Blood in the streets of Hartford and Baltimore

[WaylonJennings]

It's funny. On my beat at my shop, you can practically book a first-class private jet flight and stay at a five-star hotel, and no one would blink.

But if you try to turn in a $5 college football preview magazine as an expense, the roof caves in.

Per diems would save papers millions as well. Even if the writers packed their own food and pocketed the money it would still save them a fortune.

That would be the way to go, instead of feeling like you have to justify every dime you spend.

 

[Joe Williams]

Joe - I understand that these are the times we live in, but you really have to understand that traveling with a team can't be dismissed as simply getting advances, games and follows.

Know all about it, Waylon. Have done it at various times throughout my career, heavy beat coverage at high levels. So I know that there is all sorts of residual value to being on the road with your team. I'm just saying, a 10-20 percent reduction wouldn't adversely affect that stuff and plugging those holes in the daily paper wouldn't be that tough either. If you went to half-time or worse on the road, I'd argue from the same side as you.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

If they gave writers $50 a day per diem, the writers would be happy, stocking up on press box food and continental breakfasts and papers would be seeing a lot fewer receipts from steakhouses and "dinners" that happen from midnight to 2 a.m.

 

[WaylonJennings]

Joe - I understand that these are the times we live in, but you really have to understand that traveling with a team can't be dismissed as simply getting advances, games and follows.

Know all about it, Waylon. Have done it at various times throughout my career, heavy beat coverage at high levels. So I know that there is all sorts of residual value to being on the road with your team. I'm just saying, a 10-20 percent reduction wouldn't adversely affect that stuff and plugging those holes in the daily paper wouldn't be that tough either. If you went to half-time or worse on the road, I'd argue from the same side as you.

OK, cool. Wasn't slamming you or anything. There are some people who really don't understand why traveling pays off - particuarly bean counters upstairs. At my old paper, they had fire in their eyes every time we covered a major college or pro team (we were a suburban paper in a top three market), but then when the NFL Playoffs or NBA Finals came along, suddenly they wanted us to absolutely own coverage of it. They had absolutely no idea how it worked.

 

[Baltimoreguy]

This thread is getting hijacked!

Here's something to get it back on track.

There's an intern at The Sun who's been blogging about his summer at the paper:
http://plimack.blogspot.com/

He had the misfortune of being linked to by Media Gossip right before he wrote this yesterday:

Checking my inbox this morning, I found this lovely little note from editor Tim Franklin:

"Dear colleagues,

Please plan to attend a staff meeting at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Community Room.

Rosie is making arrangements so that the bureaus can join by phone. She'll provide details in the morning.

Thanks for your patience and unwavering professionalism during these anxious times. We will share the latest information with you and try to answer your questions."

Bureaus on the phone? Anxious times? Latest information?

I love the smell of layoffs in the morning.

It's like leading lambs to the slaughter. I'll be there. I've always wanted to witness an execution.

Updates throughout the day.

Now I think he seems like a nice enough kid and meant his comments to be a rueful expression of sympathy, but you never F with another man's livelihood.

He's already gotten this response on his blog:

Exponentially increased readership? Perhaps that's because your blog has gotten around the office and was linked-to on poynter. Just fyi, that's a site that everyone in the newspaper business reads on a daily basis. Good luck getting a job in the future, numb nuts. Did it ever occur to you that it was wrong to make cheeky little comments about the future of people's careers? Some of the people affected by the downsizing were practicing journalism when you were still crapping your pants and eating your own boogers. Way to behave like a petulant child.

And now his line about always wanting to witness an execution has been cut-and-pasted into an email that's making the rounds at The Sun. Summer intern, congratulations! You've just become the focus and target of the anxiety and anger being felt by 300 pissed-off journalists at the Baltimore Sun!

 

[Hustle]

Too bad it's now open "to invited readers only".

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

D'oh!

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Is the kid doing anything wrong?

 

[cranberry]

Is the kid doing anything wrong?

I thought it was kind of funny. Gallows humor has always been an important part of being a reporter. It's a device used to seal off our emotions.

 

[Baltimoreguy]

He was quoted out of context. The email at The Sun just says something like:

Look what this snot-nosed intern blogged yesterday:
"I love the smell of layoffs in the morning.

It's like leading lambs to the slaughter. I'll be there. I've always wanted to witness an execution. "

which, if that's all you read, would be pretty annoying

 

[cranberry]

When you're the one getting laid off and you're trying to figure out how you're going to pay October's mortgage and car payments, probably NOTHING is going to seem very funny. But those who took offense should realize that they probably write things everyday about the misfortunes of others.

 

[BYH]

The kid's a dope. you don't BLOG!!!! about your summer internship when you're interning in a dying field.

Dumbass. Oh well, now there's just 1,999,999 people vying for the same job as me instead of 2,000,000.