sherrymims.com » journalism industry

Retained

Sherry — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:12:54 +0000

Calling early this morning, I learned I was retained. I’m relieved to have a job, of course, but I am absolutely crushed that so many talented people had to go. It’s going to be hard.

We reapply for our jobs tomorrow (note to self: bring two forms of ID). I’m hoping there are no more pay cuts.

Feed a journalist

Sherry — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:01:05 +0000

Dark humor for dark times. My friend and former co-worker Jodie, who now works in Australia, sent this to me recently. I posted this on Facebook, but I thought it was appropriate for here, too.

Cronkite, authority and journalism today

Sherry — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:08:49 +0000

As most everyone knows by now, Walter Cronkite, 92, died Friday. He was well before my time, but is a good example of the bygone days of journalism. I’d like to share an interesting Associated Press essay by Ted Anthony on Cronkite and how my profession has changed today–from an almost monolithic “authority” to fragmentation due to new media.

An excerpt:

No one person can speak for us all — we don’t even pretend that’s the case anymore — and those who tried would be put in their places as fast as you can say Edward R. Murrow.

That can be a glorious expression of democracy, or it can lead, as it did Saturday morning, to the most e-mailed story on Yahoo! News being the one about the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile crashing into a house in Wisconsin. Democracy has a way of being quite democratic.

Ludicrous layoffs

Sherry — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:04:44 +0000

On the heels of the “classy” layoffs of three Baltimore Sun reporters and a photographer during a baseball game they were covering in Los Angeles, we have more of the same. (Correction: They were in Baltimore and perhaps trying to postpone the inevitable, but management still shouldn’t have given them the news over the phone IMHO.)

The chain that owns The Ann Arbor News and the Jackson Citizen Patriot offered buyouts and seriously encouraged people to take them. A source tells me that one woman at the Jackson Citizen Patriot, in her 30s, took the buyout, but it is not in effect until June or July. Meanwhile, the company announces plans to HIRE new employees in her department. She marches in to ask if she can stay on, but management turns her down. Apparently, they’re much more inclined to hire people at $26,000 that she will have to train.

No one likes what is happening in the industry right now, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to behave. Happily, there is a silver lining: my source tells me that most of the open positions remain vacant. No one wants to do all that work for so little.

Anyone else have any stories?