"There is a major hiring and retention problem there,'' the reader writes. "Way too much dead wood. Some of incompetency in the newsroom was brought on by quota hiring. C'mon, let's be frank. There are people who have no idea what it means to work in a newsroom and probably will never learn or care about world events. They are people who wouldn't have been hired by a bad weekly 20 years ago, let alone a national daily."But some of the problem employees are just people who haven't kept up with the times. Unfortunately, I am not just talking about the current online initiatives. There are people who still don't know how to use a printer or make an electronic request or attach a file to an e-mail. . . . If you can't perform basic tech functions, you shouldn't be working at a newspaper. By the same token, if you don't know who is running for the Senate from your state, or are clueless about who won the Super Bowl last year, you also should find another profession."
Join the debate, in the original post.
[Image: today's front page, Newseum]
What has happened at USAT is typical of what is happening all across Gannett. Because of mindless and oppressive management, talent has long fled elsewhere, leaving behind the detrius of people who can't find jobs anywhere else. It is time to clean out the stables, but there's little interest in addressing the back-office problems.
ReplyDeleteWhat is with all the evil wishing upon the USAT team? Don't we want someone somewhere in the company to save jobs and have some success?
ReplyDeleteGeez you people are bitter souls.
Good luck out there in the real world!
Negativity only hurts the person who carries it within themselves.
The sad part is that there are good, talented, tuned-in journalists out here who would _love_ to work at USA Today but don't fit in the categories for quotas.
ReplyDelete5:29 PM - Well said!
ReplyDeleteThis was a very courageous post that is very much on the mark. What I learned in my time at a big Gannett daily is that the chain has neither no eye for talent nor an ability to recruit or retain talent. In Gannettland, mediocre becomes better than average, better than average becomes star, and poor becomes good enough. Stature grows more through tenure and kneepad homage than through journalistic accomplishment. The best people leave, and Gannett is so headstrong in its minority recruiting that it hires people who simply don't rate.
ReplyDeletePlease don't forget the huge numbers of non-minority folks who are sitting there because of who, not what they know, who they've slept with, and other dirty little known and unknown secrets.
ReplyDeleteGet real. What young, talented person is going to want to work at a newspaper? Hello..... this is 2008, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYou think you can make a career at a newspaper? Maybe as a curator of the newseum.
I work at USAT and this diversity argument seems nuts -- my section is so white we could double as a McCain rally. Really seems like uninformed blame-casting.
ReplyDeleteIt's 2008, not 1908, folks. We need more latinos and african-americans behind desks instead of cleaning the bathrooms (where they are treated like they are invisible) when we can get them, not that we are likely hiring anybody anytime soon. Sounds like they are just waiting for the end of the election to give the heave-ho to our share of staff.
Nope. We need more talented people, not more of any certain race.
ReplyDeletePeople who push for quotas are lazy thinkers. They should be cleaning bathrooms. They don't belong in positions that require thought.