Monday, January 03, 2011
Des Moines | Palm Springs' Green is new top editor
In a statement, Corporate says that Executive Editor Rick Green of The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., replaces The Des Moines Register's Carolyn Washburn, who moves to The Cincinnati Enquirer's top newsroom position.
35 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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Where is the party tonight in P.S.? Getting rid of a bully is cause for a celebration. Woo hoo. Good luck Des Moines.
ReplyDelete7:40 you must be a very unhappy person. The paper has never looked as good as it does now. Thanks Rick for doing a great job you will be missed.
ReplyDeleteRick's a great guy. Congrats on getting the best news job in Gannett.
ReplyDeleteWhen a colleague calls another a bully it usually means the bully is really a bully or the guy calling the guy a bully is a lazy, under performer, who gets their butt kicked in a regular basis. Which are you my friend? Just asking.
ReplyDeleteNo surprises. And Cincy gets a hell of an editor. Expect a shakeup as she makes her mark and a statement about what she'll be doing with the paper. She is not a maintenance editor. Hands on and full speed.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope Rick Green can reverse what Washburn seemingly tried so hard to do in Des Moines: Eradicate the Register's print product and hire every female friend she had in the business.
ReplyDeleteThese comments show why Gannett is rotting from within. There are a lot of small, bitter people in the offices.
ReplyDeleteWhich hires were the bad ones in Des Moines? What were the problems in Palm Springs? Don't just run in and tattle without some details. Put up or shut up.
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ReplyDeleteI followed RAG across the country, moving from Cincinnati to Palm Springs. It was the right choice. I would do it again. He inspires, is a tireless worker, a great coach & cheerleader and pushed us to do amazing journalism in a town that wasn't used to it. No one is perfect, but he truly cares about the people who work for him. Des Moines, you're going to love this guy.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteRick Green will be missed. Des Moines, get ready to be inspired.
ReplyDeleteWow 7:40. You are off the mark. I'd like to escort you out of the building myself with the next round of layoffs. Good luck with that attitude, you may have never had a better chance to excel than under Rick. You missed the boat. Rick...you have been an inspiration...the best to you and your family in Des Moines.
ReplyDeleteFollowing is an edited version of a comment posted at 8:55 a.m.:
ReplyDeleteGannett have been rotting for years, and yes there are many small, bitter people in the offices. The offices of the editors and publishers who are life long Gannettoids.
The company has historically been thought of as a cut rate news operation that focused on buying newspapers in monopoly markets, then squeezing every penny they could out of them, while eliminating the local talent who had the knowledge and readership that made the product unique. They attempted to change that image when they purchased the Register, but that didn't fool anyone, so they gutted it. Familiar story.
Which hires were bad ones? How about if we start with Washburn herself; an [XXXXX] individual who treated an extremely talented staff as if they were worthless. She forced one after another out from Managing Editor, Rick Tapscott, front page cartoonist Brian Duffy and popular columnist John Carlson to name a few. Over the past year virtually every online tech left for greener pastures.
Other accomplishments has Washburn added to her resume: an ever increasing loss of readership of the newspaper, a jumbled mess of an internet site that gets less hits than a local television stations site, and last but not least, a stellar performance as the "moderator" of the last series of Presidential debates [XXXXX].
Good luck Cinci.
Following is an edited version of a comment posted at 4:56 a.m.:
ReplyDeleteOk, let's be real, Green's wife was the "secretary" for another Rick (forgot his last name) in a troubled city called Desert Hot Springs. Green's (oh, the city manager was Rick Dainels) wife was Daniels' right hand woman. I brought this to the attention of the (whomever was in charge at The Desert Sun) and I was the enemy. This guy who thinks he is helping our communities is unethical.
Reporters are going to jam (hello leaving) when they run into this fellow. Ask Rick Green about the buried gas tanks in Palm Springs. It wasn't his idea, so he buried it (the tanks are buried in the North Palm Springs area). The guy is a [XXXXX], and I will stand up to take care of it. Oh, shit, I just gave up who I am.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteSo why would you remove characterizations of C. Washburn that come directly from the mouths of the likes of George Will, Charles Krauthammer, and other national media representatives that were present at the debates?
My guess is that her performance is one of the reasons they moved her before the next Iowa Caucuses debates came around.
Anyone who thinks Green is a professional match for an editorship of a Pulitizer Prize winning newspaper that is the Des Moines Register needs only read his weekly column in the Desert Sun. Read Green's prose and judge for yourself the limits of his writing style and shallow depth and breadth of the topic. The underlying theme of each weekly column, positioned on the Opinion page, is a autobiography of Green's overblown ego.
ReplyDeleteThe Register has a long tradition of great editors, Overholser, Gardner, and many other journalism giants. Green is not a match for this job. He may be a good manager, a good budget-cutter, but he is not a journalism giant in the long tradition of the Register's accomplished editors.
So what happened at the debates? I admit I don't watch them because I believe they are scripted performances and provide little real information about the candidates.
ReplyDeleteThe Congressional debates that Green "moderated" recently as editor of Desert Sun in Palm Springs between Republican Mary Bono Mack and Democrat Steve Pougnet were characterized by audible editorial comments from editor Rick Green saying "yes," "good" when Mary Bono Mack replied to a question he posed. (Bono Mack is the longtime Republican incumbent candidate who joined the US Congress more than 10 years ago when her late husband Sonny Bono died suddenly in a ski accident). In sharp contrast to the praise he offered the questions answered by Mary Bono Mac, when the Democratic challenger/candidate answered questions, Green offered no positive verbal engouraging words. Many in Palm Springs who have observed Green's work for several years feel he is a rebel rouser. Some think he is far right in his political leanings as to not have the ability to be objective - far right tea party style. You may be able to view the videos of the debate on You Tube or mydesert.com. Green's bias is so brazen it is almost unimaginable to think he's been appointed editor of a world class newspaper. Green is a close ally, understudy and protoge Robert J Dickey, whom we worked under at The Desert Sun. Dickey is close friend to Mary Bono Mack, as Dickey was Palm Springs publisher for more than 10 years.
ReplyDeleteRick Green might be a better fit for Fox news editor.
ReplyDeleteJust do a google advanced search about the Iowa presidential debates. Or watch on YouTube or CSPAN. Reviews were terrible and it was even reported Washburn had a wedgie that the audience saw the entire time.
ReplyDeletehttp://state29.blogspot.com/2007/12/carolyn-washburn-as-nurse-ratched.html
The "Ohio farm boy" is leaving PS.
ReplyDeleteThere is a God!
Mary Bono Mack was a real sacred cow. It was like Green was her personal PR scribe.
"Rick Green is definitely a self-promoter and none more so than during the early election season televised debate his paper sponsored between candidates Mary Bono Mack and Steve Pougnet. Since "his" newspaper was footing most of the bills for the debate's costs, he made the rules.
ReplyDeleteHis self-promotion antics reached a peak when, though lacking in experience or appropriate skills, Green chose himself to host the debates and as the one asking questions of the candidates. His performance was not only poor, he managed to clearly, though perhaps inadvertently, reveal his preference for Mary Bono Mack as his candidate of choice. And, of course, the paper endorsed Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack for re-election during the final days of the election season.
The MyDesert.com website, created in 2007, has suffered greatly during Rick Green's tenure. It started with a dedicated and enthusiastic staff who approached the project as pioneers and in that vein appeared to give the enterprise much love and attention. Those pioneers are gone and the vast array of interesting and credible bloggers they recruited have also moved on. The website design has not evolved and surely merits at best a mediocre rating. It's overpopulated with advertisements, web pages are visibly confusing and unattractive, and page loading is far too slow. The website clearly exists in a minimal maintenance mode.
Green claims to have made significant community outreach efforts in Palm Springs and certainly proved adept at promoting his coffee house visits. What effect such activities had on his views remains unknown. What is clear is his inability to accept critique or disagreement. The paper has no ombudsman or other community representative giving voice to reader concerns. The only avenue for community input is via a letter that may or may not be printed. The remaining avenue for those who feel the paper is unfair, unbalanced, unrepresentative or overpriced is to cancel their subscription and use the funds to purchase a better product.”
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ReplyDeleteSo it has been announced that Desert Sun publisher Rick Green has been named editor of The Des Moines Register effective January 17, 2011. There are activist judges and activist journalists. Rick Green is known for his activism journalism and hands-on micro managerial style. Des Moines newsroom (and Operating Committee, too), you're in for quite an eye-opener.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Green is a tone-deaf manager who sees what he wants to see. My experience with him was that he presented an image of being an upbeat, caring manager, a back-slapper, rah-rah kind of guy. But his eyes would glaze over if you tried to discuss actual problems or suggestions to improve things.
ReplyDeleteAs one of Rick Green's former Cincinnati Enquirer staff, I beg to differ with this comment:
ReplyDelete"The Register has a long tradition of great editors, Overholser, Gardner, and many other journalism giants. Green is not a match for this job. He may be a good manager, a good budget-cutter, but he is not a journalism giant in the long tradition of the Register's accomplished editors."
I worked for three dailies before landing at the Enquirer, gleaning national awards in the process.
Yet Rick Green took my journalism to its HIGHEST LEVELS.
He totally GETS and is INVESTED IN high-quality stories and projects, and journalism's purpose in "community."
It is damned hard to be a newsroom manager these days. Rick's made mistakes - he'd be the first to tell you.
But he's the right choice for Des Moines.
And all you people who see a right-winger in him, be advised that his wife - a highly competent city government official - is a flaming liberal.
Lastly, let's all send Jim some $$$ now because he's working hard FOR US.
A few fact-finding corrections to the above thread: Rick Green's wife is an "executive assistant" to a city manager in a small little town called Desert Hot Springs. She is not a government official nor an e.
ReplyDeleteAlso, are you serious? "Totally gets it"...."invested in high quality journalism" In my opinion he is a finger puppet for his former boss who is now head of USCP at corporate. He may well be a great cheerleader for junior journalists and cub reporters who blog for him in all caps using valley girl parlance such as "totally" - but he will be a fresh fish out of water in a real paper with genuine excellence and real awards. Take a look at some of Rick Green's past "columns" in The Desert Sun's sunday "community conversations" section. This could give you some back-story insight into who Rick Green is. It's auto-biographical afterall. As editor in Palm Springs, Rick is accustomed to small town journalism where he writes stories, including his proudly written (and prominently displayed) standing column that chronicles his road trips, personal life and his awe-inspired "awe-shucks" encounters with the man on the street. Green is also known for meddling in headline writing, story placement, cutlines, pagination, copy-editing, even messing with the masthead to make it appear as f he is publisher. the works. In my opinion, he sees himself as the lone voice of the newspaper. At a venerable paper like Des Moines there is more than one person that makes news decisions and people aren't as accustomed to micro-manager antics. He certainly is a rah-rah guy and a back-slapper. But aren't those types better in the revenue-centric departments such as advertising or the publisher's chair? Agree with you completely about sending Jim some cash. His blog is a great service. It's honest and informative. He deserves some appreciation in the form of contributions.
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ReplyDeleteI found him to be a bully when I went to him with a customer complaint, I don't work for TDS, either.
ReplyDeleteA poster said: "He may well be a great cheerleader for junior journalists and cub reporters who blog for him in all caps using valley girl parlance such as "totally" - "
ReplyDeleteMy question is , are some of these bloggers not identified to the public as TDS "staff"? I feel that to rev up the comments and keep people involved, that staff bloggers make comments w/o being designated as "staff". Green puts so much emphasis on the public participation in the TDS blog (www.mydesert.com) and some of the blogging is really suspicious as being mere shills.
definition of shill: A shill or plant is a person who helps another person or organization to sell goods or services without disclosing that he or she has a close relationship with the seller. The shill pretends to have no association with the seller/group and gives onlookers the impression that he or she is an enthusiastic independent customer. The person or group that hires the shill is using crowd psychology, to encourage other onlookers or audience members (who are unaware of the set-up) to purchase the said goods or services
Someone please tell me its anonymous!
As a reader of TDS rag , I see this as illuminating:
ReplyDelete"Totally gets it"...."invested in high quality journalism" In my opinion he is a finger puppet for his former boss who is now head of USCP at corporate. He may well be a great cheerleader for junior journalists and cub reporters who blog for him in all caps using valley girl parlance such as "totally" - but he will be a fresh fish out of water in a real paper with genuine excellence and real awards."
Its cut and paste journalism , would be plagiarism but for the permission to copy and paste the articles from other sources.
The reporting lacks even the asking of a single question, local reports are basically lifted off press releases from the govt. agency or firm that issued the release. I can cite examples. The article about the appointees to a homeless shelter , it was just a copy off of the agency's press release , no reporting yet many obvious questions could have been asked. They keep appointing marketing people to run a homeless shelter , why? The first was forced out due to conflicts of interests , he was a political insider and marketing agency man who also got into city council then the city council made him in charge of a homeless shelter; next appointee was also a marketing agent. What is the resume of this appointee? how is he qualified to run a homeless shelter? we don't know, no one at TDS asked.
An article about La Quinta resort being "seized" by creditors was copied from Bloomberg" as was the part where Bloomberg called the creditor who did not return the call. But it appeared the TDS called, not true. They even copied the part of what Bloomberg did and (accidentally?) said they did it. Couldn't they (TDS) just call themselves and then say they did, truthfully? One single call? The La Quinta Resort is a landmark here? Readers were posting comments 'whats next with the resort?' with no answers. I called the resort myself and at least learned it business as usual, all reservations for all future dates are being taken etc.
If you believe the saying
ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL
AND
you believe the importance of
FREEDOM OF PRESS ;
DO YOU BELIEVE THE DESERT SUN and other Gannet Rags are fulfilling the role of the press envisioned by our founding fathers?
Clearly the sane among us would conclude that no TDS does not fulfill this role, this is just shameful, really. Its affront to journalism and democracy, to pretend to be journalist, to pretend to publish a "news" paper, such as TDS claims to be, is affront to all. I can't believe journalists blog on here while ignoring the 800 lbs gorilla in the room which is that there is no journalism at TDS (or Rick Green's former paper) . Likely the case as to many other Gannet rags.
What happened to the days when "journalist" meant something? When among the first things we did every morning was to look at the newspaper, lifting it from our front porch where a paper boy on a bike threw it, measured its weight and voluminousness as we picked it up, balancing coffee or holding closed a robe, with expectations for what we were about to discover, learn and ponder from names we knew as respected sages : the columnist, the editor, the satirist, the cartoonist. Their writings gave us fodder for discussion for the rest of the day. Writers were known and respected, the words mattered. Whether we agreed or not, we couldn't wait to read what they had to say each day.
For expressing views such as above and similar to views expressed by other contributors here, The Desert Sun (before Rick Green departed) blocked my account on the Desert Sun's website (mydesert.com), there was no vulgarity or personal attacks. Criticism of the poor moderation of the webiste, superficial articles, and close relationship Rick Green formed with a small core group of less that a dozen bloggers who meet monthly at lounges for food and drinks. I felt the close relationship Green had with the bloggers led to unfair moderating. I see no reason why this can't be explored or discussed yet it caused my acct to be blocked.
ReplyDeleteAs editor in Palm Springs, Rick Green earned a reputation within the news community as a thin-skinned junior journalist who wanted no dissent or difference of opinion if it was not in agreement with his activist points of view.
ReplyDelete12:16 "while ignoring the 800 lbs gorilla in the room which is that there is no journalism at TDS"?
ReplyDeleteMaking sweeping generalizations like that makes you ignorant at best.
Green's leadership led to exaggerated coverage of some areas and killed coverage of other important cities. He and his family's deep ties to one city's CEO are outrageous.
Whether under Green leadership or not, there is certainly some real journalism going on in that newsroom. THAT, 12:16, is not the elephant in the room.
Do you work for Gannett while you write these kinds of throw-away judgments of your sister papers? I sure hope not.
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ReplyDelete