Posted on 04/17/2006 4:47:22 AM PDT by abb
ABOUT a month ago, The Star Tribune in Minneapolis let it be known that, as a cost-cutting effort, free copies of the newspaper would no longer be broadly available around the newsroom. Skip to next paragraph
Instead, the staff was offered an electronic edition of the paper — "an exact digital reproduction of the printed version," no less — that they could access online. Those who insisted on seeing the fruits of the their labors in its physical form were told that they could purchase copies for 25 cents, half the retail cost, from boxes around the office. (This change in policy was first reported by City Pages in Minneapolis.)
So far, so weird. Journalism is not jammed with perks — well, not at most newspapers, anyway — but it was always assumed that you could grab a gratis sports section on the way to lunch.
Last Monday, the going got weirder. Star Tribune reporters who came to work and booted up were greeted by the following message from Steve Alexander, senior vice president for circulation, who had been spending time researching the program's introduction:
"During the first week that the additional on-site racks were in service, 43 percent of the Star Tribunes removed from those racks were not paid for. For the second week the rate was 41 percent. This is called 'pilferage' in our business; but put more plainly, it is theft, pure and simple."
Mr. Alexander proceeded apace: "Taking more than one newspaper from a rack when you have only inserted enough money for one paper is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Employees who steal newspapers will put their jobs at risk. There is zero tolerance when it comes to stealing from our company, even if it is a 25-cent newspaper."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
--- It's not a "leaker", it's a "whistleblower"!
That tirade by Romenesko ranks right up there with the classic, "No fighting in here! This is a war room!"
ROFLMAO!
Put another way: Even the people that write for the Star & Sickle don't find it worth paying for.
You're right, abb - this is hilarious.
The saying goes....you just can't make stuff like this up.
When your enemy seems intent on suicide, back off and watch the process.
Life sure sucks fo McClatchy stockholders that became the proud new owners of this mess. Their comment was "we didn't do it"
Check out the story on Knight Ridder's earnings today..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616330/posts
LOL That's the first thing that came to mind.
Free copies of the local paper, The Daily Breeze, were available at their offices but this practice ended about 25 years ago.
The local Gannetoids are throwing their trash in my driveway again, hoping to get me subscribe I suppose.
I'm debating whether or not to call the sheriff and have them ticketed for littering...
>> Even the people that write for the Star & Sickle don't find it worth paying for. <<
Not only that, they don't find it worth 25 cents. LOL
And that is today, when 25 cents is almost throw away change. (What can you actually buy for 25 cents? Maybe a gum ball.)
This quote has a delightful Captain Queeg, "who at the strawberries" quality about it.
"But the strawberries! That's where I got them! With, with geometrice logic, I proved they stole them!"
LOLOLOL!!
Who needs a paper copy when you can take your Blackberry to the john?
When I was a kid in the mid-Fifties, my father worked for the WaPo. He used to bring free newspapers home by the armful, not only the Post but papers nationwide! Most of what I know about the US came from those papers, read while I ate breakfast.
Makes me wonder what the Junior presidents and Junior vice-presidents of circulation are doing to occupy their time.
Updating their resumes?
Great name.
I gets even better...
http://www.citypages.com/databank/27/1323/article14270.asp
I have 2 family members that work for the Strib. Both report that morale has never been lower.
The management side of the business is ballooning while production employees with decades of experience are being driven-out.
I could post some real horror stories about the place.
Suffice it to say that anyone worth a damn is jumping ship while McClatchy's minions re-arrange the deck chairs.
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