Sat
Oct 25 2014
12:39 pm

Nashville Scene: High-profile exits leave The Tennessean even thinner-staffed than planned

From conversations with nearly a dozen current and former Tennessean staffers -- none of whom would speak on the record for fear of retribution -- a portrait emerges of an almost epically mismanaged situation.

jbr's picture

That looks like a dead move

That looks like a dead move before it's first step.

This is referencing the Metro Pulse and NS/Knox.com thing, but seems to be similar atmosphere at the Tennesseean

It looks like instead of dismantling their best publication and feeding the remains to two, seemingly dying entities, the better move would have been to do the opposite and expand the Metro Pulse into a daily and give it the resources from the other 2. It would probably quickly become a top paper that folks from all over the county would read. Very possibly becoming a journalistic magnet that folks would look forward to each new publication. The upper administration doesn't seem to be able to see what is going on.

Think of the Metro Pulse with 6 times the staff putting out the daily in Knoxville.

cwg's picture

but

the whole point of an alt-weekly is that is not a daily. being a weekly gives you time to research stories (most of the time). there's a place for both types of reporting. and if we had six times the staff we wouldn't have been us.

Dahlia's picture

Stephanie Murray seems to have her head...

Up her ass. Seven reporters for all of Nashville? Without Tony Hernandez, they'd be toast; he's a great reporter and veers away from the tabloid trash so omnipresent today.

Like KNS and so many other papers, they've sabotaged the one thing that would save them - their websites. Are they that out of touch or arrogant that they don't realize the internet is the only way to go?

What on earth are they doing? It's almost as if they're intentionally killing themselves.

This is as painful to watch as the Vols... :(

Tamara Shepherd's picture

Nashville Chamber

I see that just as the News-Sentinel's Patrick Birmingham serves on the board of the Knoxville Chamber, so too does Carol Hudler, who is The Tennessean's publisher, serve on the board of the Nashville Chamber.

I guess it goes without saying that Hudler also supports this union busting activity of Gannet's to bus replacement workers to break strikes against other of the company's newspapers--or "mov(ing) staff between papers in times of crisis," as Gannet euphemistically calls it.

Andy Axel's picture

The previous publisher Ellen Leifeld

was chair of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau. She finally did the honest thing and took a full time position with NCVB, but not before nearly $1B in tax money was appropriated for the Music City Center convention center project, this at a time that teachers and cops were being told that there was no more water in the well.

If they're really that strapped for cash, maybe they should just sell off the building at 1100 Broadway. Doesn't seem like they're really using it, anyway. The newsroom of the future can operate out of a block of condos or an infill project where a historic music studio used to be. That's the forthcoming legacy of Seigenthaler's newspaper.

Leland Wykoff's picture

Golden Words Of Wisdom

As spectacular as the article are the comments:

"The Tennessean is the Ebola virus of American journalism. You don't want to touch it. You don't want to breathe it. And, oh my God no, you don't want to read it..."

Posted by Miss Gruntled on 10/24/2014 at 5:09 PM

Ouch! Watch out, newsroom of the future.

bizgrrl's picture

We now know there are jobs

We now know there are jobs out there for ex-newspaper people.

a spokesman job with the fire department
Mayor Karl Dean's office
news editor for the Associated Press bureau
Country Music Hall of Fame
a job with the state

politicalleverage's picture

Come on Randy...

City of Knoxville
Jesse Mayshark -Former Metropulse editor
Eric Vreeland- Former KNS

UTK-

Lola Alapo -KNS
Adam Brimer -KNS
Sports reporter I am forgetting -KNS

Knox Schools-

Sean Dreher wbir

KCSO -

Martha Dooley - WATE

and last but not least

MICHAEL GRIDER!- WVLT

Sir, sadly the list goes on and on...

R. Neal's picture

I believe that was directed

I believe that was directed at bizgrrl? But yeah. Didn't know Adam Brimer went to UTK.

michael kaplan's picture

In the meantime there are

In the meantime there are hundreds of weekly alternative papers in the US (and elsewhere). I usually collect them as I travel to and through cities.

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