Remember the Alamo!

Our annual winter escape is underway. We are leaving behind Michigan for the friendly confines of Texas. WiFi and sources willing I'll continue to post here during our stay down south.

Actually our departure was delayed by 24 hours due to a little snowstorm that blew through.

If you are interested you can follow our adventures at Grandma's Recess.

Newsroom changes announced at the Kazoo Gazette

The Kalamazoo Gazette has announced its new leadership team.

Home newspaper delivery: An endangered species

An interesting article about the demise of the home delivered newspaper. Note it specifically refers to the 30 percent drop in home delivered subscriptions in Ann Arbor since the big change. The article is from Editor and Publisher who apparently aggregated it from Newsosaur.

Note to Booth:  If you want to compete online you better do something about your goshawful MLive.com site and soon.

And then there is this not-so-good news about the business in 2012 as well.

Hat tip to anonymous FFE reader for the link.

The new model: Don't worry about facts, grammar or spelling

In case you’ve been wondering about the hiring process currently underway for the new MLive Media Group one of those interviewed was nice enough to send me an outline of what is being asked of reporters and editors in the ‘new’ company.

This particular job applicant is from the west side of the State and was interviewing for a full time reporting position in the new company.

For obvious reasons I’m not going to reveal here whether or not the person got the job.

The new reporting positions will require a lot of Internet posting with lots of freedom and very little editorial oversight. While that might seem to be an ideal situation for a reporter, no good reporter wants no backstop or a good set of eyes looking at their work before publication, or in this case posting.

In other words, reporters are going to pretty much be Lone Rangers. This applicant was told that driving web traffic is paramount and editing, well, not so much.

The interviewer, an editor, made it clear that mistakes in stories were to be expected in the new model, including grammar, facts and misspellings. That’s an incredible change from old school journalism and to me a total surrender to mediocrity.

In one of the few direct quotes sent to me by the source this is what the interviewer/editor  said:

"Reporters will self-edit."

Yes, an editor actually said that to a prospective reporter, which will reduce the reporters to nothing more than bloggers.

Reporters in the new MLive Media Group will receive a backpack, a smartphone, a laptop and will move out from the new “hubs” (I guess that is the new word for newsroom) and will interact with the community and posting online what they see hear and find out without much interference from editors.

Reporters will be expected to put a smartphone in the face of sources and interview them on video.

The source is not an old curmudgeon like me either, the source is one of those 30-somethings with a good handle on technology and who knows the way around blogs, aggregation and RSS feeds and even to them it sounded like a muddled plan. Or in their words “a nightmare, honestly.”

It is clear that reporters will be expected to work themselves to the bone without an appropriate compensation to go with the expectations. As the source said – “the stress level is through the effing roof up there.”

And what about all the work for the print product? The interviewer  was dismissive of any extra work for the print product, adding that  “we believe that the paper will just end up filling itself."

Really, a newspaper that just fills itself up.  In the words of the source:

“Take a minute to think about how foolish that sounds. Papers don't "fill themselves" any more than my jalopy fills itself with gas.”

Sounds like the newspaper will simply be a dumping ground for the stuff that is pumped into the online product. And without proper layers of editing one can only imagine the poor quality that will result.

In the opinion of the source there is not much passion among those who have accepted new positions or those who have turned them down.

And in a final comment from the source:

“But you know as well as I do that the issue has never been the grunts on the ground, it's been the suits in GR. It always comes down to leadership.”

Or, in my words, the lack of it.

Another former Boothie chimes in about the changes

A former Booth reporter blogs about his reasons for leaving the company a few years ago. Also a nice reflection on some recent changes at the Grand Rapids Press.

Happy New Year!

To all my family, friends and readers I wish you a wonderful and prosperous 2012. Look at it this way, it can't get any worse than it has been for the past few years.

Oops forget my friend Kim's favorite saying: "It can always get worse."

Quick reminder

Just a quick reminder to folks that if you send me information do so only from home. While newspapers and media groups thrive on folks feeding them information they are not so kind when the tables are turned.

Thanks.

The exodus from MLive Media Group continues

Looks like at least three more Boothies who were picked to stay with the reincarnated MLive Media Group have decided to abandon ship.

In a message to staff, Publisher Paul Keep notified staff that Darin E., a key component of the ‘new’ copy desk, had decided to leave and take a job with a non-profit agency.  His wife, a part-time reporter has also chosen to leave as well. Not sure if she was part of the new company’s plans.

His new job will require him to commute more than an hour each day, but apparently still more attractive than remaining on the Titanic. The business editor, or what used to be the business editor in Grand Rapids, Chris K., has decided to turn down an offer with the new company and is taking a job in PR in Grand Rapids.

There is an unconfirmed report of at least one additional reporter who had been tapped to stay on deciding to take a severance instead. Hmmmmmm.
So the reshaping of the new MLive Media Group leadership team continues.

Free From Editors will be dark for about a week. I have appreciated your support of this blog over the past four years and look forward to a better new year for my former colleagues in the news business. Enjoy the Christmas holiday and may you have a  Happy New Year’s. I will be checking e-mails, so feel free to continue to send me information.

Another manager says 'no' to MLive Media Group

The last ever Jackson publisher has declined an offer to take a position with the new MLive Media Group.

In case the story is changed, I've pasted in the copy below. Things are not looking too optimistic for this new venture.

Copy of story as it appeared today:

Sandra Petykiewicz, who led the Jackson Citizen Patriot through an era of change and challenge since 1999, will retire as publisher Dec. 31.
Petykiewicz, 58, of Clark Lake, is the last publisher of the Citizen Patriot. The position will no longer exist following a sweeping corporate restructuring announced in November.
She was offered a management job with a newly formed company, but chose to “step aside” instead.
“I am proud of what I’ve done to lead us to this point, and now I think it’s time for a new generation of leaders to take over,” said Petykiewicz.
She guided the Citizen Patriot through arguably the most turbulent years in the newspaper’s 173-year history and kept the business profitable.
“She was publisher in the worst of times to be a financial leader of a newspaper,” said Eileen Lehnert, former Citizen Patriot editor. “But I think she has risen to the challenge.
“She was someone who really cared about journalism and really wanted the paper to survive in some form,” said Lehnert, who retired two years ago.
A native of metro Detroit, Petykiewicz graduated from Central Michigan University in 1975 and worked at newspapers in Big Rapids, Midland, Saginaw, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.
She joined the Citizen Patriot in 1983 as metro editor, overseeing local news coverage.
“Sandy was demanding as an editor and a publisher. You didn’t get a free pass for what you wrote,” said Ken Wyatt, retired editorial writer who helped shape the voice of the Citizen Patriot with Petykiewicz for 20 years.
“You always know where you stand with her,” said Sara Scott, associate editor for content. “She is very direct and honest as far as the job you do.”
No-nonsense leadership was also characterized by respect for the opinions and abilities of subordinates.
“She’s always willing to talk to people,” said Wyatt. “She listens, then she does what she thinks is right. Somewhere along the line, she ceased being just my editor and publisher and became my friend.”
“I couldn’t have had a better boss,” said Lehnert. “There were times when we disagreed, but we always respected each other.”
Petykiewicz was promoted to editor of the Citizen Patriot in 1987, becoming the first female editor in the chain then called Booth Newspapers.
She was promoted to publisher in 1999, with responsibility for all editorial and business functions.

Margaret Parshall, advertising director of the Citizen Patriot, said Petykiewicz fully mastered the challenges of the “business side” of the newspaper.
“Fifteen or 20 years ago, our advertisers had very limited choices on where to spend their money,” Parshall said. “Now their options are almost limitless.
“The challenge for us is to help our advertisers reach their audiences. She understands the dynamics of these changes. I learned a lot from her. She was not a micromanager and she gave me the tools I needed.”
Her tenure coincided with industry upheaval that forced newspapers to find new ways of doing business in order to survive.
Circulation of the Citizen Patriot peaked in 1993, Petykiewicz said, and declining readership and advertising revenue accelerated through the recession in the 2000s.
“The low point was in 2008,” Petykiewicz said, “but we turned that around.”
The paper became smaller, reflecting a reduction of advertising revenue. So did the staff, as certain functions, including printing, were consolidated with other Michigan newspapers owned by Advance Publications.
Management was “flattened” by elimination of jobs once seemingly indispensable, including the editor. Since 2010, Petykiewicz has been publisher and editor.
Two years ago, Petykiewicz also became president of Ann Arbor Offset, a commercial printing business that prints the Citizen Patriot.
“We were doing a lot of things other papers were not doing,” said Scott. “She had to make some tough decisions, but I have always thought she has done her best to protect her people.”
“Sandy is a rare person who manages well in crisis, keeping her head,” said Wyatt.
Lehnert said, “She has been out in front in putting the newspaper in a good financial position.”
No previous restructuring is as far-reaching as the one now coming.
Advance Publications announced in November that online and print news operations of its Michigan newspapers will be placed under a new company called MLive Media Group.
The transformation, to be completed in February, is intended to boldly position the company as a “digital-first” news source.
Jackson will become one “hub” of MLive Media Group, with a smaller staff and management structure than a traditional newspaper. Scott will lead the news side of the hub and Parshall will lead the sales side.
Petykiewicz said the new structure is created “from a position of strength” so the company can thrive in the future.
The Citizen Patriot, she said, will become an around-the-clock online information source like “the CNN of Jackson.”
“The changes we are making now will guarantee a future for journalism and advertising solutions in Jackson for a long time to come,” she said.
She has a long list of professional and community accomplishments.
Petykiewicz said she will continue living at Clark Lake, and probably winter in Florida. She is married to Ed Petykiewicz, retired editor of the Ann Arbor News. Their daughter, Kendall, is a senior at Lumen Christi High School.
The retiring publisher does not despair for the future of the Citizen Patriot.
“Right now, between print and online, we reach 70 percent of our audience. Nobody else does that,” she said.
“So I feel very confident we have a future. But it will be a different future.”

I'm boycotting the boycotts

I’m boycotting boycotts. It’s been awhile since I had an off topic rant here and today is the day for the next one. I’ve tried to avoid the rants because it usually pops a vein in “Inky” but here goes. They are usually off topic, so that’s the other reason I’ve steered away from them.

In the past couple years we’ve been encouraged to boycott a number of places, people and corporations.

As the readers of Grandma’s Recess know I completely ignored the “Boycott Arizona” crowd and spent a wonderful three weeks there with our trailer in the fall. We spread our money around visiting tourist venues, local stores, hair salons, gas stations, restaurants and other places.

Arizona, like many other states, is continuing to suffer from the lingering effects of a long recession and frankly the people there need the work. Why punish them over the issue of immigration enforcement? Besides, while we were there, the locals told us since the state passed the controversial law the feds have picked up their efforts on enforcing the laws on illegal aliens in Arizona.

Heck we were caught in a federal border patrol random check about 25 miles north of the border during our wine tour outing. So maybe Arizona had a point after all. I’m sure a lot of Arizona folks were happy that we came down and spread the wealth a little.

Besides my Navy reunion was scheduled precisely during the boycott talk back in 2010 and although I don’t know it for a fact, may have played a role in the decision to hold our reunion there for spite. If that’s the case feel free to boycott the USS Cogswell Association, which will be hard for 99.999999999 percent of the country because the requirements to join have something to do with having served on the World War II destroyer to begin with.

Along with boycotts of Jane Fonda, I’ve heard folks tell me I should avoid anything with Charlie Sheen in it. I’ve no love lost for either person, but I’ll watch or not watch whatever they are in based on the subject matter they are portraying, not who they are. Besides it appears that studios and producers are pretty much boycotting both of them for me.

Just during this Christmas season I’ve received messages on Facebook telling me I should boycott Target and Lowe’s stores. The reasons were completely different. Target was being boycotted for “making” its employees work on Thanksgiving night and Lowe’s for pulling its advertising from some show I had never heard of before.

As for the Target boycott, get a life. You’ll get no sympathy for working on Thanksgiving night from a former Navy sailor, police employee and newspaper reporter.  I’ve worked as many Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s Eve/Labor Day/Memorial Day/Fourth of July/Veteran’s Day holidays  as I ever had off. Besides, you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve shopped at Target anyway.

Just be happy you have a job. Many people don’t. If you are really upset about having to work a holiday, quit and find another job. Please don’t belly ache about having to earn time-and-a-half for working.

Ditto for Lowe’s. I’ve been inside a Lowe’s store less than I have visited Target stores. Apparently there is a low-rated cable show that Lowe’s pulled its advertising from that deals with a Muslim family and how normal it is. Gees, can’t imagine why that show wouldn’t be a hit. Some of the people who encouraged me to boycott Lowe’s had to admit to me they had never even seen the show themselves.  Its ratings are so low they may be watched by fewer people than CNN. OK, that might be a stretch. Sure I know a kooky right wing group encouraged their own boycott (equally silly) but Lowe’s wasn’t the only company to pull its advertising from the show due to its poor ratings. Apparently the kooky right wing folks were the only people watching the show to begin with.

If you are a big fan of the show and want to see it continue you should donate millions to PBS and convince them to put it on their network where I can also not watch it.

All my home improvement shopping is done at Home Depot. So don’t even think about telling me to boycott them.

And just to really pop all of Inky's veins here's another thing I'm not boycotting: Harry Reid's glasses.

When the walls come tumbling down

This story on MLive from the Gazette illustrates what happens when the walls between advertising and editorial come down, which is something the new management at MLive Media Group boasted about recently.

Maybe they should put one of those 'Deal' monikers on these kinds of stories.

Journalists protest recent newsroom cuts

Members of the Newspaper Guild in Indianapolis are no longer suffering in silence.

And yet another print shoe drops

Thanks to an alert reader we have this from West Michigan today.

Poynter: Another cartoonist in the crosshairs of stealing work

Hard to believe in the day of the Internet that these things keep happening. The Poynter article has plenty of interesting links.

More photos from the past

Here's another fun Journal photo from the past (three publishers ago). Once again Tom Cheek makes the photo. He's the one behind Shrek. It's a small size photo and won't get bigger if you click on it.

A geezer photo outside the soon-to-be former Flint Journal building

(l-r) Tom Cheek, Kim Crawford, Steve Kleeman, Dan Shriner,
Larry Gustin, Ron Krueger, David Graham, Ed Backus and Dick
Noble.

After lunch last Thursday a group of retired Flint Journal geezers gathered in front of the building to snap a group photo. It actually took two photos to get us all in, because a couple folks went inside to visit while the first photo was being taken.

(l-r) Tom Cheek, Ron Krueger, Jim Miller, Ed Backus, Dean Howe,
Kim Crawford, Dan Shriner, David Graham, Jim Smith, Steve Kleeman, Dick Noble.

In total there was about 450 years of journalism experience photographed above and at lunch Thursday. Missing from both photos is Gene Mierzejewski, whose name I always believed should be the spelling test for all new reporters.

On their own: Former colleagues working on new ventures

Had a great lunch last week with some of my old Journal 'geezer' pals. Among those who came were Ron Krueger, the Journal's former premier food writer and critic. Ron is no longer with the paper, but is continuing to publish reviews on his new website "live2eat."

Stop by and visit and make your own suggestions and comments. I know Ron will appreciate the patronage.

Also, one of the Journal's finest photographers, Tom Cheek, who prowled the mean streets of Flint with me during the early part of my career there has his own website where he can be reached for photographic work. And, if you need photographic work, it would be hard to find someone better.

MLive Kalamazoo touts its new "hub"

This news story about the new Kalamazoo "hub" (this would be the new name for a newspaper office) is probably the first of many such articles around the state. I have a favorite paragraph (actually two) but I'll reserve them until I see what your favorites are.

Still no transparency on how many of the "77 laid off employees" will be included in the new hub.

Media fails when reporting on itself: AJR

I'm posting a link to an article in AJR that talks about a particular pet peeve of mine: Why don't newspapers cover their own stories like they do every other business in town?  Thanks to an FFE reader for the link.

One of my favorite paragraphs in the long piece:

"My sense is that media organizations [in North America] are so financially anxious now that they want to please their audiences rather than inform them," Dvorkin says. "They want to be friends" with their readers and viewers. ONO's surveys suggest that having an ombudsman fosters great credibility among readers and audiences. "This is a very easy way to help restore confidence in the media," he says.

MLive chosen are also abandoning ship, tidbits from the newsroom and pickets are gone

There are reports that one or more of those pegged to stay on for the transition from Booth to MLive Media Group may be abandoning ship along with those thrown overboard.

Word from some newsroom meetings on the west side of the state indicate that the circulation director for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon, who was pegged to lead the distribution process for all the papers in the new structure has opted to depart rather than take the job, as did the assistant.

There are other reports which I am trying to flesh out about another top level person who was offered a post in the new company, but has chosen to leave.

Have also gotten reports that the new salary structure for reporters will be in the low 30s with cash incentives for meeting story quotas. It will be interesting to see what kind of journalism is produced when reporters have story count quotas that are connected to financial incentives.

Salary for experienced reporters at the papers just four years ago was in the low to mid 50s. Wonder what kind of salary reductions the bosses have taken?

Just a follow up to the picket story from last week. Was downtown Flint today, even had my picture taken out in front of the current Journal building with a group of former employees (pictures to follow at a later date) and found that the pickets were no longer out in front of the Rowe Building.

We went into the Rowe building and found work ongoing in a relatively small first floor space that may be the new Journal offices.

It was also sad to look into the old press room in the old building and see the dismantling of the old press. A friend sent along the attached photo of the press room. We were remembering today that on the weekend shifts, when the building was nearly empty and quiet you could feel very subtly the building vibrate with the start of the press run.

Those old presses were like the building's heart beat. Not nearly as loud a heart beat as the old linotype machines, but there was just something about walking out the door on a Friday night, early Saturday morning and see the trucks lined up waiting for the first editions to come out the windows.


Glad I was there for that.