Writer - Abilene Reporter-News

Do yourself a favor: Search "Abilene" and read the many threads we've had about the Reporter-News in the past three years. Then make your decision.

 

i really don't think that's a fair statement if they indeed do have new management.

 

Yeah, I was one of the biggest proponents of the Abilene bashing, but this is a completely different story. I really think it's on its way back to where it was on the 90s.

 

I didn't make any judgment and I didn't bash anybody. I simply suggested folks take a look at previous threads about Abilene.

In fact, I enjoyed my time there and worked with some excellent journalists. I'd love to see the Reporter-News get back to anything remotely close to what it used to be.

I don't know how high up the recent changes went and I don't know the first thing about the current management.

 

Well, I can tell you for sure the editor stepped down. She was the main problem there. I'm not positive about the ME, but I think he is gone too.

 

I'll admit upfront that I no longer have any connections in the newsroom. Having said that:

According to reporternews.com, the current editor is Barton Cromeens. Now, unless I'm mistaken, he was the ME for the previous EE. All I know of Bart is that he's a good guy and was a photographer when I was there in the mid-90s.

However, if he was promoted to EE, it suggests to me that the folks pulling the strings might not understand how far the newspaper (and sports in particular) has fallen. Unless you've worked there or in the region, I'm not sure you can comprehend how far the fall has been.

Having said that, if Bart (and the new SE) have been given the keys to the nuclear suitcase and the go-ahead to use it, there may be hope yet. Because that department needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up.

 

This place has gotten a lot better over the last year since they fired the SE who was pulling them down so far. Friends on the inside tell me that Sanders is being allowed to run the dept. the way he sees fit. Coverage is a lot tighter and they are making an effort to cover the region like they used to. From what I have been told is that Brown made the decision to go to grad school sometime last year and is NOT leaving out of frustration, like many others had under the Burke regime.

The ME is still there and I've heard he is one of the candidates for the EE job (and is currently serving as interim Editor), but no decisions have been made and probabably won't be for a while. Regardless, I don't think he's going to keep meddling with the sports dept. It was a well known fact Burke hated sports going back to her days in Dallas and had a vendetta against sports as a whole.

 

didn't know you worked there in the past, which means you can say any fucking thing you want.

retract my previous post.

 

Yeah, Burke was the big problem there. I had a conversation with her once and all she did was rant about how the Morning News sent 30 people to the Super Bowl and had a whole two floors of the Belo complex and how bitter she was about sports because of her days as an editor at the DMN. I was just like "Wow lady, good talking to you."