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10 months ago
in Tween-lit nostalgia blogging on The Pop DinerDon't know if you're too young to relate, but you might also be interested in reliving Francine Pascal's "Sweet Valley High" series at The Dairi Burger (thedairiburger.wordpress.com).
1 year ago
in NashuaTelegraph.com: Blogs on Raising AthletesThat was beautiful, Bob. Thank you so much for sharing what a remarkable man he was and how he has obviously influenced you.
1 year ago
in News isn't all bad for newspapers these days on Nashua Telegraph
"These are tough times that call for tough, creative, lean organizations full of people who not only embrace change, but who feed on it; people who like long odds and a just fight; people who can each do the work of two or three normal people and who can acquire new skill sets and bodies of knowledge on a weekly – heck, sometimes daily – basis. "
You left out:
1. People who are able to work through the demoralization of layoffs.
2. People who don't mind getting paid far less than, say, the teachers in Nashua. (Nothing against the teachers in Nashua, but how ironic that they outlined their financial struggles to reporters who made probably at least $5,000-$10,000 a year LESS.)
3. People willing to work on shoddy equipment, particularly constantly crashing computers and outdated software.
4. People able, perhaps through the help of mysterious benefactors, face the rising gas prices, the mortgage crisis, the overall in-the-toilet economy and rejoice over a Christmas "bonus" of a gift certificate to the local grocery store or no bonus at all, after watching their company spend hundreds of thousands of dollars - in actual money, in trade and in man hours - to celebrate being in business.
"Local newspaper companies are still the only ones that will spend what it takes to cover your hometowns in depth and give you the tools you need to be an informed voter, taxpayer, homeowner, parent and resident in your community."
This is not only no longer true thanks to other online news sources - and no, not just bloggers - but also because newspapers continue to gut their newsrooms. Young reporters simply cannot make enough money to pay off student loans and J-school without taking on a second, sometimes third job. Worse, veteran newsroom employees, sometimes with about 10 years of experience, can't make a decent living.
Why not include how many newsroom staff positions were lost due to layoffs or attrition in the last five years? How many staffers in the last five years left to pursue work in other fields?
You mention that your readership is up, but how are you monetizing that? Most papers still have failed to figure out how to get advertisers to pay premium prices for online ads, so even though readership might be up and online ad sales might be up, it might not save an individual paper.
I appreciate your positive, go-get-em attitude, but you're only telling part of the story here. Radical change is only half the equation, and yes, some papers are handling the changing business model better than others, but in the meantime, other online news sources are popping up to fill voids in their local news coverage due to staffing shortages. More importantly, "people who can each do the work of two or three normal people" deserve to be rewarded for that work. Newspapers simply don't do that, and when they get frustrated by that fact, many of those people who "not only embrace change, but feed on it" may find themselves looking for growth industries who will actually pay them well for the quality work they output. It astounds me that papers print stories about the faltering economy and seem to ignore the fact that many of their own employees are struggling to make ends meet.
You left out:
1. People who are able to work through the demoralization of layoffs.
2. People who don't mind getting paid far less than, say, the teachers in Nashua. (Nothing against the teachers in Nashua, but how ironic that they outlined their financial struggles to reporters who made probably at least $5,000-$10,000 a year LESS.)
3. People willing to work on shoddy equipment, particularly constantly crashing computers and outdated software.
4. People able, perhaps through the help of mysterious benefactors, face the rising gas prices, the mortgage crisis, the overall in-the-toilet economy and rejoice over a Christmas "bonus" of a gift certificate to the local grocery store or no bonus at all, after watching their company spend hundreds of thousands of dollars - in actual money, in trade and in man hours - to celebrate being in business.
"Local newspaper companies are still the only ones that will spend what it takes to cover your hometowns in depth and give you the tools you need to be an informed voter, taxpayer, homeowner, parent and resident in your community."
This is not only no longer true thanks to other online news sources - and no, not just bloggers - but also because newspapers continue to gut their newsrooms. Young reporters simply cannot make enough money to pay off student loans and J-school without taking on a second, sometimes third job. Worse, veteran newsroom employees, sometimes with about 10 years of experience, can't make a decent living.
Why not include how many newsroom staff positions were lost due to layoffs or attrition in the last five years? How many staffers in the last five years left to pursue work in other fields?
You mention that your readership is up, but how are you monetizing that? Most papers still have failed to figure out how to get advertisers to pay premium prices for online ads, so even though readership might be up and online ad sales might be up, it might not save an individual paper.
I appreciate your positive, go-get-em attitude, but you're only telling part of the story here. Radical change is only half the equation, and yes, some papers are handling the changing business model better than others, but in the meantime, other online news sources are popping up to fill voids in their local news coverage due to staffing shortages. More importantly, "people who can each do the work of two or three normal people" deserve to be rewarded for that work. Newspapers simply don't do that, and when they get frustrated by that fact, many of those people who "not only embrace change, but feed on it" may find themselves looking for growth industries who will actually pay them well for the quality work they output. It astounds me that papers print stories about the faltering economy and seem to ignore the fact that many of their own employees are struggling to make ends meet.
