Landsberg has confirmed names . . . Here's the unofficial list from TKC comments. TRUST NO ONE!!!
Here's a prize comment, I'm going to assume it comes from Mike Hendricks:
Here's a prize comment, I'm going to assume it comes from Mike Hendricks:
Here’s the layoff tally as I know it to this point:
Paul Wenske, personal finance, business desk
Julius Karash, health care, business desk
Jackie White, fashion, FYI
Paul Horsley, classical music and dance, FYI
Laura Scott, editorial page
Joe Lambe, Jackson County courts, city desk
Vicki Long, KC Board of Trade, business desk
Dave Olson, business wire editor
Melodee Blobaum, editor, Shawnee-Lenexa Neighborhood News
Loren Stanton, editor, Blue Valley-Leawood Neighborhood News
Bob Lynn, weekend editor, city desk
L. Eric Craven, graphic artist
John Mutrux, photographer for House and Home section
Two of the three calendar clerks (compiled and verified all of the calendar of events listings)
Sports box score editor
From what I have been told, there was little or no planning done with regard to how to fill these holes and the remaining staff is scrambling to figure this out (for example, there have been hurried meetings to figure out who will shoot the pictures for the next House and Home section, and to figure out a weekend rotation for editors to man the city desk).
Except for the two Neighborhood News editors, the ranks of middle and upper management were left absolutely untouched.
Outside the newsroom, the entire security staff has been eliminated and that task will now be outsourced.
It seems clear that this list was put together to meet a numerical target rather than a dollar figure, as many of these are low-paying positions. The decision to leave the management ranks largely untouched was a tragically missed opportunity to weed out a lot of overpaid, undercontributing drones, and a total failure of leadership by Mark Zieman that sacrificed production in favor of privilege.
You have to give them credit for taking care of the newsroom morale problem. No one can say morale is bad when there isn't any left.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, in the Northland office, a big fat smelly incompetent slob of an editor went untouched.
Oh yeah:
http://farewell.tvbarn.com/
Yep, the Z Man has turned out to be a total bust. The Star Funkhousered itself... And Yael T Abouhalkah seems to have survived the cut. Too bad... they needed to cut high priced deadwood.
ReplyDeleteOh well, the paper is going down the tubes anyway.
Seems like they gave the shoe to most of the business section. I wonder if the Star will now cut its Business Section down to one page?
ReplyDeleteWhen my subscription ends I am out the door.
I would have fired everyone who works in the Opinion section and left the real news people alone. I noticed that the Z Man let his race baiting wife stay.
ReplyDeleteWhy oh why can't they cut Hoopz, cancel all of Ink, and give that douche Hearne Christopher the boot, I just don't know.
ReplyDeleteFire Yael Abudabhi, Steve Krasky, Mary (Dirty) Sanchez while they're at it.
But first and foremost, Hoopz must go!
Agreed, how they can justify paying Hoopz to write about her favorite martinis in 8th grade prose is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteHoopz will never go. If they didn't get rid of Diuguid they won't drop her.
ReplyDeleteHow on earth could they drop Craven (their best artist) and yet they keep that idiot Franey on their diversity/gay beat?
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't they get rid of any of the editorial? It's hard to believe they're pulling their own weight.
ReplyDeleteno more freebies
ReplyDeleteHow the hell does Wenske get canned and Hoopz doesn't?
ReplyDeleteIt's on VERY good authority that they are outsourcing some jobs to India. NO JOKE!!!! Do some more research Tony!
ReplyDeleteSome other likely targets who apparently escaped:
ReplyDeleteRandy Smith, just a few weeks ago given some made-up bullshit job as consolation for being (justifiably) passed over as editor.
Bill Luening, senior editor of something or other. Since he stopped being magazine editor many years ago, he hasn't had a real job, yet has stayed on as a "writing coach" (despite his awful teaching skills), a ghostwriter for Hearne's lame copy, and other make-work assignments.
Ann Spivak...do we really need this archaic and embarrassing society doodoo?
Dude, learn how to read. That's what Tony said. They are outsourcing jobs to India. Grow the fuck up.
ReplyDeleteA few others who escaped but shouldn't have:
ReplyDeleteMatt Schofield: A close Zieman ally who, even after a hiring freeze was imposed, came back to the newsroom in January after a stint as a foreign correspondent for Knight-Ridder and then McClatchy.
Hearne Christopher: A total embarrasment to the paper.
Charles Gusewell: Does anybody under the age of 70 read this guy?
Nobody mentioned Lee Judge. He is worthless. Him and Lewis should ride their bikes into the sunset.
ReplyDeleteIf I was one of the guys who busted my ass working on real reporting and I got canned while that god awful vapid, piece of shit Ink kept all its research-averse-isn't-everything-awesome-at-power-and-light staff that drained resources from real news, I might hang myself. This applies to them keeping the no-talent drunk Hearne and the the Ink template, Hoopz.
ReplyDeleteThe home-page caveat about this site being a joke is spot-on.
ReplyDeleteDid it ever occur to the rocket scientist who slops out his opinions here -- the way an elephant passes yesterday's hay --that perhaps there were additional reductions within the management ranks in recent weeks that could have accounted for their absence in the names cited by BottomLine?
No?
Perhaps, say, the new editor's former managing editor position that is likely to remain unfilled, a deputy ME who is no longer in the newsroom and an assistant ME who realized a career dream to be top editor of a newspaper in his home state?
No? None of that occured to you, burrito breath, because you don't have the gumption or the onions to do any REAL reporting.
THE FACT IS THAT TONY THE RACE-BAITER CAN ONLY TAKE WHAT A ROGUE CITY HALL SOURCE FEEDS HIM AND CALL IT REPORTING, THEN CRAFT IT INTO SNARK-FILLED, POINTLESS SENTENCES IN ALL RED CAPS WITH LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS AS HE SHORT-STROKES OVER PHOTOS OF WOMEN HE COULDN'T POSSIBLY GET INTO MAMA'S BASEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!
There. I've just shown you how easy it is to create content for an outhouse of a Web site like this.
Time to wipe. You truly suck, Blowtello.
Lolz. Probably one of your most dedicated readers. Keep up the good work T.
ReplyDeletehey bruce r--
ReplyDeleteAre you saying that because OJ Nelson left (after more than 15 years of doing NOTHING substantive in Johnson County and with the zones) that all the unnecessary middle/upper management has been purged?
Are you saying that because a deputy managing editor is no longer "in the newsroom" that he is no longer receiving a hefty salary?
Are you saying that there aren't managers and editors at the paper whose apparent duties do not amount to a fulltime job (see Bill Luening, Matt Schofield above)?
You are a true believer, Bruce.
It's seems to me that the print paper is being run into the ground intentionally. The focus has become the Web and the Pitch knock-off, INK. However, the big wigs fail to see that the copy that shows up in both those products is substandard. Kansas Citians deserve better. Who in their right mind would pay $1.50 for a Sunday paper that has only 6-8 pages of "news" in A section, 2-3 pages of local "news" in Metro section and minimal ad inserts? It's a shame it's gotten so bad.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the news of cutbacks is bad, the news of Merriam’s hippy dippy councilman’s best bud Hearne Christopher is great news! To bad it was his monthly if not weekly articles about Dan Leap that was probably the reason of his demise.
ReplyDelete