Your successor

[UNCGrad]

I left the newspaper side of the business for the SID world a year ago, and I'm perfectly happy with the move. But I also still get my former paper at the house (8-10K circ) and I tend to keep an eye on what is covered and how it is covered, compared to what I used to do.

Clearly, my successor -- a guy I know well and like very much -- has had a tough deal with the change. It's a Paxton paper (enough said), has had pagination taken from him for the hubs, horrible deadlines and there's been a change in leadership. But I still see things done that I would've been crushed for had I done it that way (or not at all -- Little League All-Stars, among them). I'm not bagging on the guy, because I know what he's up against. But it got me to thinking, what do y'all think of the people who have come after you when you left your gig?

 

[Bristol Whipped]

I mostly just sit around thinking about how much better I am than my predecessor.

 

[HejiraHenry]

It's not something I give much thought to. I have always tried to be helpful in those situations and sometimes that was welcomed and sometimes not.

One of my successors, at a long-defunct weekly in my hometown, now runs a high-profile NASCAR track and is sometimes discussed, perhaps half-seriously, as a possible future candidate for governor in his state. Obviously he was on a different career curve than me.

Neither of the two people who succeeded me in jobs where my departure was, um, less than voluntary went on to any notable successes of their own. This does not entirely displease me.

 

[Ace]

These days, most of us journalists won't even have a successor to lord over.

 

[murphyc]

A few years back I quit my job as editor of a weekly to take care of my mom in her final months. At the same time, I started up my freelance business. My old boss hired a guy with zero writing experience to replace me. I gave the guy tips and pointers. Initially he was very appreciative since he was new both to the area and to writing in general. He would ask for critiques and I would give them. He found some money to throw my way for some freelance work. All things considered, he seemed to be doing pretty well I thought.
Then one day he changed. He made absurd accusations that I was undermining him and spreading vicious lies about him behind his back. All I can figure is the stress caught up to him. I calmly responded in detail to each of his accusations and CC'd his boss (which he had done in his initial outburst). He sent a short e-mail thanking me and stating this was all behind us. He left shortly after that.

 

[Oscar Madison]

The paper is not your concern any more. Unless he/she asks, keep your mouth shut. It's time to cut the cord and move on.

 

[Illino]

I mostly just sit around thinking about how much better I am than my predecessor.

I also have been doing this.

But at my college paper, the sports editor after me yucked it up big time. It was embarrassing.

 

[JackReacher]

The guy I replaced at my first job is an NFL beat guy now. Couldn't even tell you who replaced me when I left.

At my second job, I replaced one hell of a nice guy who may or may not hang around these parts. Someone who, unfortunately, doesn't know the difference between Chinese and Japanese beers. :)

 

[imjustagirl]

The guy who replaced me at my first job is a tool (Hi, Bob Slydell!)
My second job, they didn't replace me.
Third job, I have no idea. They might have, but they might not.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

The guy who replaced me at my first job is a tool (Hi, Bob Slydell!)

What a hack.

(Hi, Bob! :D)

 

[reformedhack]

The fact of the matter is, no one will ever do your job better than you did ... even if they actually do. It's only a natural response from your ego.

I've been on both sides of the equation. At the newspaper where I spent most of my career, I was lucky enough to get promoted every 18 months or so. The people who came in behind me somehow never lived up to the grand legacy I left behind. :)

That's patently untrue, of course. Some actually did the job better than I did, because they had more of a passion for the role than I did. But I guess that's the sign of a good boss -- bringing in good people to replace you.

On the other hand, at the last paper where I worked before leaving the business, I was hired from the outside to replace a sports editor who had been promoted to managing editor. His title probably should have been Micromanaging Editor, at least where I was concerned. He and I never saw eye to eye on news judgment, although I do like him personally, so that situation didn't last long. I left after 10 months to take a job at a magazine ...

... and, to be honest with you, I never gave a second thought about how my replacement did his job.

 

[TwoGloves]

Kid who replaced me got canned for making up quotes!

 

[Beef03]

I have no idea about my first stop.

My second stop the paper has fallen to ****, especially the sports. We were always highly rated provincially when I was there -- always top one or two -- after I left my immediate successor neglected major beats completely, the guy that replaced him I don't even think has finished J-school. He apparently tries hard but is in over his head, and the paper is too cheap now to higher any experienced staff. I was actually Gomer's successor at that paper and I hope I lived up to his standard. The only reason I keep tabs on this paper is because it was my hometown paper, a paper I swore I would never work for, but wound up spending more than three years at.

 

[Madhavok]

Only one stop for me and I was 'laid off' because I didn't spend all day in the office or help with other departments. I was on salary - a ****ty one at that - and would come in the morning, put the sports section together, design/layout, write, edit photos etc, then leave. Then cover games at night and stay till ten or so getting stuff ready for the next day.

I have people come up to me when I come home to visit and say, 'You know Madhavok, the new guy never got the good quotes or come to all the games like you did' or 'You are a better photog'.

I pretty much have a laugh and try to back the new guy and explain if I were still with the paper, I'd be a miserable son of a *****.

It's all good. I love what I do now which isn't much of a career. But it's great.

 

[flexmaster33]

The paper is not your concern any more. Unless he/she asks, keep your mouth shut. It's time to cut the cord and move on.

exactly...put your energy into your own job and find some creative new ways to make things better at your job. No sense wasting your time looking back.

 

[ColdCat]

I had my first job in the biz when I was still in college. The guy who ended up replacing me had been in a few of my classes, and even in a group with me for a class project once. He complained to the prof because he couldn't understand why I could never meet with the group on a Friday night during football season. A year later I was in a much more relaxed radio gig and he was in my old spot and he came up to me at a basketball game and told me he finally understood the situation I had been in.

 

[apeman33]

My replacement at my first newspaper job was some sort of idiot they hired off the street. Apparently, his resume was fake. He didn't know that the low score won in golf. He ended up in jail one weekend on Colorado when he was supposed to be covering juco football and in jail another weekend in Iowa when he was supposed to be covering juco football.

The mistakes just kept piling up and piling up. I had left town by the time I heard about much of it. People were going in begging for some sort of change but the publisher never did have the balls to fire anyone. Coaches were offering to write articles themselves in order to keep him away from them. He was showing up at 11 a.m. to get the paper started when it had a 1 p.m. deadline. The managing editor thought he had a drug problem.

About 11 months into his tenure one of my former colleagues asked me what it would take to get me to come back. I told him and about two months after that I was back. But I didn't know what the publisher was going to do with this guy, since he never fired anyone, so I was making plans to find some way to work with him.

I had gotten pretty much moved back to town Monday of the week I was going to start up again. When I came in on Wednesday, one of the other reporters told me that the suck-sessor first heard I was coming back when our freelance photographer told him before the high school football game the Friday before. I guess he came back in and finished up the Saturday paper but he didn't show up for work on Monday and never returned.

When I met up with the juco basketball coach, he said that despite the fact that he had never met my replacement or talked to him even over the phone, he had somehow been quoted in game stories.

 

[flexmaster33]

Wow apeman...that's a doozy.

We had a guy with one of our sister papers not long ago where the coaches were offering to write their own stuff because so many mistakes were getting into the paper. We've since made changes both with staff and with the position in general.

 

[HanSenSE]

When I left my first job, I moved up in the company from a weekly to the juco beat at a daily. They guy they replaced me with seemed to like to write a lot of columns about the Dallas Cowboys and spent a lot of his Friday nights doing color on games on the local sportstalker than going to the games for his paper.

One week they didn't make it to a Friday game at all. This is a school, BTW, that often flirted with greatness, but this was one of their very good teams that I knew I'd be all over if I was there. I didn't learn about it until I was at a warmup banquet for the juco bowl game. The rep for the local cable provider saw me there, not knowing I'd switched jobs, and asked me to talk to this woman at the banquet about it. The woman dressed me down for about 10 minutes, even though I kept trying to explain I didn't have anything to do with it. The juco football coach finally calmed me down. And the next day I pick up that paper and, God help me, dude writes a column saying they covered volleyball that week because "they try hard too!"

Dude gets fired a year or so later. Team made it to sectional finals and, as part of a wraparound section, the current sports editor did a media prediction story, where just about everyone picked Shelbyville over hometown Springfield, except my replacement (who I guess finally got religion when it comes to football and had become a super homer), who was convinced Springfield would "shock the world." Anyway, at halftime, Shelbyville is kicking ass and, so I'm told, heads up to the press box and makes a couple of smart-aleced remarks toward the paper's crew there. One of the reporters had to step in and break it up, but, hey, he had been a lineman in the Ivy League.

 

[spikechiquet]

first newspaper job (was a No. 3 with no beat): No clue who replaced me anymore...
2nd newspaper gig (SE of a twice weekly): My PTer took over and has been SE for 3 years now. I still keep in contact with him and we are still buds away from work and I try to stay hands-off
Last gig (ASE of a daily): I moved from ASE to Night News Editor and convinced some neanderthal ****up to move from the beaches of Florida to the middle of a cornfield that had no newspaper experience other than in high school. After a bit of a roller-coaster year, he is now the SE of the place (Hi ColdCat!) and is doing fine...other than ready to jump out a window if given the chance...LOL