Kersten, Coleman, C. J., or Lileks: Pick One
By Brian Lambert
There have always been two ways to handle this "right-sizing" thing (TM
Par Ridder). You can look around a newsroom and say, "We can only keep
the people who butter our bread. The people who we know the public
wants to read." Or you can say, "Our clients are our creditors, and we
have to strip this thing to its barest bones to convince them we're
serious business people. That means getting rid of damned near everyone
that earns more than minimum wage."
Sadly, it is entirely inevitable that current Strib management would take the view that metro columnists are no longer a vital part of what little is remains of the Star Tribune "brand." The Strib is a business conceit--and not a panicked one at that. Only last week Newsweek, which itself may be out of business in a couple of years, announced that its cutbacks were driving it to refashion its editorial content with more analysis and commentary.
Obviously, a weekly news magazine would like to continue the grand tradition of far-flung correspondents filing from Mumbai, Baghdad, and Sverdlosk. But lacking those resources, Newsweek decided the next best thing was more feature-length takes from established, well-sourced professionals such as Fareed Zakaria, etc. Personally, I'm cool with that strategy. I'm interested in what veteran reporters think is going on.
The Strib is apparently going in the opposite direction. Again, noting my long-standing friendship with Nick Coleman, Nick knows both cities as well as any reporter working at either paper today. I've made my jokes at Kersten's expense but mainly because she was such an obvious sop to the mewling Powerline crowd carping about the Strib's "liberal bias." The Strib, like any credible daily paper, needed a lightning rod conservative. My disappointment with Kersten (and Anders Gyllenhaal's choice of her) is that she bears almost no resemblance to the Sarah Palin-ites who form the core of the modern Republican party. Which is another way of saying, I guess, that she isn't entertaining.
I'm regularly asked, "How does C. J. keep her job?" to which I say, "She's every HR department's worst nightmare. She brings race, gender, and the willingness to play every card in the deck. But in an every-woman-for-herself environment like we have today, who can blame her?"
Coleman could revert to reporting or some feature-writing role, if he chooses. (Although in today's newspapers a "full-length feature" is rarely longer than a junior college book report, which is to say a "featurette.") I don't see Kersten reporting breathlessly from Eagan City Hall or C.J. covering an arson fire in Plymouth.
The survivor of the four, I would bet, is James Lileks, who is clearly more adaptable to current management's initiatives than any of the others, albeit no one's idea of a reporter.
Theater critic and Guild steward Graydon Royce called back late Monday afternoon. On the Coleman/Kersten move, he observes, "It's kind of interesting that [management] would use this mechanism," meaning the brink of total financial collapse and another round of buyouts, "to make this move," meaning eliminating metro columnists, Coleman in particular. (It's no secret that Coleman and top editor Nancy Barnes aren't exactly weekly canasta partners.)
Royce said the next meeting of the Guild and Strib ownership's representatives is scheduled for this coming Friday. Those interested in taking this latest buyout offer have until January 5, and the mood of his membership is, as he describes it, "deeply concerned."
"But we're thinking methodically," he says, "instead of just taking up pitchforks."
I'm just sayin' here, but when a newspaper eliminates the people that draw the most attention and fire, it is essentially capitulating. In that case, pitchforks and torches would seem an entirely rational response.
Monday brought Star Tribune management's official list of who (sort of) it'd like to move toward the door. The departure of twenty to twenty-five is for certain, but up to forty-plus may exit if a lot of employees decide now is finally the time to leave. The "talker" of the list, however, was the "up to three" metro columnists who will be allowed to take the buyout and/or accept reassignment to some other job, a job presumably regarded by Strib managers as more vital to a relevant product than reporting/commenting on the country's fourteenth-largest metropolitan area.
For the record, the Strib employs four people generally regarded as metro columnists: Katherine Kersten, Nick Coleman, Cheryl Johnson (a.k.a. "C. J.") and James Lileks. As night fell Monday, my understanding is that "up to three" of those will be allowed to take this latest buyout (the third in two years). But even if they decide to stay, Kersten and Coleman will be relieved of their column-writing duties sometime in January. What choices have been presented to C. J. and Lileks, I can't say.
Coleman, as I've said often, is an old friend of mine. We go back to when he had hair. But other than confirming the basic story, Nick was in no mood to discuss his plans Monday afternoon. It would be fair to say he was not pleased with the choices presented him. Who would, right?
Sadly, it is entirely inevitable that current Strib management would take the view that metro columnists are no longer a vital part of what little is remains of the Star Tribune "brand." The Strib is a business conceit--and not a panicked one at that. Only last week Newsweek, which itself may be out of business in a couple of years, announced that its cutbacks were driving it to refashion its editorial content with more analysis and commentary.
Obviously, a weekly news magazine would like to continue the grand tradition of far-flung correspondents filing from Mumbai, Baghdad, and Sverdlosk. But lacking those resources, Newsweek decided the next best thing was more feature-length takes from established, well-sourced professionals such as Fareed Zakaria, etc. Personally, I'm cool with that strategy. I'm interested in what veteran reporters think is going on.
The Strib is apparently going in the opposite direction. Again, noting my long-standing friendship with Nick Coleman, Nick knows both cities as well as any reporter working at either paper today. I've made my jokes at Kersten's expense but mainly because she was such an obvious sop to the mewling Powerline crowd carping about the Strib's "liberal bias." The Strib, like any credible daily paper, needed a lightning rod conservative. My disappointment with Kersten (and Anders Gyllenhaal's choice of her) is that she bears almost no resemblance to the Sarah Palin-ites who form the core of the modern Republican party. Which is another way of saying, I guess, that she isn't entertaining.
I'm regularly asked, "How does C. J. keep her job?" to which I say, "She's every HR department's worst nightmare. She brings race, gender, and the willingness to play every card in the deck. But in an every-woman-for-herself environment like we have today, who can blame her?"
Coleman could revert to reporting or some feature-writing role, if he chooses. (Although in today's newspapers a "full-length feature" is rarely longer than a junior college book report, which is to say a "featurette.") I don't see Kersten reporting breathlessly from Eagan City Hall or C.J. covering an arson fire in Plymouth.
The survivor of the four, I would bet, is James Lileks, who is clearly more adaptable to current management's initiatives than any of the others, albeit no one's idea of a reporter.
Theater critic and Guild steward Graydon Royce called back late Monday afternoon. On the Coleman/Kersten move, he observes, "It's kind of interesting that [management] would use this mechanism," meaning the brink of total financial collapse and another round of buyouts, "to make this move," meaning eliminating metro columnists, Coleman in particular. (It's no secret that Coleman and top editor Nancy Barnes aren't exactly weekly canasta partners.)
Royce said the next meeting of the Guild and Strib ownership's representatives is scheduled for this coming Friday. Those interested in taking this latest buyout offer have until January 5, and the mood of his membership is, as he describes it, "deeply concerned."
"But we're thinking methodically," he says, "instead of just taking up pitchforks."
I'm just sayin' here, but when a newspaper eliminates the people that draw the most attention and fire, it is essentially capitulating. In that case, pitchforks and torches would seem an entirely rational response.
Monday brought Star Tribune management's official list of who (sort of) it'd like to move toward the door. The departure of twenty to twenty-five is for certain, but up to forty-plus may exit if a lot of employees decide now is finally the time to leave. The "talker" of the list, however, was the "up to three" metro columnists who will be allowed to take the buyout and/or accept reassignment to some other job, a job presumably regarded by Strib managers as more vital to a relevant product than reporting/commenting on the country's fourteenth-largest metropolitan area.
For the record, the Strib employs four people generally regarded as metro columnists: Katherine Kersten, Nick Coleman, Cheryl Johnson (a.k.a. "C. J.") and James Lileks. As night fell Monday, my understanding is that "up to three" of those will be allowed to take this latest buyout (the third in two years). But even if they decide to stay, Kersten and Coleman will be relieved of their column-writing duties sometime in January. What choices have been presented to C. J. and Lileks, I can't say.
Coleman, as I've said often, is an old friend of mine. We go back to when he had hair. But other than confirming the basic story, Nick was in no mood to discuss his plans Monday afternoon. It would be fair to say he was not pleased with the choices presented him. Who would, right?
© 2008 MSP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
Well written Brian. As much as Coleman and I disagree, he is vital to the life of the paper.
On a similar note, did you see the Detroit Free Press/News is considering cutting back to three days a week for home delivery?
That tells me that when the Strib goes into bankruptcy (when, not if) it could be the end of the paper short of a white knight.
LAMBERT: The question of course is, "What assets will this white knight be buying?" We can assume he/she isn't going to be paying very much.
Posted by: Dave on December 16, 2008 at 4:36 AM
I think getting rid of columnists is a mistake (except for Lileks). The main reason I read the Tribune, on-line or in print, is to read the columnists. I can get news from a variety of sources, but not Nick Coleman's opinion.
LAMBERT: Dirty little secret here -- a lot of modern news managers are not at all comfortable with the kinds of egos and energies that translate to provocative writers. Such people elicit angry mail. A previous generation, or more sophisticated management would regard that as a virtue, something vital to any mass publication. But when economics are your raison d'etre, inoffensiveness becomes the primary guiding "virtue".
Posted by: jimbofromstpaul on December 16, 2008 at 7:57 AM
As bad as the current ownership and management are at the Star Tribune, can we drive a stake through the heart of the Anders Gylenhaal regime too? If you don't dislike him for selecting Kersten, then resent him for naming Nancy Barnes as his successor and lovely parting gift, a ladder climber whose lack of leadership skills spells d-o-o-m to a newsroom in these times. Mixing metaphors here but with every locomotive that comes barreling toward journalists there, she stands just to the side of tracks with a red cape and a matador's hat. Either that or she is the one on board in the neat, striped engineer's chapeau.
My thought is that Coleman needs a nudge out of the Stribune's crumbling nest anyway--he has bigger and better projects in him than their Metro page. Mrs. Kersten will find an audience in one form or another (can you say "blog?"). Meanwhile the newspaper, while potentially reassigning two writers who occasionally tackle interesting fare, will allow the ultralights CJ and Lileks to continue unmuzzled. One drools in a family publication over local athlete private parts, the other is Dave Barry on helium, minus the humor.
Also--if the lords at the Strib can't use the excuses of a dying industry, a crippled economy, glaring tastelessness and basic illiteracy to unload your every-PC-card-playing CJ, they should turn their bicuspids back in to the piranha club.
LAMBERT: The choice they eventually make will be extraordinarily revealing. Not that we will be surprised.
Posted by: Craig Plumfagen on December 16, 2008 at 8:38 AM
I am in general agreement with your analysis, and find it fair. I see some misplaced schadenfreude around town by those who look forward Kersten’s awkwardness on her first reporting assignment. I highly doubt this will ever transpire. Nor do I foresee a return to reporting for Nick.
Am I wrong to assume they’d be imposing pay cuts on those who chose to become reporters?
More could be said, but I don’t see your BBC style enterprise coming to pass. I believe Startribune.com comes out of this as a viable property, sans reporters. They’ll need an army of freelancers to feed it for it to remain what it is. I hope these writers are well compensated for their efforts. I know nothing about freelancing, but I would think you could make a living at it provided the price per piece is high enough. But I’m sure I’m quite more naïve there than you who write for a living.
Nick needs to get on this Greenway corridor while he still has time. It’s a Nick story, has Nick written all over it. He’s a biker, a permit holder, and possesses the requisite amount of rage. You can’t have the police telling the public not to frequent public causeways. You’ve lost at that point.
LAMBERT: There is an expectation that Strib ownership will seek to strip away years of merit pay raises much of the staff has earned. Obviously, full out bankruptcy presents an even less predictable conclusion.
Posted by: 108 on December 16, 2008 at 11:17 AM
I see CJ's "drooling" over athletic man-parts is getting some traction.
I'm wondering, what if it had been Matt Birk?
And also, whither the "Glancers"?
LAMBERT: Have you ever been in a locker room? Were you comfortable there?
Posted by: bertram jr on December 16, 2008 at 12:27 PM
Get rid of the columnists and there's nothing left to bother with, even on-line. If the PP dropped Shooter and sooch, I'd drop the subscription in a heartbeat.
I just paid the $258 2009 bill for the PPress this week, and kind of feel snookered. This morning's World/US/MN/1-story-on-WI section was absolutely see-though. If I was training a puppy, I'd have to go with plan B.
LAMBERT: Did you take advantage of that PiPress "subscription" deal that gives you Thursday and Sundays for, what is it, $1.98 a year?
Posted by: Pierce County Politician on December 16, 2008 at 12:48 PM
My question is: will any newspaper be around in the next 10 years?? With the internet, it seems to me the hard copy model is going away fast. Now, even the PC Magazine hard copy is ending it's traditional model for an on-line only subsciption. Also, do we really need the Strb and the Pioneer Press competing for readership? Only time will tell--I guess. But, watching good columnists that evoke hard thinking being removed or demoted is a loss. C.J., on the other hand is a waste of print space when you consider that space could be used for more local coverage of news. Or, a re-print from the Associated Press. I hate to see papers go. We do need more in-depth coverage that local television just can not deliver. I used to enjoy reading Nick Coleman when he wrote about local television and radio. All we really have left for that is you.
LAMBERT: Is that a shot at Neal Justin?
Posted by: Tim on December 16, 2008 at 1:41 PM
Any truth to the rumour that CJ asked Will Smith to stop by her place sometime?
Apparently Visanthe Shiancoe was just leaving....
LAMBERT: When you close your eyes do you see naked men?
Posted by: bertram jr on December 16, 2008 at 3:01 PM
Re: Greenway Crime Corridor:
The best slant was at Anti-Strib - positing the delicious irony that the liberal utopian eco-bikers have created the very killing ground AND those (the "disadvantaged" minority products of welfare and absentee fathers) who are now using it to assault, rob, rape and kill them.
Posted by: bertram jr on December 16, 2008 at 4:13 PM
Oh, it's os rich...
"Your guy" is mentioned:
http://gawker.com/5112243/rielle-hunters-final-indignity-stuck-in-new-jersey
Posted by: bertram jr on December 17, 2008 at 3:36 PM
@108: "They’ll need an army of freelancers to feed it for it to remain what it is. I hope these writers are well compensated for their efforts. I know nothing about freelancing, but I would think you could make a living at it provided the price per piece is high enough."
As an ex-newspaper reporter, now magazine & Web freelancer: Yes, you can make a decent living freelancing. No, you cannot do it by writing for newspapers. Papers are notorious among pro freelancers for paying absurdly low rates; there are a few reasons to accept the assignments (are just starting out, have affection for the publication, have something you need to deduct, want that particular name in your credits), but "well-compensated" is not among them. It would be reasonable to expect that, once Strib writers leave the building, they are gone for good, not coming back in a Web version of themselves - unless they're trustafarians or married well or doing it for fun.
LAMBERT: "Trustafarians". That needs to be used more often. You are right, of course. Free-lance pay for serious information no one in the public is currently demanding is miserably low. That's why celebrity rags are to go-to destination for free-lancers. Brad Pitt? Reese Witherspoon? Absolutely. Millions of people will buy that. 5,000 words on how the next Bernie Madoff gamed the system -- before he's indicted? Eh, not so much.
Posted by: maryn on December 17, 2008 at 5:01 PM
Trustafarian - found in the Aspen, Boulder, Austin nexus.
30ish, with a "killer app" idea, a screenplay and a hot girlfriend.
I knew dozens of them.....
Posted by: bertram jr on December 22, 2008 at 2:25 PM
So "trustafarians" are only men? Or is that a typical myopic default category? Gag.
LAMBERT: I've known a few of both persuasions.
Posted by: Ginny on December 24, 2008 at 4:14 AM