1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

The Unheralded Birth Of The Furlough

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by IowaScribe, Jun 25, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. IowaScribe

    IowaScribe New Member

    Part three in the series, "Newspapers Aren't Dying, They're Committing Suicide."

    Enjoy.

    http://www.iowascribe.com/1/post/2013/06/newspapers-arent-dying-theyre-committing-suicide-part-3.html
     
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Gee, I wonder which company they're talking about ...
     
  3. GidalKaiser

    GidalKaiser Member

    Nail on the head. Again. Whole series is good.
     
  4. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Well done, IowaScribe. This part hit home with me:

    We're going through this right now at our shop. Whispers that people who make $30,000 per year (and haven't had a raise in five years) are overpaid, constant cuts and defections with no hope of reinforcements ... and all the while, the suits seem to be going out of their way to cut costs even more and make the grunt-level jobs harder. It's maddening.
    We had a huge round of layoffs, then a string of people leaving on their own over the next few months. Now we're at half-strength, the product is suffering, and people just don't give a crap anymore. It's one level short of open revolt. The ones who haven't left are looking to. My dream is that the day will come when there is literally no one left to put out a paper -- not a strike of any sort, just no one left on staff. It's also my biggest fear that I'll be one of two or three people left that it falls to to get the job done.
    For the life of me, I just don't see what the endgame is. To put out a crappy product nobody buys or advertises in? Is there some huge benefit to running off talented people to save a few thousand dollars here and there? Is there really that much difference, on a corporate scale, between an underpaid editor making $30,000 and his cheaper replacement that makes $22,000? It blows my mind that companies constantly cut off their hands to try and save their bleeding arm the way newspaper companies do.
     
  5. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    So many places feel like this anymore.
    You don't even realize how sick it is until you've been out a while.
     
  6. Colton

    Colton Active Member

    I work for the unnamed company and I am told my posts are monitored here, vital, after all.

    I just sent the link to everyone above me on the totem poll here.

    EDIT: By "here" I'm referring to my shop. Apologies for being vague.
     
  7. Uncle.Ruckus

    Uncle.Ruckus Guest

    You really should consider line breaks.
     
  8. Kato

    Kato Well-Known Member

    The Christmas furlough was Day 11 in what will be 85 furlough days by the end of the '13 third quarter. How will you be celebrating Day 100 in second quarter of '14?
     
  9. Colton

    Colton Active Member



    At this point, Kato, I'll probably settle for simply being around at my shop to be upset about the eff days continuing.
     
  10. SnarkShark

    SnarkShark Well-Known Member

    I really liked the other articles in this little series, but this one was particularly unreadable.

    Too glib, no line breaks and really fucking repetitive.

    Furloughs are bad. Got it.
     
  11. IowaScribe

    IowaScribe New Member

    It really isn't all that repetitive, that's an incorrect characterization on your part, but I'm sorry it doesn't live up to your standards. Will try to do better with the next installment.

    Of course, there's no real reason to drop an F-bomb on it. Are you unable to express yourself with civilized language? I think you ought to clean that up, I don't believe that's the way you would express yourself if we were talking face to face.

    I certainly didn't intend for it to seem glib, if by "glib" you mean insincere and unprepared. I am passionately sincere about newspapers and what has been happening to them, and there are few people who have experienced this destruction as up close and personal for as long as I have. No one else is writing or speaking out about it, and I believe it NEEDS to be out there. There are too many journalism "experts" out there blaming its death on the wrong things, and ignoring the confederacy of dunces that is really killing it.

    As for your own glib comment about furloughs, have you ever gone through one? Have you ever gone through four per year for half a decade? Do you understand the humiliation involved? I really don't think you "got it."

    Again, I'm sorry you didn't like the article, that's my fault. Hope you like the next one.
     
  12. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    Four years ago I was worried we were going to go to furloughs when cuts were coming. Instead, I lost my job. Furloughs didn't see so bad then.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page