Colorado newspaper fires writer after ski resort exec complains

What if Lean Dean fired someone for the same reason?

 

Vail and the rest of the resorts up there are really, really hurting for snow. They lose big when there is no real snow at Thanksgiving, which was the case this year at the places I check, and I don't even think a lot of them will be 100% open for Christmas unless they get some major storms over the next week.

Gutless move by the paper, but ultimately a poor business strategy by Vail Resorts. You're a publicly-traded company and you WANT people to show up at your flagship slopes just to find out there's nothing but greens and blues covered scantily with fake snow and saplings poking through everywhere? Way to build your brand...

 

If anyone has a way to contact Berwyn, please PM me. I had a similar situation happen to me and I want to give him my support.

 

Agree with this. And I also believe (hope?) that the writer who called Vail's bluff will land on his feet.

 

It seems he wasn't fired for the column, but not groveling to the advertiser. Or telling the publisher to shove off after the reporter for a few days.

In a related story, someone on the board of my company said that editors now would have to go to the local car dealer and apologize for a story if it ticked them off. The member of the board was an editor for a major metro several years ago.

 

I had something like that happen once. After I left a former shop, I was still freelancing for them. I did a story about a guy leaving the local car dealership to sell cars elsewhere. It marked the first time in 50+ years someone from the family hadn't been working at this dealership. That was the focus of the story, not that the dealer fired the guy and caused quite a bit of controversy. I didn't even mention the fired part since I couldn't get anyone on the record. Story comes out, dealer calls the story "chicken shit" since it focused on the firing (not sure what story he was reading) and promised to never advertise in the paper again. I tried having a conversation with him, but he wasn't making any sense. I believe he does advertise with the paper still. He just wanted to vent.

 

Gotta love this response to Morgan's "explanation":

"What money-minded reptiles like you and Rob Katz don't ever get is that the world won't care if you've personally made a few thousand bucks more because of cold, calculating and cruel decisions like this one, which profoundly effect real people's lives. No, what you'll be remembered for is the number of good friends and loyal employees who recall you fondly. And on that account, you're failing. I'm having a hard time feeling sorry for you and the fact that you had to miss just another counting-the-money meeting today to deal with this episode that has left you the laughingstock of the industry."