Hammer dropping as we speak at the Sun-Sentinel

I take no joy in this, but we post such things. No news concerning sports yet.

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2009/05/sun-sentinel_hell_week_begins.php

 

One of the comments mentioned ASE Tom Christensen, who leads the desk. I know it seems easy to dump a mid-management desker, but a good night leader makes a huge difference.

 

If they're doing that, I can't believe it, but unfortunately, of course, I can.

 

He doesn't run the desk. He deals with content.

 

The guy who runs the desk is Don McMullen. Has run the night ship for more than 15 years. Incredible tenure in that awful fucking gig.

 

I found it incredibly interesting/troubling that the recent Orlando hit was almost all deskers. I wonder if South Florida is going the same route.

 

in our latest round of layoffs, management said it plans on making the writers improve in order to eliminate the need for copy editors.
I think that's the insane sentiment at most papers.

 

That's absurd, but I think blogs and the Internet are a big reason why a lot of papers feel that way. They think if writers are allowed to post stories to the net or blog without being edited first, the same thing can happen for the print product, which every place seems to care less and less about by the day. A mistake can be fixed on the net with a few keystrokes.

Truly sad. Not that I want anybody to lose their jobs, but implying that people don't need to be edited is just offensive.

 

That the higher-ups can't recognize the grammatical excrement that makes up (talk about a great double-entendre verb) the blogs.... Christ.

Why not just put up nude photos of local talent?

Seriously, put up an e-beaded curtain and start making serious dough.

 

On one of the design blogs it was noted that Tribune had come up with an idea called "module content." A module was a full, half or quarter page design using Tribune content and all the Trib papers were to start using them.
Since the company-wide redesign, all the papers went to a standard width and also use the same size for ads. Fonts are also the same for body copy and interior headlines.
The design desk in Chicago puts them together and ships them out. The local designer plugs them in like an ad.
The idea is to reduce the amount of manpower needed for design since the Trib bigwigs view copy editing and design as the same and places where they can reduce costs. Meaning laying desk people off.

 

It's bad enough they are doing the modules, which ram into each T6 paper's organic typefaces like a redux of Steve Atwater and Christian Okoye.

What's worse is the asinine notion that Chicago has the most talented crew to do such crap with.

Inside the cover, what a rag.