Looks like the new watch word at the soon-to-be combined newspapers at Bay City, Saginaw and Flint is 'topic.'
In its reorganization, what was once a sports editor is now a sports 'topic' editor. And see, I didn't think they had a plan. Silly me. It's all about topics.
Read the whole miserable reorganization right here.
This is nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Somehow the idea that a sports editor is now a sports topic editor and a features editor is now a features topic editor is nothing more than lipstick on a pig. It means nothing.
My personal favorite is 'content strategist' which was formerly known as a photo editor. Content strategist sounds like a position in the CIA, not a newspaper.
The idea that Flint sports will now be organized and headed by someone in Bay City or Saginaw is ludicrous and readers will soon notice.
I'll take your comments on this as long as they don't get overly personal. It you want to get overly personal, lets put our name on the posts and then I'll consider it. There's plenty to criticize and mock without aiming our personal attacks at individuals.
I've already said that I have, and always will, disagree with Booth's method of promoting people. It rewards those who cozy up to the current leadership and ensures that there is sort of a self-perpetuating incompetence.
To be clear, I'm not blaming those who get the promotions, they simply know how to play the game better than the rest of us. But people who want an organization to grow and improve should demand better and frankly, seek better.
Late add: If you are a Flint subscriber you will want to note that only one, the assistant community editor at the Flint Journal, is even a resident of your subscription area. All the rest of the 'topic' editors live north of the Journal's news coverage area.
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7 comments:
More buzzwords. More "excitement!".
More of the same.
"Topics"???? Didn't Gannett try this gimmick 10 years ago, and dump it about nine years ago? Oh well, when your parent company didn't even bother to roll out its first Internet product until late-1999 (and, nearly 10 years later, it's still broken), I guess no one should be surprised.
After looking at these promotions and this "strategy," I am fully convinced that the East Coast boys have given the command of "Please kill this thing off as swiftly as possible." Nothing personal, but if I'm in a foxhole with the clowns mentioned in this story, I'm looking around for a white towel to tie to the end of my machine gun.
And, spot on with the method of promotion in Booth, Jim. Bob your head up and down, interject the occasional catchphrase you found in some old "How to Impress Others" book, and BOOM! You, too can become "Booth management." Kind of an oxymoron, true, but what the heck?
And speaking of how to get a promotion, hey Princess! 'Guess all that, ahem, "Hard Work" paid off in the end, eh?
Cue the circus music, boys and girls. It's gonna be a fun summer . . . and,,, fall.
Is it just me, or does it seem like there is a prejudice toward filling the posts with married people who may be willing to work for the new wages-- and possibly not need health coverage-- because the husband can carry the main income, etc?
Jim, a qualifier, if I may, regarding my "clowns who were promoted" comment; I do not know the two people in Flint who were promoted. I know the others far, far too well, but not the two in Flint.
Thanks, and my apology.
Topic editors and content strategists? Ugh. Put a fork in these papers; they're done.
I think I hear Ray Stephens -- the last Flint Journal editor-in-chief with any real journalistic stones or news judgment -- doing a double back flip in his grave.
Commenter 2 is brilliant.
Witness the more recent hires on the business side -- second incomes all.
I wish I had that luxury. I never even qualified for a buyout. Now my a$$ is out and I'm training my replacements. Strangely, I'm just relieved to be out of the madhouse.
Adios, suckers. Enjoy the blog, which you all read religiously while pretending that only subversives would be here.
Major League is a 1989 American comedy film starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, James Gammon, and Corbin Bernsen.
Plot
Rachel Phelps, a former Las Vegas showgirl, has inherited the Cleveland Indians baseball team from her husband who has died. She wants to move the team to the warmer climate of Florida. In order to do this, she must reduce attendance at Municipal Stadium below a total of 800,000 ticket sales, which will void the team's lease with the city of Cleveland; after she moves the team, she would also be able to fire all the current players and replace them with new ones. She instructs her new General Manager Charlie Donovan to hire the worst team possible at the start of the season from a list she has already prepared.
Clowns -- that's putting it mildly. The clown in Saginaw once put the list of Halloween trick-or-treat times on 1A. Now there's some fine news judgment!
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