Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Interesting job available in Dallas

A reader tells us:
PIO for the Dallas County health department is suddenly open -- right in the middle of the swine flu mess. The position will be posted on the Dallas County web site at Dallascounty.org. The salary range is between $45,000 and $57,000.

And as long as I'm posting:

We have a temporary opening at Sunwest Communications for a receptionist position. It would be 3 days a week for four to six weeks, depending on the health of our current receptionist. Contact stownsend@sunwestpr.com

Monday, April 27, 2009

Another Grothe tale

There may be a book in this for somebody. This story is about Randy Grothe, from David Hanners who, a lifetime or so ago, was part of a team that won a Pulitzer for the DMN for an amazing special section on how to investigate a plane crash. I can still remember the clue that the filaments of the light bulbs offered. Do they still use light bulbs? Anyway:

Jeezamae. What a sad tale. I remember when we called the DMN “The Voice of Texas.” Now it seems more like “The Hoarse Whisper of Dallas.” You could run a damn-fine newsroom with the people who have left that place. Not that anybody's in the mood to run a damn-fine newsroom these days, though.

I remember traveling with Randy up to the Middle of Nowhere, Okla., to do a story on a guy who ran a company that manufactured barbecue cookers. He was having some beef (no pun intended) with the government because he called his stuff “barbecue” and it didn’t fit the FDA’s bureaucratic definition of what constituted barbecue. The feds wanted him to cease and desist, but this guy knew barbecue; in fact, when he’d been in college, he’d written a scholarly paper on the subject.

So Randy and I fly up, rent a car and head out. To reporters, photographers had different reputations when it came to traveling, just as I’m sure the photographers rated the reporters. Most of the shooters were ok to travel with, and some were actually fun. On the other side of the spectrum, there was one photographer we derisively nicknamed “Mr. Personality” and we’d generally make some excuse about “logistics” and insist on taking separate flights and cars because the thought of being stuck in an enclosed space with him for hours on end was unbearable.

The word on traveling with Randy was that he always had to have his five squares a day. Crammed in his camera bag was a book or two listing cool out-of-the-way places to eat. So we’re heading down the road to the barbecue cooker factory and Randy pulls out the book and, sure enough, it lists some cafĂ© in a small town a few miles ahead that is known for its pies.

“Let's stop and eat," he said.

“Uh, Randy, I think the barbecue guy will probably have some food for us when we get there. He’s wanting to show us what his cooker can do. I’m thinkin’ we don't need to stop.”

“Nah, they're not gonna feed us,” he replied. “We need to get lunch.”

Randy could be persuasive and I was hungry anyway so we stopped and ate. I had chicken-fried steak -- one of two times in my 12 years at the DMN I had chicken-fried steak, and don’t ask me why I remember that -- and then since the place was known for its pies, we had some of that, too. I had banana cream.

We waddle out to the car, climb in and continue to our destination. We get to the town (it was some small town founded by freed slaves, oddly enough) and drive up to the business, walk inside and there, in a conference room, is the single largest spread of barbecue I have ever seen. The Titanic set sail with less food. The guy wants us to try a bit of everything, so Randy and I look at each other and, being the professionals that we were, we took one for the DMN team and ate the guy’s barbecue. And I don’t care what the Food and Drug Administration said. This stuff was barbecue.

It turned out to be a decent story, but when you were traveling with Randy, the quality of the story was kind of a secondary issue….

Thursday, April 23, 2009

New Yahoo group for former DMN-ers

From a reader:

Several of us laid off on April 9 got together yesterday with Trey Garrison to discuss freelancing. We decided to create a yahoo group to allow us to network with each other and others who have left the Dallas Morning News.

There, we can post info about the type of jobs we are seeking, our contact information, if we want, jobs that may not be right for us but may be perfect for someone else, tips on navigating unemployment benefits, Cobra, 401K rollovers, and more.

All former DMNers are welcome. The more we have, the better this works. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/aftertdmn/

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Well, one more job posting

Too good not to pass along. A reader sends this:

I know the DMN layoffs blog has gone dark but my editor at McGraw Hill, Andy Wright, asked me to put the word out for a recent job opening. If you can put something on the blog or pass this along to folks who can spread the word, I would appreciate it.

He's looking for someone with journalism experience who can handle overseeing a regional publication covering the construction sector in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. Anyone with a few years under their belt reporting or editing at the DMN would be able to take it on provided they are willing to handle the spectrum of duties; editing, reporting, layout, budget management - you name it.

McGraw Hill has not posted the opening anywhere yet but they need to fill this relatively quickly. I've worked with the company and this editor for the past five years and they are good people.

McGraw Hill Publications is looking for an editor for its regional magazine Midwest Construction (http://midwest.construction.com/) based out of Chicago. Contact Andy Wright News Director, McGraw-Hill Construction Andrew_Wright@mcgraw-hill.com

Monday, April 20, 2009

Goodnight moon

Until next time...

Last day

I'll leave the comments open today. That's at least long enough for you all to read Grothe's farewell and react. And then, unless someone comes up with a good reason not to, we'll go dim if not dark. Send me e-mails any time. If there's relevant news I'll post it.

Until the next cuts.

"Spartacus"
dmncuts(at)gmail.com

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A farewell worth signing off with

(WELCOME VISITORS FROM ROMENESKO, ETC. This blog was active for the weeks just before and after the DMN newsroom layoffs. Comments are off now, but Randy's email address is on the bottom of his farewell. We had some other pretty good good-bye notes (though nothing at this level). Click here to read all I got.)

If someone else wants to send in a farewell, I'll be honored to post it. But if this is the last in the series, what an ending. Some of the farewells from the younger people who lost jobs showed that the DMN ate some of its seed corn. This one shows that we also lost some of our old growth forest. The institutional memory this represents can never be replaced:

Whenever a Monkey Screams, Think of Me

I always wanted to be a writer, but somewhere in the sixties I got sidetracked by a Polaroid Swinger.

Now, being a writer seemed to be an admirable profession, but being a photographer seemed to be just plain cool. And being a newspaper photojournalist with a Nikon dangling from your neck as well as a press pass opening doors, whoa, that was tres cool.

So that's the road I took. That road led me here, and from here came all the memorable characters and exciting destinations.

I replaced a footnote in history - Jack Beers, who almost won a Pulitzer if his flash hadn't triggered Bob Jackson's reflex-response which froze on film the exact moment Ruby shot Oswald.

What I heard about Jack Beers was that he was a Mapsco unto himself - he knew every back road in Dallas by memory. That is something to emulate, I said to myself, and to this day I'm a student of directions and try to go mapless in Big D.

We all have heroes in our chosen profession and mine were right down the street at The Dallas Times Herald. Their photo department rocked in the 70's and 80's, and you only had to pick up their paper every day to be inspired to go out and try to beat them at their own game.

Legendary shooters like Jay Dickman and Skeeter Hagler would fast-talk you, wise-crack you, all the while snapping pictures intuitively at the exact decisive moment while you were standing beside them shooting the breeze like an idiot.
I fed on the rivalry, studied their skills, pushing myself to make better and better pictures.
Focus editor Bob Compton was really my mentor, a lovable, laid-back guru to young journalists, the newsroom Yoda who transcended space and time over the decades. He taught me how to find a great feature story and how to go after it in the face of long managerial odds. It was all about going for the heart. Uncle Bob was my spiritual guide in this business, a great lover of everything Texan.

I salute him to this day. Without him the well would have gone dry years ago.
My good friends were always in the photo department, the folks I used to eat dog food nachos with at wild goodbye parties with commode-hugging inebriated future mayors (when the police would arrive, somebody would say: "Send out the theater critic, let him handle it.").

After Friday Night Football we would caravan to the rather seedy Guadalajara on Ross Ave., eat greasy cheese enchiladas together and wait for late-night celebrities such as Lyle Lovett and Paul Simon to show up as sirens wailed and the bodies piled up outside.

We had one photog we treasured so much we threw him a goodbye party not once, but six or seven years in a row, the count being lost. Every year we always put the same notes up around the DMN to establish general confusion: "Jay Godwin is leaving The Dallas Morning News, please come to his Goodbye Party and wish him well!".

Jay, being the nice guy he is, would always faithfully drive up from Austin for his goodbye party even though eventually he really didn't know any of the people who attended his party.

One constant that still persists: you can be assured that walking through the halls of the photo department, you will hear sounds and see sights you will not witness anywhere else in Belo world.

An old geezer trying to breakdance to Michael Jackson, folks wearing riot gas masks during the basement leak, the Art dept marching in angrily to demand the stereo be turned down, a year-round Christmas tree decorated with the ex-boss's badge a blonde riding an invisible horse, Bic lighters exploding in fireballs in reaction to overruled edits by executive Sports editors, reporters hiding out in the darkroom darkness snoring away, a cowboy photo editor reading "Lonesome Dove" over the dept intercom, holiday grapefruits from upper management being hurled at lab personnel resulting in flurries of memos, staff meetings with shocked staffers photo-shopped into bikinis, on and on it goes ...

Some days being a news photographer is like being in a dream. One memorable shift, I photographed a cop killing in Grand Prairie, then Chuck Berry and Elizabeth Taylor at the Meyerson, and finally a botched burglary where a pathetic robber was trapped in a chimney trying to enter a house. One morning I was climbing a West Texas mountain with paraplegics in wheelchairs, that night I was photographing prostitutes in Juarez. If you love life and its wonderful tapestry, this job's for you.

A few personal notes with universal meaning:

Gary Barber, thanks for walking with me down to HR. That was above and beyond. But next time, let's take the stairs. Less traffic. It will be easier on the both of us.
I'm leaving David Woo in charge of highly-questionable requests on the 50/50 camera equipment program.

Doug Swanson, I'm leaving Woo in charge of you. Sorry about that. But at least you'll be able to survive a silver crisis. I guess I'll try to finish my photo essay "Voluptuous South Dallas Strippers and Their DMN Reporter Boys On Assignment." I've only got one picture in the essay and it's of you, but it's a start.

David Guzman, no matter what, take 15 more seconds out of that video edit. It's too long.

Mona Reeder, please don't get drunk again and try to steal my dog in the middle of the night. These days you could get shot by some neighbor defending his castle.
Irwin Thompson, you knucklehead, if I get one more call from you impersonating a Morning News subscription salesman ...

Leslie White, sorry I fell through the dumpster and snapped the LCD display off my video camera and then contracted a deadly staph infection that nearly ate my nose off but it was all for Elvis you know.

Nathan Hunsinger, may your scratch disk never be full. Ron Baselice, you misspelled your name in your latest video. Sonya Hebert, when things get slow and you have nothing to do, please enlarge the type on all the photo computers. Do Mahoney's first.

Tom Dillard, my original boss, wherever you are in the afterlife, I apologize for getting hired in 1975 while wearing a nice-looking suit and a Boy Scout haircut, and then showing up a few weeks later looking like Wavy Gravy from a Grateful Dead concert. It was a plan that worked.

Steve Blow, I still can't believe the DMN sheriffs let us go down Highway 16, the longest state highway, not once but twice. Twenty years from now on the story's anniversary, I will track you down in the Nursing Home For Folksy Metro Columnists and we'll hop in the Honda Civic hatchback and go looking for Arkey Blue again.

Richard Pruitt, hanging around you created a thirst for gadgets and camera equipment that leaves me very well-stocked for a free-lance career. At the time of explaining those purchases to my wife, I wanted to strangle you. Now I drink to your materialistic spirit. She does too.

Gerry McCarthy, I would say I will miss your constant stream of e-mail spam, but I just don't think I've hit rock-bottom yet. The abyss has got to be pretty deep for that to happen.

Guy Reynolds, if I get any more butt-calls from you, I'm sending Roky Erickson your way, the 13th Floor Elevators and all. Lara Solt, kill your babies. Michael Hamtil, I would love to buy you lunch, but, as you know, I have left my wallet in the car. Evans Caglage, don't get too good at anything you don't want to do around this place.
Mr. Ainsworth, you know what to do with those cross-dissolves. Louis DeLuca, you are the most well-rounded photographer I know and I do not mean that in the jelly-belly sort of way. Tom Fox, check with the card-stacker, see if he needs an assistant.

Chris Wilkins and Brad Loper, order me some boudin to go from the Shaq. Ahna Hubnik, to somewhat quote the Prairie Mystic known as David Leeson, a video is never finished, it is only abandoned, especially by our web audience.
Vernon Bryant, thanks for setting my camera controls when they became too small for me to see. Juan Garcia, remember: when something just doesn't look right, it's probably right.

John Zak, sorry I never got my mileage in on time. Maybe in the next life. Jerome Sims, please organize me before I die. Courtney, give me back my monkey.
John Rhodes, or rather Mr. Atomic Fireball, for growing up on the grounds of a mental institution, you seem perfectly sane to me. Melanie Burford, we'll always have the Taco Joint. Kye Lee, Richard Pruitt wants his carbon-fiber tripod back. Pronto.

John Davidson, the Boss With A Bite, if I just would have taken your advice years ago when I asked you where I should go with my career and you said: "Take a left out of my office, turn right, go to the window, open it, and jump" - none of this would be happening now.

I will really miss the wry wit of Jim Mahoney, who pounds the mean streets of Big D looking for amazing local pictures. It's hard to forget his comment about one of our more colorful globe-trotting photojournalists: "It really doesn't bother me that she goes away on these great international assignments, it just bothers me that she always comes back."

To former staffers Paul Brown and Ed Hille, as far as carpetbaggers go who headed south to plunder the plantation, you guys were the absolute best.

Paul, why we ended up with chocolates on our pillows and golden telephones by our toilets in the most luxurious hotel in San Antonio during the Pope's 1987 visit is a mystery that Belo Travel obviously must have had to answer for. The high-performance rented Mustang - hmmm, that too.

Ed, on the matter of the Nikon 85 mm 1.4 with the major focus problem you gave me in a big-hearted gesture upon your departure over 20 years ago, I sold it recently on E-bay for $500. A true confession.

Judy Walgren, dance with me, woman. How many cows did that African tribe offer for you again? I bet the numbers are down in this economy.

Allison V. Smith, give me a reflector to hold and a Hasselblad to load.

Barbara Davidson, during the swamp tour when the redneck alligator-hunters were showing off and crashed their airboat into the riverbank in the middle of nowhere, and all looked lost for us, good thing you pulled out that Canadian charm.

And then there was the great tale-spinner Joe Laird, our longtime society photog. He could easily segue from telling stories about machine-gunning "Japs" on Iwo Jima to stinky hippies skinny-dipping in the Trinity River at the 1969 Lewisville Pop Festival and then on to escapades of the rich and famous of Dallas smuggling diamonds across the Atlantic in their, ahem, privates. My eyes were as big as softball-sized hail.

And thanks to all my DMN buddies and future photo Pulitzer winners who appeared in our humble home movie "East Dallas Vice vs. Godzilla." Evans Caglage, Jan Sonnenmair, Juan and Leslie Garcia, Nuri Vallbona, Milton Hinnant - they all died horrible deaths at the hands of the monster and his evil BMW driver, Ken Geiger. William Snyder as detective "Sunny" Crockett saved the world at the end.

We were very young and crazy then.

To all the cameras I've loved before, thanks for the auto-exposure, the auto-focus, and the auto-white balance.

There were many great reporters I've had the pleasure to work with.
Bryan Woolley, who never met a chicken-fried steak he didn't like. Bill Minutaglio, who I ate horse-sausage with unknowingly in Moscow one night before catching the Aeroflot flight where we sat next to the large Russian wolfhound. Bill, who was once told in my presence in the hills of Nicaragua that he had the face of a priest, also introduced me to the male Aretha Franklin one night. We also were chased by federales in Mexico when I mistook a pull-over hand signal for a go-ahead gesture. Sorry, Bill, didn't mean to scare the guacamole out of you.

And there was ____ , who made me go swimming with her in the middle of an assignment in the 80's. I wrote a song about the experience called "I Feel Like a Fool In Your Husband's Swimsuit." The tape got passed around the newsroom; she never spoke to me again. That was fine.

Brad Bailey, who I never could find for hours while on assignment at a nudist camp because he took off his clothes and just kinda looked like everybody else. Those Miss Nude Texas assignments only come around once in your lifetime, right, Jim (rhymes with Moroney)?

Miss Marlyn Schwartz, who refused to go on assignment with me in my lime-green 1967 Mustang with black racing stripes and no muffler because, well, it wasn't air-conditioned.

Not to mention ____ , who smoked the funny stuff in my car on the way to interviewing large and scary Texas Rangers of the law enforcement variety at
the nuclear plant and had me and my career frozen with fear and paranoia for days on end. She would not be denied. It was the 70's, man, and a lot of people were still stuck in the 60's.

Michael Granberry, I've come to the place where the road and the sky collide. I'm not running on empty yet, but I probably could use somebody to doctor my eyes. As long a I don't run into Daryl Hannah, I think I will be okay.

Beatriz Terrazas, who proved to me she could roll with the best of the roller-derby girls.

Steve McGonigle, we were Horned Frogs all those years ago. As far as being an endangered species, things haven't changed that much.

I will miss the quiet intelligence of Zen Master Tom Huang, whose staunch support of photojournalism is a treasure for this newspaper. I remember, back in the heyday, going on assignment with him to the biggest BBQ festival in the nation in Memphis, Tennessee (well, I called it an assignment, the boss called it a "friggin' vacation").
After a few exquisite spring days covering good ol' boys partying to Southern rock on the beer-infested banks of the Mississippi, interviewing beautiful, wasted Scarlett O'Haras, and eating all parts of the pig and cow possible in the tastiest of ways, I noticed Tom had this blissed-out look on his face, punctuated by a subtle smile.
I asked what the matter was and he said: "I'm just not used to having fun on an assignment for the paper", a comment which seemed to justify the whole assignment to me.

Tom, I wish you were here now. This thing needs some editing.

Seen a lot of change here. When I first arrived, it wasn't too far away from the time when, if Metro needed an eye-burner feature photo, they would send the trusty Clint Grant to the zoo to grab an animal, bring him in the studio, then work with that chimpanzee or penguin or whatever til some magic happened to anchor the Metro cover. I am not making this up.

From black and white film to Kodachrome slides to color negatives to digital images and now HD video and frame-grabs, it all came to pass.

If I ever got down about the place, I would crank up the Springsteen between assignments, fast-forward the cassette to his third-most signature anthem "Badlands" with its uplifting chorus line: "Keep pushing til it's understood / And these badlands start treating us good." It seemed to cure the Belo Blues in that simplistic, unexplainable rock 'n' roll kind of way.

I've always found the photo dept to be an oasis of anarchistic, invigorating insanity within the rather buttoned-down walls of the DMN. Whenever an Observer story would come out with tales of our stuffy conservatism, I'd just scratch my head, remembering who hired belly dancers in the Dallas Life dept, or who made cheese nachos on the print dryers in the long-gone wet lab or just the vision of the tattooed Courtney Perry swing-dancing and laughing maniacally in the photo scanning room. I would wonder: what department are they talking about?

Photographers are much like drummers in a rock band. Somewhat crazy and unpredictable, a little Keith Moon is in every one of them. In the 70's, for those who remember, it might have been something in the fixer or ferrocyanide. Personalities, twisted humor and camaraderie always abound in photo. And the old farts there stay a bit young at heart.

I remember one stormy night falling off a ladder, breaking my ankle covering a protest. After the surgery the photo dept presented me with a framed, black-and-white crime-scene photo of the accident area, with my body drawn out on the sidewalk, surrounded by the very protestors I had been photographing and, of course, smiling members of the photo dept.

What could I say? That was a pretty thoughtful bunch of people, those photo friends of mine. I must admit the gesture did make the 23 pins and 2 metal plates hurt just a little less.

I really don't understand why photo departments seem to have the most gregarious, hilarious characters at a newspaper, but it's been that way for years at the DMN. John Rhodes could do stand-up. Melanie Burford, call Conan. Gerry, are you really Woody Allen? We have maintained that image while racking up multiple Pulitzers and gaining national recognition for serious work.

There were always surprises in this job.

Once, I went to a gentrified East Dallas neighborhood to shoot a fireplace. Just a stupid fireplace. The owner opened his door and a Doberman ran out to basically attack me. When I put my right hand out in defense, my Nikon took a slide down the arm, perfectly landing around the snarling dog's neck.

I just remember standing there speechless and helpless, watching the Doberman grinning real big, running down Swiss Ave. wearing my gift like a new necklace, the camera bouncing with large ugly clunks! on the concrete street.
How do you explain that to anybody much less your boss?

Or the time I sat on my walkie-talkie in my car and the entire newsroom gathered around to listen to an hour-long argument I was having with my wife, largely about choosing a Mexican food destination. Ouch. Double-ouch when Christie found out about the public broadcast.

Hurricane Allen, 1989. Record flooding everywhere. I was in a crowded National Guard helicopter. We landed in shallow water. I stepped out and it was like being dropped into the dead calm of the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Water as far as you could see, horizon to horizon. A steady stream of the elderly pouring out of a quaint schoolhouse, escorted by soldiers through the waters. It was an unforgettable scene. In waist-deep water, I took one step. The big fat diamondback rattlesnake swam by only inches away and suddenly my heart was pounding like a runaway locomotive.

I showed up one morning for work and was promptly handed an amateurish camera and told to get some gym clothes and go workout with Jane Fonda. What, excuse me? The class was private, the press was barred, and I was posing as an excited fan snapping a shot after the workout. I have to admit - the picture was exclusive, great idea.

I was lucky enough to experience print journalism when the cotton was high and this was a bad-ass newspaper firing on all cylinders. We were all living way above the cloud line. At that time the possibilities at this outfit seemed limitless.

I remember developing color negative film amidst the chemical fumes, wearing a stained lab apron, when the cylindrical darkroom door noisily swung around and managing editor Stu Wilk stuck his head in. "Randy," he said, " Do you like Simon and Garfunkel?"
"Yes, Stu," I said, "I like Simon and Garfunkel." "Do you remember their song ..." and then he started singing:
"... they've all gone to look for America ... ?"

Boom. A few days later, Allen Pusey and I were criss-crossing the nation, from East to West coast, asking folks where they were on November 22, 1963.
From meeting the girl who first dyed Roy Orbison's hair black to getting healed by the spirit of Pancho Villa, it's been great fun. I have no regrets.

And, with the hurricane wind that's been blowing through our industry, I thought I was prepared emotionally for this day, but you never really are.
As the great philosopher Mike Tyson once said: "Everybody has a plan til they get their teeth knocked out."

I felt somewhat that way last week, or at least similar to when the 6 foot 4 inch Rockwall tight end slammed into me on the sidelines a few years ago and I woke up on my back, eyes to the fuzzy heavens, with a hole through my lip where my camera eyepiece had punctured it. The football team's doctor pushed aside the concerned cheerleaders, leaned over me and said: "Listen, son, let's get you over to the bench.
We're gonna patch you up with some Super-Glue."

So, I'm looking for some Super-Glue now.

It hurts at first, being released into this fresh water, but I feel really lucky to have worked here with some measure of success. Especially compared to toiling your life away in a smelly petrochemical plant, the South Texas life I escaped from.

My tight-knit family in Pasadena never did really understand this job. Myleather-tough brothers, who worked all their lives in ship channel refineries or the prison system or the prison system known as public schools, would look at me with shock-and-awe when I told them I had just been hanging out all day with Willie Nelson, or trying to find the best swimming holes in Texas, or riding around in a hot air balloon or chasing a Mardi Gras parade or mixing it up with Elvis impersonators.

"What?!?!?" they would say, "You call that a job?"

Yup. The best job in the world. It's the first one I ever had some 34 years ago. It was my ticket to ride. And I will never forget it, this place and all the usual suspects. See you a little further down the road.

Randy Eli Grothe
randygrothe@gmail.com

Friday, April 17, 2009

Last call

Given the tone of the past few days,I have the feeling that we're just about done here. I'll leave everything as is through the weekend. But unless there is a flood of traffic or an obvious unmet need, I intend to go on hiatus on Monday. Practically speaking, that means I turn off the comments and check the email once in a while. I'll make it a point to post any farewells. And if there are jobs being offered I'll try to get to those.

I can't say it's been fun. It has not. But it has been oddly rewarding. Thank you all for your participation and support.

Let's be careful out there!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Staff meetings with managers about the reorganization

There are meetings going on today about the newsroom reorganization. Anyone who wants to give a report, the comments are on.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

An interesting managing editor job?

A reader sends this:
I'm looking to fill a Managing Editor Position . If you know of anyone qualified and interested, please feel free to pass on this email.

Show Initiative is an established trade media and events company with a background in games, virtual worlds, and social media.. We already run two successful blogs, but are preparing to expand both in content and scope. We're looking for an experienced managing editor to help set the tone, direction, and team for a new network of blogs.

More details here: http://www.showinitiative.com/managingeditorjobdescription

A question about how the cuts were decided

Here's a comments thread on another post:

1) A person I know who was laid off let me see the list of positions selected for termination. According to it, 136 people lost their jobs this go-round. We were told that all positions in our small dept. were being considered for termination. On the list, all positions in each department were listed and an "X" was placed by the position(s) selected for termination. However, the person in our dept. who lost their job's position was the only one on the list, which leads us to believe she was specifically targeted, that perhaps her name/position was submitted in advance. If all our positions in this dept. were subject to the RIF, as we'd been told, why weren't all the positions on the list?


2) A friend showed me the list and I noticed there were no photo editors or any photo management on the list. I echo the above question, why weren't all the positions on the list?

3) Good question.

Similar examples can be found elsewhere on the list. For example, for "Editorial Page," only four positions were listed, one of which was "selected" for layoff. There are a lot more than four people in that dept.

Also, the list of those who apparently were considered for layoff included no line editors for national, foreign, TSW, Downtown Bureau, Metro Central Zone, Metro West Zone or Metro East Zone.

If I read this right then these people are saying that there were certain positions that were never considered for cuts -- no matter who was filing them. Unless there was a prior evaluation during which everyone in those positions was already determined to be necessary before the creation of the lists these people say they saw. Anybody have first-person information to contribute?

Another farewell note

The invitation is still open to others. Here is the latest:


Hello all,

A week after the cuts, I finally feel like my head is screwed on straight enough to give a proper farewell (that is, farewell for now).

Thanks to everyone who has offered condolences, encouragement and assistance during this very difficult time. I am deeply appreciative. You have helped replace despair, uncertainty and even self-doubt with hope and optimism.

To those who are still devastated by last week: I hate to get cheesy with the glass-half-full metaphor, but sometimes a different perspective really helps. I was in a serious car crash three weeks ago, and the outcome would have been very different had I not been wearing a seat belt. Before the accident, I was already a bit of a wreck because I fretted the possibility of losing everything (i.e., my job). I thought journalism was my entire life. But that mentality changed after the accident. When you almost lose it all, you realize everything else from that moment forward is actually a bonus. Hopefully you don't need to get in a terrible wreck to feel the same way.

To both the DMN exes and remaining staffers: It takes an admirable level of commitment, passion and determination to stick it out this long in such a turbulent industry. Don't forget that. Jobs can disappear, but our common dedication to educating the public and doing what we do best is untouchable. And it will translate well to anything we do in the future.

I am truly honored and humbled to have worked with such remarkable colleagues and friends. I wish you all the best. Please keep in touch.

Holly Yan
HollyEYan@yahoo.com

Sports job in the region

A reader posted this message today:

Found this today:
SPORTS FANATIC? Waxahachie Newspapers Inc. (WNI) is seeking an
experienced SPORTS WRITER to serve on our award-winning sports team.
Candidates should have a minimum of three years experience with a
daily or weekly newspaper and possess the ability to juggle a lot of
balls in the air at the same time. This is not a 9-5 job as this desk
is responsible for the assignment and coverage of the sports, athletes
and coaches in the communities we serve. "Didn't get to it" is not
acceptable. We are looking for an enterprising individual capable of
writing compelling sports stories, covering games and assisting the
sports team to ensure all bases are covered. Excellent writing and
time management skills are a must. Preferred candidates will also have
experience in photography, Photoshop and Quark. This is a full-time
position with competitive compensation and excellent benefits, which
include 401(k) plan, health/dental insurance and annual paid vacation.
Waxahachie Newspapers Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. E-mail
cover letter, resume and three writing samples to WNI Editor Neal
White at neal.white@wninews.com


Posted by Anonymous to DMNcuts at April 15, 2009 9:52 AM

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Question from a reader

One of the recently cut asks:

The severance agreement contains a requirement that you not seek re-employment or any remunerative relationship with the company. This would seem to prohibit freelancing. But some who left in prior layoffs and buyouts have freelanced for the paper.

Anyone know if this was part of past agreements? Wondering if it's just not enforced or if this is a new issue.

Thanks.

I know there are managers out there who read this blog. Can we have something like a definitive answer, please? Anonymous would be fine.

Question from the comments

A reader writes:
What are they going to do about the reporter rotations? We're 11 people short now. Will projects people be included in the rotations--how can they not be? Many of us don't mind getting the overtime (and many of us are now the sole supporters in our homes), but I can't imagine they'll keep paying OT every weekend, holiday etc. Clerks are already short and having to rotate regularly. What's the plan here?

Speaking for myself that's a very good question.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Quo Vadimus?

This blog was created for a very specific purpose: To provide information about this round of layoffs. The layoffs are over. Before we move on, I think we need to note that we all committed some remarkable journalism on deadline.

With no help or hindrance from our corporate overlords we: Were able to publish the size, departments and categories of the layoffs in one day. Which if you missed it was:
11 from Local News. 10 reporters, one news clerk
1 production editor from Editorial
6 from Lifestyles: Two part-time editors, one full-time editor, two writers, one Guide listings editor/writer.
3 from business: One reporter, a wire editor and an assistant editor.
13 from the sports: 8 from desk, 4 writers, 1 phone clerk
6 from Photo (Photo details: 4 photographers, 1 color tech, 1 photo librarian)
3 from News Art: One graphic artist, two designers
6 off the news copy desk
1 off the news desk
(As I look at it, we could still use the specifics from Photo and News Art. Update: Photo and News Art info now supplied. )

Engage a community in spirited and sometimes useful discussions. Feature some astonishingly good writing -- not mine, but some of the farewell notes are amazingly good. Distributed useful information about some of the kinds of help our now-former colleagues might be able to find.

If only dallasnews.com was as consistently successful at taking advantage of the possibilities of online journalism. Cloud-sourcing, immediacy, error correction, interactivity. Also, with very few exceptions, the tone of the comments has been civil enough. Some were pretty strong, but we were all entitled to that.

Are we done? I'm still getting a trickle of farewell notes, and I promise I will always get those posted. A few job and seminar notes are also coming in.

My question for this community: Do I need to keep DMNCuts going after this week? Is there a purpose that is not being met in other places? I'm incredibly proud of what we all did here, but like all of us, I need to spend my energy and time wisely. I'm open to staying open. I could go on hiatus and shut off the comments until the next round of cuts is announced. Or I could let the mask pass to someone else, as Mr. Sunbeam and RockOfTruth did to me.

What do you think?

Saturday, April 11, 2009

I've put all the farewell notes on one post

And the link is in the "links" list on the right. If anybody else wants to send me a note or to post one in comments, the invitation remains open. I will, of course, add any new ones to that other post.

Here's a new one that was posted in comments that I'll pull out here:

Though the ax has fallen on my head this go-round, too, i will always be glad for having had the opportunity to be a part of The Dallas Morning News.

And while it may sound like patting myself on the back, I can truly look back and know that while I felt lucky to be there, I also worked hard to stay. While I may not have walked away with any big journalism awards in my box, I could walk away knowing i did a good job.

In my time there I led the Metro coverage of the first Breeder's Cup race ever in the Southwest, I was the first to report on Farmers Branch's efforts to make illegal immigrants unwelcome there - a story that would put them in the national spotlight - and continued to top every other media outlet in the country in following that story over the next two years, and my reporting on a mayor's lies about her background derailed her bid for re-election.
Not bad for a small-town girl with no degree, lol.

I am proud to have been a part of what was long considered one of the best papers in the country, and to have known each and every one of you.

Today, i remain heartbroken to have been let go after 13 years with the company. I also am at a loss to explain it. Coming in from the old suburban newspapers I know my salary never reached those of many of my colleagues. So the didn't save much by letting me go.

But it is what it is, and it was time to move on.

I with all of you who remain the best of luck. i really don't expect newspapers to be around much longer, and that's the saddest part of all.

To those of you who were laid off, this time or previous times, I hope you find happiness and fulfillment and stability, whereever the road takes you.

Stephanie Sandoval

Job fairs in the near future

A reader sends this in:
Link to complete list of upcoming job fairs:
http://www.cityofirving.org/library/jobfairs.html


Tuesday, April 14
Cities of Carrollton and Farmers Branch Job Fair, 2 to 6 p.m., Addison Convention Center, 15650 Addison Road, Addison, TX 75001, (972) 573-3533
University of Phoenix Career Fair, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West, 1590 LBJ Freeway at Luna Road, Dallas, TX 75234, (214) 675-3059

Wednesday, April 15
Grand Prairie WorkForce Solutions Greater Dallas Job Fair, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 801 W. Freeway St., Suite 500, Grand Prairie, TX 75051, (972) 264-5881
Spring Career Fair, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Mountain View College, 4849 W. Illinois Ave., Dallas, TX 75211, (214) 860-8553


Additional Job Openings:
Dallas County Community College District
Openings for teaching and non-teaching. The pay is good. I'm happy to provide my name for applicants. They ask for people you know who work in the district. Appplication is online and timed so have your materials ready.
http://www.dcccd.edu/Business+Community/Jobs/DCCCD+Job+Openings/

Collin County Community College District
Also an online application. Have your materials ready.

https://jobs.ccccd.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1239472779857


UPDATE: Check the comments for more job ops. If you have more jobs, this is a good post to use. Add to the comments.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Help with resumes

A reader writes:
I was wondering if you could get word out on the blog that Assistant News Editor Michael Apuan and I willing to help anyone who might need a resume designed …

We’ve been helping some folks with this already — we have the graphics equipment at home to handle almost any project. We’ll tailor your work history to fit your needs; it won’t be a templated resume that will get lost in a heap of others.

We both work night shifts, so this would mean we’d be available during the day to have discussions on what would work best for you.

We lost a hell of a lot of great colleagues this week across multiple departments. If we can help anyone with this or anything else, please don’t hesitate fire one of us an e-mail at jschnick@dallasnews.com or mapuan@dallasnews.com.

Thanks …

Jeff Schnick
Assistant Business Editor

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Enough with the dark

When I started this blog I chose the dark template because that seemed appropriate and somber and respectful. Now that the cuts have happened, I think that it is more respectful to those who have left and those who remain to change the look. For all of us, we need to figure out how to get on with things. This is not to make light of the terrible event we have all gone through. The content will not change.

The truth is, I found the white-on-black hard on my eyes. Since I'm the owner, this is a place I can make a change without calling a meeting or assembling a focus group or getting six sets of signatures. Unlike where I work and still draw a paycheck.

Enough with the dark.

Good people want to help

I have heard that previous SPJ events have been useful.


SPJ WANTS TO HELP

The Fort Worth SPJ pro chapter wants to help. We've put on several "how to survive a layoff" programs for folks from the DMN and Star-Telegram over the last several years, featuring things like financial advice on 401K rollovers. This time we're thinking about organizing a freelancers' "summit" -- probably a half-day program on a Saturday. To do that, we want to hear from you -- what advice or help do you need most? How to handle the finances? Find clients? Negotiate prices? Build a website? Learn new skills? What else?
Please write back and let me know. We will try to build a program around what we hear from you.

Thanks

Gayle Reaves
(SPJ-Fort Worth board member and editor, Fort Worth Weekly)
gayle.reaves@fwweekly.com

Health insurance advice?

I'm not endorsing but a reader writes:
Hi! I am a fellow DMN employee, but I also own a health insurance agency. Undoubtedly those who are affected are going to have concerns and questions about their options, including COBRA subsidy eligibility. Our advice is free and confidential and we would be happy to help anyone who needs answers. Please feel free to direct anyone my way if they would like to speak to someone. And thank you for providing the blog for all of us! It is nice to see everyone coming together to help each other.

Best regards,


Amanda (Carruth) Wray
Tailor Made Insurance
4618 Cedar Springs Road
Suite A
Dallas, TX 75219

214-437-1410 cell
214-558-7908 office

amandawray@me.com
www.tminsure.com

A reminder about the rules

Don't put a name in a comment unless it's yours or it's someone who has posted their own name. I just had to kill an otherwise fine comment because it mentioned someone who sent me a note asking that the name not be there. Let's be extra kind to those who have lost jobs.

Any more people want to leave a farewell note?

If so, I'll put this post on top this morning so you can post a comment here.

---------------------

As many of you know, I have a hard time saying goodbye. I am usually one of the last ones to leave a party and my “goodbyes” tend to turn into 20-minute long conversations. Perhaps, this is why it’s taken me a couple of days to collect my thoughts and say farewell to so many wonderful friends and colleagues, who are like family to me.

This week, after 12 and a half years in newspapers, I lost my job. People often asked me why I remained in newspapers or if I’d come up with a Plan B yet. My answer was always that I still believed in newspapers and still loved telling stories. I wanted to be part of the solution to keep newspapers alive – even if it meant that content would ultimately be entirely online.

Reading The Dallas Morning News and my hometown newspaper, the Waxahachie Daily Light, was a tradition, a habit in my family. My father, an immigrant from Mexico who spoke no English when he arrived, was curious about this country that everyone called the land of opportunity. He wanted to fit in like everyone else. He struggled with the language, but because of newspapers he learned new words. He would often point out words and ask me about their meaning. When I got older, he’d often ask if I’d read what Dallas or Waxahachie city officials had done or what a particular sports columnist thought about the Cowboys or Rangers.

When I returned to Texas in 2002, after spending more than six years in Florida, my parents were beyond thrilled. They would finally get to see and read their little girl’s stories. My mom sometimes knew where a story of mine ran before I did, because she’d seen the paper first that day.

My parents don’t have much formal education, don’t speak English that well and don’t have much money. But this they value: the importance of newspapers. I hope that my friends and colleagues who are left behind will remember there are many like my parents who still have a thirst for knowledge – regardless of their background.

On Tuesday, when I walked out of the DMN building, the moment seemed surreal. But I have no regrets. I am fortunate to have worked with so many talented people from whom I learned so much. It is truly an honor. I will miss you guys, but I won’t forget all of the valuable things you’ve taught me.

Keep up the great work!

Stella M. Chávez
starchavez@aol.com

KERA announces layoffs but says it will be beefing up local content

A reader points out this news release from KERA:

KERA REALLOCATES STAFF RESOURCES

DALLAS/FORT WORTH - KERA announced today that the equivalent of four-and-one-half positions have been eliminated so that resources can be reallocated to other areas within the organization. The positions affected are in volunteer services, data management, education programs and television production.

“We regret that these layoffs were necessary,” said Mary Anne Alhadeff, President & CEO, “but the station is on a course to increase news and public affairs reporting and advance online services consistent with the station’s mission and the needs and interests of our audiences. This reallocation of resources allows the station to maintain its budget and have the resources available for content expansion.”

In the coming months, KERA will implement plans to significantly expand its local radio news and public affairs coverage on KERA 90.1 FM and increase online content and resources.

When it does that expanding, maybe it will need new staff?

Job possibility

A reader writes:
Just got the following from one of my high school friends, Libby McIver. Doesn’t seem like the best fit, but what does? Also, does anyone know whether the Census Bureau is still hiring?

Hi all,

My company is hiring now for a new team dedicated to servicing the Black Card clients.

If you know anyone who has a strong customer service, call center, travel, hotel background, and they are looking for work, they should go to www.vipdesk.com apply. You work from HOME.

From Trey Garrison

Trey writes:
I've been successfully freelancing for six years now, with a year-and-a-half interruption to take a full-time gig at D, which I left a year ago.

If there's enough interest, I'd be willing to give a seminar or whatever you want to call it to any and all former DMN staffers on how to make a living freelancing.

If the crowd is big enough, I figure we could charge a minor fee to cover the cost of an appropriate venue. Maybe even coffee and donuts or whatever. If it's a small group, we could probably find somewhere free to do it.

Figure between the two of us -- and I'd protect your anonymity -- we could organize this sooner rather than later.

If you want to post this to gauge interest, feel free.

Either way, good luck and Godspeed to all our inky brothers and sisters.

Also:
I'm still figuring out the details, I don't have a business plan drawn up, and I haven't called the first potential investor, but...

I'm trying to figure out how to make a purely online newspaper focused exclusively on Plano work. Plano is sort of a unique critter -- big enough, tech-friendly enough, and prosperous enough to merit its own independent coverage, but underserved by both the DMN and the Plano Star Courier.

I foresee something that marries video and print, and is primarily enterprise reporting on city issues, cops, local sports, and some lifestyle stuff. Not big on opinion, though there would be a blog, forum, etc.

If there are any Plano-based DMN pink slippers, I'd love to at least touch base with them as I develop this idea, and see what could be reasoned out on how to make this work.

Feel free to pass along.


--
Trey Garrison
treygarrison.com
trey@treygarrison.com

Freelance gig?

From a reader:
I have a client who wants to pay $ 100 dollars per article and it is possible it may be more than 10 articles. Do you know of anybody who would be willing to write these articles? You talked about some people from the Dallas Morning News you may not have a job anymore who may want to write these.

The only thing my client is asking is the person come out to visit with them and take a tour of their facility. Their building is located near Plano Road and Forest.

They would like someone to come out this week or next week.
If you're interested, please e-mail paul.foutch@edwardjones.com.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The entire list of farewell notes

This is the comprehensive list of farewell notes.

----------------------------------------------------------

Whenever a Monkey Screams, Think of Me

I always wanted to be a writer, but somewhere in the sixties I got sidetracked by a Polaroid Swinger.

Now, being a writer seemed to be an admirable profession, but being a photographer seemed to be just plain cool. And being a newspaper photojournalist with a Nikon dangling from your neck as well as a press pass opening doors, whoa, that was tres cool.

So that's the road I took. That road led me here, and from here came all the memorable characters and exciting destinations.

I replaced a footnote in history - Jack Beers, who almost won a Pulitzer if his flash hadn't triggered Bob Jackson's reflex-response which froze on film the exact moment Ruby shot Oswald.

What I heard about Jack Beers was that he was a Mapsco unto himself - he knew every back road in Dallas by memory. That is something to emulate, I said to myself, and to this day I'm a student of directions and try to go mapless in Big D.

We all have heroes in our chosen profession and mine were right down the street at The Dallas Times Herald. Their photo department rocked in the 70's and 80's, and you only had to pick up their paper every day to be inspired to go out and try to beat them at their own game.

Legendary shooters like Jay Dickman and Skeeter Hagler would fast-talk you, wise-crack you, all the while snapping pictures intuitively at the exact decisive moment while you were standing beside them shooting the breeze like an idiot.
I fed on the rivalry, studied their skills, pushing myself to make better and better pictures.
Focus editor Bob Compton was really my mentor, a lovable, laid-back guru to young journalists, the newsroom Yoda who transcended space and time over the decades. He taught me how to find a great feature story and how to go after it in the face of long managerial odds. It was all about going for the heart. Uncle Bob was my spiritual guide in this business, a great lover of everything Texan.

I salute him to this day. Without him the well would have gone dry years ago.
My good friends were always in the photo department, the folks I used to eat dog food nachos with at wild goodbye parties with commode-hugging inebriated future mayors (when the police would arrive, somebody would say: "Send out the theater critic, let him handle it.").

After Friday Night Football we would caravan to the rather seedy Guadalajara on Ross Ave., eat greasy cheese enchiladas together and wait for late-night celebrities such as Lyle Lovett and Paul Simon to show up as sirens wailed and the bodies piled up outside.

We had one photog we treasured so much we threw him a goodbye party not once, but six or seven years in a row, the count being lost. Every year we always put the same notes up around the DMN to establish general confusion: "Jay Godwin is leaving The Dallas Morning News, please come to his Goodbye Party and wish him well!".

Jay, being the nice guy he is, would always faithfully drive up from Austin for his goodbye party even though eventually he really didn't know any of the people who attended his party.

One constant that still persists: you can be assured that walking through the halls of the photo department, you will hear sounds and see sights you will not witness anywhere else in Belo world.

An old geezer trying to breakdance to Michael Jackson, folks wearing riot gas masks during the basement leak, the Art dept marching in angrily to demand the stereo be turned down, a year-round Christmas tree decorated with the ex-boss's badge, Bic lighters exploding in fireballs in reaction to overruled edits by executive Sports editors, reporters hiding out in the darkroom darkness snoring away, a cowboy photo editor reading "Lonesome Dove" over the dept intercom, holiday grapefruits from upper management being hurled at lab personnel resulting in flurries of memos, staff meetings with shocked staffers photo-shopped into bikinis, on and on it goes ...

Some days being a news photographer is like being in a dream. One memorable shift, I photographed a cop killing in Grand Prairie, then Chuck Berry and Elizabeth Taylor at the Meyerson, and finally a botched burglary where a pathetic robber was trapped in a chimney trying to enter a house. One morning I was climbing a West Texas mountain with paraplegics in wheelchairs, that night I was photographing prostitutes in Juarez. If you love life and its wonderful tapestry, this job's for you.

A few personal notes with universal meaning:

Gary Barber, thanks for walking with me down to HR. That was above and beyond. But next time, let's take the stairs. Less traffic. It will be easier on the both of us.
I'm leaving David Woo in charge of highly-questionable requests on the 50/50 camera equipment program.

Doug Swanson, I'm leaving Woo in charge of you. Sorry about that. But at least you'll be able to survive a silver crisis. I guess I'll try to finish my photo essay "Voluptuous South Dallas Strippers and Their DMN Reporter Boys On Assignment." I've only got one picture in the essay and it's of you, but it's a start.

David Guzman, no matter what, take 15 more seconds out of that video edit. It's too long.

Mona Reeder, please don't get drunk again and try to steal my dog in the middle of the night. These days you could get shot by some neighbor defending his castle.
Irwin Thompson, you knucklehead, if I get one more call from you impersonating a Morning News subscription salesman ...

Leslie White, sorry I fell through the dumpster and snapped the LCD display off my video camera and then contracted a deadly staph infection that nearly ate my nose off but it was all for Elvis you know.

Nathan Hunsinger, may your scratch disk never be full. Ron Baselice, you misspelled your name in your latest video. Sonya Hebert, when things get slow and you have nothing to do, please enlarge the type on all the photo computers. Do Mahoney's first.

Tom Dillard, my original boss, wherever you are in the afterlife, I apologize for getting hired in 1975 while wearing a nice-looking suit and a Boy Scout haircut, and then showing up a few weeks later looking like Wavy Gravy from a Grateful Dead concert. It was a plan that worked.

Steve Blow, I still can't believe the DMN sheriffs let us go down Highway 16, the longest state highway, not once but twice. Twenty years from now on the story's anniversary, I will track you down in the Nursing Home For Folksy Metro Columnists and we'll hop in the Honda Civic hatchback and go looking for Arkey Blue again.

Richard Pruitt, hanging around you created a thirst for gadgets and camera equipment that leaves me very well-stocked for a free-lance career. At the time of explaining those purchases to my wife, I wanted to strangle you. Now I drink to your materialistic spirit. She does too.

Gerry McCarthy, I would say I will miss your constant stream of e-mail spam, but I just don't think I've hit rock-bottom yet. The abyss has got to be pretty deep for that to happen.

Guy Reynolds, if I get any more butt-calls from you, I'm sending Roky Erickson your way, the 13th Floor Elevators and all. Lara Solt, kill your babies. Michael Hamtil, I would love to buy you lunch, but, as you know, I have left my wallet in the car. Evans Caglage, don't get too good at anything you don't want to do around this place.
Mr. Ainsworth, you know what to do with those cross-dissolves. Louis DeLuca, you are the most well-rounded photographer I know and I do not mean that in the jelly-belly sort of way. Tom Fox, check with the card-stacker, see if he needs an assistant.

Chris Wilkins and Brad Loper, order me some boudin to go from the Shaq. Ahna Hubnik, to somewhat quote the Prairie Mystic known as David Leeson, a video is never finished, it is only abandoned, especially by our web audience.
Vernon Bryant, thanks for setting my camera controls when they became too small for me to see. Juan Garcia, remember: when something just doesn't look right, it's probably right.

John Zak, sorry I never got my mileage in on time. Maybe in the next life. Jerome Sims, please organize me before I die. Courtney, give me back my monkey.
John Rhodes, or rather Mr. Atomic Fireball, for growing up on the grounds of a mental institution, you seem perfectly sane to me. Melanie Burford, we'll always have the Taco Joint. Kye Lee, Richard Pruitt wants his carbon-fiber tripod back. Pronto.

John Davidson, the Boss With A Bite, if I just would have taken your advice years ago when I asked you where I should go with my career and you said: "Take a left out of my office, turn right, go to the window, open it, and jump" - none of this would be happening now.

I will really miss the wry wit of Jim Mahoney, who pounds the mean streets of Big D looking for amazing local pictures. It's hard to forget his comment about one of our more colorful globe-trotting photojournalists: "It really doesn't bother me that she goes away on these great international assignments, it just bothers me that she always comes back."

To former staffers Paul Brown and Ed Hille, as far as carpetbaggers go who headed south to plunder the plantation, you guys were the absolute best.

Paul, why we ended up with chocolates on our pillows and golden telephones by our toilets in the most luxurious hotel in San Antonio during the Pope's 1987 visit is a mystery that Belo Travel obviously must have had to answer for. The high-performance rented Mustang - hmmm, that too.

Ed, on the matter of the Nikon 85 mm 1.4 with the major focus problem you gave me in a big-hearted gesture upon your departure over 20 years ago, I sold it recently on E-bay for $500. A true confession.

Judy Walgren, dance with me, woman. How many cows did that African tribe offer for you again? I bet the numbers are down in this economy.

Allison V. Smith, give me a reflector to hold and a Hasselblad to load.

And then there was the great tale-spinner Joe Laird, our longtime society photog. He could easily segue from telling stories about machine-gunning "Japs" on Iwo Jima to stinky hippies skinny-dipping in the Trinity River at the 1969 Lewisville Pop Festival and then on to escapades of the rich and famous of Dallas smuggling diamonds across the Atlantic in their, ahem, privates. My eyes were as big as softball-sized hail.

And thanks to all my DMN buddies and future photo Pulitzer winners who appeared in our humble home movie "East Dallas Vice vs. Godzilla." Evans Caglage, Jan Sonnenmair, Juan and Leslie Garcia, Nuri Vallbona, Milton Hinnant - they all died horrible deaths at the hands of the monster and his evil BMW driver, Ken Geiger. William Snyder as detective "Sunny" Crockett saved the world at the end.

We were very young and crazy then.

To all the cameras I've loved before, thanks for the auto-exposure, the auto-focus, and the auto-white balance.

There were many great reporters I've had the pleasure to work with.
Bryan Woolley, who never met a chicken-fried steak he didn't like. Bill Minutaglio, who I ate horse-sausage with unknowingly in Moscow one night before catching the Aeroflot flight where we sat next to the large Russian wolfhound. Bill, who was once told in my presence in the hills of Nicaragua that he had the face of a priest, also introduced me to the male Aretha Franklin one night. We also were chased by federales in Mexico when I mistook a pull-over hand signal for a go-ahead gesture. Sorry, Bill, didn't mean to scare the guacamole out of you.

And there was ____ , who made me go swimming with her in the middle of an assignment in the 80's. I wrote a song about the experience called "I Feel Like a Fool In Your Husband's Swimsuit." The tape got passed around the newsroom; she never spoke to me again. That was fine.

Brad Bailey, who I never could find for hours while on assignment at a nudist camp because he took off his clothes and just kinda looked like everybody else. Those Miss Nude Texas assignments only come around once in your lifetime, right, Jim (rhymes with Moroney)?

Miss Marlyn Schwartz, who refused to go on assignment with me in my lime-green 1967 Mustang with black racing stripes and no muffler because, well, it wasn't air-conditioned.

Not to mention ____ , who smoked the funny stuff in my car on the way to interviewing large and scary Texas Rangers of the law enforcement variety at
the nuclear plant and had me and my career frozen with fear and paranoia for days on end. She would not be denied. It was the 70's, man, and a lot of people were still stuck in the 60's.

Michael Granberry, I've come to the place where the road and the sky collide. I'm not running on empty yet, but I probably could use somebody to doctor my eyes. As long a I don't run into Daryl Hannah, I think I will be okay.

Beatriz Terrazas, who proved to me she could roll with the best of the roller-derby girls.

Steve McGonigle, we were Horned Frogs all those years ago. As far as being an endangered species, things haven't changed that much.

I will miss the quiet intelligence of Zen Master Tom Huang, whose staunch support of photojournalism is a treasure for this newspaper. I remember, back in the heyday, going on assignment with him to the biggest BBQ festival in the nation in Memphis, Tennessee (well, I called it an assignment, the boss called it a "friggin' vacation").
After a few exquisite spring days covering good ol' boys partying to Southern rock on the beer-infested banks of the Mississippi, interviewing beautiful, wasted Scarlett O'Haras, and eating all parts of the pig and cow possible in the tastiest of ways, I noticed Tom had this blissed-out look on his face, punctuated by a subtle smile.
I asked what the matter was and he said: "I'm just not used to having fun on an assignment for the paper", a comment which seemed to justify the whole assignment to me.

Tom, I wish you were here now. This thing needs some editing.

Seen a lot of change here. When I first arrived, it wasn't too far away from the time when, if Metro needed an eye-burner feature photo, they would send the trusty Clint Grant to the zoo to grab an animal, bring him in the studio, then work with that chimpanzee or penguin or whatever til some magic happened to anchor the Metro cover. I am not making this up.

From black and white film to Kodachrome slides to color negatives to digital images and now HD video and frame-grabs, it all came to pass.

If I ever got down about the place, I would crank up the Springsteen between assignments, fast-forward the cassette to his third-most signature anthem "Badlands" with its uplifting chorus line: "Keep pushing til it's understood / And these badlands start treating us good." It seemed to cure the Belo Blues in that simplistic, unexplainable rock 'n' roll kind of way.

I've always found the photo dept to be an oasis of anarchistic, invigorating insanity within the rather buttoned-down walls of the DMN. Whenever an Observer story would come out with tales of our stuffy conservatism, I'd just scratch my head, remembering who hired belly dancers in the Dallas Life dept, or who made cheese nachos on the print dryers in the long-gone wet lab or just the vision of the tattooed Courtney Perry swing-dancing and laughing maniacally in the photo scanning room. I would wonder: what department are they talking about?

Photographers are much like drummers in a rock band. Somewhat crazy and unpredictable, a little Keith Moon is in every one of them. In the 70's, for those who remember, it might have been something in the fixer or ferrocyanide. Personalities, twisted humor and camaraderie always abound in photo. And the old farts there stay a bit young at heart.

I remember one stormy night falling off a ladder, breaking my ankle covering a protest. After the surgery the photo dept presented me with a framed, black-and-white crime-scene photo of the accident area, with my body drawn out on the sidewalk, surrounded by the very protestors I had been photographing and, of course, smiling members of the photo dept.

What could I say? That was a pretty thoughtful bunch of people, those photo friends of mine. I must admit the gesture did make the 23 pins and 2 metal plates hurt just a little less.

I really don't understand why photo departments seem to have the most gregarious, hilarious characters at a newspaper, but it's been that way for years at the DMN. John Rhodes could do stand-up. Melanie Burford, call Conan. Gerry, are you really Woody Allen? We have maintained that image while racking up multiple Pulitzers and gaining national recognition for serious work.

There were always surprises in this job.

Once, I went to a gentrified East Dallas neighborhood to shoot a fireplace. Just a stupid fireplace. The owner opened his door and a Doberman ran out to basically attack me. When I put my right hand out in defense, my Nikon took a slide down the arm, perfectly landing around the snarling dog's neck.

I just remember standing there speechless and helpless, watching the Doberman grinning real big, running down Swiss Ave. wearing my gift like a new necklace, the camera bouncing with large ugly clunks! on the concrete street.
How do you explain that to anybody much less your boss?

Or the time I sat on my walkie-talkie in my car and the entire newsroom gathered around to listen to an hour-long argument I was having with my wife, largely about choosing a Mexican food destination. Ouch. Double-ouch when Christie found out about the public broadcast.

Hurricane Allen, 1989. Record flooding everywhere. I was in a crowded National Guard helicopter. We landed in shallow water. I stepped out and it was like being dropped into the dead calm of the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Water as far as you could see, horizon to horizon. A steady stream of the elderly pouring out of a quaint schoolhouse, escorted by soldiers through the waters. It was an unforgettable scene. In waist-deep water, I took one step. The big fat diamondback rattlesnake swam by only inches away and suddenly my heart was pounding like a runaway locomotive.

I showed up one morning for work and was promptly handed an amateurish camera and told to get some gym clothes and go workout with Jane Fonda. What, excuse me? The class was private, the press was barred, and I was posing as an excited fan snapping a shot after the workout. I have to admit - the picture was exclusive, great idea.

I was lucky enough to experience print journalism when the cotton was high and this was a bad-ass newspaper firing on all cylinders. We were all living way above the cloud line. At that time the possibilities at this outfit seemed limitless.

I remember developing color negative film amidst the chemical fumes, wearing a stained lab apron, when the cylindrical darkroom door noisily swung around and managing editor Stu Wilk stuck his head in. "Randy," he said, " Do you like Simon and Garfunkel?"
"Yes, Stu," I said, "I like Simon and Garfunkel." "Do you remember their song ..." and then he started singing:
"... they've all gone to look for America ... ?"

Boom. A few days later, Allen Pusey and I were criss-crossing the nation, from East to West coast, asking folks where they were on November 22, 1963.
From meeting the girl who first dyed Roy Orbison's hair black to getting healed by the spirit of Pancho Villa, it's been great fun. I have no regrets.

And, with the hurricane wind that's been blowing through our industry, I thought I was prepared emotionally for this day, but you never really are.
As the great philosopher Mike Tyson once said: "Everybody has a plan til they get their teeth knocked out."

I felt somewhat that way last week, or at least similar to when the 6 foot 4 inch Rockwall tight end slammed into me on the sidelines a few years ago and I woke up on my back, eyes to the fuzzy heavens, with a hole through my lip where my camera eyepiece had punctured it. The football team's doctor pushed aside the concerned cheerleaders, leaned over me and said: "Listen, son, let's get you over to the bench.
We're gonna patch you up with some Super-Glue."

So, I'm looking for some Super-Glue now.

It hurts at first, being released into this fresh water, but I feel really lucky to have worked here with some measure of success. Especially compared to toiling your life away in a smelly petrochemical plant, the South Texas life I escaped from.

My tight-knit family in Pasadena never did really understand this job. My brothers, who worked all their lives in ship channel refineries or the prison system or the prison system known as public schools, would look at me with shock-and-awe when I told them I had just been hanging out all day with Willie Nelson, or trying to find the best swimming holes in Texas, or riding around in a hot air balloon or chasing a Mardi Gras parade or mixing it up with Elvis impersonators.

"What?!?!?" they would say, "You call that a job?"

Yup. The best job in the world. It's the first one I ever had some 34 years ago. And I will never forget it, this place and all the usual suspects. See you a little further down the road.

Randy Eli Grothe
randygrothe@gmail.com

-----------------------------------------------------------

Hello all,

A week after the cuts, I finally feel like my head is screwed on straight enough to give a proper farewell (that is, farewell for now).

Thanks to everyone who has offered condolences, encouragement and assistance during this very difficult time. I am deeply appreciative. You have helped replace despair, uncertainty and even self-doubt with hope and optimism.

To those who are still devastated by last week: I hate to get cheesy with the glass-half-full metaphor, but sometimes a different perspective really helps. I was in a serious car crash three weeks ago, and the outcome would have been very different had I not been wearing a seat belt. Before the accident, I was already a bit of a wreck because I fretted the possibility of losing everything (i.e., my job). I thought journalism was my entire life. But that mentality changed after the accident. When you almost lose it all, you realize everything else from that moment forward is actually a bonus. Hopefully you don't need to get in a terrible wreck to feel the same way.

To both the DMN exes and remaining staffers: It takes an admirable level of commitment, passion and determination to stick it out this long in such a turbulent industry. Don't forget that. Jobs can disappear, but our common dedication to educating the public and doing what we do best is untouchable. And it will translate well to anything we do in the future.

I am truly honored and humbled to have worked with such remarkable colleagues and friends. I wish you all the best. Please keep in touch.

Holly Yan
HollyEYan@yahoo.com


---------------------------------
Though the ax has fallen on my head this go-round, too, i will always be glad for having had the opportunity to be a part of The Dallas Morning News.
And while it may sound like patting myself on the back, I can truly look back and know that while I felt lucky to be there, I also worked hard to stay. While I may not have walked away with any big journalism awards in my box, I could walk away knowing i did a good job.
In my time there I led the Metro coverage of the first Breeder's Cup race ever in the Southwest, I was the first to report on Farmers Branch's efforts to make illegal immigrants unwelcome there - a story that would put them in the national spotlight - and continued to top every other media outlet in the country in following that story over the next two years, and my reporting on a mayor's lies about her background derailed her bid for re-election.
Not bad for a small-town girl with no degree, lol.
I am proud to have been a part of what was long considered one of the best papers in the country, and to have known each and every one of you.
Today, i remain heartbroken to have been let go after 13 years with the company. I also am at a loss to explain it. Coming in from the old suburban newspapers I know my salary never reacherd those of many of my colleagues. So the didn't save much by letting me go.
But it is what it is, and it was time to move on.
I with all of you who remain the best of luck. i really don't expect newspapers to be around much longer, and that's the saddest part of all.
To those of you who were laid off, this time or previous times, I hope you find happiness and fulfillment and stability, whereever the road takes you.
Stephanie Sandoval

-------------------------
As many of you know, I have a hard time saying goodbye. I am usually one of the last ones to leave a party and my “goodbyes” tend to turn into 20-minute long conversations. Perhaps, this is why it’s taken me a couple of days to collect my thoughts and say farewell to so many wonderful friends and colleagues, who are like family to me.

This week, after 12 and a half years in newspapers, I lost my job. People often asked me why I remained in newspapers or if I’d come up with a Plan B yet. My answer was always that I still believed in newspapers and still loved telling stories. I wanted to be part of the solution to keep newspapers alive – even if it meant that content would ultimately be entirely online.

Reading The Dallas Morning News and my hometown newspaper, the Waxahachie Daily Light, was a tradition, a habit in my family. My father, an immigrant from Mexico who spoke no English when he arrived, was curious about this country that everyone called the land of opportunity. He wanted to fit in like everyone else. He struggled with the language, but because of newspapers he learned new words. He would often point out words and ask me about their meaning. When I got older, he’d often ask if I’d read what Dallas or Waxahachie city officials had done or what a particular sports columnist thought about the Cowboys or Rangers.

When I returned to Texas in 2002, after spending more than six years in Florida, my parents were beyond thrilled. They would finally get to see and read their little girl’s stories. My mom sometimes knew where a story of mine ran before I did, because she’d seen the paper first that day.

My parents don’t have much formal education, don’t speak English that well and don’t have much money. But this they value: the importance of newspapers. I hope that my friends and colleagues who are left behind will remember there are many like my parents who still have a thirst for knowledge – regardless of their background.

On Tuesday, when I walked out of the DMN building, the moment seemed surreal. But I have no regrets. I am fortunate to have worked with so many talented people from whom I learned so much. It is truly an honor. I will miss you guys, but I won’t forget all of the valuable things you’ve taught me.

Keep up the great work!

Stella M. Chávez
starchavez@aol.com
-------
I'm gone and I will miss all of you more than I can say. It has been an honor to work with such clever and loving people. I believe in what we accomplished at the DMN and hope there is a future for all newspapers everywhere. I would appreciate any advice or leads you might know of. Natalie Caudill Natalie.Caudill@gmail.com

-----------

I too have had the hammer fall on my head. I devoted myself to the newspaper biz and the Morning News. It has been an honor to work with so many talented and committed people in news. I appreciate the prayers and best wishes. I am 58 years old, a woman, single and have had a stroke. What now? Here is part of the breakdown: 6 off the news copy desk, all in their 50s except one; one off the news desk, 13 in sports; 2 in business; mostly zone reporters in metro; no one from TSW, national or international except a special writer. Where are the managers? God bless you all! Laura Miller, 15 years at DMN, 32 year career

----------------


Thank all of you in The DMN newsroom for your words of support and encouragement this morning. It's the world's greatest understatement to say that it has been an honor to work with you.

I have learned so much from you during my two decades at The News. The talent and dedication in that room is amazing. Some of you, and you know who you are, have given help and understanding during many difficult times.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work at a job that has allowed me to do so much with my life so far.

I'm still a little numb, knowing that for the first time in nearly 32 years I do not have a newspaper job.

But I will be fine. I have many good friends, a loving family and a partner whose unconditional love has indeed made me a better person. We will celebrate 21 years of being together next weekend.

My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

--Frank Trejo
Trejojr@aol.com

----------

Greetings all,

After nearly nine years of contributing all I have to the company in the sports department, I have become a statistic. I will miss being a sports writer and smiling at the compliments from those who read my work, but at the same time, I'm not overly upset.

It'll be tough, but I won't complain. I will start my master's program in educational technology this summer. In the meantime, I'm hoping to land a job with benefits just to help out around the house. I ask for all of your prayers in these dire times. Please pray for my family, and send up a financial prayer for all who have been RIFd.

God bless you all.

Damon L. Sayles
DLSayles@yahoo.com

-----------

I’ve been saying for weeks that I would stick with this beloved profession until I was told to stop, and then I would figure out Plan B.

So, time for Plan B.

I grew up reading the Times Herald and Morning News. Seeing my byline in this newspaper was a dream come true. I feel privileged to have called you all colleagues and lucky to count so many of you as my friends.

Thanks for the warm wishes, loving support and righteous indignation on my behalf.

Please don’t be shy about sending the freelance and job leads.

Good luck to all who remain behind but especially to the amazingly talented crew of people walking out the door with me.

Cheers,
Beth Langton

(bethlangton (at) yahoo.com or find me on facebook)

-----------

You can add my name to the list of those RIF'ed. Just reached my 12 year anniversary in sports. Not gonna bore everyone with a long, sappy farewell -- I trust that the people who have helped me along the way and have been my friends know how I feel about them.

I don't have any immediate plans, but I'm not sad, angry or panicky. I know there are worse things than losing a job. My wife and son are happy and healthy. My dad's having heart surgery today and my sister is about to give birth to my nephew - life goes on.

If anyone needs to reach me, I can be found on facebook and at keithwhitmire (at) sbcglobal.net.

Good luck to all,
Keith Whitmire

-------------

At the moment, it’s hard to imagine work that’s as invigorating, as important and as much fun as being a journalist at a daily newspaper. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to work alongside some of the best reporters, editors, photographers and designers in my years at the Morning News and the Star-Telegram, and I’ll always cherish the memories.

That said, tomorrow will be a new day, with new adventures. I’m looking forward to exploring them.

Here’s hoping that, for democracy’s sake if nothing else, the decision-makers in our industry figure out how to steer journalism through these icebergs safely. Meanwhile, my parting requests to you are that you never abandon the principles and passions that drew you to journalism and that you continue to be kind to each other.

Journalists are some of the smartest, funniest and most compassionate people I know. Please stay in touch. You can find me on Facebook.

All the best,
Mary McMullen Gladstone

-----------

To my colleagues at SportsDay,

I had a dream last night that my house was invaded by a bear. It attacked me, but I fended it off with a banana. True story. So I woke up knowing that today would be an adventure, but that the ultimate outcome would be favorable and possibly humorous.

My thoughts are with those of you who have families, mortgages, and livelihoods to hold together. Our workplace was not without adversity, but we shared some special moments, and created one of the finest sections in the nation as well. I am proud to have worked with you, and honored to call you my friends.

There's no need for an Amber Alert this time; I'm not coming back!

Best wishes,

Bavand

-------
Nancy Moore posted a lovely farewell over on the Unfair Park blog.
----------

Most of you will not know me by name. I worked as a Photo Librarian for 9 years, 8 months and 3 days. I walked the hallways a lot and loved interacting with all the unusual characters that make up the News Department. I will miss being there more that I can possibly say. Thank you all being so generous in spirit.
Cris Miller
cris.miller@att.net
-----------------------------
I didn't want to comment on here yesterday for obvious reason. This has been the worst week of my life, and I haven't quite been able to understand it.

I don't understand the decision that were made. I wrote more than 450 stories and produced 70+ videos in 37 weeks, but it didn't save me from getting RIFed. My less than 40K salary didn't help me either.

Ironically, months before I was laid off, I was told that I was doing exactly what they wanted my position to do. I never heard any negative comments about my work.

I just don't understand.

I was hoping to make a year at the DMN, but I feel two months shy. I'll miss you all. I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Dan X. McGraw
danxmcgraw(at)gmail.com

Newsroom managers are meeting with staff today

If anyone wants to share a report on what they were told, the comments here are on.

All the information I have at the moment about the cuts

Based on the data left in the comments:

11 from Local News. 10 reporters, one news clerk
1 production editor from Editorial
6 from Lifestyles: Two part-time editors, one full-time editor, two writers, one Guide listings editor/writer.
3 from business: One reporter, a wire editor and an assistant editor.
13 from the sports desk: 8 from desk, 4 writers, 1 phone clerk
6 from Photo
3 from News Art
6 off the news copy desk
1 off the news desk


Corrections, additions, and more details about categories of jobs please.
-----------

These are all the farewell messages in the comments so far:



I'm gone and I will miss all of you more than I can say. It has been an honor to work with such clever and loving people. I believe in what we accomplished at the DMN and hope there is a future for all newspapers everywhere. I would appreciate any advice or leads you might know of. Natalie Caudill Natalie.Caudill@gmail.com

-----------

I too have had the hammer fall on my head. I devoted myself to the newspaper biz and the Morning News. It has been an honor to work with so many talented and committed people in news. I appreciate the prayers and best wishes. I am 58 years old, a woman, single and have had a stroke. What now? Here is part of the breakdown: 6 off the news copy desk, all in their 50s except one; one off the news desk, 13 in sports; 2 in business; mostly zone reporters in metro; no one from TSW, national or international except a special writer. Where are the managers? God bless you all! Laura Miller, 15 years at DMN, 32 year career

----------------


Thank all of you in The DMN newsroom for your words of support and encouragement this morning. It's the world's greatest understatement to say that it has been an honor to work with you.

I have learned so much from you during my two decades at The News. The talent and dedication in that room is amazing. Some of you, and you know who you are, have given help and understanding during many difficult times.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work at a job that has allowed me to do so much with my life so far.

I'm still a little numb, knowing that for the first time in nearly 32 years I do not have a newspaper job.

But I will be fine. I have many good friends, a loving family and a partner whose unconditional love has indeed made me a better person. We will celebrate 21 years of being together next weekend.

My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

--Frank Trejo
Trejojr@aol.com

----------

Greetings all,

After nearly nine years of contributing all I have to the company in the sports department, I have become a statistic. I will miss being a sports writer and smiling at the compliments from those who read my work, but at the same time, I'm not overly upset.

It'll be tough, but I won't complain. I will start my master's program in educational technology this summer. In the meantime, I'm hoping to land a job with benefits just to help out around the house. I ask for all of your prayers in these dire times. Please pray for my family, and send up a financial prayer for all who have been RIFd.

God bless you all.

Damon L. Sayles
DLSayles@yahoo.com

-----------

I’ve been saying for weeks that I would stick with this beloved profession until I was told to stop, and then I would figure out Plan B.

So, time for Plan B.

I grew up reading the Times Herald and Morning News. Seeing my byline in this newspaper was a dream come true. I feel privileged to have called you all colleagues and lucky to count so many of you as my friends.

Thanks for the warm wishes, loving support and righteous indignation on my behalf.

Please don’t be shy about sending the freelance and job leads.

Good luck to all who remain behind but especially to the amazingly talented crew of people walking out the door with me.

Cheers,
Beth Langton

(bethlangton (at) yahoo.com or find me on facebook)

-----------

You can add my name to the list of those RIF'ed. Just reached my 12 year anniversary in sports. Not gonna bore everyone with a long, sappy farewell -- I trust that the people who have helped me along the way and have been my friends know how I feel about them.

I don't have any immediate plans, but I'm not sad, angry or panicky. I know there are worse things than losing a job. My wife and son are happy and healthy. My dad's having heart surgery today and my sister is about to give birth to my nephew - life goes on.

If anyone needs to reach me, I can be found on facebook and at keithwhitmire (at) sbcglobal.net.

Good luck to all,
Keith Whitmire

-------------

At the moment, it’s hard to imagine work that’s as invigorating, as important and as much fun as being a journalist at a daily newspaper. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to work alongside some of the best reporters, editors, photographers and designers in my years at the Morning News and the Star-Telegram, and I’ll always cherish the memories.

That said, tomorrow will be a new day, with new adventures. I’m looking forward to exploring them.

Here’s hoping that, for democracy’s sake if nothing else, the decision-makers in our industry figure out how to steer journalism through these icebergs safely. Meanwhile, my parting requests to you are that you never abandon the principles and passions that drew you to journalism and that you continue to be kind to each other.

Journalists are some of the smartest, funniest and most compassionate people I know. Please stay in touch. You can find me on Facebook.

All the best,
Mary McMullen Gladstone

-----------

To my colleagues at SportsDay,

I had a dream last night that my house was invaded by a bear. It attacked me, but I fended it off with a banana. True story. So I woke up knowing that today would be an adventure, but that the ultimate outcome would be favorable and possibly humorous.

My thoughts are with those of you who have families, mortgages, and livelihoods to hold together. Our workplace was not without adversity, but we shared some special moments, and created one of the finest sections in the nation as well. I am proud to have worked with you, and honored to call you my friends.

There's no need for an Amber Alert this time; I'm not coming back!

Best wishes,

Bavand

-------
Nancy Moore posted a lovely farewell over on the Unfair Park blog.
----------

Most of you will not know me by name. I worked as a Photo Librarian for 9 years, 8 months and 3 days. I walked the hallways a lot and loved interacting with all the unusual characters that make up the News Department. I will miss being there more that I can possibly say. Thank you all being so generous in spirit.
Cris Miller
cris.miller@att.net
-----------------------------
I didn't want to comment on here yesterday for obvious reason. This has been the worst week of my life, and I haven't quite been able to understand it.

I don't understand the decision that were made. I wrote more than 450 stories and produced 70+ videos in 37 weeks, but it didn't save me from getting RIFed. My less than 40K salary didn't help me either.

Ironically, months before I was laid off, I was told that I was doing exactly what they wanted my position to do. I never heard any negative comments about my work.

I just don't understand.

I was hoping to make a year at the DMN, but I feel two months shy. I'll miss you all. I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Dan X. McGraw
danxmcgraw(at)gmail.com

Job opportunity

This is Gretchen (Perrenot) Shelby, and I'm passing along a job opportunity in Kuwait. The company is CSA, Ltd. and the job is in the communications department. I worked at Belo for 10 years and then went to Kuwait to work for CSA on a one-year contract. I came back after that year and took another job at TDMN. If you're interested in this job, feel free to e-mail me at gretchen1996 (at) yahoo.com and I will send you my phone number and answer any questions you have.

Purpose: Under the general direction prepares, writes and edits various communications instruments for the company.

Supervisory Role: N/A

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Assists in the annual communications development plan for the organization.

2. Prepares internal communications, such as company newsletter, bulletins, letters, and other communiques.

3. Prepares policy and procedure communications, including policy statements, training materials, and other communiques&ea cute;s.

4. Prepares Employee Handbook, Employee Housing Handbook, and other similar company documents.

5. Prepares Desk Guides for the Human Resources Departments.

6. Writes media scripts and oversees production of such materials (i.e., CD-ROMS, videos, DVDs).

7. Handles media management issues, when needed, preparing appropriate responses and seeking appropriate approvals.

8. Coordinates and assists in the development of materials for website Internet and Intranet sites.

9. Coordinates events such as Service Award programs and other public forums, to include research and preparation for remarks and/or speeches.

10. Coordinates Employee Forums and handles written responses to questions.

11. Performs other related tasks as directed.

You can get other details from her. But there is this one interesting requirement:

3. Must be able to work in extreme environmental conditions including dust and high temperatures.