Saying Goodbye to People Who Knew All About AFDI

We've heard alot about AFDI, that acronym that's been shouted at us here in Baltimore from quarters out west. AFDI, or Actually F!@#$%^^& Do It, was meant to empower us. To give us the gumption to come up with ideas and implement them. Even as the tools and the manpower to AFDI get stripped away from us almost every week.

I'm talking about the heart and soul of our newspaper: our people. Our fellow journalists. My God -- do you all realize who have walked (or will soon walk) out the door of the Sun this week?

Sandy Banisky. Jon Morgan. John Fairhall, to name just a few. I can't even imagine some disaster hitting Baltimore without seeing their faces in the newsroom to help guide the stories.

You want to talk about AFDI? These three journalists are prime examples of people who got it done in Baltimore for decades. They did more to enrich this city, with their dogged reporting and great writing, then any Hot-L ever will. I certainly hope that our fledgling free, daily publication "b" succeeds, but seriously, even 20 years of "b" will not come close to the indelible mark that Banisky, Morgan and Fairhall -- to highlight just a few of the 55 who are leaving -- have left on Baltimore.

My colleagues: think about what we are losing and remember to mark this passing. It is truly a momentous time in Baltimore's recent history, this flight of so many probing, independent thinkers who are walking away from our journalistic enterprise. The loss is not only The Sun's, but the citizens of Baltimore. These are great minds, hard workers, seasoned veterans, and decent, humane people who actually gave a f!@#.

I know the time will soon come to focus again on the future, but ... we're about to say goodbye to so much institutional memory that it's frightening. It's like we're performing a partial lobotomy on our own collective newsroom brain. So much for AFDI.

But there is some decency left. Thanks to our top editors, Tim Franklin and Bob Blau, for taking the time to mark the moment for many of our esteemed colleagues who are leaving. It means a lot.

Sneak Peek At the New Sun

TellZell.com got hold of a presentation that discusses the Sun's "reinvention," slated to debut Aug. 24.

Here's the document, which debuted online at TellZell. Thoughts, comments, prognostications? Share in the comments section below. Everyone loves talking about their local newspaper, so let's start the conversation up right now.

The Baltimore Sun reinvention - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: The Baltimore Sun reinvention

The Hyperlocal Future

What else can we be now, but hyperlocal? But what does that mean? Can The Sun make enough money to thrive if we're all about hyperlocal news? And can we do it well enough so that we not only hook readers, but keep them absolutely plugged in and virtually addicted to our news content for hours each day, at work and at home?

I thought I'd post some links to some recent thoughts in the blogosphere on what it means to be doing hyperlocal journalism. Read at your leisure. But you may notice a common theme that the writers have, which is that great, original, newsworthy content -- produced by people who really know a community -- really does matter.

• "Tag A Site Hyperlocal And It's Doomed."
  
  
• Tribune Should Hire This Guy (Rob Curley)
  
  
• "Cracking The Local Market"(a rundown of hyperlocal sites, such as Topix)
  
  
• Hyperlocal News Fails Without Locals -- one of my favorite posts, whichtakes the perspective that the Washington Post's experiment with hyperlocal in Loudoun County failed because it didn't have enough "locals" who knew how to make the site really resonate with readers. Hmmmm. Something to think about.
  

That's all for now. Happy monday.

Young Journalists

Those young journalists. Tsk-tsk. If we're not laying them off, they're leaving us because we -- newspapers, that is -- are too slow to change and adapt to the Internets.

Check out this interesting blog post by Mark Glaser, over at MediaShift. Glaser does a fascinating Q&A with Vickey Williams, a veteran journalist now affiliated with the Media Management Center at Northwestern University, where she is director of its Digital Workforce Initiative.

Glaser highlighted this quote from a report called "All Eyes Forward," about newsrooms working on reinventing themselves -- I mean, seriously reinventing themselves -- from the ground up:

"While a certain amount of turnover is expected and normal among the youngest practitioners of any craft — in pursuit of career advancement or reflecting a simple change of heart — these messages seemed different in both volume and intensity. A majority of younger journalists (age 29 and below) in nearly every pilot seemed to us to be saying, “We’re leaving because the changes we see as necessary aren’t happening fast enough."

The report, though longish, is a fascinating read (you'll find the PDF link in Glaser's post.) Ten smallish newspapers volunteered to reinvent their culture and position themselves better for change and survival. If you care about journalism, it's worth a glance.

SunGuildTV Debuts!

Guild members produced a video of the July 17 rally, which was held to protest the 100 job cuts that were so inelegantly jammed down workers' throats by Tribune.

Watch the inaugural video here, then tune in to SunGuildTV (at www.youtube.com/sunguildtv) to watch more videos by the Communications Workers of America. (My favorite one involves the Washington Post.)

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.

The Measure of a Company

As I watched a few of my colleagues break down and cry today in the newsroom, I couldn't help but think: How did we come to this?

And I thought: Here I am, at a once-great Maryland company, and we're down-sizing. Scores of my colleagues -- lovers of truth, the printed word, and fairness -- will soon walk out onto North Calvert Street, and never return to journalism again.

This is not right-sizing. Nothing about this is right.

These people at The Sun who have been here until now... they love what they do. They do it extremely well. They probably should've left Tribune a looooong time ago. But they stuck around, hoping and trusting and believing that our well-paid executive leadership would get us out of this jam. They stuck around because they still got a kick out of reporting in Baltimore.

They stuck around because being a reporter truly is the life of kings. (Thanks, Mencken)

But when it was time for them to go, our publisher, Timothy E. Ryan, gave them 12 days to decide on their future. Twelve days to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and -- for many who are in the middle of their careers -- to try to find another way to put food on the table for their families and pay their mortgages in one of the toughest job markets in years.

What happened today... the loss is incalculable. Sure, Tribune will get its numbers. They always do.

But you can't put a price on what was lost today.

Thanks, Sun.

Vote in the Buyout Poll Before Tomorrow

Please help your fellow Guild members get a sense of who is/is not taking the buyout. Go to the jobs blog and vote in the anonymous poll.

So far, 14 people have cast their votes -- and the results may surprise you. No, shock you. No, they will absolutely, positively make you think: this poll needs to be in the Hot-L! Stat!

Okay, I'll cut it with the hyperbole. Just go vote. We're all curious. Thanks.

"We Need to be in one building so we can learn what the other does..."

And now, ye' faithful News of the Sun subscribers, our first-ever Pop News Quiz:

Who said the phrase that's the title of this blog post: "We need to be in one building so we can learn what the other does"?

First person to scour the Internet, find the reference in a very recent news article and post the link in the comments below (with a short synopsis of the article) gets a free cup of coffee and a cookie from me tomorrow!

Ready....
Set.....

GO!

P.S. All Pop News Quizzes are open to both Guild and non-Guild Sun employees. You can't win if you don't play.

P.P.S. If you're not a Sun employee but want to show your smarts, send your response to gussentementes(at)gmail(dot)com. Just don't ruin the contest for my colleagues. Thanks!

Job Posting: Assistant PR Director at Local University

Check out the listing at BaltimoreJournalismJobs.blogspot.com. They're seeking someone with some multimedia savvy -- not a lot.

Reinvent yourself meeting

The Gus meeting to discuss what we do next with our lives is at 415 St. Paul Place.
If you're going, best way is to walk up the hill directly acorss from our front steps, make a left at the top of the hill, and it's about a block down the road. Guild office is upstairs.

For those of you who couldn't make the lunchtime meeting, I may be able to post a summary of it. i wasn't there, but i think someone is doing a bulletin on what was said...

And Don't Forget ....

In addition to the Q&A on the buyout packet tomorrow (see details in previous post), some friendly ex-journalists will be sharing their wisdom on how to find a job outside of newspapers.

Here are the deets:

5:30 p.m. -- Panel of former journalists discuss how to make the transition from newspapers to something that's (hopefully) better for you. Location: Guild offices on St. Paul. For more details, visit the jobs blog.

Q&A About the Buyout -- A Drop-in Event

Guild Bulletin:

GUILD OFFERS BUYOUT HELP

With less than a week to go to make decisions about the Sun's buyout plan, many of you have asked several good questions about how the buyout works and whether taking a buyout is a good choice for you and your family.

What are the tax consequences of taking a lump sum payment? Can I apply for unemployment insurance? If I sign this Waiver and Release, what does that really mean?

The Guild wants to help with some of your legal or financially-related questions. So we've asked a few folks to come set up shop for a couple hours to talk to you about what you want to know.

We'll hold a little seminar on Tuesday, July 8 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Ignatius Church (just up the street from The Sun).

Among those invited are:

• Bob Paul, Guild attorney
• Pamela R. Graham, Registered Principal and Financial Advisor at Pro Wealth Management
• Bill Salganik, Guild leader extraordinaire (Bill just took this very buyout in March and can help).
• Stephanie Shapiro, former Features reporter (Stephanie also took the buyout in March).
• Tax Attorney, TBA

The experts can't provide individual financial planning, but will be on hand to answer general questions as best they can. The format will be drop-in style. So stop by whenever you have a moment in your work day that is mutually agreeable between you and your supervisor.

What: Financial Help with Buyout Package
When: Tuesday, July 8 -- anytime from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: St. Ignatius Church
740 N. Calvert St.

Drop in anytime between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. All interested employees, regardless of Guild or non-Guild status, are welcome.