Here's a photo of two of the reigning con artists in the news business: Lee Abrams and Rob Curley.
The two were together in Vegas for the opening of the Society of News Design conference. Together, they crowed many inane, unsupported statements. Lee kicked it off by saying "war has been declared" on newspapers. What a wonderfully bizarre, illogical sentence. By whom? When? And why? Typically, the grammatically challenged Lee offered no answers.
Then there was Rob Curley, formerly at the Washington Post and now at the Las Vegas Sun. If there ever was an heir to the Pied Piper design chicanery of Mario Vargas, and Lee Abrams, it's Curley.
The guy has bounced from newspaper to newspaper, from Kansas, to Florida to Nevada, spouting local, local nonsense, criticizing news coverage, and leaving sky high bills for expensive, unproven tech toys like live broadcasts of high school football games. And yet he has never, ever increased circulation anywhere.
How do these charlatans get away with this? Why does design ever trump the simple editorial imperative of telling good stories? How long do the emperors get to run around naked?
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
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12 comments:
Why doesn't the Times retool and produce some other product other than a world-class newspaper? Businessmen have been trying to talk us out of journalism for a couple decades now. Get it over with. Make, I don't know, cheap toys for Burger King, or produce diapers. Better yet, change over to the TMZ Times. Use the remaining strength of the L.A. Times name to sell the brain-destroying garbage that most of the population wants to read, see, and hear.
Thanks. Just wanted to walk in Lee's shoes for a moment. Excuse me now, I have to wash my feet.
Mario Vargas? Did you mean Mario Garcia?
i actually think that if Tribune invested in all its websites, especially the newspaper ones, and gave them the capability to do live video feeds, that would be a huge step forward.
the notion of offering live web feeds is totally under-rated. yes, i know, it costs a lot of money and its probably unworkable given the mediocre websites tribune has across the board.
but if the newspaper websites can cover live news events the way tv stations can then it would be ass-kicking. in markets where tribune owns a tv station and a newspaper site, why can't the tv station broadcast some of its content live on the newspaper site, in exchange for print content. (pardon my ignorance if this is being done already somewhere in the trib family.)
Curley is not the Pied Piper. He is Rasputin.
He convinces the powerful that only he can save what they hold most dear. They find him mesmerizing, everyone else finds him swinish. His predictions never come to pass. He lives extravagantly while the kingdom suffers.
Also: Hard to get rid of.
Two things. First, you hammer away at these guys but never talk about the people who ruined TM or TribCo and put everyone in this position.
Second, if you're running this website and also drawing a salary from the company then you are a skunk.
Have the balls to identify yourself as a matter of accountability and credibility.
You can call Abrams and Zell and the others anything you want, but you are a coward, which is the worst slur of all.
Proof of my assertion will rest on whether you have the balls to publish this comment. If not, only you and I will know the truth.
Jesus, Lee, what's with the K-Mart maroon sweater? Trying to put the best foot forward again? You look like Einstein only dumber.
Mario "Don't Call Me Wario" Garcia is the Doctor of Drool. I assume that's who's being discussed here.
The answer to the hypothetical questions posed here: Many designers are too dumb to read, write or edit. At some point, possibly during the 1970s from what I've gathered, a bunch of them decided they didn't like their jobs because they were too hard.
Instead of learning how to do the work, they found ways to redefine the "news" process. And newspapers have suffered ever since. The people who don't want to work, or read, or write, or edit, can latch onto the design lollipop. It's a popular approach among the lazy, the stupid and the ignorant.
Now morons like Dr. Mario and others can run around spouting their nonsense because newsrooms have locked themselves into a failing approach. I'm not sure they could change now even if they wanted to.
And in anticipation of the nutcases who will offer weak responses to this:
* Don't bother saying designers favor content. They don't.
* Blather all you want about the Wenalway site. The advice of content-ignorant pinheads shall go unnoticed.
* Don't lecture people about posting anonymously unless YOU post with a name.
* If you can't cite some facts as to how redesigns have improved circulation, then don't claim they have. Either argue with facts or admit defeat.
To summarize: Grow a spine and use a name. Learn how to use facts. Stay on point. I know all of these things are hard for the mentally challenged design folks, but the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
Kind of harsh, but I have to agree with the overview. Hiring "page designers" instead of more copy editors is idiotic. Most of the young "designers" I worked with had a hard time stringing five words together for a story refer. These "designers" attached boxes to pages and waited for the word people to do the work. It is nuts. There is no true "page design" involved in the great majority of news pages. Unless "designers" dumb them down and litter them with labor-intensive junk.
[[Don't lecture people about posting anonymously unless YOU post with a name.]]
actually, since you're not the boss of me, i'll do what i damn well please. and the central point is that it's shitty to have set up this whole operation to criticize the company and also draw a salary from the same company. if the retch is so freaking high minded, then s/he should quit the company and go get a job somewhere else. oh, wait, there is nowhere else.
to quote the oft great jack nicholson, "I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it."
you can bash the company or you can cash your paycheck.
you can't do both and still be an ethical person.
Nice to see Dr. Knilands has sprouted his ugly head again. Now if they'd only carpet-bomb Piper City
Why on earth would the Retch be stupid enough to identify himself? Sorry dude, you'll just have to put up with the spitballs and now Zell is being sued by his own employees which is beyond belief and genuinely inspiring. Sure, we're all partners! What a fucking douchebag. He can't possibly have written that with a straight face. I can't tell you how much I admire those with the guts to go after this creep and highwayman. I think lawn-gnome-boy is going down.
Lots of news. OC trying to dump the union. People suing Sam. Layoffs in IT. Did the Retch go -30-?
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