Des Moines Register Publisher Laura Hollingsworth (left) and Editor Carolyn Washburn were scheduled to speak at a chamber luncheon in West Des Moines last week. Hollingsworth showed up. Washburn didn't. Managing Editor Randy Brubaker filled in. Several attendees told Skinny that Hollingsworth fielded only two questions, including one about the dominance of women and the number of female-based publications at the paper. In frustration, we hear, an attorney in the back of the room began clapping, signaling that the show was over. The Register duo awkwardly exited, stage left.[Photo: Register]
Sounds like the lawyer was doing his take on this famous RBS commercial:
ReplyDeletehttp://mediacentre.rbs.com/advertising/usa-advertising/tv-advertising/less-talk-make-it-happen/applause/index.aspx
"You've either got it, or your don't. Make it happen."
I would have loved to witness it!
It may be telling that nobody in the chamber of commerce felt the need to ask about the recent layoffs at the Register. You would think someone might have asked why they gave Duffy the boot.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we are all way too self centered. Maybe our readers don't give a hoot about who is reporting the news anymore.
Or even if we do ...
This is crap. Really weak. I'm a HUGE fan of this blog but getting into this type of content is not worth wasting my time. I say Kudos to Hollingsworth and team for getting outside the building and facing the public!
ReplyDeleteCityView is a bunch of childish whiners that pisses on the Register 24/7. I'm not sure they have ever said ANYTHING remotely positive when the paper has excelled, such as its recent reporting from Guatemala.
ReplyDeleteSo the publisher gave a speech and there were two questions from the audience ... that pretty much sounds like what happened. So what? Who cares?
They are too scared to confront even the Chamber of Commerce over these senseless cuts. Duffy's astonishing removal and the scrapping of the daily political cartoon needs explanations.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why this is something that was deemed "blog worthy". Please explain is seems like a bushel full of nothing to me.
ReplyDeleteSlow news day?
ReplyDeleteAnybody here remember those?
6:51 Are you from some new Gannett School of Journalism? The item is on topic, involves a GCI paper, is an indication of troubles with a GCI policy recently implemented, looks like it pissed off the local business community, and it happened recentlyy. So why is that not blog-worthy?
ReplyDeleteWhen Register execs turn their backs on the local business community (after telling Des Moines readres to take a hike with some really dumb decisions), that is news.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn Washburn, who was rejected for the editor slot at Nashville and reviled in Boise, is struggling as editor in Des Moines. Her hideous debut as campaign debate moderator, mocked even on SNL and derided by the stunned and horrified national press, must have been a setback.
ReplyDeleteSurely there is some way for this once-great paper to regain its footing? A Gannettoid editor, replete with househusband, is not getting the job done.
Watching Carolyn bubble under does nobody any good. Sad to see what has become. Let's get a pro in there and move the ball down the field.
If Nashville said no, why was Des Moines so lucky as to get her. Time for the revolving door rumors to be true?
I e-mailed Washburn a couple of pointed questions about the cutbacks at the Register, noting that I grew up reading the paper and have found it sad to pick it up on visits to my parents' home. She has never even bothered to reply. Granted, I no longer live in her circulation area, but I wonder if she would have replied if I still lived in DSM?
ReplyDeleteLocal---local---local baby!
ReplyDeleteShe is a hottie that Laura H. Hot-T!
ReplyDeleteShe is a Hottie. I worked with her in Lansing. She was GREAT to work with. She was also good at her job. Unfortunately they replaced her with a psycho, then a incompetent witch.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't worthy of the site because of the source. I'm sure most alternative weekly publications out there would slam the publisher and ad executives of the rival newspaper in their market - Gannett or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteHaving this type of nonsense on the same blog makes it look like everything is slanted against Gannett despite the truth or the facts. Frankly, it negatively impacts your blogs credibility Jim.