AnnArbor.com lays off 14

[mustangj17]

Of course, now that RichRod is no longer in Ann Arbor, there is no need for 3/4's of that staff as the "dig up dirt and create controversy surrounding Michigan football and its coach" beat seemed to consume far more people than reasonably necessary

That was actually the Free Press that broke that whole story - or non-story.

 

[WolvEagle]

Of course, now that RichRod is no longer in Ann Arbor, there is no need for 3/4's of that staff as the "dig up dirt and create controversy surrounding Michigan football and its coach" beat seemed to consume far more people than reasonably necessary

That was actually the Free Press that broke that whole story - or non-story.

Mustang - It certainly wasn't a nonstory. DickRod led the U-M football team straight onto probation.

 

[Jim_Carty]

If you think the Free Press story was a non-story, I'm glad you're out of journalism.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Finally, a comment from Tony Dearing, chief content editor. (found via someone on facebook)


"While personnel issues are an internal matter and we don't discuss them publicly, I can confirm that we reorganized our newsroom this week to put our focus more squarely on local news coverage. As a new organization, ...we have tried a lot of things. Now that we are well into our second year, the community has told us very resoundingly that what it wants most from us is hard news coverage, particularly in the areas of government, education, police, courts, health, the environment, University of Michigan sports, and business.

"These areas of coverage account for all but a tiny percentage of our readership and revenue. Meanwhile, we also have put a lot of effort toward other things -- including lifestyle topics like Passions and Pursuits, The Deuce, Homes and some areas of Entertainment coverage -- that our community has shown much less interest in, and we are scaling back in those areas.

"We have made tremendous progress since we launched, and we continue to be very happy with the growth we're seeing in audience and revenue. But from the beginning, we said that we would be shaped by what the community wants, and the community wants us to focus more sharply on local news reporting.

"We have repositioned ourselves to throw our energy and resources into our local news coverage and that is how we will operate moving forward as we continue to grow."

Then when a local business like Borders tells you to go pound sand up your ass when asked about its own layoffs and restructing, you'd better retreat with your tale between your legs.


Getting rid of 14 people, including an award-winning photographer, puts the focus on local news coverage -- how?

Nothing like saying you're going to focus on local news coverage - which you already have been doing - then cutting your staff. Huh?

And, nothing like cutting your local sports presence, either. Two of the part-timers who were let go covered preps. Plus, aa.com didn't have the decency to let Jeff Arnold finish the U-M hockey season. On Saturday night, U-M beat Bowling Green to finish their CCHA playoff series AT YOST - and aa.com didn't send anyone. Uh, you can walk to Yost from the aa.com office, though it is a bit of a walk.

This is complete bulls---.

A little birdie told me that annarbor.com didn't even budget to cover the U-M hockey game Saturday night. It was a last-second "whoops" rewrite.

They also used AP or rewrite (forget which now) on the state swimming championships, of which a local team won and their biggest school finished second. They also had pretty big previews during the week.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

If you think the Free Press story was a non-story, I'm glad you're out of journalism.

Hey, he's a UM fanboi.

This isn't a great parallel, but I do find it somewhat funny that the same fanbois that were ready to crucify the Freep and Rosenberg for anonymous sources, wholeheartedly accept those same anonymous sources in the Ohio State mess now.

 

[MartinonMTV2]

If you think the Free Press story was a non-story, I'm glad you're out of journalism.

Hey, he's a UM fanboi.

This isn't a great parallel, but I do find it somewhat funny that the same fanbois that were ready to crucify the Freep and Rosenberg for anonymous sources, wholeheartedly accept those same anonymous sources in the Ohio State mess now.

I am told the sites that are scratching at annarbor.com also are sweeping some details under the rug.

 

[Jim_Carty]

I'm told they are dropping all preps coverage.

 

[steveu]

So much for being local, local, local.

 

[slappy4428]

I'm told they are dropping all preps coverage.

So when Dearing says they're focusing on more local news coverage, he really means less...

 

[wicked]

So, who covers preps around there now? That would seem to be a $izable niche to fill.

 

[WolvEagle]

I'm told they are dropping all preps coverage.

That would be a huge, huge mistake - and that's coming from The Ann Arbor News' weekend preps/nonrev college rewrite guy for two decades. There was tremendous interest in the prep coverage when I was there. No, not the same as U-M's major teams, but still very well worth the effort.

If that's the case, I'll be really curious to see the community backlash.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

So apparently Pete Cunningham gets reassigned? I believe he was the main prep writer.




It was always weird with aa.com. They'd post their own stories, but they'd also have links to Freep or News stories as well as ESPN.com. That may have been their version of wire briefs, though, but still weird to see them posting links that would take them away from their site.