Turning out the lights in York

Seriously .... just get it over with and shut down for good! This is such a disgrace. Saw it on Romenesko.

Digital First Media CEO John Paton told his employees this morning that “after a rocky five years, the newspaper industry is firmly back on its feet again.”

It is? Then why did Paton’s York (PA) Daily Record shut off power during work hours on Wednesday to save money?

Here’s the memo to employees from a Daily Record boss:

Hey folks,

As some companies do, the York Newspaper Co. has agreed to a voluntary brief power outage this week in order to save money on our electric bill.
mem
This will occur at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday and end at 4 p.m.

The backup generator will kick in, allowing us to use computers in the newsroom and most other machinery. But the lights will be dim and the air conditioning will not work.

I strongly urge everyone who can work remotely to do so. This is a perfect time for some mojo reporting.

Those who need to stay in the office might want to set up shop in the conference room, as we can flood that room with natural light.

With a little bit of planning, this should be a non-event for a newsroom such as ours. We have a great back-up power source, lots of experience dealing with such things, and a room full of smart innovators.

Thanks for your flexibility

 

I pointed this out in the Digital First thread:

It gets even better. The publisher posted a comment below the story complaining that they usually turn off the power in the press room at quiet times and that they were trying to prevent "brown outs".

And of course, she's upset Romanesko didn't call her first. He pointed out that he had emailed her and didn't get a response. And the first comment after the post points out that the memo specifically says they're trying to save money, thus, the publisher's attempts to spin are BS.