happened.
Apparently, there was also what on the surface initially appeared to be a smart-ass comment during the sports meeting that turned out to be a scary possibility.
The staff was told this would be the end of cuts, to which someone asked "You mean this quarter, right?"
The higher-up answered "Well, yes."
I hope more cuts aren't on the way.

 

That's fucked up!

 

Heel makes one good point. It's time newspapers take a look at covering sports that aren't covered elsewhere. Make it interesting, worth reading, and not found on ESPN. It's hard, and I'm not saying newspapers need to ignore the major sports, but newspapers have to find a way to get readers. Maybe that means covering sports that other papers and media outlets don't. MMA, fantasy, motorsports. It might not be the answer, but doing it the traditional way isn't working either.

 

I know people care about it.

But when "fantasy" anything becomes acceptable fare in a newspaper . . . that's where we part company.

 

Well, as long as you admit it's personal ...

This doesn't read like poor management. It reads as if Greg told Damian the Reg didn't have the money to send him to Daytona, so he couldn't go and would have to work his regular Sunday agate shift. Damian said he would go and pay his own way, and Greg said fine but we still need you on Sunday. It is entirely possible Greg had the schedule for the week completed well in advance, knowing that Damian wouldn't be going to Daytona, and when Damian decided to pay his own way, Greg couldn't juggle the schedule in time.

 

Right, I could see a newspaper not sending it's NFL writer to the Super Bowl.

I'm not going to debate right or wrong in this instance. I don't believe that Gibson was very good at his job and it seems like his bosses at the Register agree, seeing that he no longer has a job.

Exactly, and he did.

 

Saw the OCR for the first time in print last week. Thought the sports section was well-thought-out and readable. Then again, I'm not much of an MMA guy, so what do I know?
The idea that this was based on merit is indeed cute. But utterly unrealistic. I've worked at papers where if they would have fired folks if they weren't afraid of the wrongful-termination lawsuits. And if this were a merit-based decision, I'd bet Gibson would have one of those suckers in the works as I type. Just because he didn't do the best job possible doesn't mean he would get fired for that.
It's the money, stupid.

 

It is not unusual for a newspaper not to send its NFL writer to the Super Bowl. There is plenty of copy on the wires. I'm not going to debate right or wrong either, but financial constraints are a depressing reality in this business.

And, as reported in the story linked above, Gibson's bosses were startlingly clear that the layoffs were targeted toward high-salaried employees (see below). This is absolutely not a reflection on his performance. The two sports employees laid off were Gibson and outdoors writer Dave Strege, who had been there since 1980.

"In this round of layoffs, managers protected basic reporting and editing staff and targeted high salary employees, so that fewer people were laid off, said Register Editor and Senior Vice President Ken Brusic."

 

For a long period of time, the OCR was the second best paper in California... I don't know where it ranks now, but obviously this won't help matters...

 

Yeah, motorsports are really struggling to get the coverage they deserve. We need more gearhead stories, RPMmutant.

 

This is hilarious and exactly what is wrong with some people in the newspaper business who just don't get it.

Why would anybody at the OCR think they should spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to send a writer to Daytona unless there is some compelling local story to get?

If there's a local driver who has a chance to win, OK. OCR readers want that and you can't get that off the wire.

Otherwise it's just a fun trip for the writer.

But it's not about the writer. It's about the readers.
Readers don't care if the local staff writer goes to Daytona no matter who he is or how long he's been there.

And this had nothing to do with the SE getting laid off. If anything, it probably kept him around a little longer.