Star-Telegram update

Gary West was the one the DMN laid off the week of the Breeder's Cup in the Metroplex.

 

It's a freaking tragedy/travesy that Mercedes Mayer is being laid off of the freaking TCU beat. Next to covering the Cowboys, TCU is the most important beat at the paper. She's done a top-notch job since taking over the beat.

This move makes no sense. ... but then, sense ain't in the vocab of Witt and Wortel.

Maybe they'll just have Gil "The Color Purple" Lebreton cover the Froggies. He's been their PR columnist for years.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, these writer cuts reflect last-hired, first-fired. I don't think they reflect anything else. Some of those writers had been there 5+ years.

 

You're not mistaken. Talent/competency have nothing to do with it. If it did, Mercedes and Lori wouldn't be on the way out.

 

I thought Jan Hubbard went from the NBA to the FWST---he was at the DMN back in the late '80s and into the '90s, took an NBA media position for a number of years, then went back to the FWST where he had started out something like 30 years ago.

 

I believe Jan went from Dallas to NBA to Dallas to Fort Worth over about a 20-year span.

Those seven writers represent a helluva lot of talent.

 

Not even close. TCU is way down the list.

Sorry to be picky. Being currently under the layoff gun myself, I truly feel for those at the S-T and wish them the best.

 

Agreed. At both papers (DMN and S-T), pros >>>>>>>> colleges > preps (but not by much). Both papers have relegated preps to their special little online ghettos.

 

No, but in the days when papers like the Dallas Morning News were like Sports Encyclopedia Brittanicas, departments spent money like drunken sailors. But if you're telling me that 300K or a half-million for a newspaper executive is money well spent, try telling that to a laid off copy editor. How many columns does Galloway do a week, five? Hey, I guess it's good money if you can find it, and from this point forward, you won't with anyone who hasn't already got it. I wonder how much less Reeves and LeBreton, both very, very good, make.

 

What McClatchy papers are next?
And will any of them get it worse than Fort Worth did?

 

Don't know if it'll be worse, but friends in Kansas City and Raleigh are expecting very bad things, very soon.

 

Yep, a brilliant move on the DMN's part.
Gary's a good guy and a real pro. I wish him and the rest of those laid off luck.