Tribune hacks and slashes and gouges

Geez. How sad. Good luck, folks.

 

As much as I liked Missy's sports stories, I think this was my favorite of hers.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-alzheimers-parents,0,1212268.story

 

Sadly quoting the recent web feature: Hey, Missy! You're fired!
A great takeout writer out the door. The last prep guy (Sakamoto) gone. Mullin and Bannon, football experts, gone. Plus top photogs and newsies.
Another rotten day at the Tribune. If I had a subscription, I'd cancel it. The least I can do is not look at their website, I guess.

 

Yep. That was a great one.

Can't wait for the new media equivalent of that the Tribune is now better able to produce. Maybe it'll be a video, or a podcast!

 

Another newspaper whose owner wants it to die. And it will. Why bother to read it. Four good sportswriters gone for an old rich fool's ego.

 

I become more angry with every passing day when I look at this board. The way execs can casually toss away people like they're taking out this week's trash is absolutely sickening.

 

And an oldy but goodie from the Zell profile in the New Yorker.

 

With no disrespect to any of the remaining Tribune sports staff, if you add to this list the previous departures of Sam Smith, Don Pierson, Mike Downey, Ed Sherman, and others I'm apologetically forgetting, that's a devastating loss of experience and talent.

 

I simply don't get why you would let go Sakamoto. If you're trying to promote local news, who does more local stuff than the No. 1 prep guy, who by the way, is known throughout Chicagoland by prep athletes, their parents, etc.

 

And then there's this juicy piece of news out of Chicago:



http://www.poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13911

Key graf: Another motion seeks approval to make incentive payments of approximately $13 million to approximately 700 individuals across the
company for their work in 2008. This is consistent with the company's
long-standing practice of recognizing managers, directors and others for
their work during the preceding year. These incentive payments are also
an important component of the compensation earned annually by these
individuals in the normal course of business.

The fact that they are seeking approval to reinstate severance payments for those who lost their jobs prior to the bankruptcy filing is heartening, but the above highlighted passage angers me.

 

Do the people fired today get severance?

 

The only answer is that it's cheaper to cover preps with stringers. As long as it gets covered they aren't real concerned with the quality.