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Working with a regional design center

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by BillySixty, Apr 13, 2017.

  1. Lots of good people who go in there and do best they can every day. Lots. The problem is they were sold a bill of goods -- like we all have been in the profession -- and the end result for them has not been great. My comments are not generally about the people as individuals -- other than the upper guys who kiss ...well, ya know. It is discouraging to see people who were once on the frontline, fighting for the best product they could to go out the door, that have now been beaten down to the point where the operative word/measure... is out the door. Period.
     
  2. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Wow, self-portrait. So that's your contribution? You must already be in the Journalism Hall of Fame... or Shame.
     
  4. cisforkoke

    cisforkoke Well-Known Member

    Trust me, that's the apex of his posting ability.
     
  5. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    I like you benny cause you are not a buttkisser 9 to Fiver. I find it interesting that after many years of the buyouts and layoffs we're finally at a point there are more non traditional Journos in the business than Journos. Way more. So now we are at the point we're TOTALLY going for click bait. We're going for views, baby. Cmon, would everybody on here admit it's finally to the point we are all like the old NY Post. Going for the sensational so we can get the clicks. The one thing still bothers Fredrick though. Why don't the non Journos finally pull the plug on print?? Cmon, let's speed this up and immediately cut the print product to three days a week if we're not willing to eliminate it completely. Go for the Wednesday/Sunday sections and kill every other day for gosh sakes. Again, the pride is gone. The Journalism majors are gone, kicked out the door. We're left with the butt kissers to the nontraditional Webbie beancounters. So just do it for gosh sakes. You've sold the buildings; you've cut the pages to nothing; you've gotten rid of copy editors and designers and cut the writing staffs to bare bones. So for gawd sakes show some balls and KILL THE PRINT EDITION please! You tell 'em Benny!
     
  6. Thank you Fredrick... I mean no ill will to anyone (though some thoroughly deserve it)....9 to 5 is/was for suits... I am old school... u got readers expecting A, B and C (from having read your publication for years) and you go from providing all to B and A... to A... then to less than A when the cuts hit... has a certain dishonesty to it in MHO. Get some balls, pick a day...run a head that says WE WANT YA MONEY BUT WE CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET IT...subhead: Pleaasssssee don't stop buying our rag. Signed: Publisher Joe, I-got-mine-so-screw-you-guys.

    Amazing how many people are in decision-making positions who don't know what a pica is, how to edit a story, how to coach a reporter or that there are important things that readers want and need to know other than dogs need shots, don't eat raw burgers, IHOP be closed on Friday or we're haivng a special 12-page section of canned copy on the life cycle of turtles.

    Could someone please turn the heat down... I'm editing a story on air conditioning repairmen who double as Chippindale dancers and that might get Riptide riled up.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2017
  7. Observed more than a few of these in a long life.... asskisser.jpg
     
  8. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    You know, a lot of professions suck but Journalism should be ashamed of itself. All the superstar columnists and writers forced out either by layoff or buyout. And the ones who have survived (thus far) are the buttkissers. I'm not saying all writers are buttkissers; I'm talking about the people who run the sections and make life hell on the talented writers and columnists. Great photo there.
     
  9. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    A couple of points. Rip, I hope none of this stings too much, but I'm one of those people who watched my paper turn to the dark side, and I've seen the result. Although I have refused to pick up the paper since they turned my old football tab into a pre-fab shadow of its former self last August.

    1. Yes, I'm sure there are plenty of "good people" at design hubs. But the concept is flawed for any aspect of journalism other than keeping the corner offices financially content and fooling themselves into thinking they're keeping the genre alive. And man, they sure can fool themselves into thinking that.

    2. INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE. That's what we're talking about when we talk about what has been lost. My old shop had a Sunday edition last fall where three of the four prep football pages either had the scoreline somehow transposed or the school nicknames transposed -- because the people putting those newspapers together have no idea about the area. (I know this because of people screaming on Facebook, not because I picked up the paper.)

    I mean, these were iconic schools for the circ area. But those designers just don't know that. And in the same vein, they don't have that feel when Game A is a lot more important than Game B -- or that wrestling, or lacrosse, or rodeo, or sprint-car racing is a huge thing in that area, because it means next to nothing where they are.

    These newspapers, in other words, become tone-deaf because the design hub is not led by the hand by the originating site, which either has no real editors there or ineffectual positions.

    3. Totally a gut feeling, but I stand solidly behind it -- pride in the product is exponentially less important to people who are producing a newspaper 200 miles away from where people are reading it. They don't have to look those people in the eye each day.

    4. Fredrick, I agree with you in wondering sometimes why they don't totally pull the plug on print. But then I remember two things. One, they're still trying to justify the pressroom. Two, I've yet to see a business model where an online-only enterprise actually turns a profit. Print still pays the freight, even as it gets worse and worse because of ideas such as design hubs.

    I do believe the next step is for a Sunday-only print operation, sort of like the old Grit. Whether it goes away completely soon after that, I'm not smart enough to know.

    5. And finally, 9-to-5 may be for "suits," but you emerge from it a whole lot saner these days.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2017
    BurnsWhenIPee and I Should Coco like this.
  10. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    Yes, the industry is in the shitter. It's all been said before. And I agree with most of it.

    But don't shit on everyone else in the pipeline. Those design center jobs are tough, too.
     
  11. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    OK. Just so they don't spend a second of the day thinking they're "saving" print journalism. They're in it for their own survival, that and their families. Which is admirable in itself, even if it was done while stepping over the backs of others. But it's not about journalism.
     
  12. cisforkoke

    cisforkoke Well-Known Member

    I get the feeling Riptide is in the "I don't give a f**k" (to use his intelligent phrasing) camp on this one.
     
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