The San Berdoo Sun sets on Paul Oberjuerge

Yes. Utah was part of his "route". Did anyone else think Alan's father looked like Peter Gammons? Ah, Fletch...

As for the main point of this thread, I didn't know Oberjuerge, but I was familiar with the Sun in another lifetime and came across some of the people he mentioned. I know this doesn't mean anything to him or change anything, but what happened to him sucks.

 

Oberjuerge was also the subject of a thread re: Christine Daniels, last summer

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/44727/

 

I knew there a reason I had a bad feeling about him.

Thanks for the reminder, dexter

 

Right now, I hear Mick Jagger and Keith Richards playing in my head.

"You're not the only one/With mixed emotions."

I'm not happy at all with his post about "Christine Daniels," but you'd like to think no one deserves being Lean Deaned. Even if he did something reprehensible on his BLOG!!!

 

I agree, forever.

 

Jesus that was depressing.

Time to drink some lye.

 

This isn't coming up on my computer, for whatever reason.

Can someone either send to me via PM or post?

 

Birdscribe,

Did you ever see the 10 tips? Because I also had trouble opening the link.

Looked around and found it via someplace else, though, several tries after having problems with their link to it.

My thoughts: This is so no-holds-barred that it's scary and sad, but, as Moddy said, probably accurate, too. I know there are posts of the year around here. Are there, um, links of the year? If so, this might be it.

So, in case you haven't seen it yet, Birdscribe, I'm doing a cut/paste below of it, along with three reader comments that were tagged to the bottom.

"Tips on Keeping Your Print Journalism Job"

“Ha!” you say. What do he know about this? He just got fired!

Got me there.

Actually, I believe I DO know something about this topic, after nearly 32 years in the business, 23 of them as a departmental manager — and at least three years watching the slow-moving train known as the Unemployment Local come at me.

I survived previous purges and economic downturns … and I rode out the first couple of rounds of the current purges. Never been fired, till a week ago. And I absolutely saw my dismissal coming.

Some of you may not be as old, occasionally wise and routinely cynical as I am. And I’ve given this a lot of thought.

Ten tips for staying employed:

1. Embrace the web. It’s going to be extra work, and you’re going to be on your own 24-hour news/opinion cycle. But that’s how it is; you can rest up when you’re dead. Management is keenly aware of the foot-draggers on this front. Don’t wait to be ordered to “serve other platforms” of the paper. Volunteer. Blog. Post photos. Consider video. Offer podcasts. Do web-only quick-and-dirty news stories. You’re a multi-media machine now!

2. Get a meat-and-potatoes job. This is an awful time to be an enterprise or general assignment reporter, or a graphics artist or just-another-copy editor. Those were important jobs, a decade ago; now, they’re fluff. Ask to take over the most basic beats. Cops. City hall. Schools. Recreational and prep sports. If you’re a production person, make sure you’re THE No. 1 copy editor; otherwise, make sure you’re a primary layout/pagination editor. If you’re a features person, consider taking a news-side beat. Hard news reporters and inner-circle production people will be the last fired.

3. Suck up. I never was any good at this, but it might have enabled me to leave when I wanted. Go to staff meetings. Speak up. Volunteer ideas. Send “attaboys” to your superiors. “Great paper today, Bob! I’m proud of the whole gang!” Make sure the person who makes the call on who gets fired next knows who you are … and is convinced that you believe him/her to be an inspiration, a visionary and a genius.

4. Flip side of No. 3, above: Stop whining. Journalism is a business notorious for its contrary and crabby people, for second-guessers and “that’s not how we’ve done it before” grousers. Five years ago you might have been overlooked as the Charming Curmudgeon. Now, you’re the Negative Nellie. When the call comes down to trash another 10 percent of the newsroom, don’t be the relentless kvetcher who immediately pops into the editor’s mind. Oh, and remember, “second-guessing” now consists of anything other than instant acceptance.

5. Produce. This is no time to coast. This is no time to insist you have more time to work on a story. Even at the metros. Get your byline in the newspaper at every opportunity. Like, daily. If your beat doesn’t lend itself to 3-4 bylines (at the least) per week … it’s time to switch beats.

6. Stop spending money! If your paper still travels, offer to stay in a budget motel. Rent the smallest car and eat fast-food meals. Never, ever “entertain” in the old-fashioned style of picking up the tab for other journos. As an editor, I always knew who would cost me the most to send on a trip, and it affected my decision-making. And, for god’s sake, stop padding your expense account.

7. Make sure your editor hired or promoted you. Some of you will say, “Hey, I was already here when Dave Dopey showed up.” Doesn’t matter. It’s your problem. Employers everywhere want “their” people around them. You become one of theirs by getting them to hire you, or by having them promote you. They then feel as if you are instinctively grateful toward them, and your open contempt for them might go unnoticed or dismissed as an incorrect reading. And if you can’t get New Guy to promote you … strongly consider changing papers. Yeah, it’s a hassle to move, but do you like getting regular paychecks? Thought so.

8. Keep your head down. When you’re not volunteering and sucking up and bustling about the newsroom looking busy … that is, when you’re not doing something overtly positive To Make the Product Better … keep a low profile. Don’t be the newsroom weirdo in terms of fashion or politics or religion. Don’t be the worst-dressed person in the place. Avoid being seen with known whiners or Enemies of The Editor (if any are left in your newsroom). Remember the Japanese proverb: The nail that sticks up gets hammered down … and left to consider part-time work at alternative weeklies.

9. Lose weight, tone up, get a haircut, consider cosmetic surgery. I’m serious. Quite. Layoffs are becoming unpopularity contests, and the obese, the flabby, the shaggy and the saggy are people decision-makers don’t like looking at. I worked for a guy whose loathing of overweight people was overt. I worked for another who made a guy city editor because he was handsome. You can save your ass by shrinking it.

10. Achieve excellence. Five years ago I would have listed this first. Now, it barely makes the list. Competence is a defense, but it no longer is first, second, third or ninth. But, all things being equal, if the cut is between you and someone else who is just as fat and bitchy as you are … the person who is better at their job will survive. (Till next time.)

See what you can do about those tips. I didn’t follow them all myself, and look where it got me! Do as I say, not as I did.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Responses to “Tips on Keeping Your Print Journalism Job”

1. anonymous Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 10:01 am

ugh. Sounds like some 1950’s corporate handbook. When newspapers become bastions of conformity, the ballgame’s already over.

Paul O., I can’t believe you wrote this?? Almost as bad as slamming that transsexual sportswriter.

2. One more for you Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

10.1 - Make sure you are there to watch a supervisor make an egregious comment about someone else or to you and document it. Document every little thing that others do that breaks the rules, specially if it is directed at you. And even if it is directed to someone else, make sure you are indignant about the situation. A little sexual comment about another employee, write it down. A fat comment about a worker, write it down. Anything is fair game in this business and you have to stock up on ammunition if you’re going to save yourself. Save all that and one day, you can roll out your list and believe me, you wont be the first to go.

3. Joe McCune Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

Paul,
I was genuinely shocked to hear you got the ax at the Sun. I read your entry about how it went down, and I wish I could say that shocked me, too — but, yeah, not so much.
Keep us posted on what you’re doing. And good luck.
Joe

 

I got this from two other folks late last night/early this morning, thanks for this, WB.

Frightening that it's come to that, especially the bottom-dwelling status of No. 10. You'd think that would matter; alas it matters less and less every day.

 

The link posted appears to be the link to whatever the latest blog entry is. The current one — basically relating in detail how he got cut — has some interesting insights into the current finances of the Singleton empire:

 

Interesting new entry for anyone who missed it. PaulO took out an ad on page C5 in The Sun yesterday. His wife relates the story of how hard it was to actually get the advertising department to take their money.

http://www.oberjuerge.com/?p=46

(If that link doesn't work, just go to www.oberjuerge.com and click on the one that says "Welcome, Sun readers!")

 

Oh, it was worse than that. On Black Thursday, the Sun newsroom was told specifically, and I'm paraphrasing, that "this isn't the time to be getting rid of people who can sell our product." I'll let you guess how that made editorial feel. Fuckabuncha corporate bullshit.