Candace Corbin, a Record Searchlight colleague, wrote this comment on my recent post after I reported that the RS is outsourcing some duties, such as art work and writing, to cut costs:
“Doni,
I’ve been reading your web-site and I love it and I think it’s wonderful that you have moved on to higher ground, putting your talent towards positive things.
I have always considered you a warm, caring person, and I still do. I think you got a raw deal and I don’t agree with outsourcing as I believe that employees put the “local” in “local”.
I am, however, genuinely disheartened with the RS bashing. It would seem that the long-term goal with the subscription canceling, suggestions of starting your own newspaper, “better luck having 4th graders write their ads”, would be to close the newspaper down.
What positive purpose does this serve for the employees still working at the RS? If the RS were to go under and we all lost our jobs, would that somehow vindicate your readers? I understand that the readers want their voices heard, I get it. Many of the remaining employees – talented, wonderful people don’t get to have their voices heard. Well, this is my voice, and I am saying I care about you and I care about me and my family and their families here at the RS and when I read such vehemence I am simply sad.”
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Dear Candace,
Thank you for your honest, heart-felt comments. I hear you loud and clear. I can feel the hurricane of emotions that swirls throughout this issue that is the Record Searchlight. It’s a frightening mess, for sure.
I also understand how you, and other RS employees, might feel protective of the paper. I’d probably feel the same way if I were still there, in a “be true to your school” kind of way. Hey, I’ve been a Record Searchlight reader since I was 9. I was one of the most enthusiastic RS cheerleaders and defenders.
So I understand why you’d feel sad when people speak or write disparigingly about the place you’ve worked for much of your life.
I get all that.
What I don’t get is why it seems that the current RS management style demonstrates a far higher regard for money than it does for its stressed-out, overwhelmed employees whose work keeps the RS going.
Nor do I get the kinds of leaders who’d use such violent terms as “throw people under the bus” to describe the process of dumping employees to lighten the paper’s financial baggage.
Where’s the heart, humanity or soul in that kind of thinking? What kind of a people-shredder mentality is that?
Of course, I remain in contact with some RS worker bees. I see them practically killing themselves to keep the listing RS afloat with less colleagues, less money, less support, less resources, less morale, less security, less satisfaction, less hope, less everything.
And they’re supposed to act damn happy about it. Show no fear. Show no angst. Show no anger. Show no worry. Show nothing. Just shut up, do your work and be glad you still have a job.
Remember what happened to the others.
As you say, I got a raw deal. Truer words were never spoken.
Even so, I will always wonder if I’d have been left alone, had I been one of the younger reporters who earn $14 an hour, barely enough to rent a crummy apartment, keep gas in the tank and Variety City discount food on the table.
I will always wonder if the way in which I was “thrown under the bus” served as a deliberate example and warning.
As one person said, I was like the editorial department’s room mother. And if management, without one iota of cause for dismissal, could throw me – the paper’s ambassador, the person who said “bless you” after colleagues’ sneezes, the woman who cooked for weddings, baby showers, funerals and birthdays – under the bus … then well, shoot.
They could do it to anyone.
It’s also true that my exit was extra dramatic and extremely public, what with the subsequent rally, newspaper cancellations, letters and e-mails that protested not just my firing, but the paper’s most alarming, recent changes.
But I’m not the only one who suffered a raw deal. There were many before and after me, the majority of whom were stellar, loyal employees who left quickly and quietly.
What’s more, Candace, I’ll bet that this very minute, all over the building, some of your fellow RS employees are getting the shaft.
That leads me to your point about the remaining talented, wonderful people at the RS.
I am totally with you here. From Day One after my firing, I’ve implored the public to sympathize with the good people – people like you – who toil and labor with all they’ve got to produce a daily newspaper under the most difficult conditions and circumstances.
I can close my eyes and see the faces and hear the voices of my former colleagues all over the building, from Ralph in maintenance and Dylan near my old desk where he writes about the environment, to Maline at the helm of the city editor position.
My heart is heavy for them, and you, and all the other friends I left behind at the paper.
Having said that, I believe the community and RS advertisers have the right to know when their grocery store or car ads are created in India, or if they’re created in Redding by local, in-house artists.
I believe the community and RS advertisers have a right to know when stories are written by trained, educated journalists, or by free-lance folks unfamiliar with the most basic journalism standards and ethics. (And gee, I’ve not even mentioned photographers. How many are left now? One?)
That’s why, in the spirit of transparency and truth – the same spirit the RS has traditionally applied to countless local news stories about other prominent north state employers – I will continue to occasionally report happenings at the Record Searchlight.
If I don’t, who will?
See, technically, the paper belongs to E.W. Scripps in Cincinnati. But in reality, the Record Searchlight belongs to its community, readers and advertisers.
And without those people’s trust and goodwill, the Record Searchlight is sunk. It hasn’t a prayer.
You’re right, I have moved to higher ground with my new online venture of food writing, opinions and interesting upcoming features written by other people. It’s a happy, invigorating place where new ideas come faster than I can implement them.
Those ideas do not include destroying the Record Searchlight. Those ideas do not include bringing harm to the good people within the RS walls.
In fact, my greatest hope is the RS will eventually rise again and become the strong, quality paper it once was. But even if that miracle occurred, I’d never go back. I’m here to stay in my new online place, where there’s plenty of room for multiple information and news providers.
Besides, everyone knows a little healthy competition is a good thing.
However, if the unthinkable happens, and the once-respected, award-winning Record Searchlight goes under, please place the blame squarely where it belongs.
To quote a certain newspaper leadership duo, the north state newspaper market is theirs “to lose” and they “own” their management decisions.
And with that in mind, right about now, if I’m them – “I feel crappy.”
