Sunday, September 23, 2012

Detroit | That voice heard all the way to Ishpeming

Dzwonkowski
Brian Dickerson of the Detroit Free Press writes a wonderful sendoff for associate editor and columnist Ron Dzwonkowski, whose final column was published today:

He was simply more fun to be around than anyone else in the building -- a gushing fire hose of good-natured, equal-opportunity insult, a connoisseur of gallows humor, an ex-broadcaster whose foghorn voice, raised often in urgency or sarcasm but rarely in anger, soared above the tumult of the newsroom.

12 comments:

  1. Dzwonkowski is among more than a few Freep staffers leaving in a round of buyouts announced in July.

    About 40 staffers were eligible; I don't know how many ultimately got them.

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  2. I've now been old that a total of 73 people took buyouts and are leaving. Here's the breakdown:

    * Detroit Media Partnership, the JOA that handles advertising and other business functions for both the Gannett-owned Freep and the MediaNews Group-owned Detroit News: 43

    * News: 6

    * Freep: 24

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  3. 7:43 Incorrect

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  4. DO THE MATH, PLEASE

    Add up the numbers, and Ron Dz must be close to SocSec.

    I'm not shedding any tears for him. He's walking out with the potential of 2.5 years of salary and U.I -- AND SocSec.

    Wait another year, and there could be nothing in the pot and the pressure at 11. As in, get out while the getting is (still) good.

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  5. 9:16 No; we've been told severance in these buyouts is capped at 52 weeks.

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  6. 8:59 What are the correct numbers?

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  7. JIM -- *AND* U.I.

    you left out 79 weeks of unemployment insurance (U.I.).

    Yeah, you might have to spend a few months looking, but then you are OK for U.I.

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  8. The Free Press retiree buyouts number 22.

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  9. AND ..

    Dz and the "retirees" used to be K-R. Now, they see the Gannettoids arriving, in bigger numbers.

    IMHO, this "buy-out" was the best thing that ever happened to the ex-KRers.

    And, of course, Big Al was former K-R (Miami).

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  10. I wonder why the FREEP had so many more than the NEWS.

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  11. 10:21 Good question. But keep in mind the DetNews has a lot less staff and much less circulation.

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  12. The News has a smaller, younger staff. Fewer News people were old enough to be eligible for the buyouts, which were for people in their mid-50s with 20+ years in.

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