SBNP's sinking ship

From www.craigsmithsblog.com ...

Considering the fact that Wendy McCaw's News-Press is best described as a crippled ship trying to navigate the treacherous and stormy seas that are the newspaper industry as of late, it's astonishing that she regularly makes members of her crew walk the plank these days.

The latest example is copy editor Dennis Moran, who had been pretty much holding together the sports section, a department that has the ultimate skeleton crew.

Moran has been "suspended" by the paper for unknown reasons.

And perhaps coincidentally, or not, Moran is lead representative for union employees in the newsroom.

So if you're keeping score at home, the News-Press sports department is now down to two people.

Blake Dorfman, who is returning from Beijing after covering the local angles at the Olympics on his own dime, won't be returning to the paper. I understand that he gave notice while over there.

High school teams will start competing in a week or so. Will the News-Press "be ready for some football?" I doubt it.

 

as management types have said for years, "it doesn't mater. Just get the job done." But it is nice to see her eat a big ol shit sammich yet again.

 

I can't imagine if it has happened very often, but it's really interesting: What happens when they get down to zero in the sports department?

Perhaps it has happened at a small paper at some point. Anybody know if any?

 

Somebody on news side will get drafted.

To lurkers who stumble across this thread thanks to a Jobs board crosspost ... do not apply at the Santa Barbara News-Press. Just don't.

 

There may be some things writers might do on their own dime for a company.

Covering local athletes in China at the Olympics is not, or should not be, one of them.

 

When I got hired at my first daily, the sports department went from zero to one. Prior to that, they got somebody from the news department - all three of them spinster types who knew nothing about the topic - to fill in the section. They had no wire photos, so the section consisted of a stand-alone photo on the front, surrounded by whatever wire copy was on hand, in the order it arrived. And everything had the AP's hed on it, because they had no clue how else to do it. The day I went to interview, one of the lead stories was headlined "Blue Jays 2, Orioles 0." And this was in the Florida Panhandle.