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32 comments:
They got Amestoy? Hahahaha, suckers.
Good luck with the new job Louis.
Louis is a smart, new media-savvy and creative. He'll be missed at the Sun and, hopefully, will be as effective in his new job. It's not really about intra-paper competition anymore, but about effectiveness wherever you are.
In old country when kaptain abandons own ship we put holes in his water wings. Throw him anchor. -Vlad
I wanna go too!!!!
"new media-savvy"? Is that a joke?
Following whatever the herd is doing, including off a cliff, isn't all that sophisticated.
How's the Sun's website doing again?
this anonymous stands by the positive assessment. some other anony sounds mighty bitter.
Hopefully Amestoy will just walk out instead of giving two week's notice. Then The Sun won't have a chance to remove his name from the staff box prematurely.
It's easy to stand by a positive assessment when you don't let things like evidence stand in your way.
Of course, if you wanted to actually outline some of the miraculous accomplishments...
The problem is not with Louis. He and his staff did the best they could with what they had. They had limited tools and equipment to work with.
Their hands were tied.
As a former staffer once told me, MediaNews likes to hand their employees crayons and then demands the Mona Lisa.
Mr. Lambert better take a good look at this tiny insignificant little entry: IF YOU DO NOT FIGHT FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES, THEY WILL NOT PRODUCE FOR YOU. IF THE COMPANY DOES NOT INVEST IN SOME WAY IN THE PRODUCT IT IS DOOMED TO FAIL ... AS YOU, SIR, HAVE FAILED YOUR STAFF OVER THE YEARS.
And you will continue to lose employees like Amestoy who at least tried hard to take your product and staff to the next phase of journalism.
I'm not going to suggest that MediaNews or the upper echelons at the Sun had nothing to do with it. They're certainly even more responsible than Amestoy is for the state of affairs, but that doesn't automatically mean all the failures were theirs alone.
The fact you can't name a single positive accomplishment under his watch speaks volumes.
Would you rather work for a company that at least tries to do the right thing or for one whose CEO wants to send all the editing functions to Bangalore?
I have nothing personal against Amestoy, but let's be clear - he is NOT new media savvy. Ask anyone that worked under him and they will tell you he could not code a simple HTML table, let alone come up with a plan to exploit the web for the benefit of the paper or the readers. He was a good pal of Lambert, though...
While Louis did not do the coding and technical work, he was willing to make the transition into the online world when no one else seemed willing to do more than just post photo galleries and the day's stories online. He was never hired to be a technical guy (in fact, he was first hired as City News editor).
But he was willing to take charge of doing the daily newscasts, live video election results, podcasts, Christmas movie surveys and the like. He may not have always done them in a clean, polished way, but they were done.
it doesn't take a lot to delegate work for others...and where are those podcasts, video newscasts and surveys he had others do for him? That's right, canned!...as for the galleries and stories, you guessed it, still around.
Lambert develops these friendships with other managers, then can't make difficult decisions regarding them because he is too close. This is not a reference to Amestoy, who was a rare positive, upbeat voice in the newsroom. Lambert does the same thing with some community leaders. You can't get that close to people you're covering or making decisions about. As for the worker bees, Lambert is far removed from them. They aren't worthy. It will all come back to haunt him. Things are unraveling.
...and how many thousands did Amestoy spend on the stupid teleprompter for those little webcasts? Those webcasts that lasted for six months then died on the vine, I might add.
He may be a good manager, he might be a great newspaperman, but he sure as hell isn't new-media savvy.
Be it resolved that Louis innovated ample new video ventures for multiple newsrooms, introduced new technologies, took chances, scrounged resouces in a notoriously cheap environment, got projects in front of readers, and did a good job of managing up, which is essential in any organization. And maybe the company is not interested in video or innovations that do not turn a buck immediately (or turn a journalist into a special sections writer to turn a buck immediately). And, Louis handled all of his roles with enthusiasm and without the pettiness and bitterness some of the LANGsters, current and past, innovate so well. Maybe that's why he lined up another job. He's too busy to suffer.
I agree with the above statement. I know some of went on in the background (not that I was heavily involved) and I know that those webcasts were cut before they got a chance to really take off. Many community members were mystified as to why they were taking off just when they were gaining popularity.
I can tell you that it was not Louis' decision to end them. Ya know the thing is Louis doesn't need defending at this point because he's not one to dwell on these things.
As for the commenter who posted that Mr. Lambert gets too close to people, many of us agree. He does gets too close to sources and managers. That makes it difficult for him to be objective about about things. When he has to make an unpopular decision, it causes a rift or conflicts of interest.
Mr. Lambert ends up tearing apart his own close relationships ... relationships that probably should not have been close to begin with.
And I agree, things are unraveling.
Louie are you writing your own press releases now?
No, it be NOT resolved that Amestoy "innovated" anything. In 1996 a webcast was forward-thinking and creative. In 2006, it's merely jumping on the bandwagon because your boss told you to. Especially if it's implemented horribly with excessive startup costs and no clear plan for future monetization.
I'm guessing you don't exactly have a strong background in new media either, do you?
That has always been the problem with this industry. Rather than look for people with a background and understanding of web dynamics, they hire old media stalwarts and arm them with a few net buzzwords. The next thing you know these guys are rechristened as online innovators.
Unfortunately, the results speak for themselves.
Oh my God! Who's posting this anti-Amestoy stuff!?! Gary, if you're reading this, let me apologize now for the rest of this message. Delete me if you have to but ... YES YOU'RE RIGHT. LOUIS AMESTOY IS A HORRIBLE HUMAN BEING. I don't understand why the print-trained Amestoy couldn't innovate in a way that could put techies to shame.
Nevermind that he was given 1996 technology (is that date you gave us?) and told not to spend much or hire too many or expand too fast.
Nevermind that the bosses were not interested in hiring experts, like you must be, unless they dropped your price tag to what a reporter costs.
What did YOU want? More than $35K a year? Plus equipment? You wanna take a guess how much some of this keyboard jockeys and pencil pushers, the ones that aren't kissing arse, are earning. Give me a break.
But man oh man, Amestoy must had really done something horrible to you. Did he molest your pet? Did he mock your pocket protector? Did he hit on the girl you had a crush on? WHAT?!? WHAT HAPPENED!?!
Good Lord!
Don't get all butt hurt tough guy.
hahaha, i think you hurt his feelings...
I nearly fell off my chair laughing at the responses. The last two have to be the same person.
You think you know who your talking to? OK, I'll bite. Let's keep geussing. Nice post Mr. Lambert but who you calling "guy" What you can't see my girlish figure?
You're all wrong. The shot-callers hang in Redlands, at the Facts. That's the politics of this house.
Guessing games are a nice distraction, but not enough to ignore the fact that for all your talk there's NOTHING to distinguish Amestoy as anything more than just another buffoon who's way out of his element and failing miserably to even keep up with the pack, much less push ahead.
Forget innovator, I'd like a reason to believe he's just plain competent at this point. Maybe if I lower the bar far enough you can start using actual facts? Because so far all you've got are excuses for his failures.
...and for the record, you might as well call me Rumplestiltskin, because you're never going to guess my name. Unless you're Amestoy himself, I sincerely doubt we've ever met (and even if you are, I doubt you'd remember me).
However, since he's established himself as a resume-padder par-excellence (and I can't see a casual co-worker going cyber jihad over the issue), I can't help but wonder...
Wow ... this is a coincidence. Rumplestiltskin was a troll, too.
...I didn't think so. But thanks for playing.
The sad thing is that if you spent half as much time actually trying to be innovative as you spend talking about it, you wouldn't need to keep selling yourself. Your record would speak for itself.
Unfortunately for you, your record says plenty, just not anything good.
Come back in three or four years and I'll tell you how you can be innovative with one of those newfangled RSS feeds and AJAX pages.
If you're a manager at The Sun all you need is a good line of bull and Lambert's ear. Just go out to lunch with him a few times and act really sincere and deferential. Then go back to your department and play your favorites and don't return anybody's phone calls and B.S. your way out of every situation and cast anyone with the temerity to doubt you even once as a "whiner." Well played. Then you can stay there forever ... and that's just the punishment you deserve.
Amen to the above comment!!
I found Louis to be something of a retard. For Mr. Amestoy to have ascended from the hell hole that is Hemet, CA to the P-E shows you the depths to which a formerly respectable newspaper has sunk.
Unlike you (anonymous) worms, I put my name behind everything.
D. Bradvica
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