The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Fear & Loathing at 3600 New York Ave.

Posted on | May 1, 2010 | 15 Comments

Having gotten out in January 2008 while the getting was good, I’m once again less than shocked by the latest news of chaotic madness at the Washington Times:

Washington Times executives are negotiating to sell the newspaper, after the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s family cut off most of the annual subsidy of about $35 million that has kept the Unification Church-backed paper afloat, company officials said. . . .
The negotiations follow months of turmoil at both the 28-year-old conservative daily and the business empire founded by Moon, 90, whose children are jostling for control over the church’s myriad enterprises, which range from fisheries to arms manufacturing. . . .
[T]he newspaper has hacked its newsroom staff by more than half, from 225 in 2002 down to about 70 people, raised the paper’s price and deliberately shrunk its circulation to cut costs, shed its metro and sports sections, and fired or pushed out several top executives, including its publisher earlier this week. Several reporters said most of the staffers are seeking to leave. . . .
“The feeling everyone feels is that it’s a totally rudderless ship,” said Julia Duin, the paper’s longtime religion reporter. “Nobody knows who’s running it. Is it the board of directors? We don’t know. . . .”

Ah, Julia! She used to sit right across from my desk. A patient and gentle lady, an excellent reporter on her beat, and quite likely soon to be unemployed, I fear.

Back in the day, when Wes Pruden was editor, some people in the newsroom used to complain constantly about Mr. Pruden’s old-school ways. With Mr. Pruden, however, at least there was never any doubt who was in charge. I turned in my two-week notice two days after Mr. Pruden announced his retirement. At the time, some people thought my decision to leave was crazy,  but that decision proved far wiser than the decision of other people to stay. A lot of those people have since been fired or laid off, and those few who still remain are stuck, as Julia says, aboard a “rudderless ship.”

John Solomon, the new editor who was supposed to be the savior of the newspaper, turned out to be a two-faced lying crapweasel — er, sources say — and nowadays, people at the paper look back on the Pruden era as the “good old days.”

Too many people fail to appreciate that the news business is, after all, a business. And the problems at the Washington Times chiefly represent a failure of management, especially on the business side — circulation, advertising, marketing, etc. But some people don’t understand that. Some people never really understand anything.

“Bad craziness,” indeed.

Category: Neutral Objective Journalism

Comments

15 Responses to “Fear & Loathing at 3600 New York Ave.”

  1. cobra
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 6:42 am

    I hope Kuhner survives, as he is very good.

  2. cobra
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 1:42 am

    I hope Kuhner survives, as he is very good.

  3. Estragon
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 7:19 am

    I have no specific knowledge of the WT operation itself, but I spent about a quarter century in the newspaper biz, and it’s been poised to circle the drain for decades. Like the old proverb about generals always fighting the last war, on the business side management usually expected that sales, revenues, and profits would continue to increase indefinitely at a healthy rate, and if they did not, sought to hang the person responsible.

    The traditional management model is under siege now that there aren’t enough people left to hang anybody.

    WT may bite the dust several years before WaPo – needing a $35 million subsidy ongoing isn’t a sign of particular health – but the handwriting is on the wall.

  4. Estragon
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 2:19 am

    I have no specific knowledge of the WT operation itself, but I spent about a quarter century in the newspaper biz, and it’s been poised to circle the drain for decades. Like the old proverb about generals always fighting the last war, on the business side management usually expected that sales, revenues, and profits would continue to increase indefinitely at a healthy rate, and if they did not, sought to hang the person responsible.

    The traditional management model is under siege now that there aren’t enough people left to hang anybody.

    WT may bite the dust several years before WaPo – needing a $35 million subsidy ongoing isn’t a sign of particular health – but the handwriting is on the wall.

  5. Moonies Selling Washington Times
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 6:35 am

    […] WaTi editor Stacy McCain isn’t surprised. Back in the day, when Wes Pruden was editor, some people in the newsroom […]

  6. BlogDog
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 2:22 pm

    I’ve been a long-time subscriber to the Times after having my fill of the damn Post. But What’s being delivered to me these days is not what I want or expect of newspaper. (sigh) Is it Examiner time?

  7. BlogDog
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 9:22 am

    I’ve been a long-time subscriber to the Times after having my fill of the damn Post. But What’s being delivered to me these days is not what I want or expect of newspaper. (sigh) Is it Examiner time?

  8. McGehee
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 4:27 pm

    …it’s been poised to circle the drain for decades.

    It’s only been around for 2.8 of them, apparently.

    For my money any new start-up dead-treee daily was a huge risk even in the early ’80s. The fact it lasted this long — and registered circulatiuon increases while other papers were losing readers — has to mean something.

  9. McGehee
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 4:27 pm

    …or were you talking about the newspaper biz in general? If so, my apologies.

  10. McGehee
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 11:27 am

    …it’s been poised to circle the drain for decades.

    It’s only been around for 2.8 of them, apparently.

    For my money any new start-up dead-treee daily was a huge risk even in the early ’80s. The fact it lasted this long — and registered circulatiuon increases while other papers were losing readers — has to mean something.

  11. McGehee
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 11:27 am

    …or were you talking about the newspaper biz in general? If so, my apologies.

  12. just a conservative girl
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 11:10 pm

    I will miss the Times. I really like it, I buy it every morning as they won’t deliver to my house anymore.

  13. just a conservative girl
    May 2nd, 2010 @ 6:10 pm

    I will miss the Times. I really like it, I buy it every morning as they won’t deliver to my house anymore.

  14. wombat-socho
    May 3rd, 2010 @ 1:43 pm

    I guess we’re going to be left with the Examiner, then. Too bad, but if they couldn’t find their market in the conservatives who live around here, then there’s not much hope for them.

  15. wombat-socho
    May 3rd, 2010 @ 8:43 am

    I guess we’re going to be left with the Examiner, then. Too bad, but if they couldn’t find their market in the conservatives who live around here, then there’s not much hope for them.