New SE in Oregon

Not sure if he would have been the guy for the LA Times, but he's the guy for the Oregonian, apparently. Keith Sharon, who was the Angels editor at the OC Register, is the new Oregonian SE.

Anyone have dealings with Keith?

 

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/03/los_angeles_angels_oc_register.php
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/06/oc_register_disney_news_mob.php

Can't wait for Trailblazers newsmob.

 

Here is his Facebook post:
Keith Sharon
19 hours ago near Trabuco Canyon, CA
Curveball alert ... The end of my journalism career didn't happen as I planned. And my slinking away and wishing I was still in a newsroom has now been abruptly interupted. I have accepted the job as sports editor of the Portland Oregonian. I'll be moving up there sometime in the next two weeks to begin a new and exciting chapter of my life. Then, once I get the lay of the land, Nancy and the kids will join me. It's crazy, but it's a good crazy. Can't wait to get started.

*********

This is a warning to those at the Oregonian that whoever has the biggest ego on your staff will now have the second-biggest ego on the staff.
About 4 years ago Sharon was given a Team Leader position at OCR and nearly destroyed the sports section. His plan was total digital, screw print. His stroke of genius was that slideshows are the future of journalism. Screw everything else, slideshows. Teamwork is not in his vocabulary. He was concerned only with the Angels and Lakers. Screw the desk. He has no idea what it took to produce a paper, how an editor or leader is supposed to function so things run smoothly. He worked from about 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day and had zero communication with the deskers, who were left on their own to figure out what the writers were writing. As a manager? The first year, his Lakers writer did what he was instructed by Sharon. When the season ended, the writer presented his list of owed comp days. The number of owed days took him into the first week of the next season. There were meetings that wound up having to get HR involved. Oh, and he was responsible for the "News Mob." The entire staff, not just sports, everyone, covered Angels opening day. OCR was the laughingstock of the nation for that one. He assigned staff writers to monitor a dozen or more websites and blog about what other bloggers were blogging. One of the happiest days in sports came in July 2012, when Kushner took over and announced at the first town hall meeting that the focus would be on print since print brings in 87 percent of the revenue. Sharon came back to his desk after that meeting and announced to anyone sitting nearby that he was going to go back to news writing.

 

SoCal, are you saying you do not approve of this hire? Damn. Glad I'm not reading this at my desk in Portland.

 

"Flooding the zone" was well-received by the Illuminati here.

 

I too have heard awful things about him from when he was in OCR sports, but let's not pretend Kushner is some sort of genius. His shit idea failed last time I checked.

 

Nobody said Kushner was a genius. This is not a thread about him. Sharon's shit ideas failed, too, and he rubbed everybody the wrong way.

 

Wow, sounds like we could do a web poll on most hated sports editors in America. I can think of two now ..........

(Although the criticism above sounds very legitimate and certainly sickening if you're at the Oregonian. Especially since the new editor of the Oregonian came from the OCR and presumably is bros with the new guy.)

 

From what I understand, the print edition of The Oregonian is produced by a separate team, so if what's above is true (about not knowing how to get a print edition out, or dealing with the desk), then it's actually a non-issue. I'm not completely clear on how the situation in Portland works, but I believe it is a 100% digital mind-set, and then there's a "pub hub" that basically picks stories off a feed based on its independent judgment and slots them into the print edition.

 

CNY is correct. If it's anything like our setup, the copy desk is at a separate facility and independent from the writers, who are in the field and not in a true office.

 

I used to work on the OCR desk and I can add something here.
I remember that then-Angels beat writer Bill Plunkett took the brunt of the "News Mob" silliness. The whole season, whenever he arrived at a press box, the other writers would say something like, "Are they letting you cover this one by yourself tonight?" or "Where's the rest of your staff?"
It's true that Sharon was done by 2 p.m. every day. In two years, I think I saw him maybe a half dozen times because desk shifts normally started at 3:30. Supposedly, he had to be out of there so he could get to his kids' travel ball practices.
He's also a fanboy, so get used fan coverage.

 

The O's new direction of late (not just sports) is to throw a bunch of stuff against the wall and hope something "engages" readers. (a bracket of greatest Oregon sports legends, politicians, whatever...). They still have a many talented writers there, but more than a few have been leaving of late for other jobs in the area.