'Black Wednesday' in Tampa

I wonder if readers would care that much. Virtually every newspaper layoff story I've seen is accompanied by comments that fall into one of the following:

1). You won't have to cut jobs if you actually printed unbiased news instead of left-wing propaganda.

2). You should have gotten rid of so-and-so. That guy is a moron.

3). I've been a subscriber since 1879 and the paper has been going downhill since then. I'm going to unsubscribe for real this time, unlike the 15 other times I've threatened to do so.

4). Hey commenter No. 1, if you hate this paper so much, why are you posting on their Web site?

5). Commenter No. 4, #@@!$!% you!!!

6). No, #@@!$!% you!

At most, the paper might get some outrage from a small portion of the readers for about a week, and then people forget about this and go back to their lives.

 

Why not just print the number to the St. Pete Times subscription department at the end of every story? Can't do any more harm than this idiocy.

God help them if the Rays make an unbudgeted playoff run.

 

Capt. Zulu has it right.

Even a calm, relatively well-informed friend said to me recently, "If the Rocky Mountain News is covering the Broncos, why can't the Denver Post use the same story? What's wrong with that?"

 

Well, then. I'd say this takes care of that "discussion" on the back lot I offered up last night -- although I still wouldn't mind seeing that one take place anyway.

And Grey, I spoke to Scott last night as well and when he told me about the 3-minute phone conversation -- as opposed to the messenger choosing not to have the balls to deliver the bad news in person to a stand-up reporter who has worked his ass off for a decade and saved the bacon of some of those dead beats who still have a job on more than one occasion, I couldn't hold back my disdain. To not even give him the option of coming back to Tampa to resume his kick-ass work on either the Rays or the Lightning, especially now that the Rays are relevant in the area and deserve the best coverage, is asinine to say the least.

And yet I know this is all just venting and banging our heads against a brick wall because nobody with the power to stop this bloodletting is actually listening.

 

Yep.

And the boy still knows his Rays. Night before last, I had him on the speakerphone while watching TB-Boston bc I had some questions for him. It was as though he still covered the team.

I still like your parking lot idea. Anyone who knows Carter, knows that he's a bear of a man, but quite the Gentle Ben. Till you poke him with a stick.

Not pretty.

 

Bingo.

 

At this rate, they'll get bloggers to cover every beat, because "where else can you watch an NFL/MLB/college football/college hoops game for free?" :

 

I'd love to see it, if anyone's got it.

 

It's online...

Here's the link to it...

http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2008/reorganization-at-tampa-tribune/

 

Weak isn't the word. Are they really not going to cover Florida State football? Oh, that's right, the college correspondents...

Guess the kids are right, and now, they really know it. They don't have to work their way up. Now, they don't just get what would normally be considered a marquee job, for a heretofore very solid outlet, right out of college.

They can get it before they even leave college.

This really is so sad and sickening, it's ridiculous.

 

Good deal. As a Trib alum, this fascinates me to no end. Then again, I like to slow down to look at car wrecks.