Rockford | Words to avoid in your farewell column

Wood

Rockford Register Star "word guru" Barry Wood apparently was a little too candid in his farewell column at the Illinois paper, which Gannett sold way, way downriver to GateHouse Media in 2007.

Perhaps, blogger Jim Romenesko asks, GateHouse killed the column because Wood used words like "layoff," "fire," "ax" and "terminate"?

Earlier: GateHouse pulls blog post criticizing layoffs at another paper GCI sold to the company.

[Photo: Wood After Words]

Norwich | Laid-off reporter rips Bulletin job cuts

James Craven worked for Connecticut's Norwich Bulletin, which Gannett sold to GateHouse Media in 2007. Now, he's written a blog post on the paper's website headlined, "Goodbye Norwich," where he tears into GateHouse management for deciding "to cannibalize the newspaper."

Take that! Craven wrote that the "most recently ordered layoffs will sap the Bulletin of nearly 20% of its newsroom staff. That will, of course, allow the president of Gatehouse Media to follow up on his $750,000 bonus to himself with an equally staggering and incongruous gratuity this year. Merry Christmas Mr. President."

And guess what? The newspaper pulled his post.

But media blogger Dan Kennedy has the full story today on what happened next.

A little history
In May 2007, Gannett sold four newspapers to GateHouse for $410 million: the Norwich Bulletin, the Rockford Register Star in Illinois, the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y., and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Va.

Earlier: Laid-off N.J. sports editor sneaks a column into print that bashes Gannett. And: In GateHouse vs. GCI, damning GCI with faint praise.

Gannett vs. GateHouse: Damning with faint praise

"I'd work for Gannett before I'd work for GateHouse again." 

-- reader seanwardwell, in a comment posted to a Romenesko blog story about GateHouse Media CEO Mike Reed's memo yesterday, updating employees on efforts to stabilize the company's finances. In May 2007, Gannett sold four newspapers to GateHouse for $410 million: the Norwich Bulletin in Connecticut, the Rockford Register Star in Illinois, the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y., and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Va.

Nashville | Silverman joins Corporate's News Dept.

In a story this afternoon, The Tennessean at Nashville says of the new job for its top editor, Mark Silverman:

Silverman

"Silverman will be part of a team helping the company's news organizations transform their coverage and increase their local impact at a time when the media landscape is changing rapidly. This will be Silverman's third tour of duty on the Corporate staff. He also has served as top editor in Detroit; Louisville, Ky.; Rockford, Ill., and at Gannett News Service."

He starts in mid-September.

Silverman's first tour at Corporate was in his role as a prime architect of News 2000, a quality control campaign launched in mid-1992 under Phil Currie, who ran the News Department at the time.

Kate Marymont is now chief of the department, which has broad oversight of the editorial content and staffing at virtually all the 82 U.S. newspapers. The Tennessean doesn't say whether Silverman will report to Marymont, however.

It's my understanding that Silverman was involved in developing the latest quality control campaign, dubbed passion topics on this blog.

The Tennessean story says the paper is looking for Silverman's replacement. He's been the paper's editor for nearly five years.

Earlier: Silverman says Nashville's journalism will improve after the loss of 20 newsroom jobs. Plus: He wins a Ben Bradlee editor's award.

Long-time Gannett executive Bottorf dies at 76

Richard M. Bottorf, who began his newspaper career at Gannett in Rochester, N.Y., worked for four years as vice president of operations at Corporate in Virginia. He served as circulation director at Rochester, before being appointed publisher of Vermont's Burlington Free Press. He retired in 1994 as publisher of Connecticut's Norwich Bulletin.

Bottorf died Wednesday at Thompson Hospital in Victor, N.Y., the Freep reported today. He was 76.

A sidebar
GCI sold the Bulletin, plus Illinois' Rockford Register Star; New York's Observer-Dispatch in Utica, and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Va., to GateHouse Media in May 2007 for $410 million.

Nashville | Silverman wins Bradlee editor award

Silverman

The National Press Foundation is honoring Executive Editor Mark Silverman for The Tennessean's “outstanding coverage of unexpected floods in 2010 and its innovative use of social media platforms to extend that coverage and bind its community together,” according to the selection committee, the NPF said today.

The group says the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award is the nation's oldest and most prestigious for editors. It will be presented at NPF’s 28th annual awards dinner, on March 1 in Washington.

Other winners include Andrea Mitchell, NBC News and MSNBC, receiving the Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in broadcast Journalism; and Matt Wuerker, receiving the Berryman Award as Editorial cartoonist of the Year.

The award is named in honor of Ben Bradlee, who served as executive editor of The Washington Post from 1968 to 1991.

[Photo: NPF]