Friday, July 25, 2008

One Month Old

A little over a month ago, the Orlando Sentinel debuted its "new and improved" paper. So, in celebration of the new paper's one month birthday, I've decided to see how people like it. 

(For a bigger view, click here)

Now, I'm not the kind of person that makes fun of newborns, but the reactions to this one were somewhere between apathy and annoyance. Some feelings toward the new paper that declined to appear on screen were: "I cancelled my subscription!" (accompanied by a thumbs down) and "It's hard to find anything in the paper, things that used to be on the front page are now all over the place."

Better luck next month, baby Sentinel!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Recently wrote to a Sentinel writer to ask why something had not been reported. Answer came back that it had--on the Web, in a blog.
I still find it hard to believe that I have to pay for home delivery of an inferior, and shrinking, product while the bulk of the information is hidden somewhere in the maze of blogs. And that's free.
I'm paying more for less gas, but only because it's needed. Same for food.
But if someone were to offer me that gas and food for free, if only I collected it a different way, I'd be pretty stupid to stick with the former.
Sam Zell and his Bozo Battalion of lackeys are the LDL in the veins of Sentinel circulation.

Anonymous said...

I, myself, have lost a job due to the shrinking relevance of journalism. But, the part that bothers me the most is that while many seasoned and talented journalists are being swept under the rug and jobs are being lost - journalism is being lost. We need to do something to save this institution. On the two month birthday of the re-design, I propose a day of boycotting the paper and not buying a single one. We need to do something bigger. We need to create a bigger voice than Zell's filthy one.

Anonymous said...

From: Hall, Charlotte H
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 4:04 PM
To: OSC DL Editorial
Subject: To the Staff


To All:


Today we completed the process of notifying employees whose jobs are being eliminated. They are talented journalists and represent decades of service to Sentinel readers. We are sorry to see them go, and we wish them well.



As we told you earlier, about 20 percent of newsroom positions were going to be eliminated this month. Eight of those positions were vacant. The open positions and people who asked for the severance package make up just over two-thirds of the job cuts. Altogether, 52 editorial positions have been eliminated, three of them part-time. Earlier in the year, four open positions were eliminated.



In all departments of the newspaper, the Sentinel has cut 153 positions since Jan. 1, slightly more than a third of them in the newsroom.



We want to thank you for your professionalism and patience in recent weeks. Even during a very painful month, you have produced terrific journalism in the paper and online. Though the newsroom will be smaller, it will be filled with skilled and dedicated journalists. We have much work ahead of us. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. we will hold a staff meeting to talk about moving forward and to announce some organizational changes in the editing staff.



Charlotte and Russ

rknil said...

Nutcake Lee Abrams' latest memo says moronic fluffball Bonita Burton is working on new names for the wire.

I offered her some suggestions; the most fitting for her would be Less Karzai, More Britney!

Seriously, how can this airhead still have a job when real journalists are getting cut? You guys should be out marching in the streets about this stuff.