Slog commenter DarrenO talks back to Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen and his statement from this morning:
The “Joint Operating Agreement” killed newspapers? Sorry Frankie, but the JOA is the only thing that prolonged their life.
The Seattle Times will be out of business by the end of this year. Nobody seriously doubts that. And the JOA won’t be the thing that killed the Seattle Times. And the Internet won’t be the thing that killed the Seattle Times. Not Google. Not corporate media ownership. Not death taxes on inheritance.
No Frank.
It’s you.
You.
Your hubris. Your tolerance for really boring writing. Your unsympathetic personality in the community (dog-shooter). Your embrace of nepotism (Ryan?) Your righteousness, in promoting “diverse” managers who aren’t competent. Your intransigence on advertising policy, while the world was going digital. Your lethargic, halting movement to online media. Your nostalgic purchase of newspapers in Fucking Maine! Your asinine, whip-saw editorial stands. Your ability to use self-affirming industry awards to deny, deny, deny the need for change. Your dismissive attitude to everyone in your own business that didn’t go to J-school.
The only problem with newspapers is that they are run by newspapermen. You’re the poster child.
You guys pretty much fucked-up a monopoly by trying to defend it, instead of trying to leverage it.
Nobody in the business community will shed a tear for you either, Frank. We’ll feel bad about your employees, and then watch the rest of the Blethen Family turn on you to account for how this opportunity was squandered.
Keep blaming everyone else Frank. It simply reaffirms what we all know about you.
Jesus, Eli, what are you going to write about after tomorrow? I mean, you’ve done a great job of following this story, but it’s time to move on. It’s over.
And this deserves to be re-posted because … uh, anybody?
BTW, why haven’t we heard from Jubilation T. Cornball lately?
Did Frank cut off his access to the Slogosphere, too?
Oh, wait — there’s my answer: Darren’s so cool he used “fuck” TWICE.
yeah. I also thought it was lame that he pointed out the JOA as the root of the problems. What an ass.
“The only problem with newspapers is that they are run by newspapermen”
wow that’s as bad as having hospitals run by doctors or courts run by lawyers or churches run by clergy. Yeah let’s have folkswithout a trace of journalism background run the newspapers –oh wait –that’s Hearst. Your beloved PI!
I know it was you Frank. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!
Yes, Frank, and it is clearly your fault that a newspaper in Denver recently closed and it is your fault that the S.F. Chronicle is on its last legs, and the PI we know is your fault, and it is your fault you lousy rich guy that the NY Times is in big financial trouble and it was your fault that the Tribune Company and the Minnesota Star Tribune filed bankrputcy. So don’t try telling me there’s something going on nationally, I know this is your damn fault.
@5
Funny-enough hospitals aren’t run by doctors, and courts aren’t run by lawyers. (But really nice examples, genius!)
Frank’s blame statement is proof of the idiocy that this guy brings-up. I recall that the JOA was both initiated, and then renegotiated by Frank. These are deals that HE set-up, not something forced on him.
No sympathy here Frank. None.
Frank Blethen is not a newspaperman. He’s the great-grandson of a newspaper man. Born on third base, thought he hit a triple.
I don’t get the Blethen obsession. On the day that Hearst busts the P-I union and sets up a scab online paper, you rant about Frank?
Frank, you’re nothing to me now. You’re not a brother, you’re not a friend. I don’t want to know you or what you do. I don’t want to see you at the hotels, I don’t want you near my house. When you see our mother, I want to know a day in advance, so I won’t be there. You understand?
@8: Wrong. Frank had nothing to do with the original JOA (he wasn’t publisher then). He renegotiated it to try to improve on the original 100-year agreement he was stuck with.
STFU until you know what you’re talking about.
By the way, if it weren’t for the JOA the P-I would have been gone 25 years ago.
You may hate the Blethens, but the fact is they are trying to keep the newspaper afloat and 1,000 people employed. Hearst simply gave up on the P-I, wrote its employees off and let them twist in the wind for months. And somehow Hearst gets a free pass?
Correction: Frank did negotiate the first JOA, and its subsequent renegotiation.
Jerry Pennington negotiated the first JOA in 1981. Frank Blethen became publisher in ’85.
@13: The JOA was negotiated in 1981. Frank became publisher and CEO in 1985. Jerry Pennington was the publisher in ’81.
Got any facts, or just making it up?
Frank was the Director of Circulation, and part of a 3-person JOA committee that negotiated during that period. (John McCall had to clean-up the operational mess afterwards.)
Game. Set. Match.
@16: You’re right, the director of circulation has total control of a newspaper, not the publisher.
Fuckin’ moron.
Hearst Corporation pull plug on Seattle P-I print edition, Seattle P-I publish final print edition, freak out, online-only out, SEATTLE P-I BECOME ONLINE-ONLY NEWSPAPER!
ONLINE-ONLY SEATTLE P-I WILL SMASH ONLINE-ONLY SEATTLE TIMES!
And no, I don’t feel like letting it go.
Well, when the Director of Circulation controls the largest block of shares in the company, has the family’s last name, has been groomed to be the Publisher, and is put in a lead role to negotiate the future of the business…. I would call that an exception to the laws of Circulation.
Instead of being a bee-yotch about it, why don’t you just step back from your INCORRECT statement and be silent, like ignorant people should.
Fuckin’ moron.
Both papers have been pissed away. They stopped being original sources of news many years ago. They took the easy road and now don’t have the staff or the stones to pull through tough times. I feel bad for employees who lose their jobs but this was a F-up many years ago and neither leadership had a clue.
Funny how all you people seem to know Frank. Your all morons. The dudes got more heart and guts then any of you assholes hiding behind fake names like “Slap”.
Well actually its Craigslist, but whatever…
Anyone that thinks Frank has “heart” and “guts” hasn’t met the guy.
He oversees a soulless scrim of wire clippings, and doesn’t dare allow anyone with an alternative view into his management staff. He’s a witless glad-hander of soft politicians and chronic whiner for the state of his family’s commercial concerns.
Name one extraordinary thing that Frank has done that shows heart or guts. (Refusing to cut a bloated newsroom staff in the face of disaster ain’t it, as there’s a significant gulf between principles and dumb-ass stupidity.)