Blood in the streets of Hartford and Baltimore

This article, from the Maynard Institute about the people of color who were let go from the Sun, says Steele is considering writing more books.

http://mije.org/richardprince/bloodletting-baltimore-sun

And just for a sense of the feelings in the Sun newsroom the past couple of days, take a look at the the last, "addendum" item posted on the top item of this David Ettlin blog, with a tough, anonymous quote to close.

http://ettlin.blogspot.com/

If you want a description of what it's like to be a survivor, you can use this unattributed quote:"It's a little like being the turkey who survives Thanksgiving but knows Christmas is a month away."

It's just unbelievable.

 

As much as it was a painful experience to be laid off from my reporting job a few months ago, deep inside I felt a real anxiety for the people left behind. The last month leading up to my number being called was difficult, but to think that those remaining would be forced to endure that kind of torment again, made me sick in the stomach. And still does.

 

Are you sure about that? I read a story today about a local Baltimore businessman and his long desire to purchase the Sun, keep it under local ownership, and keep the staff. That was before 4-29-09. Apparently this guy was pretty close to a deal as near as a few weeks ago. That doesn't sound like the Sun's demise was inevitable to me. Their readership is still over 200,000. That number makes a lot of money, does it not? It all seems so unnecessary to me, as do most of these layoffs and papers folding elsewhere.

 

Rick, your drumbeat is starting to get as old as Fredrick's, if a little different.

No one is having "fun" bashing Zell. We all just wish we could fire him, as he is doing to others.

He deserves to be bashed. If not for the $13 billion debt he took on, or rather, that he forced his employees to take on, largely on the backs of their retirement funds, without their having any say in the matter, the Tribune Co. would probably be doing pretty well.

Sure, maybe things wouldn't be great, these days, and it would still have to be figuring out how to fully evolve as a digital and business entity. But, yes, Tribune still would be a profitable and successful business, without a need to cut, slash, crash and burn to this extent.

It is the insane debt, which Zell took on but won't really be the one to have to pay off (again, because he took on the burden primarily with employees' money) that is causing all of these problems and the need for such drastic, draconian measures.

Besides, I'm all for slowing down "a process that would have happened anyway."

Aren't you?

 

Of course I am.

I wasn't being sarcastic, I genuinely I agree that it's fun to bash ownership when they deserve it.

But as long as there are people who idly wonder if we need Congressional investigations into persons dismantling newspapers, or people who wonder if this is a conservative plot (as I've seen posted at least once), the argument as to whether this business is doomed and dying is a relevant one.

 

You really think FitzSimons and his band of happy idiots would have handled the post-September 2008 world any better?

Not defending Zell in the least; just saying that when you look across the top echelons of media companies (Dubow/Pruitt/Junck/Zell, et al), well, it's a pretty slow field.

 

I never thought much of FitzSimons and his crew, either, and don't know for certain how they would have dealt with the tough economic times that we're in, or the continuing evolution of the journalism industry.

The point is, though, that Zell is not dealing only with those elements. He saddled himself -- well, not really himself, but employees -- with more than that via the complicated, self-protecting and product-killing business deal he made when he purchased Tribune Co.

That's what he and his employees are really dealing with right now, and trying to pay down and overcome...not the struggling economic times. In fact, they're hardly dealing with the tough economy or evolving industry at all.

Tribune is having layoffs, seemingly every quarter, because the notes on that monstrous debt are due every quarter or so. The economy and newspapers' evolution are contributing to the company's struggles, sure. But without the debt, the companies' properties could probably be dealing with, and maybe even overcoming, those other issues.

Forget working on becoming more current, innovative and forward-thinking in order to try to deal with tough times, and perhaps, position itself for the future, though.

Thanks to this debt, Tribune first has to try to just tread water and not go under even farther.

It is making the profitability of all of Tribune's properties -- and yes, they are all profit-making entities -- a moot point, and as if they are not profitable.

And, Zell took on this debt (using primarily employees' money, and very little of his own) so that he could still purchase and play with his new toys, and yet, do it without any of the risk that would typically be expected to be incurred by somebody who entered into such a major business deal.

As bad as things are, economically, the way this deal was done is making everything even worse for Tribune Co.

 

Excerpt from a much longer and infuriating and moronic memo about the newsroom's reorganization:

Tim Wheatley? Now: Head of money & spending.

Covering it, that is.

 

How did that happen? Did Wheatley and the Biz editor swap jobs?

 

Wheatley has been in charge of biz sections before, I believe, at either Indy or Minneapolis.

 

Somebody is going to have to explain to us all these new horseshit titles they are doling out to the folks remaining in Baltimore.

My favorite was "content coordinator: nightlife, bands."

We don't have that position in Podunk.

We have reporters who provide content for like six platforms. And editors doubling as designers to post said information.

I don't understand why the titles need to be so longwinded and confusing.

 

Trif?

As in "Day of the ..."?