Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Media / News Bites Jim Tyree Visits the SouthtownStar
Posted by Michael Miner on 12.01.09 at 06:16 PM
Jim Tyree, the boss of Sun-Times Media, took a quick tour of the Southtown/Star Monday, drawing the sort of jubilant newsroom reception you'd expect from a roomful of journalists whose jobs he'd just saved. Someone whose sense of gratitude is probably standard-issue called me to share the details.
"He thought the newsroom was accounts payable," says my eyewitness. He said, 'Don't let your accounts get past 30 days.' Then he asked one man, 'What did you sell today?'"
A couple of guys in suits were accompanying Tyree, and it looked like one of them was trying to straighten him out. My confidante doesn't know if that happened: "I was giving him the dodge. I didn't have the patience for it. It wasn't the atmosphere where you could have conversation. It was like he was on a baby-kissing tour."
You news guys just want to be left alone, don't you? I said.
My caller agreed. "If this isn't productive, if there isn't a point to this — get out of the way."
So how are things at the Southtown/Star?
"Heads are still down. The despair is not there. That’s good. That’s an improvement."
Comments (11)
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This story is all bullshit, right? I mean, you can't honestly expect me to believe that Jim Tyree doesn't know that what goes on in a newsroom? Seriously?
Damn. *If* this story is correct -- and I have to say, I'm having trouble believing it, but OK -- then Sun-Times Media, really, *really* is screwed, and Tyree's little ownership venture here won't end up going any better than Sam Zell's (and, I'd tell Sun-Times reporters with not much seniority to get prepared for a future layoff).
It absolutely, shockingly is true. Witnessed it. STNG folks went around apologizing for Tyree's apparent lack of awareness about where he was and who he was talking to.
I'm not sure a step up from "despair" is really an improvement. There's still a lot of absurdity, hopelessness and incompetence to go around.
Newsroom, ad department, heck, even the photo department -- they all look the same. People sitting at desks, working on computers and talking on the phone.
I hear that the paper was so bad Monday the editor was scurrying around to hide all the copies of it before Tyree arrived. Maybe that's why he didn't realize he was in a newsroom?
Our newsroom looks like a telemarketer office. I think this is insanely petty. Plus accounts payable is IN the Tinley Park office. I understand we're all cynical, but Jesus, dial it down a bit, folks. I personally am glad to still have my job.
there were once concerns the new ownership might be tempted to cross the line & influence the news room ... now we hear tyree doesn't even know where the newsroom is ... sounds like good news.
Are you people really this petty?? Is your mind so pathetically small you have to fink to some blogger because, truth be told, your world IS small and so yea, guess what, the new owner doesn't know who the hell you are! So he didn't know he was in the newsroom as opposed to the ad department, is that his fault? Is that a great big deal? Do you think there's deep meaning in that? If you think your paper was so bad it needed to be hidden, maybe it's because your depth of commitment to it is as pathetic as posting this crap shows it to be. Grow up.
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"Super, just super, people. Now how exactly does does the molten iron get into the ingots?"
Sincerely,
James Tyree
It's not too much to ask of an owner to know what department of his own business he is talking to. He (obviously) wasn't there to learn anything, or help the troops in any way whatsoever. So what was the point of his visit?
