So is McClatchy about to drop the hammer?

There are fewer people. But it didn't feel like a newsroom of 500 when there were 500. I came from a newsroom half that size where maybe a quarter of the people did little or nothing. Miami was big but very lean. Again, it's hard to understand unless you were there. A unique place. Best analogy I can think of is maintaining low body fat takes more management than maintaining high body fat.

 

BTW, what is it with the title-mania that has led to all these "AME/Sports" and "AME/Feature" positions? What was wrong with the old "Sports Editor" or "Features Editor" title? And if that wasn't puffy and high falutin' enough, there always was the "Executive Sports Editor" and "Executive Feature Editor" option, a dead giveaway that the person didn't actually do any daily grunt work. Since readers pay little attention to titles, journalists in the newsroom see through the pomposity of it all and hiring editors elsewhere understand the empty proliferation of it as well, why have so many of the bosses felt compelled to goose each other with dumb-ass titles?

Thin their herd by 50 percent and most papers would be better off, in terms of productivity and feet on the ground.

 

ME/other editor cuts are much like all the other ones going on right now.

It depends on who it is.

There are some managers who others might think should go, and those people probably would not be noticed, or their jobs missed, too much if they're not there.

By the same token, there are other editors who, if/when they went, their loss would be keenly felt throughout the office and would greatly impact both the staff and the section.

It really does depend on just how good a manager he or she is. This process, and the resulting reaction, is a testament to that.

 

Speaking of title inflation, many college newspapers have picked up on the trend have AME/sports and AME / front page and my favorite, AME / visuals.

 

Bless the li'l darlings, learning their corporate-speak at such a tender age. But it might make it tougher for some of them to go fetch coffee or type in agate when they hit the real world.

 

A chain I worked for would not give merit raises unless someone was give a bump in status. Hence a sports editors would be "promoted" to AME/Sports, a designer would be senior design editor, a prep editor would be Deputy Sports Editor/Preps and a slot would be assistant night city editor. There were also senior staff writers.

 

That's a big part of it. Otherwise, you can easily find yourself in a situation where two people are making vastly different salaries for the same position. Which could easily turn into a legal situation.

A lot easier to explain differences in pay if you give someone a new title.

 

This guy is writing to salesmen, not newspaper suits. But they would do well to take notes.

http://www.gitomer.com/articles/ViewPublicArticle.html?key=ajcdMibak3Of4GLr52S8Yw%3D%3D

 

I once applied for a job at UPS -- just a dipshit position pushing packages -- and I swear those same words were written all over the wearhouse. Even UPS' grunt workers, the guys and gals making 8 bucks an hour to start, are getting full health bennies and made to feel like they are part of a team.
And while, yes, 80 percent of those parcel pushers leave of their own volition after less than two years, the other 20 go on to drive trucks (making 70k a year), get into management, etc. I know people who have been at UPS for more than a decade, and while the work isn't easy, every one of those people talk about how good UPS is to them.
Just a thought.