Blood in the streets of Hartford and Baltimore

Maese and Steele will be fine. Maese was a very good columnist, but he's better suited for takeouts like he was doing in Orlando. Some of the takeouts he did there were among the best stories I've read in the last decade. He would be a very good fit at ESPN Mag or SI and I'm guessing he'll wind up one of those places.

A close friend of mine who used to work in Orlando once described Maese by saying, "He's one of a few writers out there who makes me feel like I suck."

 

Probably Hoppes' best hire, and that's saying something. Not because he was the best writer of the bunch, but because of where Hoppes found him. And yes, Maese was a brilliant writer before he ever met Hoppes, but there are tons of brilliant writers out there who work at PM papers who are relatively unknown.

 

I'm not knocking Maese, no way no how. I really like his stuff. I was trying to make a rather lame attempt at humor regarding the connection to Hoppes and ESPN. In fact, the first thing I thought of last night was that ESPN will hire Rick because of Lynn. They should. He's kind of a throw-back writer with a modern appeal, in my opinion. Steele, I have never liked his columns. But it sucks that he was fired.

 

I'm guessing Maese could have made his way to ESPN without Hoppes' help, but assuming the two are on good terms, and I have no reason to think they're not, Hoppes' presence there certainly won't hurt.

 

Probably not a good idea to be a designer or copy editor at a Tribune paper outside Chicago or LA:

http://www.visualeditors.com/apple/2009/04/tribune-considers-design-copy-editing-functions-to-be-‘manufacturing’/

 

Good lord.

 

It's amazing to me how poorly these companies handle layoffs. This past January, we had 142 employees laid off at the East Valley Tribune. Yes, it sucks, and I'm not going to praise Freedom for doing it. But at least the employees were told three months earlier so they had to time to look for work, plan and then say goodbye. Also, they were given two weeks of severance for every year of service.
Still stinks, but at least there was degree of compassion.

 

Someone just told me that the only big papers where columnists have been let go are with Tribune Co. That's not correct is it?

 

This entire thread, particularly the past two days' worth, though, has to be utterly frightening to those still remaining at other Tribune papers. It certainly doesn't bode well.

And I just cannot stop thinking of this BusinessWeek story, written in December, with this lede, and about this deal/debt, which was forced on employees, not Zell.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2008/db2008128_376528.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

Here's the lede:

If there is one thing Sam Zell foresaw correctly, it is this: The day after Zell announced he was buying Tribune for more than $8 billion, the real estate tycoon told Chicago Tribune reporters the deal would not change his lifestyle no matter what happened. But, he said, "it's likely to change yours."

It's sickening.

And I won't even tell you a scary line that a department manager at one of the supposedly still more fortunate "non-T6" Tribune papers recently said to me.

This is all really difficult to imagine. Unfortunately, it sounds like it might get to a point where we wouldn't have to.

 

In all seriousness, do Zell's actions warrant a congressional hearing or some type of DC investigation? Has he purposely used this "recession" BS to help kill some of America's longest-standing media entities, simply because he hates the media?

This is like if PETA went on a buying spree and hand-picked the biggest meat-packing plants in the country, bought them, then dismantled them, and left us without meat for our Saturday BBQs. Where's the beef? And where's my newspaper?

 

As much fun as it is to bash Zell, this isn't happening because of him, and at best he's just speeding up a process that would have happened anyway.

 

AJC let go of Terrence Moore, who is probably a bigger name (certainly in his market) than Steele or Maese.