The layoffs impacted workers involved “in every kind of job in the office, from clerical to managerial, from one to three people in every department,” (John Hale, senior vice president for human resources) said.
It is a legitimate news story, no doubt, and an important one to the Globe readership. But once again, I point out, it appears the Globe reports on every downsizing but its own.
The posts The Turner Report has run on this subject since the Globe fired at least 15 employees, including veteran reporter Mike Surbrugg, can be found at this link.
That's because CNHI doesn't have a policy about reporting other companies' layoffs. Reporting on layoffs at a CNHI-owned property is strictly forbidden, however. Is someone at the Globe supposed to forfeit their own job in order to tell the community what most people already know in order to make the suits in Birmingham look bad? Or perhaps they should just not report on any layoffs anywhere in protest of not being allowed to report on their own?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for the Globe, whether its a local decision or one from the bosses at CNHI, it is a policy that paints the Globe (accurately) as being hypocritical when it comes to its coverage of local news.
ReplyDelete"Is someone at the Globe supposed to forfeit their own job in order to tell the community what most people already know in order to make the suits in Birmingham look bad?"
ReplyDeleteIf they have any sort of ethics then yes. If they dared fire an employee for reporting the news then the employee could call the AP's Kansas City bureau, they would write a story, and then the fired employees would have their pick of jobs elsewhere. Editors at real newspapers tend to value people with a backbone. The Globe's however only value those that kiss ass.
And I doubt that most of the Globe's readers knew that the quality of the product that they purchase was about to be diminished although they probably notice by now.
The reader must be the journalist's primary concern. I suspect that everyone at the Globe is more worried about the suits than the readers. It sure shows in the finished product.
And now every lay off story that the Globe publishes makes it look hypocrtical. I'm sure the executives at St. John's, Leggett and elsewhere wishes the Globe would follow the Golden Rule.
Much has been made lately about the poor editing at the Carthage Press. The errors there aren't as alarming as those that appear in the Globe.
ReplyDeleteThe Globe should be the cleanest paper in America because the ratio of editors and the design desk to reporters is almost 1:1.
Look at the Globe's online directory. It lists 20 newsroom employees. Photographers and most designers are not listed. Throw out design chief Brent Fisher. Don't literally throw him out. He's a lot better than Gary Castor. Just don't consider him in this analysis. That leaves 19 reporters and editors.
Disregard the three sports guys. That gives you 16 hard working journos working the beat. Right? No?
Seven of those listed on the Globe's site have some sort of editor's tag by their name at least on occassion. That leaves only nine hard working reporters.
What if you then set aside Mike Pound who is primarily a (bad) humor columnist? Down to eight reporters.
You're left with editors, designers, photographers and other hangers-on almost outnumbering shoe leather reporters.
Perhaps I can recommend some guys that CNHI may want to talk to the next time they want to trim costs at the Globe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4OvQIGDg4I
The sad fact is, if you work for a local media outlet -- whether it be CNHI, GateHouse, Gannett, Nexstar -- backbone rarely enters the picture anymore. If you say you haven't had to cut corners, placate your corporate masters at the expense of serving your readers somehow, or make hard decisions that has chipped away at your product's quality, you are a liar. It's OK to grandstand and say you'll go the AP, rat out the bastards and everything will be fine. But if you actually believe that line of bull then you either live in some alternate universe where the news business is thriving right now, or else you're just an idiot.
ReplyDeleteYou too can enjoy an exciting career in journalism!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=996774