A tipster has forwarded a list of 68 Hartford Courant staffers taking the buyout or being "involuntarily separated." That's 10 more than originally advertised. Zell can probably buy himself a new Ducati with that.
Update: Several fellow Retchers have told me that the list includes ALL Hartford Courant staff who left the paper in 2008--both this round and the spring buyout. So maybe Zell can only put a down payment on that Ducati.
The list is totally unofficial; all normal caveats attach. If you want your name off, email me at inkstainedretch at gmail.com. If you want to add your name, do the same.
You can click on the name to bring up an automatic search of Google's news archives. This method is not the best. Some reporters' work will come up, others not. And if you're a photographer or a copy editor or non-editorial employee, it's useless.
The idea, though, is to show the loss. If Connecticut readers want to see what's being lost when reporters walk out the door, this will give some sense. But I apologize in advance for the imperfections.
Claude Albert •
Mike Bartolatta •
Bruce Berlet •
Tom Bieluczyk •
Susan Booker •
Tina Brown •
Matt Burgard •
Ken Byron •
Tony Calabro •
Tony Cannella •
Lisa Chedekel •
Steve Courtney •
Carlos Cunha •
Jim Doody •
Peter Downs •
Vivian Dennis •
Dave Drury •
Joan Dumaine •
Victor Durao •
Jim Farrell •
Valerie Finholm •
Jone Fulkerson •
Carole Goldberg •
Jeff Goldberg •
Tracy Gordon Fox •
Dan Goren •
Ron Georgeff •
Linda Giuca •
Stephanie Heisler •
Deb Hornblow •
Bill Hathaway •
David Heuschkel •
Tom Hine •
Karen Hunter •
Dan Jones •
Joann Klimkievicz •
Michael Kodas •
Bill Lewis •
Gary Libow •
Kim Martineau •
Greg Morago •
Kathy McKula •
Katie Melone •
Sylvia Minickene •
Sameer Ohri •
Penny Overton •
Preston Parkes •
Charles Proctor •
Tom Puleo •
Mike Regan •
Paul Rosano •
Susan Schoenberger •
Will Schubert •
Sue Simoneau •
Sue Silsbee •
Larry Smith •
Jack Sopko •
Paul Spencer •
Charles Stannard •
Paul Stern •
Stef Summers •
Shana Sureck •
Lynne Tuohy •
Tom Twitchell •
Dan Uhlinger •
Reid Walmark •
Larry Williams •
John Ward
Thursday, July 24, 2008
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12 comments:
That's a sad list. I worked in Hartford in the early '90s and some of those folks were rising stars at the time. The dismantling of The Courant is hard to watch. That has been arguably one of the two or three best papers in a smaller American city for quite a while.
That list includes some layoffs/buyouts other than the current round.
Unfortunately, it seems that my decision to cancel my subscription a couple of years ago was the right one. There is no one there anymore (and there will be less still) to report the news. When will newspapers realize that trying to be more like TV is not going to attract readers. Newspapers should be for people who like to read and their business model should be adjusted as such. Granted, doing as such would require that the public interest is part of the model rather than just a profit margin, but it might also ensure the long term viability and success of newspapers.
The Hartford Courant had 33 news reporters covering the state of Connecticut before this round of buyouts/layoffs. Now it'll be 18, I'm told.
A massacre!
And a group of those 18 will actually be assigned to a breaking news desk that will be jumping on the "story of the day" and not actually covering the communities. More and more like TV every day!
RIP, watchdog journalism.
In the mid-90s, The Courant had more than 60 reporters and part-time correspondents assigned to towns and cities.
Now it will be 18 (minus the four or five on the "flavor of the day" team).
Statehouse coverage and specialty beat coverage was already shredded several years ago. The D.C. bureau had a half-dozen people at one point; it's down to one.
Zell is journalism's equivalent of a war criminal
Thanks, Ganoush. So prescient of you. Mayhaps you and Ishkabibel can write blogs to each other around the campfire. Oh, and don't look for a newspaper to start those logs. And don't forget to help your local TV station by telling them what is going on at the State House. As if you and the rest of the tribe still knows how to read...
"Zell is journalism's equivalent of a war criminal"
Brilliant observation. You and Ganoush both ought to blog each other. Blog, blog, blog. Don't forget - have your kids major in blogism at Quinnipiac, where they have a Blogging Chair of Community Journalism. If I had it over to do again, oh, I would, and spend all day at the coffee shop. What? You can't close my Starbucks! I haven't finished the final paper for my major!
This paper is a sad excuse for fair journalism. Their announced cut in content prompted me to cancel my decade long subscription. They can close their doors for all I care.
Zell calls journalists whiners who don't see the financial writing on the wall.
Chief among the reasons for the demise of newspapers, along with loss of ad revenues and rise of TV and Internet, is the consolidation of ownership nto large companies.
Journalists and readers should be more than whining about that. Zell rails on his workers when people like him are the problem. Even news CEOs will admit it - ask Dean Singleton, owner of MediaNews
Come Autumn, the news crisis in Connecticut is going to start hitting home - legislators, state agencies, town political bodies, readers, will start to see what this means. JRC, which owns New Haven Register and other papers in the state already has been putting out a weak product for years. MediaNews, which owns the connecticut post is facing problems and now the courant, will drop in quality really quickly.
reporting on and scrutiny of government and democratic institutions is going to fall to a level that is substandard and unprecedented- we don't have enough press here anymore.
i think it is fair to call it a crisis in connecticut and I think the media should call it that in its stories.
The unhappy fact is that we won't know that we have poor news coverage. How do we know what we don't know? How many politicians will do their evil deeds in Corrupticut due to too few reporters turning over the rocks they hide under? The sky really is falling, but who will report on it?
There are already many, many towns in Connecticut that are essentially journalism-free zones (unless there's a strange, gruesome crime). There are going to be more.
I truly think the answer is a state-supported, nonprofit newspaper -- mostly on the web, I suppose -- that can continue to provide news. We could come up with the money for it by dumping all the PR flacks that taxpayers already pay for.
It's ridiculous to argue anymore that news can be profitable. It's obviously no longer true.
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