The New Orleans Times-Picayune May Reduce Frequency of Publication -- NY Times

Well, the early results are in and I see that The Good Members Of SportsJournalists.com are tepid - at best - in support of one of their own who decided to defiantly spit in the eye of the corporate suits. The lady showed some stones. Give her credit for standing up for good journalism. She obviously is in the minority.

 

I'm for good journalism. But nowadays, it's more important to be employed, even if it is only for a short time.

 

And let's be honest -- it's a shitty letter.

I totally get the frustration. I've been laid off before. I've seen corporate dipshits destroy a really great newsroom that meant a lot to me. I've dealt with a corporate VP who I would gladly beat to death with a baseball bat. So, yeah, I'm sympathetic.

But if you're going to complain to corporate, you don't scream "fuck" over and over while complaining that your story wasn't played high enough and that you're pissed that you filed a story in the wrong spot. She wrote a letter when she was angry, and should have waited until she wasn't before hitting "send." It was so unfocused, it will mean absolutely nothing to the suits that read it.

So, no, she didn't spit in the eye of the corporate suits. She tried, and missed, and now the suits are wondering why she has spit all over her shirt.

 

I'd be more concerned about New Jersey. Lost in the shuffle is the move of AnnArbor.com chief and perpetual Newhouse lackey Tony Dearing to run NJ.com
He promised groundbreaking newgathering in AnnArbor.com and gave a bland, unspectacular product. He steered Bay City onto the rocks. He's a good old Newhouse boy who, when the company wants to come up with new ideas, trots the empty suit out for more of the same old shit.

 

I applaud her for speaking up, but that letter isn't going to make the bosses say, "Holy shit, I didn't realize things were so bad. Let's reverse the entire plan, keep everyone employed and keep putting out a print product 7 days a week!"

I'd bet it's going to make the bosses say, "Who the fuck was on web duty that night and screwed that up?" She definitely tried to spit in the eye of the corporate suits, but it will end up all over some web producer/copy editor who is likely as overworked, underappreciated and frustrated as she is and is doing the best they can with what they have to work with.

 

And in this case, what they have to work with is an employee who, by her own admission, can't file her story properly. Then throws her own coworkers under the bus talking about how much the website blows. Then whines that her story didn't get A-1 billing.

She made good points in her letter to the suits, but was undermined by her own whining.

 

So, a reasonable letter, written with the perspective of time, without any passion or emotion, would have made an impact?

The point is that any kind of communication that goes up the food chain is going to be useless and futile. I get that. Been there, done that. Again, I admire her stones. Yes, she's frustrated, pissed off and sounds whiny. But she obviously loves what she does and gives a damn about her job and the final product. That's what you need to be a good newspaper reporter. If you don't have that passion and desire to be a REPORTER then you're like the robots at Journatic.

Her letter will either be ignored and or she'll be shit canned this week. Either way, as of Sept. 30 she'll be unemployed. That's what's sad. You folks keep on second guessing from the peanut gallery.

 

Who said it has to be without passion or emotion? How about a rational letter that discusses problems that management actually has some control over, instead of screeching that her stupidhead coworkers didn't play her story high enough?

They probably ignore it either way, but she'd be better off going out sounding like an adult. You know what else a good reporter needs? The ability to write, and tell what's important from what isn't.

Again, I totally get the frustration. It's still an awful letter.

 

I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.





And we're just the guys to do it!

 

Nothing says fire me now better than an open letter to the suits.

 

Except maybe including a cc to Romenesko.

I wouldn't know this woman if she was standing in front of me, but I think we all have worked with people in our newspaper stops who decide everything is a code-five crisis. Those who fly off the handle when everything that doesn't go perfect for him/her, even something as minor as a phone call being cut off, or their computer acting slow, or not being able to find someone working IT, and respond with an earth-scorching letter to everyone he/she can think of about the shitty state of the world because they are being inconvenienced and how it's always someone else's fault.

Again, I don't know this woman and am not saying she is this type. But it wouldn't surprise me.

 

Sure, the situation in New Orleans is horrible, and I understand her frustration.

But a suggestion that works for me:

Don't read your stuff in the newspaper or online. Don't even look to see where it is or how it got played. You can't get upset about copy errors edited in if you don't know about them or headlines that don't make any sense if you didn't write them.

That way, you don't wind up yelling at a copy editor or editor and can continue in your miserable, underpaid job before your newspaper eventually goes belly up and fires you.