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Dayton restructuring: 10 managers demoted to reporters/staff

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by JoelHammond, Dec 15, 2009.

  1. doggieseatdoggies

    doggieseatdoggies New Member

    This place has risen to the top of the list of great newspapers in America in my book. A truly refreshing course of action. And it's always good to be an hourly person because it's much, much harder to fire them without excessive documentation....which is as it should be for the sports editors Freddie described. Those news people? Not so much, but what the hell. They're really working now.
     
  2. clutchcargo

    clutchcargo Active Member

    Oh, like I'm sure these managers have never had to do stuff like that in the past.

    I get a kick out of folks who look scornfully at managers, thinking they were born into that position.
     
  3. Riddick

    Riddick Active Member

    Don't forget, Clutch, some people are just stuck working for dicks. And sadly in this biz, more people have shitty bosses than have good ones.
    And a lot of managers didn't have to do a lot of the grunt work. I sure as hell didn't until I became a manager, and only did so because I felt I should be capable of doing all the things my staff can do.
     
  4. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    I look scornfully at managers a lot. A lot were not born into that position but did a lot of lip puckering to get there. If I was guaranteed to live nine lives I guess in one of the nine I'd be a butt kisser just to see what that kind of life is like.
     
  5. You come across as one bitter dude, Fredrick.

    Sure, there are rotten managers out there, just like there are rotten hourly employees. The kind of sweeping generality you make speaks only to your narrow, professionally-immature perspective.

    Good managers provide balanced, straight-talk feedback. They reinforce and encourage all of the good, and they provide constructive coaching to improve weak areas. This is called growing and developing people.

    Bad managers are concerned only with themselves, often at great cost because of a true lack of self-awareness. Not growing and supporting your direct reports not only hinders them, it will only lead to your own failure, not greater individual success. You simply can't be a successful manager/editor without the investment into making the people who report up to you better.

    The problem as it relates specifically to print journalism, is that the newspaper industry has accommodated poor managers/editors and reporters for far too long. ... The reporter who has been happy covering local women's college soccer because of his/her niche interest, and has been allowed to turn that into a "small colleges beat" or some such nonsense. And editor's happy to let that person sit there and rot in that role, because now he/she can tell a reader or their boss that "we're covering local news" with that beat.

    I've worked in eight different shops of all sizes. The issues were all the same. Very little accountability -- from top to bottom.

    Accountability is liberating. It keeps the good people growing and developing, it gets rid of the poor performers, and it sends a message to your top performers that their work is respected and valued.

    There just hasn't been enough of that behavior in newsrooms.
     
  6. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    Excellent perspective, sir.
    I'm just saying in the five places I've worked I have never experienced one of those "good managers." I am fricking serious, sir.
    All have been bad managers, yes concered with covering their own asses.
    How do you explain that? Bad luck? I have friends at other publications and they also regale stories of managers who became managers simply by kissing ass. There are managers in waiting at our shop who are beautifully kissing up to the higher ups in the hope they will be the next managers.
    The managers at our shop do nothing all day but read the internet and send out emails. That's why I think what happened in Dayton was quite smart. Now those managers have to produce something of value to the company instead of drink coffee and act important all day.
     
  7. Desk_dude

    Desk_dude Member

    I had a job interview there several years ago. I sat in on a long series of meetings with editors from different department. Lots of people in the room talking about the stories for the next day and Sunday. I don't recall much being accomplished.

    At most papers, this is what has and at many places continues to go on.
     
  8. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    Exactly desk dude, and these managers have been brought up in an environment where they are expert at acting important and convincing the people that do the hiring that they are valuable when it reality they do not do a fucking thing to make money.
    Dayton was smart to take these managers off the gravy train; can't believe they actually did it.
     
  9. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    The best managers are the ones who oversee from a distance and generally leave their subordinate departments (like mine) the fuck alone when the job's getting done.

    My company doesn't make me rich, but meddling in sports department business is not part of its culture and therefore I've stuck around probably longer than I should've (probably a fortunate choice in this era). My EE is an old sports guy and he gets it.
     
  10. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member

    You must be a Gannett lifer...

    Just kidding Gannetters. I actually know some decent editor types from Gannett papers...but most of them have been shown the door, replaced with coprorate shills, to be honest.

    So I can see how one may become cynical in one of the chains where dysfunctional management is pretty much encouraged.
     
  11. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    Great post.
     
  12. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Not every editor is an ogre and not every reporter is a wise ass who should get popped in the mouth. We all have jobs to do. Do your best and if that's not good enough, FUCK IT.
     
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