Not much compassion from the big guy on layoff day at the News & Observer. G. D. Gearino:
When the News & Observer’s journalists gathered Tuesday afternoon for a post-layoff talk with publisher Orage Quarles, they surely expected some combination of condolences on the loss of 16 people from the newsroom and pep talk as they head into a still-uncertain future — with perhaps a word of thanks for good work under trying circumstances thrown in for good measure.
Boy, were they wrong.
Instead, a visibly angry Quarles scolded the news staffers at length. He didn’t like the fact that somebody from the newsroom had apparently talked to WRAL television, which last week featured a story on the N&O’s then-pending layoffs. He didn’t like what he saw as a lack of enthusiasm about the announced merger of some news functions with the Charlotte Observer, the one-time rival and now uneasy corporate bedfellow. He told them they needed to get over their attachment to print journalism and join the future. He agreed that the layoffs had been traumatic, which is why counselors had been called in — for the executives who had to do the cutting. (I wonder how much comfort that provided to the employees in the group who’d been told their jobs were eliminated?)
By all reports, Quarles’ talk left the staff stunned. They’d been working under combat conditions for more than a month as layoffs approached, with a significant number of them eventually falling as casualties, and at the conclusion of the battle they are berated and belittled by their general.
Photo credit: poynteronline.org/resource
.
Related:
McClatchy's Bloody Monday update
