Design Director Also Out At Sun-Sentinel
The Sun-Sentinel's staff reorganization involved more than the announced departure of Deputy Managing Editor Pat Thompson. Also lost in the reshuffling was Design Director Paul Wallen, who helped oversee the much ballyooed redesign of the newspaper and was also involved in the reorganization process until it cost him his job.
The 40-year-old Wallen, widely described as a quality designer and better guy, was hired away from the San Diego Union-Tribune by the Sentinel in April 2007.
These are just the opening salvos in a major wave of buyout/layoffs that is expected to be announced soon. Just weeks ago, Wallen was trying to assuage concerns of staffers working under him in the design department about a reorganization there. "If you have questions, concerns, or just want to vent please feel free to come see me," Wallen wrote his underlings in an email on February 3. "Also understand that things will come into focus better in the coming weeks."
It's a reminder how cruel this business is -- one minute you're reassuring the troops, the next you're standing in the firing line.
Speaking of the firing line, commenters in the previous post had a lot to say about Thompson, both positive and negative. Thompson herself responded, specifically to a complaint that she was unfriendly in the elevator (yes, that's how petty it can get).
"I apologize if I didn't speak to you in the elevator," she wrote. "That doesn't sound like me. I always speak to my colleagues whether in the elevator or anywhere else. Maybe I was consumed with trying to solve a problem that day, or frustrated about something, and didn't notice you; there are some metro staffers I don't know well, since I never worked directly with those folks. Or maybe you had done something that annoyed me and instead of smiling at you, I simply mumbled hi. Sorry it bothered you that much. It's true I'm not fond of chit-chat ...".
The entire debate is fascinating to me. Even as the newspaper business is crumbling around us and people are losing their livelihoods left and right, a snub in the elevator can't be forgotten. The quirks of the human condition never cease to amaze.
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His name is Paul Wallen, actually. Really good guy too. Very sorry to hear about this.
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 10:25AMthank you, and corrected. my apologies to mr. wallen.
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 10:35AMCould someone chime in with just how many jobs we're talking about? Have they converted all their story holes to templates yet? Have they started using Chicago Tribune national and world news pages yet? It's amazing how shoddy the communication is from management as to what those people can expect.
In the A section, Page 3 and several other pages are being done out of Chicago. Same with Page 3 of the daily business section and several pages in Sunday and Monday business. You'll notice that the type and headline fonts on these pages are slightly different. More pages will be done this way by the summer, I'm told.
As a poster on the "Pat Thompson" blog entry observed, Orlando soon will cut 36 jobs -- it's likely the number will be similar at the Sentinel. I've been told by someone with inside knowledge that the design and copy desks could be cut in half or worse. That seems awfully deep, but if all the Chicago content becomes reality, I could see it happening.
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 12:01PMTells you how stoned the thinking is....
Chicago isn't even the best paper in that city, and it is now dictating content and look for almost the entire chain.
I wonder if New Times will bite The Trib's idea and start pulling content and designing out of Phoenix.
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 1:08PMHere is what some folks, including me, predict will happen. Jeff Jarvis, who runs BuzzMachine blog, is among the chief supporters (although we would love this NOT to happen) of this scenario:
If they don't make some (what will seem to them like) radical changes in their website operations and content and news that appears in print, newspapers like the Sun-Sentinel and Herald will continue on a slow downward spiral and feel forced to charge for content on their website.
There has always been a strong movement for paid content behind the doors of publishers who HATE the internet. The New York TImes and LA Times are starting the discussion. Newsday is going to become a paid site -- it's been announced.
Then, once newspapers wall off their websites -- and havent made any significant change in their print products -- the real exodus will begin.
As Jarvis states: "There will be no limit to competitors. Readers, like water, will follow the path of least inconvenience. It's impossible to compete against free. Have papers learned nothing from Craigslist?"
Then, TV stations who have sat around waiting to ramp up their web operations beyond one or two or three people (yet, still have the same news content audience as some newspaper websites -- with two PEOPLE, yes, two people) will slowly ramp up and scoop up all the audience (with a few news blogs hanging around).
A large organization like the Sun-Sentinel and Herald will cease to exist. Their failure to change and learn about TV concepts and how those news organizations function coupled with charging for content will undo them.
Enjoy:
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/03/09/broadcast-buzzards/
Oh, and don't think I take pleasure from this. It is so frustrating to sit by and watch some relatively smart people completely ruin a business.
In that posted link a commenter writes:
"If your competition is learning your business but you’re not learning theirs, the results are kind of inevitable…"
Newspapers are not learning TV's business. That will doom them.
The scenario you describe is one I've wondered about myself and I think it's a very real possibility. I fear these boneheads at the helm of these bankrupt companies might go to a pay model out of desperation. Or maybe it's not fear, but hope, since that will truly open the journalism business up in a ruthless capitalistic and potentially hugely profitable free-for-all market. Conflicting emotions!
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 4:47PMFollow up to 'Also anonymous': What is doubtless even more disappointing and infuriating to the people who work for Tribune is that they've spent all this time and energy "reimagining" each of their papers with a corporate-mandated redesign, only then to have the end result in each declared an instant failure (not that a redesign would ever be enough on its own to change any daily's fortunes) and their jobs and future threatened by a consolidation almost all design and copy editing out of Chicago -- presumably with the Tribune fonts and architecture.
Now just think if they had consolidated the desks first. Think maybe where all that wasted time and energy on the Tribune redesigns could have gone, and also consider who might have been retained if Tribune were able to cut the production staff instead of the reporters and other content creators who were let go in the first big round of cuts.
Tribune probably would not be any better off than they are today, but if there was *any* sort of coherent plan at Tribune, that would have been the better move. Instead, you have Lee Abrams spending big corporate dollars crisscrossing the country for a year to cheerlead innovation through redesign -- like he knows anything about it. Notice he's not talking much about that any more, or newspapers at all. No, Lee has moved on to television, to see what damage he can do there.
I wouldn't even bet your money on the future of Tribune. What a rudderless ship.
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 5:31PMSo the SS, Herald and PBPost go for-pay online? Kiss 'em all goodbye. As a long-time newspaper guy I check them out once a day, just in the (very faint) chance there might be an interesting story there. Rarely is there anything even remotely worth reading. And why should there be, they've gotten rid of or forced out most of their best people. So these newspapers, which already don't even bother reporting most national or world stories and do a piss-poor job of reporting state and local news, are going to CHARGE $$$ to access their badly written, mostly irrelevant stories? I'm pretty much of a news junkie and there's nothing on any of them that's worth a nickel. If they think anyone is going to pay money for the crap they put out, I want some of what they've been smoking. Cuz you know it's some really good shit...
Posted On: Monday, Mar. 23 2009 @ 6:31PM... hit you in the ass on the way out, Writer.
Enjoy your life of self-imposed ignorance. Good luck getting info on the city commission from Google News or some hack local blog. Have fun learning your water rates jumped through the roof when you finally get your bill. Oops! Missed out on the public hearing because you decided democracy isn't worth the 50 cents to keep tabs on.
See, the joke is on you. If you say all we provide is "badly written, mostly irrelevant stories," then you're a fool for visiting the sites even once a day.
You can stop now. You're not needed. It's not all about you.
I'm sorry if every news story isn't some sexxed up, 50-word TMZ post, but good, local news is rarely sexy. It's difficult, mind-numbing information that just happens to have more real, close-up impact on your life than 99% of the national and world stories out there. Water and sewer rates, development and zoning issues are things more likely to affect your day-to-day life than the latest political "outrage" du jour.
And guess what? Nobody else is doing it like the boring, stodgy, "MSM" does it. Not the New Times (which provides a valuable service in other ways), not your local blogs, certainly not your local television station.
Go to your next city meeting. Count the journalists in the room. You'd be lucky to find two and both are probably unfortunate enough to be print reporters. Because people have decided they "don't have time" for newspapers, some meetings have zero reporters because we're short-staffed.
Where will you get that news if you decide papers aren't worth paying for? You think the Huffington Post or "citizen journalism" will move in and take over? Fat chance. You watch what happens when the first "citizen journalist" is handed a $10,000 bill for a simple public records request.
You call yourself a news junkie? I'm guessing you're more into the junk than the news.
To "Don't let the door" - Don't kill the messenger. "Writer" never said he didn't see the value of covering city meetings, etc., nor does he seem to be a fan of sexy TMZ stories. His point was that the stories that these papers cover are often poorly written (and the editors are to blame too for letting these stories get through) or irrelevant.
As an example of the poor writing and irrevelancy, on Tuesday's Miami Herald (and Sun-Sentinel) web site, the story about Miss Cleo does not interest me in the slightest. 1) As has been pointed out, she announced years ago that she is gay. 2) It sounds like she's lived in Lake Worth for some time now. (Odd that the paper would write about someone who used to live in their readership area (Davie) but no longer does. 3) Who cares that she's a gay activist?
The only thing I would have been interested in knowing about Miss Cleo is why she is still faking a Caribbean accent when it was revealed long ago that she is a Los Angeles native. The reporter mentions Cleo's accent but never brings up the controversy over it, or asks Cleo about it!
Example No. 2: Another story on the Herald site is about a mid-afternoon armed robbery at a Burger King on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. Now THIS interests me: I've been in that BK several times, and I'm shocked that a robber would be that bold (and stupid) to try to rob the place in broad daylight. The story, which has a double byline, is a mere seven sentences long and seems like it was written off a press release.
Even though the BK is located right up the street from the Herald, less than 2 miles away, no one bothered to go to the scene to interview employees, customers who were witnesses, or neighbors. There is not a single quote in the story!
And the writing? Here's an excerpt:
'The customer and robber exchanged fire.
The robber was shot dead at the scene.'
The rest of the story is written in the same staccato style. "Writer" is correct; why would anyone pay for such drivel? Instead, I'm going to get the story from TV, where I'll see interviews with eyewitnesses and maybe even find out more about the mysterious armed customer.
Newspapers MUST do better if they expect to survive.
Posted On: Tuesday, Mar. 24 2009 @ 9:14PMIt's easy to pick out a few bad examples from the front of any newspaper Web site. There's no doubt that some (newspaper marketing departments, which are partly to blame for the current downfall of newspapers) think that cheap clicks are the way to go.
But for every one "Miss Cleo", you have a takeout on the governor and lt. governor's mysterious travels and lack of transparency and accountability. You have (tonight at least) three stories about significant legislative issues (zero tolerance in schools, sales tax and gambling), and a variety of breaking news items (our bread and butter).
Look, I'm not a huge fan of some of the story placement/sizes for some of the stories. But I'm seeing a lot of selective criticism here.
And though you criticize the Miss Cleo story, it has generated significant traffic to our Web site.
Every paper has to strike a balance between, you know, staying in business, and doing good work. It's sad that's what it's come to. But that's the reality of it.
Need further proof? The top three rated television shows this week are reality shows and TWO of those are American Idol :http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/24/american-idol-dancing-with-the-stars-and-60-minutes-lead-overall-viewing/15090#more-15090
60 Minutes at #4 is heartening, but it's most likely a one-time bump from having Obama on.
What about the top 20 cable shows? Even scarier: http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/24/wwe-raw-hannah-montana-and-northern-lights-lead-cable-show-rankings/15073#more-15073
WWE in the top 2 slots followed by Hannah Montana.
I'm not advocating dumbing down newspapers and I don't think that overall you're seeing a huge push toward that (I'm sure many would dispute this, of course).
But these days you nearly have to trick people into reading unless the author happens to be JK Rowling.
There will be a time -- and I'm pretty sure it's coming soon -- that newspapers will figure out that it isn't quantity clicks that matter the most, but quality, local clicks that will generate revenue. You'll still see the Miss Cleo stories, but hopefully the placement will be less prominent.
Paul Wallen never hesitated to be an extreme ass whenever possible. I can't imagine any newsroom missing him in the least.
Good riddance.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 26 2009 @ 3:09AM
