Community World

[EricP]

I've noticed the Tulsa World hurting for a while... attempting to give away free newspapers from trailers at events and ending up sitting alone and looking pretty sad. Media is changing these days, but like others said, not to downplay the pain of any of these layoffs but maybe from increased pressure will come increased innovation.

[Steve]

I live at 26th & Yale, and have received the Midtown edition of the Community section in my Wednesday Tulsa World.  I will miss it, although most articles are mainly fluff, there are occasionally some pieces of real local interest.

On the broader issue of local newspapers in general, I find it harder and harder to continue my daily Tulsa World subscription due to rising prices.  The only thing keeping me paying the $200+ annual renewal is that the daily ritual of me retrieving my paper from the driveway is so ingrained in my 50-year-old personna, I can't imagine not receiving my daily local paper.  I know I can get all the news on the internet, but I still love having that paper in my hand.

[Emily]

quote:Originally posted by Cirage

What I can't understand is how management justified the new hires.  A coworker of mine just started there two weeks ago as a reporter for the South Tulsa edition.

I was her immediate editor.

Please know that I found out what was going on at exactly the same moment she did. Had I known this was coming, I would have called her at home and told her to turn down the offer before I would have allowed the company to treat her so shabbily.

My immediate supervisor found out about this on Monday, and I think your friend had already been on board for a couple of days before even the highest of the top-tier editors got the first inkling that something was wrong.

I have no idea why this was done so quickly, or in such a callous and IMHO cowardly manner. Your friend's hiring and subsequent firing six days later at the publisher's whim are the No. 1 reason I have been so vocal about this situation.

Laying all of us off with absolutely no warning and then giving us a handful of pocket change for severance pay is thoughtless and insensitive. But hiring two people who quit other jobs to come work for you, then firing them before they've even had time to collect their first paycheck? That's not just thoughtless and insensitive. It's morally reprehensible.

As for the misleading language in the announcement in today's paper: Consider my earlier post here my final act of editing for the Tulsa World. It's just not in me to let an inaccuracy stand unchallenged. You can take the girl out of the newsroom, but you can't take the newsroom out of the girl....

[cannon_fodder]

In both defense and attack of the world...

The local news is timely, relevant, and generally not available elsewhere.  Tulsa Sports coverage, building, business, and so on... they do a good enough job to keep me basically informed.

But newspapers in general do poorly on wire service now.  I'll read it on the wire or see it in a foreign newspaper a couple days before it makes it into print.  It's old news (that of which I have already read).  There's nothing a print paper can do about that...

I don't know how to change the paradigm.  Cutting content (especially local) seems like a poor way to revive reader interest, but if that's what they think it takes to keep it profitable I guess I have some sympathy for them.  Though I still have some angst, I'll be keeping my subscription thus far.

[Cirage]

Thank you for the update, Emily. I really appreciate your candor on the issue and I'm sorry that your job was taken from you.    Good luck with whatever you do next!

[Conan71]

Anyone else find irony in "green" stories in the print media?

TulsaPeople just published a green issue.  

Think about it, there's really not a whole lot environmentally friendly with print media.  It requires cutting down trees for paper stock, many toxic chemicals to convert wood pulp to paper, fuel consumption in the boilers for the steam necessary to make paper and the CO2 that releases.  Paper mills use anaerobic digesters for their waste water- that releases CO2.  Fuel is burned cutting down trees.  Fuel is burned taking wood or recylceables to paper mills, etc. etc. and so on.  We didn't even start to get into the whole supply chain with the ink even.

Electronic media is where it's at both from  timeliness and being environmentally responsible.

I wish no ill will to the World but there are a lot of dailies just like it around the country who won't be here in another 10 to 20 years.

[tim huntzinger]

Is it true that HR was on hand during the meetings to be sure that no inappropriate touching and hugging was going on?

Also, funny the replacement for the neighborhood angle is to send a reporter out in the field to find bake sale stories and such.  But, this is not 'blogging.'

[sillybrigid]

Yes, HR was there, mostly to make sure employees didn't steal anything. They may or may not have been taking notes on who not to hire in one of the couple of open positions.

[Emily]

The HR director himself was in our office. Whatever else I might say about the way the situation was handled, I will tell anybody who cares to listen that he was very kind about the whole situation, and he basically just smiled and told us to rave on when the language started to get outrageous. He even endured the inevitable inappropriate jokes at his expense with good humor and obvious compassion.

By way of update, I have now gotten word that one of our reporters was hired for an advertising position, which strikes me as a great fit for him. I think he will enjoy it, and I think the company will benefit greatly from his talents.

Meanwhile, I've been hired for a position with a company I've been madly in love with ever since I got to know the owners four years ago. I doubt I'd have been willing to leave my staff for this position, but it's really a grand opportunity to do some work I know I'm going to enjoy, in a location I love, for the benefit of people and causes I believe in, so I can't cry too much.

Perhaps best of all -- and Brigid will be glad to hear this -- I went out to dinner tonight with three of my bestest girlfriends (including my new boss), and one of them gave me permission to pass her phone number along to my former staffers tomorrow evening, as she has some freelancing work that pays well and would certainly be helpful in keeping some of them afloat until they find a full-time gig.

We're too good a bunch to stay down long.

On that note, I must get offline now. I've got to clean the house and assemble a pan of lasagna for the dinner party I'm throwing for my staff tomorrow night, and I'd like to get to bed before midnight so I won't be too tired to get up and drive over to Stroud at 6:30 tomorrow morning to work for my friend Dawn "Sally Carrera" Welch, who gave me a stopgap job at the Rock Cafe the minute I told her what had happened at the World.

To paraphrase Garth Brooks: I've got friends in two-lane places.

[sillybrigid]

quote:Originally posted by Emily

The HR director himself was in our office. Whatever else I might say about the way the situation was handled, I will tell anybody who cares to listen that he was very kind about the whole situation, and he basically just smiled and told us to rave on when the language started to get outrageous. He even endured the inevitable inappropriate jokes at his expense with good humor and obvious compassion.

He also endured the yearlong cartwheel in the office SOMEONE had been holding in. No one should be denied that right.

[Conan71]

Well, it sounds as if there are some happy new beginnings coming from this abrupt ending.  Thanks for sharing with the rest of us, Emily.  Don't be a stranger to TN.

[Emily]

I had most of my crew over for dinner this evening. Future plans were uncertain, but the lasagna turned out well, we laughed almost constantly, and my collie mix had the time of his life making friends with everybody in the room. It was good to see everybody in good spirits. Several people are working on contingency plans, and I was able to supply some former staffers with leads on a good freelancing gig that will buy them a few groceries while they figure out what to do next.

Meanwhile, I had a ball with Dawn today and am looking forward to going back tomorrow. I haven't worked in a restaurant in years, and I'd forgotten how much I liked the pace. Honestly, I think today knocked about 15 years off of me.

Emily

[AngieB]

Urban Tulsa story.
Good going, Emily. [8D]

[GOLDIROCKS]

I know all too well the cold, callous nature of the tulsa world. I worked for two of the Your Community World zones for over EIGHT years, just to be abruptly canned when they started combining offices. When Charles Biggs was in charge, the issues had 8-10 or more pages, readers couldn't get enough and the company made money. Everyone was happy...except downtown. They couldn't stand not having total control over everything. They ran Charley off and got Delbert Schafer to come in and systematically destroy everything. This man actually told me, "If it ain't broke, BREAK it so you can fix it." By the time I was cut, (with no severance!) the issues were down to a measly 4 pages. Some employees left when Charley did, and I wish I could have done the same, especially if I had known what was going to happen to me anyway. Now the rest of the Community World employees know what I already knew the day Charley left. The Lortons have so much money, more than most of us could even comprehend. What the Lortons don't seem to have is the sense to know that paper is highly flammable, and that is going to make it really difficult to run a newspaper where they are going... Charley, you were a terrific boss and it was an honor to work with you. Best of luck with The Beacon.

quote:Originally posted by Emily

Their Web site doesn't mention this today, but the Tulsa World is ceasing publication of the Community World and has laid off the entire CW staff. I notice that the announcement on the front of today's Westside issue -- which was added after we'd proofed the Westside pages, and which resulted in a reporter's actual work being spiked to make room for it -- omitted that bit about the layoffs. The announcement also neglects to mention the fact that those laid off were given absolutely no warning and received eight days' pay and 26 days' benefits in exchange for their loyalty to the company. And it entirely fails to notify readers that two of the people laid off had been hired less than two weeks earlier.

One woman had signed a lease on a new apartment four days earlier. Another had put a down payment on a condo a week before the axe fell. One girl had quit a job at Urban Tulsa Weekly just three weeks ago to come to the Community World. A woman who has struggled financially for several years had just gotten back on her feet and was about to move into a house. Another has worked for the company for ... 13 years, I think? She repeatedly asked for an explanation of why we were given no warning that this was coming and no time to find other jobs or make other plans. She was given a reason for the layoffs, but she received absolutely no explanation for the callous manner in which the layoffs were handled. [B)]

Money will buy Armani suits and Ferraris and all sorts of other pretty toys. It will put a few kids through Holland Hall, and it will buy their grandma's best friend a byline on a column that someone else ghostwrites for her. But there is one thing money -- even old money -- can't buy: Class. And I've seen far more of that commodity in Oakhurst, Turley, and my beloved Red Fork than I see coming out of the mansions around Woodward Park this morning.

[Double A]

F*#k the Whirled. Rwarn is awfully quiet on this subject. Hmmmm.