Hearst will maintain online P-I

Like the next person said, if it substantially reduces your pay and benefits, or somehow is unworkable, but you'd have to either present evidence of the same or you'd have to mention it somehow to unemployment.

 

I don't work there, so can't claim to know how people feel, but this macbre countdown would be tough to go through, I'd think. Today, staffers were invited to the roof for final photos with the globe there, and this story says people expect the end tomorrrow or Wednesday. Thoughts with everybody there:

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/03/09/on_thep_i_deathwatch

 

I was on the roof today, and am going through this brutal, open-ended death march. Of all the ways to shut down a paper, I'm not sure there are any good ones, but there have to be a lot more humane ones than this.

I've held it together pretty well, but I saw one of our photogs (a 50-something guy who has been there forever but I wouldn't say I know especially well) cry in a news report tonight. That broke me.

 

Having closed two newspapers, Arnold -- one without warning, one with a day's notice -- I can't imagine what it's like knowing the next morning the shoe might drop.

 

At this point everyone is begging for the shoe to drop. We just want it over. Drumming up the energy every day to work for a company that already quit on you is tough to describe. This weird clash of wanting to say "fuck you" but still having personal pride. Last week I worked on what was supposed to be my day off on the road, just to go get a single quote. I kept thinking, "Why on earth am I even bothering to do this?"

 

Inviting a bunch of newspaper people up to the roof -- any roof, anywhere, anytime these days -- is asking for real trouble.

 

"Here Mr. Ad manager.. come pose with me right next to the ledge..."

 

This just sucks. As a college kid who's just trying to break into this business, all of the sports writers at the PI have been really cool to me and never dismissed me as just some dumb student reporter. You hate to see it happen to anyone, but these guys especially just don't deserve it. Nobody does.

 

Because you're still a professional, even though the idiots in corporate management aren't. My thoughts are with you, sir.

 

At my paper, we had about a month between the announcement of our closing and D-Day. On the one hand, we were happy to have the extra month of work and the opportunity to be around each other (we were a small and very tight-knit group). On the other hand, by the end I think we just wanted to get the final day over with so we could move on with our lives. And we knew how much time we had. Can't imagine having to live with the worst-kept secret not being revealed until just now.

As for why we do it: The shit's ingrained in us. Too much pride, too much self-respect to ease the horse down the stretch, even if it's 50 lengths back of the leader. Plus if you suspect that this might be your newspapering swan song, you want to go out with a bang. I think that's how a lot of us felt, and accordingly, some of our last issues were some of our best. Quality in spite of everything -- in some sick, weird way, it's the closest thing you can get to revenge. I'm guessing that's why your last stories are going to be some of your best work, even if it doesn't feel like it now.

 

i still hope you say fuck you.

 

Oh, I still will. The minute I know my severance is secure.