Changes ahead at the N&R, according to this post from John Robinson.
"Next week, we'll begin reinventing the paper. I respect the people who left here yesterday too much to suggest that things will be the same. We'll focus on what we can do well and what our audience values, and drop the rest."
Unfortunately, those changes don't include John Robinson stepping down as editor. He and Robin Saul are largely to blame for slowly destroying what once was a great newspaper. Thursday's bloodbath was just the latest, most visible, step in a slow decline.
If nothing else, the callous manner in which Robinson handled the layoffs should be reason for his dismissal (I mean, allowing a new reporter to start work on Monday and laying her off on Thursday? Inexcusable.)
Sadly, the good people leave, while the con-men stick around.
Posted by: ex-N&R employee | Jun 09, 2007 at 09:07 AM
It's very sad that the reporter hired Monday was let go Thursday. But had she not started working Monday, the company wouldn't have been able to give her a severance package Thursday.
Callous? Inexcusable? Given the options management had, I would disagree with your assessment.
Posted by: Margaret Banks | Jun 09, 2007 at 09:28 AM
Well, she still would've had her old job had the N&R not brought her in for a non-existent job. Better to have a job at her old employer than a crummy severance package.
And don't tell me that they didn't know these layoffs were coming when they hired her. That simply doesn't pass the BS test.
Posted by: ex-N&R employee | Jun 09, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Alrighty.
Posted by: Margaret Banks | Jun 09, 2007 at 12:14 PM
A letter to employees said that laid off employees would get a severance package based on their length of employment. What kind of severance pay will someone get for four days of employment?
Posted by: Roch101 | Jun 09, 2007 at 01:10 PM
We didn't get a paper today. Wonder if JR laid off any delivery people? ;)
And Roch, I had the same question. Aren't severance packages usually based on years of employment? Or at least months? She didn't even get a week...
Posted by: Cara Michele | Jun 09, 2007 at 01:37 PM
"It's very sad that the reporter hired Monday was let go Thursday. But had she not started working Monday, the company wouldn't have been able to give her a severance package Thursday."
Hey Banks:
How does JR Kool Aid taste?
Posted by: benholder | Jun 09, 2007 at 01:45 PM
Hard to believe that a man with the last name 'Saul' is not business savy.
One of the richest families in America is the Saul family.
B. Francis Saul is the owner of Chevy Chase Bank, and lives pretty close to Robin's old employer in Carroll County, Maryland.
Any relation?
Possibility that Robin is the Black Sheep?
Posted by: Guilford Native | Jun 09, 2007 at 07:06 PM
Robin Saul's N&R bio says he was born and raised in Roanoke. I'm not sure in any case that business savvy is passed via DNA. For that matter, I don't know if Robin Saul business savvy or not; he works for a big company, and must answer to them.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jun 09, 2007 at 07:59 PM
I'm very sorry about everything that is happening in regards to the N&R staff.
I've lived in many different areas of the country and consider this newspaper to be one of the best that I've ever read. Of course, there are the usual local interest stories that don't exactly hit a chord with me, but on the whole it is very well balanced - even on a political level.
People who think otherwise IMO have not lived in other larger cities in the US. Some are very biased politically and "make you want to hollar".
I think we owe some of the credit to the fantastic array of universities in the area that produce awesome talent who want to stay in the area. We take this for granted, it seems.
In a perfect world those awesome graduates would band together and start their own high quality newspaper but I think that is taking wishful thinking to a ridiculous degree. People need to make a living and unfortunately corporations now provide that living and get to set the rules.
Posted by: Ishmael | Jun 09, 2007 at 09:36 PM
"Hard to believe that a man with the last name 'Saul' is not business savy."
Nice slur.
Goes along real well with your slime on this thread.
Posted by: Bubba | Jun 10, 2007 at 10:41 AM
Way to twist the knife in your co-workers' backs here, Margaret Banks. But I'm sure John Robinson appreciates the brown-nosing.
Posted by: Disgusted | Jun 11, 2007 at 10:45 AM
No brown-nosing intended, and I apologize if it appeared that way. All of this sucks - and that doesn't even begin to describe the reality for the people who left.
That's the danger with posting comments on such a heated topic, I guess.
Posted by: Margaret Banks | Jun 11, 2007 at 11:21 AM