I spent a year working for the Seattle Times, after 4 years as an editor at Amazon. It was 2002 and basically, the Times had just discovered the Internet. They poured all this money into a site called NWSource rather than into their own website. NWS sucked donkeys, though after a few weeks I realized the whole point was to pretend that they were losing money so that they didn't have to help out the P-I as part of their their Non-Compete thingamajig.
Blethen sent these dreadful emails around to everyone bemoaning the agreement w/ the P-I the whole time it was clear they loved that they were slowly suffocating that paper (which was slightly better) to death. I'm surprised the Seattle Times gets praised as it does. A few awesome reporters aside, it's basically fourth grade reading level pap. The owners, the Blethen family, seemed to prize nepotism above all else, and the place was run so poorly, with so much middle management, I couldn't believe it.
Rodale's CEO Steve Murphy is a complete incompetent. Added layers of useless fat to the company. Rodale barely makes a profit. It's amazing the company hasn't gone up in flames already
One way for the Voice to save money - sell the office. The dirty little secret of journalism now is that there is virtually no need for a traditional newsroom bullpen. I'm not sure how big the Voice's office space is, but I have a feeling they could all get the same results out of an office like Gawker is using.
That was a lot of bad, except for the whole buying your own drinks at a going-away party. My paper has apples for those. No shit. And we've had so many people leave that no one with less than like 30 years' tenure gets that much.
08/10/09
Blethen sent these dreadful emails around to everyone bemoaning the agreement w/ the P-I the whole time it was clear they loved that they were slowly suffocating that paper (which was slightly better) to death. I'm surprised the Seattle Times gets praised as it does. A few awesome reporters aside, it's basically fourth grade reading level pap. The owners, the Blethen family, seemed to prize nepotism above all else, and the place was run so poorly, with so much middle management, I couldn't believe it.
08/10/09
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Or Sarah Vowel.
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