Subject: Houston Chronicle Publishing Company

• A Modest Proposal: Teach the Gangbangers Respect

  June 26, 2008

• Re: Houston Chronicle Staffers Facing Buyouts, Layoffs

  September 5, 2008

• Letters

  October 6, 1994

• The Packed Shack

  July 8, 1999

• Best Use for the Astrodome

  Mock naval battles

  September 21, 2000

• Quoth the Chron

  The Chronicle runs out another inept marketing campaign

  April 26, 2001

• "100 Days Of Change" Coming To The Houston Chronicle

  Hearst is the privately owned company that owns a ton of magazines, TV stations and newspapers, including our very own Houston Chronicle.The longtime head of Hearst's newspaper division recently retired; the guy who replaced him has sent out a long memo to employees full of doom and gloom and re-invention.The entire memo is way too long if the Hearst company is not issuing your paycheck, but there are some highlights.

  December 17, 2008

• A Slight Omission

  December 1, 1994

• More Job Cuts At The Houston Chronicle

  There's no way around it: It's a sucky time to be a journalist these days. The latest evidence comes from the Houston Chronicle, which is telling its people to expect even more job cutsHere's the memo: As our newspaper continues to report the condition of the economy, we read about companies in all business categories adjusting their size to match current and projected revenues. The Houston Chronicle must do the same in spite of your diligent effort.Consequently, over the next 60 days, we will

  February 16, 2009

• Here's A Plan: Fewer People, More Work At The Chronicle

  The Houston Chronicle is having problems, like most big-city dailies, but it might get a whole lot worse. One of the latest rumors sweeping the San Francisco Chronicle would have the deskies in Houston handling headline writing, copy editing and layout for their ailing sister paper by The Bay. The other option is India. This is bound to raise the grumbling in the Houston Chronicle newsroom a few decibels as Chronistas await the next layoff wave of layoffs of 10 percent or more. The situation in

  February 27, 2009

• Letters

  August 6, 1998

• Chronicle Cuts To Be Stretched Over Two Days

  Good news on the pending Houston Chronicle cuts -- the latest word is that the layoffs will be in the range of 12-13 percent of the newsroom. That's bad, but not as bad as the 30 percent figures that some understandably frantic people were tossing around. The bad news is the cuts will be carried out over two days instead of one -- today and tomorrow. What sadistic genius put this plan together? Already people -- many of them on long-planned Spring Break vacations -- have been on edge wondering i

  March 24, 2009

• More Bad News For Newspapers: Rice Cancels Its Student Subscriptions

  As if the journalism world isn't reeling with news of layoffs, buyouts and doing goddamn more to goddamn less, here's more bad news: Rice is canceling all its student subscriptions to the Houston Chronicle and The New York Times.They'll save $30,000 by doing so.We went to UH, not Rice, so we're not familiar with the luxurious standards of service out there on South Main.But the Rice Thresher is not happy: "That means no morning papers in the college commons. No morning crosswords over breakfast,

  March 25, 2009

• Layoff Tales From The Chron

  The layoff tales are spreading from 801 Texas, home of the Houston Chronicle. Here's one. A former copy editor relates her day: 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

  March 26, 2009

• News Hostage

  July 15, 1999

• We're Not the Worst!

  August 26, 1999

• Sidebar

  November 25, 1999

• Opening-Day Orgasm

  April 6, 2000

• La Revolución Will Not Be Covered

  April 13, 2000

• Trial Story

  June 15, 2000

• Correct-a-mundo

  July 6, 2000

• Cinema Bomar: A Bit on the Arty Side…

  November 13, 2008

• Fund-raiser Blues

  November 6, 2008

• Pimpin' Ain't Easy

  Tension mounts at the Chronicle

  June 26, 2003

• The Houston Chronicle Cuts, Annotated

  What the editor really meant

  November 15, 2007

• The Chronicle's Doll Porn Ignores Houston's Syphillis Threat

  Photo courtesy the proud, hip Houston ChronicleThe godawful sex blogger on the Houston Chronicle's so-hip-it-hurts 29.95 blog has a new bag: Doll porn.Each week she promises to demonstate a new sex position for all the rest of us unimaginative schlubs who just don't know how to bone it like they own it.To do so, she'll be using dolls, as shown above. Hilariously (we assume), one is named Lucy, who is described this way: "She works in Houston as personal trainer and lives in Midtown. She we

  April 17, 2009

• Hurricane Forecasts, Telemarketers, Evacuation Plans

  Hurricanes a-comin'

  May 31, 2007

• Ugly and Slow

  A booster has been messing up downtown for years

  August 10, 2006

• Pimp My Ride

  Metro's transportation-plan "adjustments"

  June 30, 2005

• Modeling On The Cheap

  May 26, 2005

• Lineup Change

  The pressure is on the Chron's sports columnists

  November 13, 2003

• Sultan of Swatch?

  Babe's shirt goes in the cards

  October 2, 2003

• Profiles in Boredom

  A bright idea, dimly executed, at the local daily

  May 15, 2003

• Sex It Up

  Spring turns the media's thoughts to racy women

  March 27, 2003

• Man of the Year

  If Chronicle coverage is any indication, Texans owner Bob McNair is 2002's VIP

  January 9, 2003

• Thou Shalt Not Pee

  Yates trial judge makes a captive audience of the media

  March 7, 2002

• Probing Questions

  TV is less goofy on air, but not on-line

  November 29, 2001

• Celebrate Good Times

  The Bush inaugural is a wonderful, wonderful thing

  February 1, 2001

• Ask and Ye Shall Receive

  The missing Chronicle issue

  January 18, 2001

• Money Talks

  Mattress Mac's bowl was a joke everywhere but Houston

  January 4, 2001

• News Hostage

  Shopping for Dummies

  August 12, 1999

• Congratulations To The Chronicle

  There's been a ton of bad news coming out of 801 Texas lately, but those who are left have something to (semi-)celebrate: The paper was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News category. The judges praised the "Houston Chronicle staff" for "taking full advantage of online technology and its newsroom expertise to become a lifeline to the city when Hurricane Ike struck, providing vital minute-by-minute updates on the storm, its flood surge and its aftermath."The staff awards are alw

  April 20, 2009

• We Are All Going To Die. Click Here For More Information!

  Houstonians -- HAVE YOU BREATHED ANY AIR LATELY?!?!Then run for the hills! That seems to be what the Houston Chronicle is saying with this latest splashed headline, sure to show up as a "Most Read Stories" link soon.Let's get this straight -- if you were in the Galleria recently, or talked to anyone who had been, or shook hands with someone whose sister works the Pretzels N Nutz cart there, you are in grave, grave danger.The Chron has been doing some good swine-flu work, but if you're going to p

  April 30, 2009

• The Chronicle Continues Its Descent Into Porn Hell

  Photo by Chanel JoyYou know, we really, really want to keep ignoring the incredibly silly "MILF" sex column the Houston Chronicle puts out on its oh-so-hip 29-95 website, but it just keeps getting more and more ridiculous.Here's the state of American journalism, 2009: the daily newspaper in a major city thinks the way to get readers is to publish a column headlined "Yes, It Does Matter: One Woman's Lament For Tiny Dicks."Talking about staring into the abyss of edginess.Among the reasons ci

  May 5, 2009

• Why Does The Chronicle Hate People In Wheelchairs?

  Photo by Olivia Flores AlvarezIf you're in a wheelchair, it's almost impossible to navigate the north side of the 800 block of Texas Avenue, home to the Houston Chronicle. There are trees planted in the middle of the sidewalk, splitting the already-narrow walkway into sections as thin as 26 inches. There are light poles and parking meters dotting the way as well. In order to make use of the slightly wider sections, wheelchair users have to zig-zag around the obstacles like an obstacle cour

  June 10, 2009

• Curiouser And Curiouser At The Chron

  We told you yesterday about how the Houston Chronicle was being uncharacteristically modest in writing about federal inspectors criticizing the Harris County jail.Their story mentioned only how the jail "came under scrutiny" without mentioning that the scrutiny in question was spurred by Chronicle stories.Cynics that we are, we wondered if that had anything to do with the fact that the guy who wrote those stories, Steve McVicker, is suing the Chron over being laid off. Suits like that tend to ta

  June 10, 2009

• The Chronicle Has Issues With Delivery

  Something went seriously astray with the printing of Saturday morning's Houston Chronicle. A whole bunch of papers arrived on doorsteps (or in flower beds) throughout the area without the Star (features) or (gasp) Sports section."We had issues with our presses and we had a lot of calls," a Chronicle circulation rep said Sunday. Sunday, because repeated calls to the paper Saturday morning were greeted with a busy signal. By the time I got a call through it was to be graced with the message that t

  July 6, 2009

• I'm Just Doing Drugs With This Corpse In A Closet, Officer

  Photo courtesy HCSO​A week ago we had a not-creepy-looking-at-all guy arrested for doing creepy things to a corpse. Today's corpse-related news, courtesy of the Houston Chronicle, involves a passed-out guy druggin' it up with someone who turns out to be dead. While both were in a closet.Not a metaphorical closet, either. A real one, on an isolated farm.Good news for Houstonian Cody Plant, though: Charges of abusing the corpse were dropped. Prosecutors had claimed he "treated the body 'in an of

  October 12, 2009

• Journalism, As It Used To Be Practiced In Houston

  ​We've written before of the Houston Chronicle's cozy way of doing pro-bidness journalism in years gone by.Today's Chron offers another charming piece of evidence.The Bayou City History blog, which is always interesting, posts some photos of the development of the North Loop.One of the pictures includes the caption from the original February 27, 1954 publication date. The photo showed four smiling, suited white guys ceremonially cutting a chain instead of a ribbon to celebrate the opening of t

  October 12, 2009

• Candidate For Dumbest Fundraiser Ever, River Oaks Style

  Dave Rossman for the Chronicle​In case you were worried that the departure of Shelby Hodge would hamper the Houston Chronicle's tireless devotion to covering the inanities of rich, pampered self-obsessives in our town, fear not.Molly Glentzer is on the beat, and among her first offerings is this masterpiece: "SWAT Team Storms Mansion As Part Of Gala Fun." It featured the photo to the right, featuring two jolly folks wackily posing "with one of the SWAT team's sniper rifles."In the trademark Ho

  October 23, 2009