Wanna Know Why Some Newspapers are Dying a Dinosaur's Death?

Riddle me this, blogosphere buddies: What is the most important, most explosive, most exciting change underway in media right this moment?

If you said the explosion of television and digital media, you get a gold star. And you know more than executives at both the Indianapolis Star and Dallas Morning News.

Both those newspapers have eliminated TV Critic positions at a time where there's never been more television on the airwaves, or more devices for accessing it.

If you want to know why Belo-owned Dallas Morning News pushed out longtime critic Ed Bark -- long considered the dean of critics nationally, both for his 26-year tenure and or his consistent quality work -- read his blog. There, Bark lays out his side of how Belo first prohibited him from writing about local television -- because Belo owns one of the local stations -- while promising to relent at some point.

But it never happened. And then the paper's entertainment writers were told when the latest round of buyouts were at hand that they had better take them or risk discharge. So now, Uncle Barky is gone after nearly 30 years' covering television for Belo and the Morning News.

And he's speaking out. Even though he hasn't yet gotten the check from his buyout. Talk about intestinal fortitude.

Here's his beginning:

"Every dog has his day. So this is Bark unleashed on the new unclebarky.com

I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to readers of The Dallas Morning News, where for better or worse my TV columns and stories had been housed since June 1, 1980. We were told that upper management approval would be required for any and all farewells. In other words I couldn't have been truthful about my real reasons for leaving a newspaper that had provided me with great opportunities and experiences, as well as a very gainful living. I'm sincerely thankful for that.

What I'm feeling now, however, is an urge to strike back in the one way that seems both just and justified. It's grounded in principle. Honest.

DMN management's recent decision to mostly cover national network television with wire service copy left me without much of a playing field. "Localism" is the new mantra, but I'd been muzzled on that front since Feb. 3, 2000. That's when Belo Corp., owner of the DMN and Dallas affiliate WFAA-TV (Channel 8), instituted a ban on critiquing or covering local TV news stations in what now is the country's sixth-largest TV market.

Exceptions to that edict have been ratings stories during the three annual major "sweeps" months and a bare handful of enterprise efforts. They've included a Nov. 13, 2003 column on anchor Clarice Tinsley's 25th anniversary at KDFW-TV (Channel 4). I had to lobby hard for that one, though, after the paper began promoting its considerable sports section coverage of anchor Dale Hansen's 20th anniversary at Belo-owned Channel 8. Somehow that didn't seem quite fair. Even top management had no defense for honoring Dale and ignoring Clarice."

And here's his end:

"That's what this brand new Web site is all about. My son, Sam, and my daughter, Liz, have separate non-TV "bureaus" that I hope you'll check out, too. Hey, it's the least the old man could do. But if TV's your game, then I'm going to try to make a go of it. I'll need lots of help and "hits" to put up more than a token fight. The stamina of 10 Tarzans would help, too. But I feel I've got one more battle cry left in me. Maybe I'm not "dynamic" enough for the new DMN. Those of us who parted ways basically are being portrayed that way in the well-practiced rhetoric of upper management.

In the end, though, I figure it comes down to this. (Belo CEO) Robert W. Decherd and (Morning News publisher) James M. Moroney III were born to lives of wealth, privilege and entitlement.

I'm the son of working class parents from Racine, WI, both of whom are deceased and neither of whom finished high school.

Dammit, I kind of like my chances."

I have nothing but high hopes for Uncle Barky: Both because he's a great guy and because I may be living his story 10 or 15 years from now. Hopefully, by then, there will be a job available at UncleBarky.com.

Comments

[Ed Bark]

Hey, Eric,
Thanks so very much for the well-wishes and amazingly kind words. I really appreciate it. They're fueling me as unclebarky.com nears its 2nd week anniversary. All the best as always,
Ed Bark

[C.W.]

Eric, please ignore these nitwit commentors. They can't relate how it feels to lose a job because they're woefully unhireable themselves, so in lieu of meaningful work they torch blogs like yours all day. I'm sure their aging parents stand in the doorway, watching them angrily clack a keyboard, wondering where they went wrong.

Hey Eric, does it make you feel good to know that an avowed enemy of the USA stood in the UN calling our President the devil, while holding up a book by a man you say you admire? Does it bother you? Do you ever think twice when you notice your party saying the same things our enemies say? Do you know who's side you're on?

[Eric Deggans]

Well, I've been covering media for many years, and I'm certain that what I do -- gathering facts and pulling them together in stories which inform and entertain -- will be around for a long, long time. I may not do that job at this newspaper or in this way, but I'm certain I will be doing it for someone a decade from now.

One of the things which disappoints me most is how cavalierly some people discuss these kinds of job losses. Whenever I hear about a company like GM laying off 2,000 or 3,000 or 30,000 workers, I wonder what those guys are telling their kids when they come home that day. I wonder which of them will lose a car or a home or worse because the paychecks stopped coming.

I was a young reporter in Pittsburgh when the top newspaper in town was forced to sell itself to a competitor, which then laid off 135 reporters from an editorial staff of 220.

Because I was young and cheap, I got to keep my job. But I'll never forget helping the fashion writer, a 30-year-employee, carry her things to her car; cast off because she was unlucky enough to be too old, too expensive and too specialized.

I would ask, as you assemble future comments on such issues, that you take a second or two to think about what a scary time is it for people who have invested their lives in the newspaper business and show a little compassion.

Just like the steelworker who sees his gig move to Mexico, surely they've earned that much.

[mr cynical]

you think you've got 10 or 15 years? haha...that strikes me as whistling past the graveyard, eric.

im of mixed mind on the various newspaper buyouts and layoffs we see today. on one hand, the truth is that many of those lost should have gone anyway. they are tired, burned out and dispassionate, left in the dust by rapid changes afoot in the digital media world, many of them stubborn dinosaurs of the sort that probably once wrote resentfully of how computers were replacing their far more sensible typewriters.

on the other hand, the product likely to emerge once they depart will be different, less textured probably and more packaged and corporate than local readers might be used to. will those readers care or even notice in a few days or weeks? probably not.

its a changing of the guard. the old guard never likes that and issues dire warnings of what is to come. but i dont think there is any stopping it and im not sure we'll look back in a few years and have regrets.

LMFAO... A day after the SPT runs a front page article suggesting that Republicans are drowning, a new USA Today/gallup poll shows them neck and neck with Democrats. You work for a comic book.