He writes:
The E.W. Scripps Company, publisher of my former employer, the Ventura County Star, has decided to “consolidate” the desk functions — including the page designers — of its three West Coast properties (the Star, the Redding Record Searchlight and the Kitsap Sun in Washington) into one department in… Corpus Christi, TX. Yup, Texas.At least 15 copy editors and page designers (some people do both jobs) dealing with news, features, business and sports will see their positions eliminated, along with the news wire editor. Supposedly they can apply for jobs in Corpus Christi… but then, that means living in Corpus Christi.
-snip-
What does this mean to the newspapers? It means there won’t be local people to catch local place names, history or other regional idiosyncrasies that good local copy editors can catch, nor any real “institutional memory” of local people and institutions.
For example, the city of Ojai (pronounced OH-high) in Ventura County has a now-closed burger shack, the O-Hi Frostie. An out-of-town copy editor likely wouldn’t accept the deviant spelling of the latter to see print even though it would’ve been correct. Would they know that “Mandalay Bay” and “RiverPark” are part of Oxnard? Would they think the name “Oxnard” is too weird and maybe it should be “Oxford” instead?
As Greenberg notes, MediaNews Group pioneered the consolidated copy desk, having merged multiple news desks into one for its Southern California papers and one for its Northern California papers. The company has yet to cross state - or international - lines.
(Comment on Greenberg's post: "Is it true that the Ventura paper is changing its name to the Ventura County Lone Star?")
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11 comments:
Don't worry, it won't happen anywhere else. Other newspaper companies won't consolidate regional and national, or international, copy desks, and other companies will not combine resources and build intra-company copy desks, utilizing common technology, management and office space.
What makes you so sure it won't happen? There are consolidated copy desks in Michigan already. Anyone who thinks it won't happen because it wouldn't make sense is delusional. None of the decisions being made about journalism are making sense right now. This industry is collapsing.
haha 2:56 you are about as sharp as all the journalism management right now if you did not see the first post as a huge LOL
My people will soon be seeing many jobs as Sahib Singleton moves his copy desk to India.
yeah, i heard singleton is going to move his copy/design desks to india. it's true. i feel bad for my coworkers who had to all go to san gabe and put in time and now will either need to move to india or lose their gig. all part of restructuring with the banks.
Not part of restructring with the banks...part of crappy leadership brought on by an inflated ego and not listening.
Moving to India isn't new. Why didn't they make that decision three years ago if it is the right call?
A huge LOL? Wow, that is one hilarious post. Does the writer work in TV comedy? Maybe that's why there's nothing to laugh at on TV anymore.
Sarcasm doesn't translate as intended in writing
I don't get it why "it won't happen" here but obviously it might, and do you think its smart to give ideas to journalism managers over the decisions like these?
These jokers will do the wrong thing nearly 100 percent of the time. And, they will keep doing it expecting a different result.
But it is happening. Scripps is consolidating the rest of their newspaper properties east of the Mississippi into on consolidated desk to located either in Knoxville or Stuart FL. The 'official announcement' will be made sometime in May and expected to be completed by the end of the fourth quarter. The Texas papers were consolidated last year.
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