Commenting on my post about producing great journalism while also winning major awards, a reader notes that Gannett sold a Pulitzer Prize last year when it unloaded the Utica, N.Y., Observer-Dispatch on GateHouse Media. But the sale that brought more shame came in December 1997: Gannett dumped the Virgin Islands Daily News, just two years after it won a public service Pulitzer for its courageous reporting on crime. The St. Thomas paper's buyer was once among its targets: A guy who made millions off the phone-sex trade.Join the debate, in the original post.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI think there's an interesting story here that might be worth looking into. From what I heard, (I was in management at the time but it was a long time ago and my minds a little fuzzy) not only was the fellow allegedly in the phone sex trade, but he was also the subject of an investigative report by the paper.
The way I heard it, he decided he was portrayed unfairly by the paper and like any good American, chose to sue the paper. Rather than vigorously defend the paper's reporting, Gannett sold it to the guy.
There's a lesson in there for Gannett reporters.
Another line of thought might be that any Gannett paper with enough staff and resources left to do the kind of reporting it takes to do journalism worthy of Pultizer consideration...is the only kind of paper another newspaper company might consider purchasing. Because as I understand it, a company buys a paper when it knows there's so-called "fat" to be trimmed. And the good lord knows, there's no fat left at Gannett papers. They took to muscle years ago. A few years back they started at the bone.
ReplyDeleteNick Anderson, the editorial cartoonist, won a pulitzer in 2005 with the Courier-Journal. He left Louisville soon afterwards, to go to the Houston Chronicle, and he was never replaced.
ReplyDeleteA major metro paper like the Courier not having an editorial cartoonist is a crime, but then again, losing almost all the state bureaus, and making young reporters file four or five stories a day which never gives them a chance to learn how to write are even worse.
Sigh.