To: Senior Editors
From: Worker bee trying to make a difference
Re: Romenesko's news industry blog
From this point on, all senior editors must cease visiting Romenesko. It has come to my attention that many are spending excessive amounts of time reading about the woes of others. I know you are trying to avoid the same embarassing mistakes that land your own sorry ass in an embarassing situation.
He-l-l-l-l-o! I can't tell you how many story links I see going out on Facebook and Twitter. Links that are generating your paper more page views. If you are telling worker bees to stop visiting these sites and posting their story links there and do their social networking at home, are you then authorizing them to post their links off the clock? Um, can you say U.S. Department of Labor?
These sites are key to reaching out to our audience, to having a conversation and connection. Crawl out from your 1950s hole.
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As an employee at FLAT, I can tell you the fantasy baseball thing is BS, nobody has time to do "fantasy baseball research" on duty. It was an excuse to flex some muscle and let 'em know who's boss. The ee doesn't really comprehend facebook or twitter, hence the edict. The work conditions are bad enough and now this?
ReplyDelete"He-l-l-l-l-o! I can't tell you how many story links I see going out on Facebook and Twitter. Links that are generating your paper more page views."
ReplyDeleteGreat, more page views... How about MORE NEWS!
You know what Fla Today staff needs? Yup, a pep talk about ethics from it's legendary foundary, Big Al.
ReplyDeleteI wish IT would block:
ReplyDeleteInstant messaging
Twitter
Ebay
Facebook
Myspace
Productivity would go up 50%!
Is this really about productivity 10:28 a.m.? If so, maybe all the TVs should be removed from the info centers. Too distracting. And why not require workers to surrender lunch hours too? That would really add to the day's productivity, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteGod God what will be next. Will the company forbid me from reading a text message from my daughter or my husband, where does it end.
ReplyDeleteHere's my take on this. Florida Today either trusts its staff or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, then maybe internet access needs to be cut off and replaced with in-house only networking PCs.
ReplyDelete...and I was thinking Twitter, Facebook, etc. were great means of crowdsourcing.
ReplyDeleteRestricting Facebook and Twitter alienates young workers and creates an atmosphere of contempt. Instead of counting minutes of "productive time" why not gauge your staff by performance and results.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day, Today newspaper, now Fla. Today, had a three-story quota. you busted your ass from 9 to 8 p.m. or later - often later. and walked into your apt. to find the phone ringing with editor questions.
ReplyDeletewe didn;t have time to twitter our thumbs. we covered the space program, Brevard county and the many cities, schools, the beaches and military. plus Harris and other tech companies. all while listening to FIT campus radio station.
great place to be a cub. I loved it. Pumpkin Center was weird, I will grant you. Al was a leach.