Protest: Smart Graphics, Compelling Color... Draws The Reader In

Hope Lost

Marla Cone, a prize-winning environmental reporter at The Los Angeles Times, announced to members of the Society of Environmental Journalists that she was taking a buyout.

"After 30 years at newspapers, including 18 at the Times, I simply lost hope," Cone writes in a heartfelt message on Romenesko's blog.

You know where to go for the whole thing.

Sun rallies

BALTIMORE -- Nearly 200 people gathered outside The Sun today to protest 100 job cuts at the company, a show of force that will not change the outcome of these sad events but that leaders hope will demonstrate to the community what it is losing.

Guild leader Tanika White held back tears as she told the assembled crowd of reporters, copy editors, designers, ad reps and commercial-side employees that the company was hurting not only us but itself by allowing so many talented and distinguished employees to walk out the door.

Wearing signs with messages like "The Baltimore Sun: 'Lite' for All," and "You Own This Place, Now Lay Yourselves off," the assembled group cheered on Ms. White and occasionally chanted, "Sam Zell, it's time to sell."

CWA and Guild leaders also spoke, telling the group that they stood behind both those leaving and those staying. And CWA President Bernie Lunzer reminded everyone that these cuts are taking place all over the newspaper industry, and that those who stay must fight on as best they can to keep the newspaper's quality intact.

M. William Salganik, a business reporter who was recently, as he put it, paid to leave, said he admired all of those who are staying to fight on.

"You're my heroes," he said.

It has been a trying couple of weeks at Baltimore's flagship newspaper, ever since the paper's new owner, Sam Zell, announced that the Tribune company would need to make deep cuts. The paper is seeking to cut about 55 positions from the newsroom. Dozens of Sun "content providers" -- reporters, editors, photographers -- have applied for the company's buyout, which is funded through the company's pension.

Sun employees are now awaiting word as to whether the company will also do layoffs in the newsroom and elsewhere to meet their cutting goals. In recent days, it has not been unusual to see grim faces, tears and general malaise in a newsroom that is generally collegial and good-natured.

Many Sun employees said they did not expect the protest to change management's mind about the cuts, but it still made them feel a bit better to unleash some of their anger and frustration. These employees believe that the paper is about to lose some of its most talented and experienced people, who are leaving "voluntarily" only because they fear what they will be asked to do if they stay.

Several reporters took the mike after Ms. White spoke to voice their frustration about the gutting of this great newsroom. Environmental reporter Tom Pelton, known for his incisive coverage of, among other things, the poultry industry, said he wanted "no part" of a newspaper that would rather show pictures of Miley Cyrus than tell readers about important global events.

Longtime education reporter Mike Bowler, who said he was a member of the newspaper Guild for every day of his 34 years here, also spoke. As he did, reporters from the Associated Press and the City Paper feverishly scribbled notes. At least one Sun reporter wished she had a notebook so as to provide a better account of events.

It remained unclear whether anyone was covering the story for the next day's newspaper, but several multi-media savvy Sun reporters were videotaping the protest and planning to put the story on their own blogs and Facebook pages.

New Job Listings Posted Over at

BaltimoreJournalismJobs.blogspot.com.... Local company looking for writer with med/sci and/or business writing experience. Another big Baltimore company looking to fill an internal communications position. Check back later for more listings.

Guild Rally, Thursday @ Noon

If you're a Sun worker, you should not miss this event. Bring your digital camera and snap photos. You can Twitter it for your friends, and post status updates to your Facebook page. Spread the word on the impending local crisis in journalism.

Baltimore Sun workers rally to protest job cuts, July 17, 2008 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Baltimore Sun workers rally to protest job cuts, July 17, 2008

Maryland General job open

Apparently, there's also a PIO job open at Maryland General:

Resumes should go to ssmith-johnson@marylandgeneral.org .

Jobs at Gallaudet available

Hey guys,
I think I'm supposed to post this stuff on the jobs blog, but I must admit to being fairly bad at all the blogging, so Gus, can you cross post? Thanks.
Anyway, got this today from a source. If it looks promising to any of you, please contact Ed. He's good people.

Tanika

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:44 PMTo: White, TanikaSubject: Very specialized, but good-paying communications positions are available at Gallaudet University
Tanika - I’m passing this along but there are some terrific opportunities available if a couple former SUN reporters or editors are willing to take the leap and learn American Sign Language (ASL). My former UMB boss, Paul Drehoff, has been hired to be the vice president of communications for Gallaudet University and he has at least seven positions to fill including a director of public relations and a director of media relations. You may be aware that every member of my staff here at UMB is a former reporter, editor, or news director. Over the years, I have learned that former reporters make the best media specialists because they ask the right questions and have the right understandings about what the news media need. In effect, we are translators between the university and the external news media. In the case of Gallaudet, they need people like Paul who can deal with the “hearing” news media, but also talk to the deaf campus community. Persons who are interested in these positions would not have to learn ASL overnight because translators are available, but they do need to make a serious commitment to learn. As Paul’s friend, I am beating the bushes trying to find that perfect person…a veteran reporter who may have a good reason for caring about Gallaudet because they have a deaf member of the family, for example. Ed

Ed Fishel
News Bureau Director
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Cell: 410-292-3925 Off: 410-706-3801

Head for the Bunker

Whew. Another tough day in the Tribune family.

The LA Times broke the news to its newsroom that 150 people will begin getting forced out today; the bleeding will continue through the end of August. I read about it at TellZell.com. The only thing I wasn't clear on, from Russ Stanton's memo, is why they get to roll out their drastic cuts over the next 45 days, while ours are getting done quicker than you can say: "When will The Sun unify its Web operations with its newsroom, like the Washington Post is doing?"

Hello... Is this mike on? Anyone. Hello...?

Moving on....David Hiller, the LAT publisher resigned today, too (see LAT story.) Or did he? LAObserved has his "resignation" memo, where he sounds resigned, but doesn't seem terribly thrilled about resigning. He sounds like a real gentleman, but honestly, so many top people have come and gone at the LAT lately that I feel the urge to craft a charticle to keep track of all the shuffles.

By the way, LAObserved has been doing a kick-butt job of informing the public and the journalism world about all the fast-and-furious changes hitting our big corner of the journalism world (check out Kevin Roderick's blog). Should Tribune newsrooms be dedicating far more coverage to this massive shift in our company's direction lately? I bet a lot of Trib employees are checking out LAObserved a couple times a day, right? Why aren't we covering ourselves to death instead of holding off-the-record meetings, tying the hands of our reporters from writing about them, and watching other media outlets scoop our own news! It doesn't make sense! Will people read more stories about the shrinkage of newspapers if we offer them compelling coverage of it? Would it be ironic if our circulation/readership actually rose if we did a superior job of covering the struggles of newspapers? This is all so meta. I can't think about this anymore 'cuz it hurts my head, so on to the next topical news item....

Which is the resignation of the Chicago Tribune's top editor, Ann Marie Lipinski. (See the Trib article.) Wow... as I write this, I'm having trouble thinking about the last time there was such big news coming out of Tribune, at least in my eight years at The Sun.

Anyway, though I may sound crotchety, I am so because I love my job and the people I do it with -- and I, like many of you, feel almost powerless in stemming the tide of what is hitting us.

But if you're are leaving the Sun, or the LAT, or Chicago or other Trib papers, there's a good chance you'll be leaving journalism for good. And I hope you're prepared for that reality or that decision, if it is yours to make. (TellZell just posted a good breakdown on job cuts hitting various Trib papers. It's no eye-popping charticle, but it gets the job done. Thanks, R.)

As I talk to people who left journalism years ago for other industries, many of them recount their times at newspapers as the best years of their lives. It is like that with me. It is like that with many people I work with at the Sun.

So, when we fight and question and express our anger, Trib management, it is not because we are trying to be wise-asses. It is because we love what we do. We fight because we feel someone is robbing us of not just a career, a future and a paycheck, but something that is dear to our hearts, something that keeps us getting out of bed in the morning. What type of people would we be if we didn't fight for the things we love?

UPDATE: I forgot to answer my own rhetorical question, so here goes: If we didn't fight, we'd be wussies. That's right. Wussies.