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"The Former Chron Employees' List, So Far (Updated 5 pm Wednesday)," By Richard Connelly, Hair Balls blog, March 24 and 25, got more than 100 comments. Here's a sampling.
Human face: Your coverage of the Chron layoffs has been admirable. It's natural that you would be so effective in putting a human face on what's happening to your fellow journalists.
Everyone should remember that similar stories are unfolding in thousands of workplaces around the country.
HouStan
Thanks: Many of us at the Chron appreciate your reporting. The way it should be.
Frontline
Cut the fat cats: They have a vice president for everything. If they'd get rid of about 50 percent of those, look at how much they'd save. Advertising is being laid off tomorrow? Things must really be bad if they are laying off the people who bring in the money. But what the hell, they've already laid off the people who write the articles, so the few subscribers they have left won't even want to pick up the paper. I love how the fat-cat white men are always left at the top.
Chronically
Cut the cronies: As usual, they keep the wrong people. Get rid of Sweeney and Cohen and his cronies. That alone would save enough money to keep a lot of reporters on the payroll, and I doubt that crew would be missed. It isn't as if they have some mystical editorial insight.
miss_msry
Out with upper: That all those people in upper management can't find a way for the paper to turn its online edition into a moneymaking venture is reason alone to show them the door.
NaiveOkie
Bottom line: The Chron is a sinking ship. Print journalism is a sinking ship. And you don't stay on a sinking ship. Yes, the purge has been extremely sad and ridiculous. But maybe, down the road, when these people look back, they might consider it the best thing that could have happened. Onward and upward, friends, and the best of luck to you.
gladtobegone
Classy Chron: The Chron's editorial yesterday praised the president for creating the White House Council on Women and Girls. Then they fired all the women on the editorial board. Classy!
Matt Bramanti
Nice e-mail: I think it's real touching how Cohen communicated with his dwindling staff via e-mail. I mean, who needs him to show up and deliver the news personally in this fantastic technological age we're living in? Way to go, Jeffy! Woot!
Jeff Blowhen
Sighhhhhhh: So there I am in that list above...Wow. I'm not sure how to respond now that I see so many of us listed. I, for one, am very glad to be out of there. On the other hand, being without a job in this economy is a bit concerning. I know I have skills outside of the print-design arena, but I worry for those who do not, and I know my friends still there are very upset. I was talking to one earlier, and I know she was in tears over it all.
I'm not sure if any of you were following my Twitter postings yesterday, but I was basically running the entire day's layout all day. I knew I was probably a goner since I was a contract employee, so I figured, why not? People had a right to know what was happening. Then Jeff Cohen himself called me and, in not so many words, asked me to stop, to be professional about it all. I was, by the way, being professional. Of course, I am by nature a smart-ass at times, but I was only conveying the truth of the day's events.
After the call, I logged off for a while, but then received another call...You know what that one was. I quickly fired up Twitter again to post one last time within the building. Again, nothing negative or untruthful, only the honest truth that I'd been let go.
Jeff...You've said since day one in Houston that the Chronicle would be the watchdog of the community. You have a poster in your office that reads, "Remember why we are here." Be truthful to that and the readers of the paper, and tell the public what just happened, what will happen and why, and what we can all expect from the Houston Chronicle in years to come. And do it as a newspaper man, not a guy with a corner office.
von Wolffe
The best parts: My favorite part of the whole experience was being greeted with an offhand joke about copy editors by the bigwig who told me my copy-editing job was being eliminated.
Or maybe it was being shuffled off to an office with an "outplacement specialist" who peppered me with questions about what other jobs I might want right after being given the news.
Or maybe it was being interrupted after I was "given a moment" for bursting into tears in front of said specialist, only to be walked in on by the next fired person (I guess it's hard to keep track of everyone with so much traffic through human resources).
No, no...my favorite part was definitely listening to two human resources ladies cattily discussing how "awkward" laying people off was, not two feet away from me, while I waited by the elevators to be escorted out like a criminal.
