Mar 9, 2008

Sunday morning quarterback

When I started writing about last week's layoffs, I had simple purpose: To give an account of what was happening in an often overlooked corner of the Singleton empire, and one that has little capacity to report on itself.

When the first eight comments came in, I knew I had record-breaking traffic. After all, my daily readership generally hovers in the single digits.

Predictably, this number jumped when Kevin Roderick at LA Observed linked to the blog, but I've been more impressed at how the Singleton staff (former and current) has seized the comments section to air its grievances, mourn its losses and, in some cases, savage its perceived oppressors. I've done little more than provide a forum, which I'm happy to do.

But people are paying attention. So, what do we do now? How do we make the jump and continue to give this story the attention it deserves?

For one, I'd suggest we avoid getting bogged down in insider-y gossip and vitriol. Isn't that what the Unisys messaging system is for? We should also avoid boring readers with tales of how much we hate our bosses and instead put our collective wisdom on display.

After all, these papers, as ragged as they are, are on the front lines of the journalism wars. They are standing at the very crossroads many media observers fear the newspaper industry could be approaching - and they've been waiting there for a while.

We saw waves of devastating cuts long before Thursday's pink slips went out. The newsrooms have struggled to cover growing cities with fewer and fewer reporters (the Pasadena Star-News now has six and a half reporters for more than a dozen cities). We've applied the gimmickry of the Readership Institute and Newspaper Next to little or no avail. We've tried to "innovate" without any investment, suffered an unforgiving economy, saw our futures mortgaged for the next good deal, and watched as our top editors were asked to put business first. We have been asked to go "hyperlocal" without any resources and under the direction of an out-of-state management team. Any discussion of newsroom standards seems to be drowned out by a debate over how best to market a failing business. (I say "we" only because I'm a former Singleton employee.)

So let's drag it all out into the light, without fear or favor, and without becoming overly fixated on the men who happened to be here when the beast began to slouch.

One of my projects in the coming days will be to go through the many comments and pull out some of the gems for consideration. Here's part of an entry from now-former Sun columnist Wes Hughes:

It’s hard to look at the Universe when your own little world is in flames.

These last few days have been difficult for all of us but unless you were one of those hit, it’s no different from what is going on at every newspaper in the United States from the Los Angeles Times to the New York Times and from the Chicago Tribune to the Miami Herald.

snip

We are all in a state of despair, whether we are in or out, whether we are here or in the East someplace. The newspaper world has been turned on its head and we are powerless to do anything about it.

From what I’ve been reading, the situation is worse in the MediaNews landscape than other places. It was precipitated by Wall Street, which waterboarded Knight-Ridder until it panicked and put itself up for sale and dissolution, which tempted a smaller McClatchy to get greedy and develop a critical case of dyspepsia. To get relief, it put some of its new properties on the auction block, and Dean Singleton, who didn’t have enough toys in his playroom, snapped at the bait (excuse my atrocious mix of metaphors). That was all well. The country was in the midst of a real estate boom and everything was fine, lots of ad revenue coming in. But that boom turned into a burst bubble and ad revenue went south, and those notes were coming due.

If the mortgage is due and you don’t have enough income, what do you do? You cut to save what you do have. And that‘s pretty much what happened to us.

snip

We have to control our pain and start working on the future. Don’t shoot the messengers. We should know better, because as journalists we are the messengers. We bring the bad news to the world and sometimes it hates us for it.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gary, you are right. We must put all our resources to saving OUR newspapers in LANGland.

First of all, we have to stand up to our bosses when they say they want more with less. We need to have a collective voice and address our grievances ALL together. There is usually the one or two who speak up, but if we all do it together, we can maybe save our papers. We are all in fear of loosing our jobs if we say anything, but as you see, keeping quiet does not help. We have to stop being sheep going to slaughter. But how do we compete with other papers when we lack the proper people, time, resources and equipment to do that.

We need to demand that now that the papers have hit rock bottom, as per Lambert's quote, the right people with knowledge and experience, are brought in to help us come out of this hell hole upper management has dug us into. Yes, they have done this because each and every one of us in the trenches (maybe not all, but you get my point) has put 100% of ourselves to write stories, do photos, edit and layout papers, ell advertising, answer phones, clean bathrooms and everything else that comes on a daily basis. That advertisers are gone, is not our fault. Someone should have seen it coming and those who did not are too proud to admit it. And are still here trying to 'fix" as they destroy. It is time to get the right people in here. The right management who knows what local is and the right people who can guide all of us to a better tomorrow.

We lost many of the best in our business who knew the community and who knew what to do. Bringn them back or bring someone as knowledgeable as them. Management is not local, many now don't even live in our cities and don't even know how to get around.

The paper is still making money and if you are going to start from the bottom up, the best foundation has to be set or this house of cards will continue to come down.

Lambert, step down, let someone with years of knowledge, experience and the will to learn and see outside YOUR box come in and fix this thing for all of us.

Morale has been super low for a time now but everyone still comes in and works as much as they can. Treating people like numbers and garbage is no way to begin the new age of journalism.

If we get someone who truly cares for the paper and for people, someone who will treat employees with respect, someone who will guide us, believe me that every single one remaining will put their best forward to make this thing work.

We need to stay competitive with the major newspapers to make you money. Give us the proper people, equipment and time to give you quality work. You have taken money from these operations for too long without putting any back into. That is the reason you have not succeeded. Investing money in the right people that will set the stage for a better tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Do you really think Lambert is going to step down for the greater good of LANG and journalism as a whole? He's not Scrooge and LANG isn't Tiny Tim, not going to happen; the people in upper management got where they were by being who they are, that's not going to change.

If you truly want to bring about change you have to make enough noise that those in charge have no choice but to listen. And that's not going to happen with apathy.

This blog itself is a perfect example of where to start. By the author's own admission it has gone from a small unassuming presence to a platform for those affected directly and indirectly (as well as those unaffected) by last weeks events. I know for certain this blog has been bookmarked by editors and reporters at the PE and I'm willing to bet that many of those criticized have been reading as well; so keep it up.

Rather than huddle around the water cooler and air grievances in hushed tones out of fear of punishment, let it be known. Use blogs, message boards, and other unconventional mediums to get the point across that management's vision for LANG (for lack of a better word) sucks. It might be necessary for the paper to take several steps backwards before it can move forward but lets be honest, it hasn't been exactly booming as of late.

Mike Rappaport said...

Earlier in my career, I worked for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in its final 2 1/2 years.

What happened at the Globe -- historically an important paper -- was well-chronicled, but what it came down to was '80s go-go entrepreneurialism in the form of Jeffrey Gluck buying the paper for $50,000.

He had no money to operate and eventually started bouncing paychecks.

Things may be different now. Dean Singleton has plenty of money and wants to keep it that way, but when journalism turns out to be about the bottom line and profit margin, it isn't journalism anymore.

In my final few years at the Daily Bulletin, I constantly heard from readers that we had gotten away from doing the little things that mattered to them -- covering the local stuff, printing the stocks, keeping up with the news that wasn't headline-worthy or prize-worthy.

One of the reasons I was fired was that when people called and complained, I told them the decisions being made were corporate decisions and that the paper wasn't going to go back to the way it was.

I was a lousy corporate employee because I told them the truth.

The fact is, as long as Singleton owns these papers, they are doomed to more of the same -- more niche publications, more Web stuff, smaller print editions, smaller staff.

Within 10 years, maybe less, all these papers will be gone as we know them.

Anonymous said...

Mike, within 10 years almost all papers will be gone as we've known them! Well, maybe 20 years but gone they will be. Just as what was a carriage became a car, what is called a newspaper in the future will be a form of video display... just as portable and readable as the "dead trees" we pick up on our doorstep but constantly updated as it sits on your coffee table. It's content will be by a subscription satelite service ala x-m radio or Direct TV (they might be the providers. Who knows?). That content may be more "infotainment" than hard news but it will be what the subscibers want and nothing else!

I probably won't be one but there will be cartoonists (animators, probably) and all manner of commentary and news, local and otherwise. The "newsroom" will be any kitchen table or basement office the creators have availible. Their pay will be low but, hey, we all would do this for free, right? Well so will the blogger-turned-columnist/reporter/artist of the future! Huxley wins!

Anonymous said...

Darn right. This notion of a big, lumbering, expensive news machine will be a quaint relic in a few years, like the teletype or $30/hour unionized janitors.

I say good riddance! The modern economy demands a decentralized, volunteer press corps, which means bloggers, citizen journalists and the like. It's taking the news out of the hands of an elite corps of highly paid muckrakers and putting it in the hands of the people.

Anonymous said...

The search functions on the DB and SB Sun Web sites do not work today. Could that have anything to do with the pillaging of the online teams?

Anonymous said...

The issue of low readership at the Daily Bulletin can be attributed to format. Many editors have recently decided that people want short briefs. Three or four paragraphs on many stories. The editors simply want to pack it all in, most likely in an attempt to attract as wide a reader base as possible. Rather than say 10 fully comprehensive stories, they will cram 25 short briefs barely scraping the surface of what lies underneath. There are rarely hard hitting investigative news stories anymore. The features are nearly gone. And when we do get one, they are never accompanied by a photo essay. On-line journalism is supposedly the wave of the future. This notion of faster, shorter news and features is killing print media. It is an offense to the intelligence of the community at large to suppose they cannot digest a story longer than 300 words.

Anonymous said...

It is hard for me to care about a company that doesn't care about me....

Anonymous said...

This just in!!!!

Guess times aren't that tough are they Dean?

$25 million paid to Singleton families and his close buddies!!!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3ic6473397b3b8e940c7311a145ccbee20

A quote from the article:

MediaNews is using $25 million of the almost $27 million cash it received from Hearst to pay what apparently is the first-ever cash dividend of $10.98 per share to owners of MediaNews Class A shares, the SEC filing also showed.

Most of that stock is owned by the families of Singleton, MediaNews vice chairman and chief executive, and his long-time business partner, Richard B. Scudder, according to the company?s most recent 10-K filing with the SEC, which said the company has never previously paid cash dividends because of restrictions tied to its long-term debt level.

Anonymous said...

the story you mention is dated Oct 2007

Anonymous said...

Then I guess that means MediaNews had six months in which to infuse the new capital into the company and possibly save a few jobs now, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

Yes, but that's not the American Way...all for me, none for you...

Anonymous said...

Weren't those forced vacations supposed to stave off layoffs? Anyway, newspapers are dying a long, horrible, blood-in-the-lungs filled death. I feel very bad for my comrades who have more stories to write than time to write them. I'd say they could move on to bigger and better, but writing McNews, which they're forced to do, isn't going to get them there. It's a romantic idea that you believe this empire could be saved, but to be perfectly frank, there is no saving SGVN. When Singleton dies (and I hear that may be sooner rather than later) he'll leave behind a mess and well either have to find someone else to blame or just hold our noses and jump ship. I jumped ship months ago and in my life I know I have never made a better decision.

Anonymous said...

"It's taking the news out of the hands of an elite corps of highly paid muckrakers and putting it in the hands of the people."

Highly Paid?!?! You have GOT to be kidding me. Have you seen the paycheck of an average LANG employee? They can't have a cat because feeding it is too expensive. They drive bottom-of-the-line buckets and refuse to get them serviced for fear of how much it'll cost to fix, and most -- if not all-- talked themselves into hating kids so they don't feel bad for not conceiving just because they could never afford it.

Anonymous said...

It's actually true about the buckets and the cat.

Anonymous said...

I think everything points in the same direction: MediaNews is looking for quick money, and doesn't care about the product. But I'll take you up, Gary, on your challenge of trying to save the local products (and trying to be positive about it).

First, we can't rely on the "citizen journalists" and bloggers to fill the void created by the loss of "highly paid" (ha, ha!) professional journalists. Just wait until the first blogger is sued for libel and see what sort of a chilling effect that has. (And why wouldn't they be sued? They're "publishing," so they fall under the same rules, even if they don't have the same skills and experience.)

We can agree that readers can get their national and world news quicker online. So, what can local newspapers offer readers that they can't get anywhere else? It's simple: Local news.

If you want to find out what's going on in your community -- city council, school board, police and fire, local features, etc. -- you need a reliable, dependable local source. And if publishers expect to make any money while they're waiting for the magical Internet revenue to start pouring in, they have to get people to pay for it.

So, here's my suggestion:

1. Local, local, local. There are financially successful and solid newspapers out there, and they stay that way by giving people what they need, what they want, and what they can't get anywhere else. And, for a local newspaper, that's local news. (And, of course, SGVN takes the exact opposite path by getting rid of people like Bill Bell, Phil Drake and others who have become the face of the newspapers in the minds of the readers.) Why not put the local columnists on the front page?

And this also means more coverage of soft features, community profiles, neighborhood stories. Sure, maybe that smacks of "small-town journalism," but people read it.

2. Don't put everything online where people can read it all for free. Since the pay-per-view systems don't work yet, use the Web for blogs, reader discussions, and to point readers to the paper. Let the Web site be what it does best -- interactive. But don't give away the store online. Let the online readers know what's coming in tomorrow's paper, or the big local story that's running Sunday. And that also means putting some energy and effort and money into the online product. Don't just take the Daily News Web template, slap up everything you can find, add a goofy poll question, and hope people will care.

3. Reduce the world and national news to a page or two of briefs. By the time those stories come out, most readers already know about them. We're not just competing with the Web here.

4. Involve the readers. And not just with a poll question. Set up a reader committee. Invite readers in on a regular basis to discuss the product. And publicize that. Let them know that you actually care about them, and what they want. And then, actually care about them and what they want. We're not just making widgets here. People have a connection and a personal relationship with their newspaper. Use that and build on it. (OK, heck ... exploit it.)

5. A LANG-specific suggestion: Cut the layers of management. We've got SGVN, which is part of the Inland Division, which is part of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, which is part of the California Newspaper Partnership, which is a division of MediaNews. We need a four-dimensional org chart just to explain all that.

5. Recognize and reward excellence. Obviously, money isn't the reason we got into the newspaper business. But, like every other human being, we like to be recognized for our achievements, and to feel like we're part of the team. Again, my experience with LANG is that they prefer to do the complete opposite, managing through fear and secrecy. You don't create a successful product that way. Sure, it's not their job to make us happy, but it's in their best interests to have us working at the highest, most-productive level. And happy workers are productive workers.

My 2 cents,

MA

Anonymous said...

MA,

You bring up some good points, but I have to say that these napoleons (actual size and ego) will never listen to anyone's suggestions because they are deaf to the world. As long as they make themselves the only ones with the key to "a better tomorrow from the ground up" they will not even admit that someone else can come up with good ideas. They do admit they have failed miserably but only to those below them. I want to see Lambert and all those other big gig guys go up to Singleton and tell him what they said Friday. "We don't know how to do it and we have to start from the ground up" or something like that. Be a man, or at least as much as you can be a partial man, and QUIT. Tell Singleton you are lost and you have no idea how to run his papers. let's see how long you last. Another thing, for those in the future getting your separation papers with your unused vacation and some insignificant severance, don't sign anything and walk out the day they tell you they are restructuring. You can collect your payroll and vacation separately but don't sign anything. Get a lawyer and get what you are worth. Get all that back pay for working overtime without being paid for it. Get all that back pay for working through your breaks and lunch. Get all you deserve for being humiliated by your supervisors and other employees on a day to day basis. Everyone has a story to tell about verbal, sexual and general harassment from higher-ups and other bullies, so take advantage of it and use that to your leverage. Trust me, they will not want to F*%$ around with lawyers because they will loose and loose big time. When they see the line of attorneys lining up to collect for them clients, they will think twice about their restructuring practices. Like they did with Hope "rest-in-peace" Frazer and other more recent fired former employees who are now eating steak out of Singleton's checkbook.

Gary Scott said...

MA,

Thanks for the comment. Actually, I'm not advocating that we save "the product." In fact, I think one of the central problems is that we talk about the news as a product. It's a word that has slipped into the editor's vocabulary and turned discussions away from standards and quality and toward marketing and profit. Certainly the economy and Internet have done a number on the newspaper business, and it would be silly to be blind to this, but I think we have to get back to our founding principles before we talk about saving anything. When you let the standards and quality slip, what does any innovation matter?

Anonymous said...

In response to MA's post on 3-11-08:

Some very good points, and a good starting place to construct a roadmap to begin rebuilding, but there seems to be one thing lacking that goes unattended even today: Promoting the product to the people.

Can you tell I'm from sales? Anyway, there is a horrible perception among our papers and management that if you build it, they will come. Day after day we sit through meetings and brainstorming sessions discussing the latest and greatest of special sections and online offerings, yet nobody ever addresses the need to promote these products, not even to our existing readership base. When I or anyone else bring up this need, we are viewed as the killjoy a-holes who brought down the party. It's obvious then and there that we work for a bunch of idiots who tend to fall in love with their own ideas while shunning the rest of the world.

This is a very symbiotic relationship that we have in our business. We need editorial to write great stories that draw readers interest, we need ad sales to bring in the advertiser revenue so that we can all get paid (sorry, unlike editorial, the rest us of expect a paycheck for our hard work), we need pre-press & production to output this outstanding (?) product on a daily basis, we need circulation to get this product to the racks and doorsteps of our readership, and lastly we need the readers themselves.

It is painfully obvious as of late that we have forgotten about this last piece of the puzzle. Our papers have no presence in our communities anymore. No connection to the people. Any promotion of the product is usually handled by some hourly half-wit who could barely answer with their own name when quizzed (Don't believe me? Go see for yourself next time you are out and about).

Money will need to be spent in the future. Bombard the public with our message, the message that we are truly local and that we are better. Make them feel as if they are missing something by not reading.

You have to ask for the sale, otherwise you won't get it. This is grassroots, gorilla marketing at it's best. Good news is that it doesn't cost much, but it does cost. And right now we are not investing in this build up one bit, and it shows. Going forward, we need to be mindful that not everybody knows about or cares for our product (new to the area, bad experience in the past, brand loyalty elsewhere, etc....) so it is our duty make them aware. Management: Fall in love with the customer, not the product or your own ideas. We will all be better off for it.

Shintzer@hotmail.com said...

I started my career at the Star-News and am now at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, so some of you can figure out who I am. It's sad to see the Star-News reduced to a shell. Los Angeles IS its suburbs, but with the massacres at LANG and the L.A. Times, many residents will have no one monitoring their local governments or chronicling their small triumphs. The T-P has invested in the suburbs for decades. We have four fully staffed suburban bureaus, and we also publish free Thursday/Sunday community newspapers with photos of Cub Scout packs and such. Geographic diversity is what saved us after Katrina. We would have gone belly up had we had all our eggs downtown. This year the publisher tells us the business climate is not good and we're going to have to trim expenses. But at the same meeting he reiterated the lifetime employment guarantee. That's right - at Newhouse, you will not lose your job due to technological or economic changes. This is the first time in my working life that I've been treated like a human being. We're still doing straight-up journalism, too, unencumbered by some idea of what some consultant thinks readers want. Readers actually want 80-inch investigative stories about their communities, as evidenced by the overwhelming response to a recent story of mine. There are still places where the old values survive, but who knows how much longer they'll be around.

Anonymous said...

I was a reporter at the Sun, but I agree wholeheartedly with the issue of marketing. I used to BEG for swag to give to schoolkids when I would go and speak on career days. We're talking pencils or bookmarks -- and the marketing director HIMSELF would tell me we didn't have anything to give out.

It never ceased to amaze me how ridiculously cheap that paper could be.

For what, ten cents, we could give out a post-it note pad and a pencil with the paper's logo on it that would pay back in spades in terms of goodwill and getting the name out: "A reporter from The Sun spoke today. She was really nice. And look what she gave me!"

Not to mention that The Sun was regularly humiliated by the Press-Enterprise at the junction of the 10 and the 215, where the PE always had a billboard, often smugly slamming us or featuring the latest columnist they had stolen from us. The Sun's response? A nearby and usually smaller billboard with some horribly ugly design featuring some cheesy stock photo (DID WE NOT EMPLOY OUR OWN PHOTOGRAPHERS?!?) and lame/ineffective slogan. A photographer and I regularly came up with our own versions that would have been far better.

Something tells me it wasn't the "invisible wall" that kept marketing from seeking suggestions and ideas from staff.

Anonymous said...

see comments under santa barbara re sgvn

Anonymous said...

I like the land of the Fred's phrase. Probably land filled with quicksand. How's the margin these days boys? You can't cut enough talent to hit your numbers. Business will become much worse due to Ed, Mr. Invisible. Has anyone ever seen him? Would be nice if he brought one idea to the table on how to grow business. How's that Newspaper Next program working out? A lot of a waste of time and nothing to show for it. Great leadership! By the way, how's the margin? Watch it continue to shrink. How many of your newspapers will show a profit this month? Seems you let a lot of talent go where you are making money. Wonder if the big boss man Dean knows about that wonderful strategy?

And, your latest bit of class in having people find out about being let go prior to getting the tap on the shoulder should foster confidence and faith in the management team. Quoting from an old clip, bad team man, bad f-----g team!

Anonymous said...

it do appear that the bandini is still hitting the fan. when will it end? probably never.

good question, Dean, have you looked at the numbers of the individual newspapers and are you aware that the most talented employees are gone while the least talented remain in charge? seems like a bad way to run a company anytime especially in these tough times.

what is going on at sgvn? circulation was up, not for long, revenue was the best by a wide margin, not for long, and the people who deliverd those results are gone? amazing and quite foolish!

Anonymous said...

Haven't heard much on the newspapers next meeting that was supposed to be in Feb. Then moved to March. Could it be that was and is a waste of time. Speaking about a waste of time, as a former retail rep, how about that incredible waste of time called ad impact. What a juvenile effort. My sources at the Daily News tell me it is a giant bust. Good reps are leaving to do real work and make money instead of putting up with that nursery school stuff.

I also hear that the new recruitment plans are a giant joke. Picking someone with zero skills to run the operation added to a plan that makes no sense is a receipe for even greater losses.

Seems like the new commission plan leaves a lot to be desired too!

Of course, let's not forget the brilliant new product called Spaces.

Reminds me of that movie, failure to launch. How is that plan going?

Keep hiring that talent to run these programs and you will be saying by-by much faster than you think.

Anonymous said...

Mr Ed, are you happy with your decisions?

Do you think the facts were in the way?

Someone said it earlier, you do not have a clue on how to build a sales team and produce revenue, what you bring is zero talent and a track record of destruction and failure.

Anonymous said...

seems like the comments have dried up. Guess everyone is now ok on how things are going>

Anonymous said...

Gee whiz mr rossi, have you yet noticed that one of your newspaper groups stands head and shoulders above the rest? where have all the people gone who gave you that effort? Good luck with mr ed and his remaining cast of leaders. watch your weak margins continue to drop.

Anonymous said...

is it true that more chaos reigns supreme in the land of the freds and lang overall. appears that all of the recent mr ed hires are going down fast! new products are failing rapidly. one rumor has it that a new launch of spaces mag actually lost money. wow. why publish it if that is the case? how long can the so cal organization survive under the leadership vacuum? more defections from people who actually do something continue in finance and online. when will it end?

Anonymous said...

You are right. aside from your comments how about the bleeding of sales reps from this ridiculous exercise and waste of time called ad impact. Seems like down impact. A number of solid reps are going to leave soon because of the continued ineptness and total lack of direction. From the Daily News ad reps, what a huge waste of effort.

Anonymous said...

My goodness. What a shell the eastern lang newspapers have become, and, even continue to decline. What happened to all the localness of the newspapers.

Now, as a long time reader and news hound, I see the same lack of focus in Pasadena, San Gabriel and Whittier.

Local news was thin to begin with and not all that much better than the Times. Since it is disappearing and the circ rates are getting higher, seems like the Times is becoming a bargin.

I'd hate to see your circulation numbers in the next year or so. A number of my friends, long time supporters are leaving.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone left understand the newspaper business? Boy oh boy, if Dean think he needs to make cuts now, wait a few more months. All newspapers will be in the red. How long we he let the talented ones be axed while misfits continue to run the show? This isn't the economy, this isn't the competition, this isn't the internet. It is crappy management and a weak team that can't get out of its own way.

Anonymous said...

Hey,

Wasn't the press release announcing the land of the freds high and mighty on the two new wonderful launches of mi tiempo and inland living? Gee whiz, haven't heard much about them in the land of san gabriel. I bet they are losing money and will not get of the ground. What about it freds?

Are the collars around your necks getting a little tighter?

Anonymous said...

Geez, Larry, give it a rest.

Anonymous said...

As a former news staffer well prior to all of the downsizing etc. I am disappointed in the product that now is delivered. Recognizing that times change, there still is value in the newspaper, but, it is diminishing at an alarming rate.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone heard about the credit rating on media news?

Anonymous said...

Well, I guess as Ron Kaye said, all good things do come to an end. Best of luck to a talented and respected colleague.

I am glad to see that someone recognized that there is a publisher, sort of, at the newspaper not named Ed Moss. A bit embarassing to Mr Haynes.

It seems like all of the turmoil isn't helping the bottom line as the financial quagmire gets worse.

I believe it will be like looking at a slow motion car wreck over the next several months as the economic picture worsens. Also, it appears the senior leadership doesn't have the respect of the rank and file and who can blame them.

Only time will tell the tale of wise decisions or?