Meet the New Boss …

Posted on | July 8, 2013 | 31 Comments

The Nightmare at 3600 New York Avenue, otherwise known as The Washington Times, resurrected its own Freddy Krueger again today, announcing that John Solomon will return in “the joint role of Editor and Vice President for Content and Business Development, where he will have broad responsibility for the content, audience and business strategies of the company. In this role he will oversee all news and opinion content in the newsroom as well as the advertising, sales and digital departments on our business side.”

Which is to say, he is The Franchise. Solomon becomes the fifth editor at the paper in the past five years. I tendered my resignation in January 2008, the day after it was announced that Solomon would be hired, knowing an ill omen when I saw one.

The newspaper has gone through wave after wave of layoffs in recent years, each successive predictable catastrophe announced by the clueless management as a Bold Step Forward. To make room for hiring back Solomon as Supreme Commissar, they kicked to the curb executive editor David Jackson because who gives a damn about loyalty, huh? Betsy Rothstein quotes an “insider” at the paper:

“This raises the question, ‘What is the Washington Times?’ TWT’s brand has always been as a conservative alternative to the Post, but Solomon is not and never has been a conservative, having worked at the liberal Post, a liberal wire service and the George Soros-funded Center for Public Integrity. He persecuted conservatives last time he was editor of the paper and pushed a hard pro-Obama line, which went so far as to fill the walls of the building with framed copies of A1 cover pages promoting the liberal president. Looks like the Moonies bought the same snake oil that failed to solve their problems before.”

News Flash: Management doesn’t have a freaking clue.

They wouldn’t know where to buy a clue if they could afford one.

Damn, I’m glad I got out while the getting was good.

Category: Journalism

Comments

31 Responses to “Meet the New Boss …”

MrEvilMatt
July 8th, 2013 @ 7:44 pm

Meet the New Boss …: The Nightmare at 3600 New York Avenue, otherwise known as The Washington Times, resurrect… http://t.co/3sJeZQAwRy
Lockestep1776
July 8th, 2013 @ 7:44 pm

Meet the New Boss …: The Nightmare at 3600 New York Avenue, otherwise known as The Washington Times, resurrect… http://t.co/j3gZJkGm2u
CHideout
July 8th, 2013 @ 7:44 pm

Meet the New Boss …: The Nightmare at 3600 New York Avenue, otherwise known as The Washington Times, resurrect… http://t.co/YTl8eLvAFR
jwbrown1969
July 8th, 2013 @ 7:44 pm

Meet the New Boss …: The Nightmare at 3600 New York Avenue, otherwise known as The Washington Times, resurrect… http://t.co/dg9hXRs9fY
Citzcom
July 8th, 2013 @ 7:44 pm

Meet the New Boss …: The Nightmare at 3600 New York Avenue, otherwise known as The Washington Times, resurrect… http://t.co/Lsx8FUuAIm
rsmccain
July 8th, 2013 @ 7:50 pm

“The Nightmare at 3600 New York Avenue … resurrected its own Freddy Krueger again today” http://t.co/XKtzhHhRWl | @FishbowlDC
rsmccain
July 8th, 2013 @ 7:51 pm

“They wouldn’t know where to buy a clue if they could afford one.” http://t.co/XKtzhHhRWl | @FishbowlDC
James_in_TX
July 8th, 2013 @ 7:53 pm

RT @rsmccain: “The Nightmare at 3600 New York Avenue … resurrected its own Freddy Krueger again today” http://t.co/XKtzhHhRWl | @Fishbowl…
preciseBlogs
July 8th, 2013 @ 7:55 pm

Meet the New Boss … http://t.co/renySX2wGz #news #conservative #journalism
Mike G.
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:00 pm

Sometimes it’s good to burn your bridges behind you.
thatMrGguy
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:00 pm

Meet the New Boss … http://t.co/UJgpgAhDLz
rsmccain
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:01 pm

@DylanByers http://t.co/XKtzhHhRWl
rsmccain
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:03 pm

@AlexPappas Freddy Krueger http://t.co/XKtzhHhRWl
rsmccain
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:03 pm

The Return of Freddy Krueger http://t.co/XKtzhHhRWl @AnnekeEGreen @BrettMDecker @DavidMastio
Charles
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:06 pm

There’s a gem among the PR bullet points: “The Times now has the lowest operating loss in its 31-year history and is poised to reach profitability with the full confidence and financial support of its ownership.”

In other words, they have never made any money. So what makes this time any different? Another gem:

“The Times’ email list has grown seven-fold from 100,000 people in January to more than 700,000 today, providing a substantial new audience and revenue opportunity.”

That’s right, spam.
robertstacymccain
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:07 pm

It’s the management, Mike. They keep changing the newsroom, but the problem isn’t the newsroom, it’s the people making the changes.
BobBelvedere
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:19 pm

RT @rsmccain The Return of Freddy Krueger http://t.co/NWIA8NZkgm
Ivanalaska
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:19 pm

RT @rsmccain: “They wouldn’t know where to buy a clue if they could afford one.” http://t.co/XKtzhHhRWl | @FishbowlDC
Mike G.
July 8th, 2013 @ 8:34 pm

The same thing happens in construction. Moving from job to job in the same company, but working for different supers. Sometimes the new super has different management style and grates on everyone’s nerves. Good way to get high turn-over in the company…easier to get rid of super and hire new one.
Josh_Painter
July 8th, 2013 @ 9:11 pm

RT @rsmccain: “The Nightmare at 3600 New York Avenue … resurrected its own Freddy Krueger again today” http://t.co/XKtzhHhRWl | @Fishbowl…
Adjoran
July 9th, 2013 @ 12:27 am

Yeah, I started getting their daily email out of the blue. I must have registered there years ago for something, I never visit the site or comment on their articles anymore.

So, yeah: spam.
ali
July 9th, 2013 @ 12:29 am

Meet the New Boss … via @rsmccain http://t.co/7mFTw89iM2
Adjoran
July 9th, 2013 @ 12:30 am

Wow. Companies bring in White Knights all the time, guys with a rep for “turnarounds” and “efficiency in operations.” But not many give the guy a whirl, let him move on when things don’t work out, and then bring the same guy back again – with identically hyped expectations.

Does management not realize they had Solomon before? All round-eyes look alike, you know.
Finrod Felagund
July 9th, 2013 @ 1:29 am

Amusingly, I anticipated your final line about a third of the way through reading.
1sfreedom
July 9th, 2013 @ 1:43 am

Meet the New Boss … http://t.co/CL058vt6qX
Finrod Felagund
July 9th, 2013 @ 2:23 am

I’ve worked in more than one of those kinds of places. They keep changing the sysadmins, whether out of convenience or budget or whatever, and the management stays the same but they have this churn of underlings. Unfortunately, these kinds of places are always hiring because they’re always firing, so it’s easy to fall into one of those places.
DavidMastio
July 9th, 2013 @ 10:49 am

No comment: RT @rsmccain: The Return of Freddy Krueger http://t.co/AmXDuAGCdv @AnnekeEGreen @BrettMDecker @DavidMastio
rsmccain
July 9th, 2013 @ 2:50 pm

RT @DavidMastio: No comment: RT @rsmccain: The Return of Freddy Krueger http://t.co/AmXDuAGCdv @AnnekeEGreen @BrettMDecker @DavidMastio
DottieBowling
July 9th, 2013 @ 2:52 pm

RT @DavidMastio: No comment: RT @rsmccain: The Return of Freddy Krueger http://t.co/AmXDuAGCdv @AnnekeEGreen @BrettMDecker @DavidMastio
gary4205
July 9th, 2013 @ 2:54 pm

RT @DavidMastio: No comment: RT @rsmccain: The Return of Freddy Krueger http://t.co/AmXDuAGCdv @AnnekeEGreen @BrettMDecker @DavidMastio
K-Bob
July 10th, 2013 @ 1:03 am

They must still get money from the Moonies or something.

If you’re going to compete with Microsoft or Apple, you don’t do it by imitating the worst aspects of Radio Shack. Seems to me that’s what they keep doing.