Mark Cuban: your saviour?

Hell, a roll of quarters is enough moola to fetch all of JRC.

 

You think the more frequent discussions about the hard reality of layoffs are a bad thing? That having candid talk about the state of the business and the very real possibility of being let go has something to do with being "proud"?

Nothing to be proud of when people ignore the writing on the wall. No glory when people fail to plan in advance ways to provide for their families because they got complacent in a comfortable situation.

Don't be pissed now because the chorus of people who agreed with your standard "Hey, I'm happy! So stop bitching!" responses to posts like Joe's has dwindled so greatly. The reaper is showing just how indiscriminate he can be.

 

The link to the Time article at the end of Cuban's blog is just mind-blowing.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,860829-1,00.html

 

You are so misguided on every part of that post as to be scary.

Raging against the machine because things aren't going your way accomplishes nothing. You have improved no part of the situation by bitching. Period.

 

UH . . . no bitching in my post. I don't even care that you choose to ignore life itself, shotglass. I hate pulling the "reading comprehension" card, but you pretty much completely missed my point. How you - or anyone - can continue to hold the torch of "Don't worry, be happy; I AM!" in these times is baffling.

Just amuses me to remember how you always freaked out and acted like since you were happy, then everyone should stop being upset by changes in the business. And gee . . . turns out maybe a little worry and advance thinking about the future was wise.

Again, candid talk about how bad things are - and will continue to be - can only help hammer home just what we're all going through. And maybe help more people get out by their own choice, instead of by someone else's. If you call that "bitching," with no view to how individual situations can be improved, then I ask: what color is the sky in your shiny, happy newspaper world?

 

That's a truly sad outlook. I know a message board where you'd fit in just great, though.

Trust me. You've hammered home what you're going to hammer home. And, speaking for many who are too polite to tell you, we're sick of the hammering. It's the SOS.

 

"I know a message board where you would fit in just great." Oh, that's just golden. How often do you go there, toi see what he writes about you? Three times a week? Twice?

For the first time, I agree with DyePack. (That is what you were talking about, correct?) He had you pegged. And I'd have to look at his oft-repeated information about your workplace, but I wonder. . . has the reaper has found your little corner as well? It will. Yet you still forge ahead, smiling and unable to resist posting about how happy you remain. Good for you. Now let the adults talk.

You're confusing frank discussion with actually taking joy in what is Newspaper Life in the Year 2008.

I think we're all sick of it, shotglass. We're sick of so many of the same type of threads here on the J-topics board.

We're sick of other people's "solutions" for "saving newspapers" being discussed. We're sick of people graduating from school, coming here and having career questions answered with "Get out now!" But this is the world we live in.

If there is some chorus of people who are so very upset with such discussions, their rank and their voice seems to have become greatly diminished by recent developments.

 

I don't have your depth and insight, but here's what I have seen.

I've worked with those who go through their nights with a frown, predicting doom for the industry, pointing out everything that's wrong with their world. And eventually, some of them get out.

And here's the interesting thing: You see them three, four, five years removed from the business, and they're STILL going through their days with a frown. Pointing out everything that's wrong with their world.

I'm not wishing that upon you. Honestly I'm not. Just be careful, because it's like your mom said: You keep scrunching up your face, and it may stay like that.

 

Shotty, if I may ... how do you maintain your optimism when the industry is in so much trouble?

 

That, more than anything else, is the problem. You will always have some tension between sales and editorial. It is natural when one part of the business wants to be an unbiased source of news and the other relies on getting businesses to buy advertising space and customers to buy copies. Sales and production are rarely going to see eye to eye. But good industries find, train and promote good managers who can see the entire picture and find ways to successfully run the business as a whole. I don't know the particular reason, although I suppose that the industry probably hasn't paid as much as others for the caliber of people that have the skill set to be excellent managers. I don't know if Cuban's ideas for delivery would necessarily work. But I double-damn-guarantee you that this industry lacks the type of creative businessmen and women to make radical changes and try changing how the news is delivered. The newspaper industry is treating this like most businesses treat a recession: tighten the belt and ride out the bad times until better times come along. But this isn't just a function of a poor economy. This is about re-inventing an industry and realizing that the old methods are just a slow death.

 

Flash, that's an excellent question, one that deserved a thought-out answer. It's why I took a little while to form a response.

First of all, please understand that I am certainly not saying that the print product is in good shape. It is not. Now, I believe a part of this is a function of newspaper executives being dissatisfied with a lower profit margin than they once had. I think there's a lot of panic going around. But if the people in power perceive a problem, there is indeed a problem. They'll pass the savings along to us.

And I'm not immune to the blood-letting. To save Piotr the work he so desperately wanted to dive into:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/2217479/

Every day, I'm seeing people I've worked with for 25 years walk into the elevator for the final time. I do not take it lightly.

But here's my take. It's more a generality than a specific.

I'm helpless to stop this, for the reasons I've stated. If the powers that be want to push me out the door, I'm not preventing it. I've just got to hold on and hope.

If I just keep soldiering on and trying to survive this to retirement, I'm going to reach 65 and:

1. I'll stand an 82% chance of taking a dirt bath by the age of 79.
2. People are still going to be getting their news ... from somewhere. The Internet if not a newspaper.
3. The Chicago Cubs will not have won a World Series since 1908.

If I get on here and rail about newspapers and newspaper executives, and tell kids to stay out of the business, and generally paint a gloomy picture of the world, I'm going to reach 65 and:

1. I'll stand an 82% chance of taking a dirt bath by the age of 79.
2. People are still going to be getting their news ... from somewhere. The Internet if not a newspaper.
3. The Chicago Cubs will not have won a World Series since 1908.

In other words, would I rather be upbeat and see things unfold in front of me, or would I rather be fatalistic?

You know my answer.

 

Again, you confuse "discussion" with "bitching." An honest examination might sound like bitching to those who wish to ignore the world outside their door.

I didn't bitch, shotglass. I didn't wait for things to happen. I didn't hope.

I acted. I may have made the wrong choice; I'll find out. But I took my destiny into my own hands, without praying that I would get lucky.

I urge others to do the same.