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!

Tribune hierarchy unveils method to madness

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Andy _ Kent, Jul 21, 2008.

  1. Andy _ Kent

    Andy _ Kent Member

    Posted this link on my previously created thread but thought it might initiate more looks here. I don't know how I made it through the VERY lengthy blog post by Lee Abrams, but it really takes the cake.

    http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13490

    Thoughts?
     
  2. healingman

    healingman Guest

    I couldn't even begin to sit and read all that stuff. I almost wanted to turn Mike Gundy on it. Yech.
     
  3. VJ

    VJ Member

    I'm posting this without comment because nothing I say will be funnier than the words themselves:
     
  4. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    And that guy is making a six-figure salary.
     
  5. Andy _ Kent

    Andy _ Kent Member

    VJ,

    Yeah, that was one of the funniest things I've ever read, but you know what, there are a few more things in there that might even be funnier. Like this one:

    ???

    Huh?!? That statement alone gave me a migraine.
     
  6. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    The guy may be stupid, barely literate and no nothing about journalism, but at least he's trying, dammit!

    How many others of you toting six-figure salaries are conjuring up memos to save the business?
     
  7. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    I don't work for Tribune and I'm no going to defend what they have done but tell me if this is wrong?

    It just seems to me that they are trying to use radio-style promotion and apply it to print.
    This might be a stupid example, but at breakfast a couple of weeks back, a group of us are eating. When we went to pay, at the cash register was a promo photo of the morning zoo crew announcers. Just about every one of us at breakfast was in the media business and one of us — Hey [redacted] is a prize-winning sports columnist for the local paper.
    If I was Lee Abrams, I would find that to be a problem. And say that the paper isn't promoting itself very well.
    I would tend to agree.
     
  8. Riddick

    Riddick Active Member

    two papers ago, my shop was running a shitload of wire copy. and one day at a pickup game of basketball, a couple of the guys asked me why that was.
    now, none of the guys i played hoops with were rocket scientists. most of them didn't even have a high school degree. but they were smart enough to recognize that my paper didn't cater to them the way it should.
    and that says a lot.
    people notice.
     
  9. Sam Craig

    Sam Craig Member

    I loved that line ''grow stars.'' If you look at the list of layoffs at the Sun-Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel, there was quite a bit of star power let go. You want to grow stars and you let a Tim Povtak, for example, go. Puh-lease.
     
  10. VJ

    VJ Member

    The promotion aspect makes sense to me. Unfortunately it's the only one good idea among a sea of horrible ones.
     
  11. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    I might agree, if his newspapers -- at least a few of which are (or were) among the very best in the country -- hadn't just, um, let go quite a few stars, and many other solid and talented but often under-utilized and developmentally stunted other people.

    After those exoduses, well, of course he and his outlets have to find, liberate and grow more talent.

    What does he think the company is getting rid of?

    Oh yeah, a bunch of excess fat and chopped liver.
     
  12. Sam Craig

    Sam Craig Member

    I agree about the bit of promotion. One of the things newspapers should be doing is selling the hell out of their brand. I think newspapers that have a different name online than the print product is making a mistake. Tampa for example is tbo.com instead of Tampa Tribune.com, although I think if you type in Tampa Tribune, it will jump to tbo. The point, however, is that people should be thinking of the same brand whether they're going to print or online for the information. It should become ingrained in their head.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page