More MG News

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This is uncommonly disgusting on MG's part.

 

Something worse: those remaining in Reidsville/Eden/Madison that were not included in the newsroom had a meeting shortly after ours with the publisher.

No news about what that was about, but one could speculate that those employees were laid off (since it was but a handful) and that those operations are now going to be done either out of Danville or Lynchburg. And, that lone remaining building could be closed and those in the newsroom following the reorganization would be working out of the Danville office.

But, who fucking knows anymore?

 

This whole thing is heartbreaking on so many levels. First off, you have so many good people losing their jobs or if they're lucky, having to relocate an hour away in Lynchburg. Then you have the issue of how this affects the community. I don't see how this serves Danville at all. It's bottom-line driven. Period.
The R&B had already become a shell of its former self, just as countless others through slashing people and resources. No longer does the newspaper box outside Schoolfield Lunch, a Danville institution, sit empty. Patrons just pass around one copy and skim through it in a matter of minutes before moving on. Maybe that's just our industry in a nutshell.
Seeing as this is a sports journalism board, I can't help but opine on the effect this has on the R&B sports section.
There's been some damn talented writers come through the R&B over the years. Bitter, Warters, the list goes on.
I started in Dan Vegas in February of 2006 when the Bee was in rough shape trying to recover from a failed regime (as many on this board know about). Yeah, we got to cover the ACC, but what made the section great was our coverage of minor league baseball, high schools and Martinsville race week. For that first summer, it was just Drew and me putting out the section seven days a week.
We kept things afloat and built a foundation for a fantastic section once Matt Fuchs and Jason "Turbo" Wolf jumped on board. With Fuchs covering racing, Turbo writing tug-at-the-heart features, yours truly busting it on the Braves beat and Drew running the show, we had the best four-man department going.
I really believe that, and have never been prouder of anything else in my career than how we built something special there. But then I left for Newport News; Drew left for Averett; Matt for grad school at Pitt. Now, Media General pretty much leaves it for nothing more than a few bucks saved and a few less bennies to be doled out.
Another community suffers.
My heart goes out to you all.

 

I joined the shop just eight long months ago straight out of college and from everything that all those mentioned in the post have said, that is as close to the honest truth as anyone can get. Jeff hit it on the fucking head how much this paper has suffered - and now it will be reduced to a two-person section with the possiblity of a designer that has no clue how much each school and sport mean to the community.

With how much each one of us care about the product, it is sad to see how far things have fallen within MG and, more specifically, within Danville.

 

I got a pretty good idea of how bad things had gotten last May when Danville hosted the Big South baseball tournament. Because the R&B had no photogs left, Drew was out there shooting the tournament for the paper. I mean, this was a section that once staffed the heck out of the ACC and did a bang-up job of it, and now the SE was out shooting photos and worrying about laying out the Reidsville and Eden sections? Obviously a shame. No doubt, some great people have come through there, and it kills me to see it die the painful death it's dealing with now.

Heck, we're not sure who's going to be laying out OUR section with this new universal desk set-up. No idea how this thing will work. I mean, how long until we get the same treatment and we're just shut down and made into Richmond's Central Virginia bureau? Just so much uncertainty. Ugh.

 

Me too, Jeff.

Me too. :'(

 

I'm the same way. I don't feel the same way about any of my other former shops. The sports department was a disaster when I got there. People warned me it wouldn't be a good job to take, but the idea of covering the ACC and other big events was too good to pass up.

After five months the hapless sports editor was let go and Drew got the job. It was basically two, three and, when we were lucky, four kids producing the section, but we turned that thing around. The R&B used to do a heck of job balancing colleges and high schools. It used to do as good a job covering the Martinsville races as anybody. There have been a lot of bad days lately, but yesterday was one of the worst for me.

 

Ouch. I'd like to think I've been doing a better job than that guy did, but yet here I am, also out as SE after five short months in Dan Vegas. Had my interview with the Lynchburg ME and city editor this morning, and it went very well...at least as well as these things can go...but I'm taking nothing for granted. Hopefully I get one of the sports jobs, but if I land in news or on the copy desk, commuting to Lynchburg five days a week, at least it's a paycheck. Amazing how 24 hours can change your perspective on everything.

 

What would you say you do here?


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<sigh>


I laugh to keep from crying.

 

Well, the city editor is a woman, but the Bob on the left looks a little bit like Joe the ME. Coincidence, I'm sure. :

 

Don't know many of the guys down in Danville since Drew left, but it must be horrific watching something you helped build be knocked down with a flick of the White Tower's wrist..

Sad. So f'n sad.