More on Melissa Isaacson's Award . . . and the Trib . . . in her own words

Except drifting down with a golden parachute, marveling at all the crimson-and-flesh-colored splats on the ground below.

 

It'd be helpful to know how much time Isaacson spent at the Tower. It's possible she filed her stuff from home. If that was the case, then it'd make sense that she didn't meet the ME.

This may not be a popular thought on here, but it seemed like Isaacson's byline became more rare over the past few years. If there had to be cuts in the department, that may have been a factor. Remember Zell's twisted threats about byline counts?

She's a very good writer, but the layoff options were few unless you were to get rid of one of the beat writers. And it would have been foolish to get rid of someone like David Haugh or K.C. Johnson, whose bylines appear most in the paper. They're also consistently among the most-read writers on the website.

 

Renaldo, don't confuse the singers with the songs. The Bears and Bulls beat writers probably are among the most-read in the paper. But it largely is due to their roles. Those reporters you cited do excellent work, but if Isaacson had been on one of those beats, she would have been among the most-read as well. Never mind that what she did do, in terms of sports-related features, elevated that section on many occasions and made it worth reading. Many papers have dropped those types of stories, that sort of ambition, and that -- the reality of getting less and less -- turns off a lot of former and potential readers.

I guess this is where the seniority rules laid out by so many unions have their benefit (I realize the Trib newsroom isn't union). At least give a long-time employee the opportunity to shift into a different role -- let Isaacson move to a beat, if you don't want sports features anymore. Or even give that person the option of taking a pay cut, if you are determined to reduce payroll. That way, at least, it doesn't become a system of current managers saving their more recent hires, and likely favorites, first, at the expense of those who have contributed and become part of the institution over the long term.

I know people who are out on the street now when the only thing they did wrong was accept a lower-profile or newly expendable role from their boss, thinking they were helping the team. Or worse, just get hired by a boss who no longer is present.

 

Good points, and I recognize her worth fell in a different category than the beat writers.

But it'd be good to know if different roles were discussed with her. She was a beat writer before, why hasn't she been one the last few years? Isn't it possible she was offered a beat and declined?

I completely recognize the importance of feature writers but these crappy layoffs have to be based on something. Her salary was a clear target but I've got to think the overall equation of low productivity-plus-high salary played a part. Right or wrong, freaked out newspapers are likely analyzing what they perceive to be the worth of writers who appear in the paper only a couple times a month.

John Mullin's another example of a guy who used to cover the Bears and -- for whatever reason -- his role was reduced over the past few years. When the axe comes down, those positions become the obvious targets because the salary savings are huge and the day-to-day print product is least affected.

 

Her role, as feature writer (a job she used to share with bonnie desimone, i remember, not that long ago) was reduced, I'd imagine, because of thinner papers. And if the section's going to be thinner for the near future, then her position, a promotion from beat writer, was irrelevant. Also, I doubt they discussed a return to a beat with her (nor would she want one, i'd imagine, with all the travel having a family). If they cared so much to keep her, they wouldn't have axed her. She could have done more Web stuff. Plus, all the beat writers are pretty good right now.

The Trib sports section has lost a lot of what made it readable in the past year, from Sam Smith to college/football writer Terry Bannon to Isaacson. Now it's just beats, occasional columns, Morrissey and box scores.

To me, the real loss was the foreign service bureau; Paul Salopek only went to jail in a third-world country for the paper journalism. He was working for Nat'l Geographic in Sudan on leave from the Trib. Still...

 

That just about describes my situation in every way . . . and why my career here has about 14 days left.

 

Working at some papers makes a third-world jail seem like the presidential suite at the Waldorf-Astoria.

 

In her waning weeks at the Trib, Isaacson began writing a blog but it was less than interesting. I'd much rather read Sam Smith's NBA trade rumors that never came to fruition.

 

The bottom line is she was good. The Tribune now is bad, awful actually. She got the shaft. She's damn good.

 

I'm scratching my head wondering how the Tribune sports section could go from so drastically underachieving in its reputed heyday to now so thinned and mourned for its loss of talented people.

It did have good people who now are out the door. But it didn't always get the best or the most out of the people it had. For example, Melissa Isaacson, good as she is, wasn't in the paper a tremendous amount. That's where the grind of a beat at least gives you the protection of byline counts and column inch totals, just in case the barbarians above don't know how to discern who's good from who's not, who's productive from who's less so.

 

Don't worry, the hole left by all these departures will be filled by...Black Jack McDowell?

Oh lord...

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?articleId=31702

from the story:

The push comes just after Tribune cut dozens of newsroom jobs, including sportswriter Melissa Isaacson, who started her own blog last week. "They obviously have quite a challenge ahead of them building up blogs pretty much from the ground floor, even as they've let go writers who had followings," she says.

 

Looks like Isaacson found a new gig. I'm happy for her.

http://blog.melissaisaacson.com/2009/06/10/ah-home-again.aspx?ref=rss