I received the following anonymous comment from an obvious Morning Call insider this morning."Another bloodbath at TMC yesterday. Ardith Hilliard is history. They eliminated the marketing designers and the PR manager, after moving the 'marketing' director and a couple of do-nothing T & A to other departments. More to get their walking papers shortly.
"The worst thing is that the VP of operations was laughing about all of this while some of the folks getting canned were still within earshot."
Ardith Hillard is (was?) The Morning Call's editor, and her name is still listed with the paper's staff listings. But the paper is reporting a new round of job cuts. Amazingly, the paper is reporting it has no idea how many jobs have been eliminated. It is rumored that no newsroom jobs are involved in this round.
I have asked Vicki Mayk, the newspaper's mouthpiece, for the party line. When I get it, I'll update this post. No matter what she may say, this is sad news for all of us.
5:00 P.M. Update: Hilliard Still Aboard - Although the newspaper has not yet "officially" responded to my email, I am reliably informed that Editor Ardith Hilliard is still with the paper.
26 comments:
Can you imagine this town w/o a newspaper?? How long will the Call continue to have their downtown location? It seems that building must be getting awfully big to house the 5 employees left to man the sinking ship.
KathyD, Allentown doesn't have a paper now, and hasn't had one for quite awhile.
That ship sank, and it's a damn shame.
The Banker
Bernie, she is in her office right now, why don't you call her instead of putting rumors out there?
ps the layoff news is on the Mcall home page
"Bernie, she is in her office right now, why don't you call her instead of putting rumors out there?"
That's why blogs exist. So long as I make ckear that it is a rumor, I felt the anonymous comment plus the web page story justified a blog. I did email the MC PR person and have no response as of yet, but will note that, too.
Blogs, unlike dead wood papers, are interactive. We can be a little more spontaneous.
Incidentally, I did call to see of Ardith was in her office, and she was not at the time I called. She may or may not still be employed by the paper, but it's clear that more cuts were made.
"ps the layoff news is on the Mcall home page"
I'm aware of that and that's why I decided I had enough to run this blog. Something happened, even if Hilliard is safe.
The Call became a message mouthpiece several years ago and hasn't been taken seriously by many in a long time. I hate to hear of anyone losing a job. My family has been directly affected by a layoff. It's difficult to shed a tear for an entity like the Call, however. Objective, investigative journalism may have died last year with MSM reporters' unapologetic Obama campaigning. The Call died long before that, however, and we've all managed to get along. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
It's funny how TMC always disables comments on stories about itself. The problem with TMC is they don't report the news about themselves they let the blogs post it thus depriving them of the one thing newspapers are supposed to do: report the news, even if it involves them.
Strikes me as odd that a person who posts anonymously would do so to "reveal" the true identities of other posters...at least have the integrity to put your own name on such a post
And yes, I am posting anonymously--ironic isn't it?
I see. So this is what we will have instead of real journalism in this community after the Call folds. "Spontaneity" instead of fact-checking. Journalism ought to be held to some standard on or off the "dead wood" Bernie.
And Shove your Endorsements -- get over it, little fella.
"I see. So this is what we will have instead of real journalism in this community after the Call folds. "Spontaneity" instead of fact-checking. Journalism ought to be held to some standard on or off the "dead wood" Bernie."
Dude, blogs are no replacement for real journalism. Although we can and do occasionally break news stories, we are at best a complement to the MSM.
But I make no apology for my post. Because blogs are spontaneous and in real time, it is ridiculous to hold us to the same standards that apply to the written word. When I hear an anonymous rumour and it appears to have some basis in fact, as was the case here, I believe I should inform my readers. If rumor turns out to be inaccxurate, as is the case here, that can be disclosed pretty quickly.
The reader is never misinformed. When I first reported about Hilliard, I made it very clear that it was an anonymous comment. I made it clear that I was writing to find out what actually happened. And I linked to a MC news account that ostensibly tells us what happened.
By the way, that news account is bullshit. The paper certainly knows how many people it laid off and where they belonged. It did a real disservice to the public by refusing to make that information immediately available. That's how rumors start.
Anon 4:55,
I am deleting those comments when I see them.
The original post was my doing, not Bernie's. He followed up and got to more solid info, it appears.
My info was from one of the affected and verified "inside".
Actually glad to hear one less person, at least, is out of work.
I would add that I am no journalist. Two weeks ago, I sat in on a journalism class that Eric Chiles is teaching at NCC and learned I have a long way to go. But with all due respect, I think journalists need to apply different standards for what they publish online and with dead wood.
In the former case, it makes sense that the interactivity and real time nature will produce the truth pretty quickly, even when some facts are initially wrong.
Anon 5:16, I appreciated your tip, which was mostly right.
"I see. So this is what we will have instead of real journalism in this community after the Call folds."
Tell it to your Lord and Savior Obama. Maybe he'll throw a program at you. It's the least he could do for his Allentown PR unit.
You shouldn't have abandoned objective journalism. Perhaps you'd still have a future beyond barking at the moon about blogs.
It's very annoying that the Call disabled comments about this story. What benefit is it to them to disable comments??? How could anything be more offensive than the stuff that is REGULARLY posted on topix via the Call's links?!
On another note, though, LVR's presentation of this rumor did the story justice. O'Hare did link to the anonymous tip and the Call's story online. Due diligence has been done in terms of presenting the facts, as they are. I guess the title of the post kind of hypes things up a bit more than necessary, but nothing about this rumor was undocumented. It's actually a lot more sound than many of the "stories" I'm reading lately from the Call itself. And, no, blogs are not held to anywhere near the same standards as print media.
Bernie, I heard Hilliard was gone by someone who works there, and not that long ago?
The Banker
I heard a rumor
(from a very reliable source)
that "KathyD,"
"The Banker,"
and "Retired ASD Teacher"
are all really Bernie O'Hare.
I heard Kranzley got it in the neck.
Anon 6:51 PM:
You forgot about me.
"I heard Kranzley got it in the neck."
This is a disgusting and vicious statement, an example of the language of violence that the Villas regularly use. You should both be ashamed of yourselves. It is little wonder that P2P Pawlowski used you two for his interview. You are three of a kind.
I took a tour of the TMC 3 yrs ago and spoke to one of the Sr. Editors. I asked him whether in 10 yrs. I, as a subscriber, would still be receiving a newsPAPER at my front door every morning, or whether I could simply download the paper in real time on a PDA. He looked at me as if I had 8 heads and then launched into a lengthy explanation about the paper's recent multi-million dollar capital improvements to its printing presses.
While TMC's fate is in many ways not of its own doing, it didn't appear that anyone grasped what the future might hold.
Pete's Sake, thanks for the best laugh I had all day!
Bernie, I couldn't help myself so I read the interview. What a circle jerk that was.
Did you hear anything more about Ardith Hilliard?
The Banker
Banker, So far as I know, she is safe.
Hi
I heard from someone I trust that Morning Call is renting out entire first floor to State Attorney General who will be moving from 8th and Hamilton St. location. Soon they will be taking in boarders.
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