Ann Arbor

Ding, ding, ding!!! Winner. I mean seriously, I can guarantee you I could learn how to post stuff on the Web faster than some of our "producers" could learn subject-verb agreement or spelling or other necessary elements of journalism.

 

Isn't the Free Press exempted from furloughs because of the union contract, rather than any generosity on the part of Gannett?

 

The Free Press is exempt from furloughs. The reason given was that because of all the staffing needed for this new three-day home delivery plan that Gannett excused the paper from it. But I think the Free Press is one of the few papers left in Gannett's empire with a union so that may have come into play. However, the union did sign off on the wage freezes but managed to squeeze an extra year on the contract out of them because of it.

 

I still believe the Free Press was furlough-exempt because there will be more drastic changes. Just a hunch.

 

Aren't most of your producers from a journalism background anyway? Or converted reporters/editors?

 

Well, if that's a "journalism" background, I hate to see the rest of what is coming out of journalism schools these days.

 

So, with much fanfare, the new AnnArbor.com has unveiled its logo: An acorn that is designed by a New York firm and looks like a bad piece of clip art. This is the future of journalism? Yikes.

http://annarbor.com/2009/06/annarborcom-introduces-logo-that-reflects-both-tradition-and-a-new-beginning.html

Also, the site appears to have hired Dave Birkett of the Oakland Press to cover University of Michigan football.

 

The comments are hilarious.

 

An acorn, huh?

The logo should be a parking meter.

 

Or a donkey.

 

A friend pointed out the logo's striking resemblance to a buckeye nut. That will go over well with the football crazies.

 

With this three-headed monster in charge and an Ed-clone working in sports, will the Huron River turn into the Lake of Fail?