Here as promised are words of wisdom from a person who is actually working in the newspaper business as an editor. He was responding to the article Transforming the Architecture.


"Daily news in the traditional sense is not a great field to be breaking into right now, true, unless you've got some Web expertise. That article about reorganizing newsrooms is a little outdated, though.

Carol Leigh Hutton was fired in San Jose. Owner became uncomfortable with her plan to "blow up the newspaper" as she put it. More on her in a bit.
The AJC is backing off and hiring into some traditional jobs, such as a business editor. They just hired one of my reporters, who grew up in Georgia. They tried to hire one of my editors, but she stayed.

What's happening in Des Moines is much less revolutionary than evolutionary with a different name (information center instead of newsroom) in an effort to show Gannett investors that the company is trying to do something to address the digital age.

Atlanta and San Jose are behind what we are doing without changing the name of the newsroom or doing away with the city editor and business editor (the latter being a good thing).
Did I tell you we won an Emmy? First national Emmy awarded for Outstanding Current News Coverage for Broadband. Other finalists: Washington Post and PBS's "Frontline."

We're all about multimedia.

Carol Leigh Hutton was the publisher and editor here before Knight Ridder sold the Free Press to Gannett. Then Knight Ridder dissolved. If the way this place was managed is indicative, it deserved to die. She went to former Knight Ridder paper in San Jose and launched the same "rethinking" process that was going on here before the sale. In telling people they weren't guaranteed their jobs, the newsroom's No. 3 guy committed suicide. Folks here said Carol Leigh at times lacked a soft touch.

So even before she was fired, I found that article amusing in its holding her up as a pioneer in leading newspapers into the new age. The only thing she led here was a talented newsroom into a swamp of undisciplined underachievement."

Let me know what you think.

Jerry

And by the way it's okay to comment on my picture. Once.

Jerry

Hello and welcome to my blog. We are going to discuss many aspects of journalism and multi-platform journalism throughout the semester. I look forward to some interesting discussion and debate.

Hopefully, later today I will be able to post a short email from someone in the newspaper business who has some interesting comments about one of the articles we read this past week. Stay tuned.

Jerry