Where's Nick? Day 15
By Brian Lambert
As a subscriber to the Star Tribune, as in someone who pays
to have it delivered and then reads (most) of it, I've been waiting a
day over two weeks now to sink my teeth into a new column by my
favorite sulfurous, commie, pro-tax, anti-stadium, Pawlenty-baiter:
Nick Coleman.
Fifteen days, but nary a screed. Not one reference to his boozy—excuse me, colorful—Irish
heritage, gusset plates, the Pohlads, or Zygi Wilf. I assume he's on
vacation. Maybe he's flown his entire enormous family to Antigua or
some other pleasure spa to avoid the frozen slush of February in
Minnesota. (Out-of-touch-with-real-Americans, Ivory Tower newspaper
columnists are paid ridiculous money, you know). But he is definitely
MIA.
Over on Facebook, 122 members are asking, "Where's Nick ??"
More to the point, the paper has made no reference whatsoever to Coleman's departure as a fixture on their Metro pages or where he is now. Effectively, he's a non-person. He who's name must not be mentioned. I think Ceaucescu's Romania operated this way. One day—loyal apparatchik. The next day—"We have no record of such a person."
Maybe someone should take a look for a patch of fresh asphalt in one of the Strib's parking lots—you know, those lots that are now worth more than the paper itself.
A few minutes ago, I had my (long-suffering) wife call the Star Tribune newsroom. (Someone might recognize my sneering voice.)
Here's a semi-official transcript of her conversation:
. . . and in the ultra-opaque private equity world of Avista Capital Partners, "the guy who answers the phones in the newsroom," someone who may have seen the other guy walk by in the last couple weeks, is as close as you get to an official source on the whereabouts of a high-profile company personality who has been around town for more than thirty years.
Obviously the real issue here is the potential for litigation. No one wants to say anything for fear of saying something that might put themselves in legal peril . . . as though Avista, the Strib's benighted parent "company," could be in any worse peril than it's already put itself in.
But as I've said often throughout the last couple years, there's a kind of black comedy to watching a institution of journalism prevaricate, obfuscate, and stonewall exactly like the kinds of political and/or corporate miscreants it's supposed to be covering.
Fifteen days, but nary a screed. Not one reference to his boozy—excuse me, colorful—Irish
heritage, gusset plates, the Pohlads, or Zygi Wilf. I assume he's on
vacation. Maybe he's flown his entire enormous family to Antigua or
some other pleasure spa to avoid the frozen slush of February in
Minnesota. (Out-of-touch-with-real-Americans, Ivory Tower newspaper
columnists are paid ridiculous money, you know). But he is definitely
MIA.Over on Facebook, 122 members are asking, "Where's Nick ??"
More to the point, the paper has made no reference whatsoever to Coleman's departure as a fixture on their Metro pages or where he is now. Effectively, he's a non-person. He who's name must not be mentioned. I think Ceaucescu's Romania operated this way. One day—loyal apparatchik. The next day—"We have no record of such a person."
Maybe someone should take a look for a patch of fresh asphalt in one of the Strib's parking lots—you know, those lots that are now worth more than the paper itself.
A few minutes ago, I had my (long-suffering) wife call the Star Tribune newsroom. (Someone might recognize my sneering voice.)
Here's a semi-official transcript of her conversation:
"Hi, I'm a subscriber, and I have a question about the metro section."
"Yes?"
"Well, a couple weeks ago in the Sunday paper, I saw a tout or something that said to see something in one of the sections where, 'We introduce our columnists old and new.' I see the two new columnists, and I saw Katherine Kersten's farewell column, but I haven't read anything from Nick. Is he still there?"
"Uh, well. I've seen him around. I'm pretty sure he's still here. I don't know if he's still writing a column or not. Just a minute. I'm checking the Star Tribune website . . . oh, yes. He's still listed as a columnist."
"So he is still going to be writing a column?"
"Yeah, yeah. On StarTribune.com he's listed as a columnist, so he'll be writing a column. Maybe it's gone to every four weeks or something."
"OK. And what's your position?"
"I'm the guy who answers the phones in the newsroom."
. . . and in the ultra-opaque private equity world of Avista Capital Partners, "the guy who answers the phones in the newsroom," someone who may have seen the other guy walk by in the last couple weeks, is as close as you get to an official source on the whereabouts of a high-profile company personality who has been around town for more than thirty years.
Obviously the real issue here is the potential for litigation. No one wants to say anything for fear of saying something that might put themselves in legal peril . . . as though Avista, the Strib's benighted parent "company," could be in any worse peril than it's already put itself in.
But as I've said often throughout the last couple years, there's a kind of black comedy to watching a institution of journalism prevaricate, obfuscate, and stonewall exactly like the kinds of political and/or corporate miscreants it's supposed to be covering.
© 2008 MSP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
I hear Nick is perfecting his corned beef and cabbage spring rolls in the paper's test kitchens in preparation for the Star Tribune's new book, Gaseous Emissions and Political Corrections: Recipes For One World Governance and Sustainability in An Era of Diversity.
Maybe that's just a rumor . . .
LAMBERT: I think it is. Their first publication, scheduled for spring release is, "When Very Little Has to Be Enough: Super-Size Debt and Bankrupt Journalism".
Posted by: Adam Platt on February 23, 2009 at 2:50 PM
So what I'm hearing from you is that you simply want the Star Tribune to provide an update of Nick Coleman's whereabouts and/or new duties? Or are you still pouting about the fact that, let's see, he did a column for a long time but now it is someone else's turn to write one and Nick can draw his paycheck for doing other duties?
Columnists serve at their editors' pleasure and I happen to think we'd be a lot better off if they weren't treated like Supreme Court appointees or tenured college profs. After a certain number of years (different for each of course) too many of the once-good ones start to take themselves too seriously, stop doing the original reporting that earned them the platform and chase after radio/TV side jobs at the expense of their day work.
If Nick is a real journalist, he ought to be able to slip back into a reporting role and continue cashing his checks just fine. Enough with the handwringing -- save your sympathy for someone who actually lost a paycheck, not someone whose cushy gig just got a tiny bit less cushy. (The fact that Coleman became predictable and shrill and transparent in his leanings might have had something to do with the need for a change, too.)
I liked it better when you were standing up for the fallen phone ladies at that fishwrapper plant.
LAMBERT: Well look what good it did for the telephone ladies. Obviously I enjoyed Nick's work. My point is that Strib management's inability to say anything publicly adds to the (warranted) suspicion that there is a personal element to his demotion. Yes, managers always have the ability to make changes. But managers of large media organizations I think have a special obligation to professionalism and professional courtesy when it comes to such personnel moves, and the Strib is displaying neither quality in this situation. Put another way, if it is their decision to reduce his presence in the paper they should have the decency and marketplace savvy to step up and say so publicly. If that means taking some heat, well, that comes with the territory.
Posted by: Craig Plumfagen on February 23, 2009 at 10:13 PM
Today's strib has a full page ad for the new stars, so couldn't they give poor Nick a column inch or two?
I hear on As It Happens that CanWest, a Canadian media conglomerate, is in trouble because the individually profitable components cannot support the debt load that the financial wizards who put the conglomerate together accumulated to do it.
LAMBERT: The Strib's silence is amplifying suspicions that this is more personal than "new vision" driven.
Posted by: john sherman on February 25, 2009 at 3:05 PM