Perfect example of how wrong-headed some of this is

OK, obviously we know that a lot of veterans and people with institutional memories and all that are getting laid off. No surprises.

That said, unless there's some completely unlikely -- from what I read here -- back story, why would you be sitting around trying to continue to put out a product that people care about and lay off a guy like this:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article902609.ece

Even after all the stupidity we're aware of, and even as bad as it has gotten, this still makes no sense to me.

Not that anybody will be able to explain it satisfactorily. His age and high salary are the obvious reasons. But ...

 

As I said months ago, the Tampa Tribune is the worst big paper in the country.

 

Reveals or reminds just how little the folks running these operations know or care about what it is we do, how we do it, why we do it.

They have been, it seems, bottom-line focused in good times, in bad times and now in horrific times. If you don't want to keep and market your best and brightest, then you don't want to be in this business. Not really. You just want to be in a business.

 

Reading that I'm reminded of Michael McDougal in "The Paper".

"You work for the city. It was your turn!"

 

Those last two sentences sum it up. The cost cutting has gotten to the point that it pays no attention to revenue production. It's like if Ford cut costs by getting rid of its pickup trucks or Fox cut costs by getting rid of Family Guy.

 

and it used to superb

 

I really doubt most of the schmucks that make these decisions actually READ the paper.
And judging from the way the industry has gone they seem intent on discouraging others to as well.

 

FYI ...

http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/pages/resources/2008/11/ceo_summit_on_saving_an_indust/

 

YOU read something like this?

And god forbid the suits ask people who are in the field and deal with actual... you know... readers...

 

Pretty soon, you'll be able to drop that "big" modifier.

 

Getting rid of a guy who gets a standing ovation by the newsroom staff is criminal. I tell you though, management fucks who make cuts can be so brainwashed by years of Gannett management training they truly have no clue. These 10 a.m. meeting type people are almost like cultish zombies. If they would be real people and show some balls and not be yes men some of this would not happen. Think about it. Some major metros have more high school editors than reporters. Why? Because the editors are part of the 10 a.m. cult meeting audience. If the executive sports editors on here told the truth, they would tell me now that they'd like to strangle the people that run these 10 a.m. meetings and make the decisions on layoffs. Unless they've been brainwashed themselves.

 

It's awfully tough to lose a guy like Dan Ruth, and in fact, today's Tribune carried a column by Steve Otto (another longtime "face" of the paper) lamenting the loss of Dan and longtime reporter Phil Morgan. Phil was writing stories and turning in good work when the current hierarchy of the Tribune was turning in crayon drawings to their teachers (resist the temptation, I am talking about the early 1970s). I can only hope that whatever best and brightest remain here will be able to stay here.

A colleague and I helped last week's layoff victim in sports move stuff to her car. Longtime (am I using this word a lot?) desker, she was upbeat -- for a moment. Then the tears started, and I can't say I blame her. Another person in their 50s let go, and being in that age range, I have to wonder -- where would I possibly go if that happened to me? Very sobering. And that day still might come.

I feel like printing up Joe Williams' last few sentences and putting it next to my computer at work.