Media reporter Deborah Rybak has decided to take the buy-out and leave the Star Tribune. She joins the likes of Eric Black, Doug Grow, Stormi Greener, Sharon Schmickle and 40-plus more Star Tribune newsroom employees who have/had until 5 pm today to officially notify the paper of their intentions. The paper has decided to deep six the media reporting beat.
Every departure has its elements of skullduggery and drama and Rybak’s certainly is no different. Working half time for the past six months as she dealt with family issues in California Rybak has been out of the newsroom maelstrom, but hardly immune to the effects of the tentacles of of misinformation, calculated or clueless, that have added to the anxiety dripping off the walls of the building these past few months — really ever since the day after Christmas when McClatchy announced it was selling out to Avista Capital Partners.
Rybak had no intention of leaving as of even a week ago. In fact, she has a May 14 e-mail from managing editor Scott Gillespie assuring her that, “Our agreement is airtight,” plainly meaning that he understood she intended to return to the media job and that he had agreed to that.
Still, to give you an idea of how screwy (and worse) these last couple weeks have been, Rybak, following the action from California, watched in a combination of puzzlement and horror as Gillespie nevertheless posted her job — meaning it was technically available for other reporters to choose — and then faded off into a veil of incommunicado-ness, sliding decision-making up and down the management pecking order. This left Rybak asking repeatedly, and long-distance, for clarification on what in the hell was going on — as in how she could declare her intentions to keep the job, based on the paper asking her to declare that she wanted it, then watching them first post the beat to all-comers, before eventually dumping the job entirely.
UPDATE: Some of you have asked when the full, final and official list of buy-outs will be released. Guild officer Pam Miller explains that Strib management has some kind of a June 6 deadline, “But I expect they’ll announce it before that.”
Complicating the situation is the paper’s stated (to the Guild) intention to get rid of “about” (says Miller) 10 of the 35 or so newsroom support staff, meaning news aides, librarians, etc. As Miller explains it the paper has said it will not accept more than 50 reporters, if it doesn’t get the minimum number of support staff. That could have the effect of some people who chose to take the buy-out being told their request has not been accepted.
Or, put another way, the situation really is miserable.
Miller, who writes for the Strib’s Faith and Valuyes section, described, “an eerily quiet scene” after today’s 5 p.m. deadline passed. Many had gone home early, perhaps seeing no purpose in ruining a perfectly good spring weekend with an extra hour of the spirit-sapping vibe of the Star Tribune building.
“You know,” says Miller, who by the way plans on staying, “I think of myself as a happy person. I’ve liked almost all the jobs I’ve ever had, and I like this one. I look forward to coming in in the morning. But I am very concerned about what this has done to this place. The way this has been handled has made everyone more suspicious of our managers, more suspicious of Par Ridder. It has become an unhealthy, toxic environment.”
Based on Ridder’s history and current ethical challenges I wonder if there is anyone who believes he and his current management team even have the skill set to restore their own credibility, much less a semblance of productive collegiality to the building?
Miller adds that it isn’t as though she and her colleagues don’t understand the profound problems of the newspaper business. Rather it’s that they detect no vision at all for moving their paper into something better.
I mentioned a memo from LA Times publisher, David Hiller, that was picked up on LAObserved yesterday.
The LA Times is beset by at least as many problems as the Star Tribune, and may or may not be better off with the smoke and mirrors purchase by Chicago tycoon Sam Zell. But the Times at least understands, and constantly reminds its staff that it intends to survive the transition to all digital news, and at the very least it isn’t going to go down without a fight.
Said Hiller, “We are adding technology and online product development resources. A little later today, we are announcing that Scott Sullivan has joined latimes.com as chief technology officer and will be building the teams to speed our development and rollout of new interactive products in the second half of 2007 and 2008. High on the priority list will be new local entertainment and listings products, building off the current calendarlive.com offering. We’ve also made initial investments in the camera and editing equipment necessary for our developing video strategy and continue to address our multimedia editorial training and staffing needs.”
The Avista owned, Par-operated Strib maybe be giving lip-service to such ideas, but there isn’t anyone in the Strib newsroom who thinks they’re going to take any serious risks to achieve anything like what the Times is attempting. And THAT is demoralizing.
Hiller added, “The recent [reduction] program was a difficult but important part of how we are changing – reducing expenses in the core and investing for growth. As part of this, we are both eliminating some positions and adding back some positions. We eliminated approximately 170 positions, mostly through the voluntary buyouts; we are planning to hire back approximately 50 positions in the core paper to strengthen talent in multi-media, local coverage, marketing and sales. In addition, we will be adding likely more than 30 additional staff in interactive before the end of the year. We are a living, changing organization and this all part of how we adapt.”
I’ve said it before, the current Avista “team”, and I say that sardonically, betrays far more interest in “harvesting” than “investing” in the Star Tribune. Cornball chatter about, “leaner and meaner” is, frankly, an insult to the intelligence of the average reporter. Money talks, and what Avista’s money is saying is, “Every man for himself.”
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