Posted on 12/14/2006 12:06:14 PM PST by freedomdefender
As Washington Post reporters gird themselves for today’s 3 pm meeting with executive editor Leonard Downie, they use four words to describe the mood of the newsroom:
Anxious. Depressed. Restless. Angry.
And for good reasons.
A month ago Downie issued a memo saying the Post would have to “shrink the newsroom staff” and “renovate sections” and tighten the news hole. Translation: fewer reporters writing shorter stories at different assignments. Then earlier this week New York Times media writer David Carr, in a column about Washington Post Company head Don Graham, said, “Newsroom layoffs of an unspecified number are in the offing.”
Hours after the Carr piece hit the streets, Downie spit out a memo calling the report “flat wrong” and adding that he would “quash any stupid, false rumors like this one.”
But on the newsroom floor, there’s the feeling, if not the effect, of layoffs and dislocations.
Style writers have been shifted to Metro under a plan that seems to be gutting the features staff. Veteran political editor Maralee Schwartz has fled to financial. The continuous news desk, which shuffles stories between the newspaper and the Post web site, was disbanded. Will Sunday Style combine with Sunday Arts?
Then there’s the case of Linda Hales—her treatment blurs the line between buyout and layoff.
Hales came to the Post from the International Herald Tribune in 1988. She edited the Home section for a decade. She won the Penny-Missouri Journalism Award in 1991 for general excellence in editing.
In late 1999 she started writing a weekly Style section design column. Her essays ranged from chair design to makeovers of congressional offices to her take on Italian silverware.
When the Post announced its most recent “voluntary” buyout offers, Hales says she told editors she wasn’t ready to retire. Editors told her it would be best if she took the deal.
The word from Downie, according to Hales, was: “I see you on the copy desk.”
Hales, 57, considered her 700-plus bylines and her belief that a design column has a place in a “great newspaper,” and she fought for her job. At last report she had been assigned to the copy desk for Metro tabloid sections. Hales was not laid off, technically, but she certainly was shunned at best and at worst treated shabbily.
Downie was not available for comment.
To be sure, excitement and energy abounded all week at the top echelons of the Post’s national and political desks, as well as in financial, where Sandra Suguwara has taken charge.
Susan Glasser was assuming control of the national report in place of Liz Spayd, who became editor of washingtonpost.com. Bill Hamilton joined Glasser in remaking the political team, torn up by top writers defecting to other news operations. They hired John Solomon from the Associated Press.
But very few reporters or editors were awaiting Len Downie’s staff meeting with hopes of good news. He has become the agent of lowered expectations.
LOL~! you and me both - but that isn't the way to impress me with your sagacity.
I might buy you a beer, however;-)
Some of the richest people in the world are on the Board of Directors. Warren Buffet and Melinda Gates for starters.
Buffet once owned 20% or thereabouts of the Washington Post. I imagine he is disappointed that his stock has lost almost one fourth of its value over the last few years.
Washington Post egalitarianism seems to only apply to those not working for the WP. Otherwise it is capitalism at its finest and their proletariat better watch out for themselves since no one else will.
I'm afraid they will do just the opposite, and become even more pro democrat.
Like most newsies, she got caught in a lie-off.
...oh my GAWD!!!! is nothing sacred......bwahahahahahahaha....
I...(gasp)...must...keep...from..........gaffawing....must.. stop.....smiling....must....stop.............ROTFLMAO!!!!
Couldn't happen to nicer bunch of commie stooge reporters! More soon I hope and at the NYT too!
Deja Veu Veu, I think!:)
I'm weeping crocadile tears.
The Composts execs high priests and priestesses will become blood thirsty and will gladly become Aztec High Priests in their dealings with their underlings. They will eagerily use human sacrifices/firings to appease the evil Gods of the business world, the stock owners. Top management knows that there is no place for them to run to for a big paycheck. So they will gladly sacrifice the peons under them to stay employed until they too are sacrificed.
Now every Compost employee is just one personality conflict away from being sacrificed to the Fishwrap Gods, er, fired.
How many people can it take to carry the fax to the printing presses.
Perhaps it should be.... Deja pu-pu instead! (same difference, just smellier (like the WaPo has been for years)
So...the Washington Compost is laying off some of its staff.
It would be wonderful if they laid off ALL of its staff.
If your business offends 2/3 of the country, your business will eventually die.
Take a peek at Kurtz/Dionne circling WaPo's news hole.
Or is that Deja Poo Poo?
The water is a little too clear for the Compost News Hole.
Said the Reporters: "We met with Downie. It was a downer."
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