The Web Coming Back to Calvert Street

News Item: The Baltimore Sun's Web operation (aka Baltimoresun.com, formerly the Website known as Sunspot), which is currently based out of Cross Keys in North Baltimore, will be moving to the North Calvert St. headquarters by the end of the year.

The newspaper's editorial/opinion writers, who are currently in another part of the 501 N. Calvert Street building, will be relocated to the second floor, where the newsroom is located. There'll be some shuffling of management reports, but that's insider baseball for the few score readers who read this lil' labor blog, so we won't bother with that right now.

The workers at the website are currently merit -- not Guild -- and for those who've been around awhile, know that this has regularly been a point of contention between Sun and Guild. The company has always argued that Web workers don't do the same jobs as newsroom workers, i.e. reporters, even though every once and awhile -- i.e. today -- we see Web stories with a byline that reads: "baltimoresun.com reporter." Wazzup wit dat?

Anyway, yay. We hope the company saves some money on the real estate move and makes some productive use of all the empty space on the third floor.

Some Kudos

I'm not speaking for anyone else but me when I say this, but it was heartening to see "Colorblind" on the cover of the "b" today.

Sure, it's no "Douchebag" cover that'll draw a lot of attention from the media world -- who needs that kind of attention anyway? Instead, "Colorblind" offered a collection of four short essays by African Americans in their 20s, or Generation Y, on how they perceive the issue of race.

The topic of race and racism is always simmering just beneath the surface in Baltimore -- and some might complain that the Baltimore Sun (Media Group) historically hasn't done the best job of covering it. But, in this case, it's good to see that the "b" is trying. I would look forward to reading more of this kind of stuff on my lunch break.

Reports

First, last week: a vague report from DCRTV.com about possible layoffs of up to 100 people at the Baltimore Sun.

That report has just lingered in the air, with no one really touching it.

Next -- today -- we see a report in LAObserved about 75 more editorial cuts at the Los Angeles Times coming down the pike.

Ummm, what's going on, partners?