The Only Job He Ever Wanted

My little girl ain't gonna be no journalist, even if she inherits my grammatical excellence.

 

Wow. Supreme work.

Thanks for sharing, Moddy.

 

Fehr was also supremely connected and used that to his advantage.
Poynter also has this up from Joel Sappell, late of the LA Times
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4533

It is much in the same vein.

 

Beautiful column. My heart breaks for this guy, but being in just my fifth year of the business, I'll never get to know the one he knew. Wonderful work and hope he keeps writing somewhere.

 

Another great read, Sappell's piece. This part caught my eye:

In all, since joining the L.A. Times in 1981, I'd seen seven editors and eight publishers pass through the place as I progressed through a series of management jobs after my years as an investigative reporter: city editor, metro projects editor, senior entertainment editor, assistant managing editor for interactive and, finally, senior projects editor. Not once did I consider bolting when buyouts were floated. I told myself, with a body of evidence, that the L.A. Times was simply too good for any one owner, publisher or editor to diminish, even given the hard economic choices that would have to be made.

That was always the rallying cry: "We'll outlast the bastards!" The feeling was that publishers and executive editors would move on in their careers or to their golden parachutes or early retirements, and we writers and editors would keep on doing what we did best, for the readers.

Pretty clear now, though, that the bastards -- and their heirs -- are outlasting most of us.

 

Just a downright fantastic piece. I can only wonder what mine will be like ... ah, forget it. I'll never have the privilege of writing something as touching.

 

I wonder if this isn't happening MORE these days, with all the buyouts and layoffs and the scramble to hire cheaply. If you get a solid college internship and do well, you might be more likely to stay on full-time than you would have been 10 years ago.

 

This was e-mailed to our entire staff for the second time this morning, both I'm assuming at the behest of the EE.

 

In his mind? I have no idea which way he's thinking.

But it's odd, since we're basically slashing space and not filling jobs to try to save money, but will likely still have buyouts/layoffs in the near future.

 

Couldn't have said it better. Fehr including himself, yet the deeper focus isn't on him.

It's a moving piece of work and a profound statement on the state of the industry today.