Comments on: More on Baltimore Sun layoffs

By: France Menk

France Menk — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:08:09 +0000

It’s been a long, long time since I worked at the Sun. It was a time burned into my heart; a time of power and passion for the truth, no hold barred. This latest bleeding of the Sun’s foundation brings that time to mind as a powerful reminder that it is the people who make the paper. These people will go on with their ‘fire in the belly’…their compulsion to seek the truth and bring it forth. They will not let us down in their mission to expose injustice, to ask important questions that others may not have the perspicacity to ask, to seek answers that others may not have the courage to go after. A free press is the result of a free mind. The Sun has let that go. Make your conclusion.

By: Font « Commonplace Glossary

Font « Commonplace Glossary — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:10:25 +0000

[...] I borrow a book from a friend and stare longingly at the pages set in perfect lines of Caslon. What could have been. What has been, and will no longer. [...]

By: Ed McDonough

Ed McDonough — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:03:33 +0000

As one who toiled in the ‘burbs during my 10-year career at The Sun (1986-1996), it was painful to watch the long slow demise of a once great newspaper — the nearly annual buyouts, the almost as frequent redesigns, the descision to cut back on zoning to focus on state, national and international news, only to eliminate national and foreign reporting because it was too expensive. Every week, a different trend. The Sun changed direction almost as many times as the Baltimore Police Department has changed anti-crime strategies over the last two decades. But this last batch has been too much to take. I think of the fellow Carroll County employees who wound up in the cross-hairs this time — Ellie Baublitz, Peggy Cunningham, Mark Fleming. And then the publisher has the nerve to say The Sun will have the same number of employees covering news around Maryland after one-third of the staff is terminated. I know we in the newspaper business usually aren’t good with numbers, but that represents fuzzy math worse than anything a public official has tried to foist on us. Godspeed to all of the slaughter victims.

By: Frances Levy

Frances Levy — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:24:16 +0000

Bring back the little man with the sign! Just change one letter: Now e can stand on the sidewalk in front of the Sun building every evening during rush hour, proclaiming “SUN DIES”

By: James Williams

James Williams — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:34:49 +0000

The Sun is dead. It has been killed off by a number of factors that the staff had no control over.

The best thing to do now is for it to go out of print – go away.

Each day that The Sun shows up on my door step just reminds me of what a fine paper it was – back in the day…

Stop printing it and let it die a respectable death.

By: Dave Cohn

Dave Cohn — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:43:21 +0000

Probably should point out that I was a copy editor and slot, not a writer, for all those years at the Sunpapers. I did write many things, but they didn’t come with bylines.

By: David Ettlin

David Ettlin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:01:05 +0000

Reading all these eloquent tributes to my former cellmates at The Baltimore Sun’s central asylum, after working 10 hours on a blog posting about the massacre on Calvert Street, leaves me emotionally spent. It has been the hardest day for me since my voluntary buyout nearly two years ago… I left when I was ready. My friends who were still there have gotten kicked out. And journalism in Baltimore has been horribly diminished.

By: Editor

Editor — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:13:36 +0000

From former Sun and Evening Sun writer David Cohn:
Patricia Fanning was one of the hardest working, most thorough editors I ever worked with. No question, no subject matter, no personality swayed her from making sure a story was as clear and readable as it could be — which made her the perfect editor for med/sci. I worked with her on deadline many times and was amazed at her persistence and knowledge.

Steve Auerweck could figure out just about any technical or computer glitch that arose in the newsroom, no matter what time of day or night. And if he couldn’t solve it right away, at least he eased the situation with his wry humor (I remember something about pickled turnips, but the details fade). What made him even more valuable was the fact that he was familiar with all the different parts of the newspaper, and he understood how each one of us depended on the other.

John McIntyre towered in copy editing and was a national leader in defending and advancing the craft. (I attended a convention of the American Copy Editors Society once and saw how highly regarded he was all around the country.) He was articulate, knowledgeable and fair, and he was a wit. When his Sun masters axed him, they got rid of their chief defender against libel, bias, muddy writing, bad headlines, confusing graphics and captions, and language and typographical errors. Though he was given the bum’s rush, John held his head high. Read his farewell post at http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/mcintyre/blog And then, for good measure, click on one of his joke clips.

I’m very sorry these and all the others were let go, and I hope they get back on their feet soon.

The cuts leave a huge responsibility on those who remain at the paper. I don’t envy them, but I will appreciate their work even more. I wish them the best.

Dave Cohn
(Eve Sun 27 years, Sun features 10 years)

By: Bob Thomas

Bob Thomas — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:59:13 +0000

To their credit, the Tribune management finally did something so royally stupid that it might do some good. While they were slowly, painfully cutting the Sun staff before, the number of laid-off people was always small enough that it prevented them from creating meaningful competition (though baltimorebrew and investigativevoice are well on their way to filling that role).

With 40 people laid off simultaneously, however, there’s almost no way to imagine that a subgroup won’t create a strong, civic-minded and financially viable local blog — something that reports as a primary source, liberated to do those “six-part series” pieces that Monty Cook thinks are dead.

With literally more than 100 good journalists now laid off in the Baltimore-Annapolis area, I’m looking forward to seeing baltimorebrew, investigativevoice and at least one other blog turn into the next generation of watchdog reporting. Is it sad that the Sun is dying? Yes.

But I’m incredibly happy that original, independent reporting of the sort that newspapers once dominated will live on online in publications run by former newspaper staffers. This asinine move by Tribune virtually guarantees it.

By: Antero Pietila

Antero Pietila — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:01:16 +0000

Great tributes, well deserved. It is kind of interesting that this gripping dram occurs on Barack Obama’s 100th day, another link to the incredible structural change that we are confronting in this country and world. Helen Dewar referred to the newspaper industry’s arrogant incompetence as exceeding even the auto industry’s. I think that arrogance grew out of highly commercialized nwspapers’ perpetuation of all the First Amendment stuff, mythical or not. But there are plenty of other perhaps less incompetent industries and economic practices. They all have to change, if America is to be great again.
I treasure every issue of The New York Times, a blessing that hopefully lasts longer than othes. But I am realistic enough to acknowledge that the future belongs to some Kindle type device and a news product that the reader largely tailors according to individual interests.
If The Sun’s death throes indeed presage some new electronic news product, good luck with that. Do you really think that the newspaper industry in general and The Sun in particular can compete with far more imaginative and visionary outfits. With reporters and editors gone, they don’t even own the local franchise any more.