That's a question that many Booth copy editors will be asking themselves soon enough.
In a meeting with copy editors the Flint Journal management today laid out the scenario by which some copy editors will survive (if they are willing to commute or move to Grand Rapids, that is).
Currently there are more than 100 copy editors Booth-wide. I've heard estimates as high as 120 copy editors. The idea is to shrink it to about half of that number all working out of one location - Grand Rapids. One of the shifts being offered to the transplant copy editors is the 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. shift. Imagine that shift with a two-hour plus commute from Flint.
Weekend shifts will be more like 4 p.m. to midnight. There is some work being done on seeing if a four-day work week could help those with the long commute. Like a Wednesday to Saturday or a Friday to Monday schedule.
As one who has worked most of his life at nights, it is not a healthy lifestyle. Just ask any of my three wives. My third wife insisted I move to days before we tied the knot. Maybe that's why that one is lasting.
Local editors will become writers again - well in the sense they will be required to write lengthy memos each day (working later shifts) to tell the Grand Rapids copy desk how they want the pages delivered even though they will NOT get to see them on deadline before they are printed.
Apparently the Booth system wide software is not compatible at each paper so, at least Flint, is out of luck at getting to have any deadline input on how its pages will look before they are printed.
Can you say ludicrous? If this is the great Booth plan to right the ship and if I were giving advice to my shipmates left behind, I would say head to the lifeboats.
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9 comments:
The plan is absurd -- but maybe there will be a bright spot, with fresh eyes reading the stories and playing them where they truly belong. Too often in years past the best stories were not on the front page, and occasionally buried past the local news front. So if Flint's mighty newsroom leaders aren't able to have the page designers (talented, I hope) rip apart their work well into deadline for a stupid change, there might be hope for the top news finding its best home. Now having said that, hope that Grand Rapids copy editors are issued a local map and phone book.
In fact, we reporters had a saying:
"You never know which page you'll find a Page 1 story in the Flint Journal."
Grand Rapids is a lovely city but why centralize production operations there? If newspaper copy and pages aren't being processed in the town where the newspaper is published and read (by people who know the market and have the ability to catch errors) why doesn't Newhouse just get it over with and offshore everything to India? Based on some of the senior editors' columns I've read, the English proficiency is about the same.
Several FJ artists met with the AD at end of day Thurs. Apparently seeking clarification on options for their future.
Maureen Dowd had a column in the New York Times Sunday that addressed the outsourcing of news. She reported that Dean Singleton, who owns the Detroit News and many other papers, is considering an "offshore" centralized copy desk for all his papers. At least Booth is keeping its desk in Michigan.
Anyone know if Booth is offering folks financial assistance to move to Grand Rapids? How can anyone in other Booth cities sell their homes to move to GR?
Why would Booth offer relocation assistance to GR when the ultimate goal is to get rid of people? They want to make it so onerous to take one of these jobs that people will just throw up their hands and take the buyout. And this way, they're not technically violating their own so-called "job pledge."
Exactly, anonymous. Most in Flint are tied down by a house.
There is NO HELP to move to GR.
well, if you were high enough up, they would BUY your old house, BUY you a new house, move you, AND lend you the money!
silly worker bee! have you no car? (that's bought for the highers too).
which reminds us: turn in your insurance papers so we know we are adequately covered if you crash your vehicle on our time, but on your dime.
(your dime since mileage isn't even at the federal tax reimbursement rate.)
Editing copy for a city you have never been in and have no clue about? How efficient. We have to admit that we've been fat and happy for a long time, but it seems like the copy editors are being thrown under the bus to make up the difference.
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