Next Up - Cedar Rapids

Lord knows, that's the truth.

 

On top of the gigantic mountain of fail heaped upon our industry, the Gazette got an extra dose thanks to the area's major flooding this past summer, which wiped out a lot of Cedar Rapids businesses, and thus many, many advertising dollars.

Good guys down in CR.
Fuck.

 

That's the biggest reason I could think of for this, wi. The Gazette is a great paper for a city of that size and Cedar Rapids is a very nice place. Unfortunately, it also attracted a lot of water last summer.

Shit.

 

One of those writers was in my neck of the woods on a road trip just a few weeks ago. Damn shame for all involved.

 

Along with the cuts, both present and upcoming, the newsroom will cease to exist. All reporting positions will become "superbloggers" with a topical blog. From what we're told, the rest of this year we'll keep our current salary, but next year we're getting cut way down and try to sell ads on our blogs. I'm unsure if we'll have to sell or just market the blog to sell. I don't think management even knows yet, which means it will fail dramatically and more good people will lose their jobs.

The Gazette print product will then "buy" blogs from the superbloggers for use in print. Management has decided to separate the print product from the content. I wish I had more answers but this is as confusing as it gets.

 

WTF????!!!! So all the reporters are basically free-lancers now?

I sympathize with everything the Gazette -- and the Cedar Rapids community -- has gone through with the flooding.

But this plan is absolutely insane, BearDown.

 

The plan sucks and it will fail. Those of us who survived the first hit just wonder who will be next on the second when it does fail.

 

Wow. Just wow. Every time I think I've heard every awful idea this industry can come up with, every time I think I'm enured to it, they come up with something that stuns me.

 

Be careful. You might get your 'you're fired' notice via Twitter one of these days.

 

Marc Morehouse still there?

 

Yes. He made it through the cuts.

 

I had heard tell of this.

The new editor is a huge fucking tool. Let's tell it like it is.