Hair Balls (the Houston Press blog) is doing a pretty bang-up job covering the layoffs taking place at the Houston Chronicle this week. And I'd say this even if I didn't, you know, write for them.
The Chron buried its own skeletal story and disabled comments on the website article, a decision I'd usualy applaud. 12% job cuts are usually big news in Houston (including a whopping 27% of the editorial staff). Even more so when so many of the choices are - from a local news coverage standpoint - pretty baffling.
- NASA reporter Mark Carreau
- Business reporter Bill Hensel Jr., who covered Continental Airlines
- Editorial board members Claudia Kolker and Veronica Bucio
- Oil beat reporter Lynn Cook
- Brazoria County beat reporter Richard Stewart
- All the college sports beat writers (Michael Murphy (UH), MK Bower (Rice), and Terrence Harris (TSU)
- Foreign/national desk editor Chris Shively
- Fashion/entertainment writer Clifford Pugh
- Religion writer Barbara Karkabi
- Book editor Fritz Lanham
No NASA reporter? No more local college sports coverage not provided by wire reports or unpaid bloggers? No coverage of the non-Metro Houston area? No non-white males on the Editorial board?
I had a Chron blog for about a year (some of you may remember it). It was a not-so subtle attempt to worm my way into the paper as a freelancer, which obviously didn't work. Those in charge politely assured me they'd love to have me come on board, but there just wasn't any money for freelancing. Debates about little white lies and the quality of my writing aside, it doesn't look like there's a lot of money for anything there anymore.
Jeff Cohen's and his fellow VPs' salaries aside, that is.