NO NO NO

NO NO NO

Blame The Weather

At this writing, the national press is in beet-red “we’ve got a live one” mode over the recent Littleton, Colorado school shootings. It’s heady times like this that Illustrate how national TV journalists and wire service reporters, pressured to deliver SOMETHING, ANYTHING to fill time during the rush of a breaking story, can end up disseminating erroneous information and confusing the issue.

Let’s take a look at two factors that were said by the press in the first days following the tragedy to have helped trigger the incident, which left 15 people dead (including the killers).

First of all, the speculative-to-the-point-of-science-fiction report that the Colorado killings had occurred on April 20th because the “code” for Marijuana is “420.” In this tortured scenario, the killer kids had planned and executed their rampage because of excessive pot smoking.

(Please. Anyone out there feel like taking some bong hits and then planning and implementing a full-scale paramilitary attack? You’ll barely have the initiative to go to the kitchen and get Doritos. Apparently, this report was written under a FOX News executive’s influence of a screening of Reefer Madness)

The ol’ standard bugaboo, “drugs,” was discounted several days later when forensics determined that the two killers had been drug free. . . as if anything really needed to be said about it anyway. Blame anything but the REAL problem! Blame a USDA-approved “enemy of the people” like drugs, that’s the solution! (Or gangs. See below).

Of course, on a deadline, it’s easy to pick a scapegoat and assign a little blame– you can always turn your attention to something else tomorrow. Just make sure you pick a temporary scapegoat that can’t really defend itself. Like, say, a long misunderstood youth subculture.

Several wire services, and network news agencies (including CNN and The Washington Post), ran “warning” pieces on a so-called death-obsessed “Gothic Clique” infecting the nation’s youth, presumably giving birth to the dementia in the two killers; because of their predilection for wearing black clothes, the two shooters (who were said to be into paramilitary culture too) were typecast as “goths,” who worshipped death like all those other goths across America. Check out this sweeping and totally meaningless generalization from the Post: “Black trench coats are a consistent theme in the Gothic subculture that has attracted many teenagers to the poetry, music and costumes of a scene that ranges from benign fantasy to violent reality.” We were also told in these reports that “Goths” worship Adolf Hitler and that the shootings had occurred on Hitler’s birthday because of this taken-for-granted connection.

Needless to say, anyone who knows anything about the gothic subculture of rock ‘n’ roll recognized these reports as total bullshit, plain and simple– as big an exaggeration as early news reports that declared almost twice as many people killed in the attack.

The goth kids that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing are totally into fantasy, outsider-types who wouldn’t hurt a fly, who generally just want to be left alone. Guns and bombs don’t fit into the Gothic lifestyle as I have seen it, and I would be surprised to learn if ANY reader out there has ANY news report from the past few years of violent goths on a killing rampage (please send them to me at PO Box 19, Charlottesville, Va. 22902 or e-mail me through the site). ANY rampage. I would at least like to know of any national stats comparing the annual violent attacks from goths with, oh I dunno, violent attacks from fraternity brothers or football fans or casual gun owners. Those would be good stats to have, I would think.

As for the Gothic connections to Hitler, this is the first I’ve heard of that. Really: are the same people who worship Siouxie and the Banshees also Neo-Nazi’s?

It’s news to me. . . but don’t hold your breaths on any detailed followup reports or corrections concerning these ludicrous stories from our media elite. They’ve got parental non-supervision and (more importantly) the culture of GUNS to blame these days, and now– at last– I think they are getting warmer.

We’re So PROUD of Our State Government…

To Virginia’s governor, National Rifle Association poster boy James Gilmore, guns weren’t the problem at all when 13 innocent people were slaughtered by semi-automatic weapons at a school in another state. At the time of the Littleton school shootings, the governor was planning to veto a bill in the Va. state legislature that would’ve banned hunting rifles from being on school property.

His reasoning: Kids who like to hunt shouldn’t be inconvenienced from having their guns handy for them after school.

(Just think about this logic for a second: This particular GOP governor has NO problem with the policy of kids inconvenienced by an unannounced, no-warrant school search-and-seizure for drugs. . . supports the idea of a pregnant teen girl inconvenienced by a parental notification law. . . but somehow kids shouldn’t have to go home, to where their parents theoretically are, to gain access to instruments of death! Ladies and Gentleman: Welcome to the BEST that Virginia’s state government can produce!)

When news of the shootings shocked the nation, and reports began to filter out that the Colorado killers had somehow gained access to semi-automatic weapons LEGALLY (and, in a Gilmore world, would’ve had every legal right to have their guns on school property), Virginia’s governor changed his mind about the veto but didn’t change his tune. He said that he couldn’t support any further restrictions on the right to bear arms, even if he was allowing this bill to go through uncontested.

No “I’m sorry.” No “I was wrong– this must stop.” This is, after all, a man who recently posed for an “I’m The NRA” advertisement. A man whose political pockets have been filled quite nicely with NRA contributions over his many elections. In other words, he has all the convictions you would expect from a politician in his position.

What our responsible governor did do was to stage a press conference a few days after the Littleton shooting stating that the Virginia school system was going to begin cracking down on “gangs” (another suburban right-wing ‘bugaboo’– read: blacks, minorities, “others”). The problem of gangs, he said, was the real problem and, boy oh boy, he was sure going to work on this problem NOW!

How pathetic.

No Objections. . .

Speaking of state government, The Dave Matthews Band, Charlottesville’s own, was “honored” by the Virginia General Assembly on Feb. 15th for their charitable works (also presumably, their successful chart showings), courtesy of a bill sponsored by Democrat Emily Couric that I thought was totally appropriate– although many of the charities the band has donated money to– like the Charlottesville Free Clinic– are hardly the type of “good works” our stick-up-the-ass State Senators usually delineate in their budgets.

Speaking of which, if you hadn’t heard already, DMB had the fleeting distinction of being the one rock band– cue Boyd– to (temporarily) derail the mind-numbing Titantic soundtrack onslaught last year, nabbing the number one spot for one week with Before These Crowded Streets . The disc ended up being (according to Billboard) the 30th biggest seller in all of 1998. In addition to this strong showing, the band’s 1996 album, Crash, logged in at #25 on Billboard’s Top Rock Catalog chart, which monitors the sales of previously released albums. (Curiously, the band’s huge major label debut, Under the Table & Dreaming, was a no-show on the Catalog charts.)

So, hell yeah, Virginia should honor what the Dave Matthews Band has done. Even those Irony-watchers who don’t like the troup’s music should relish the fact that a longhair rock band stopped Celine Dion from warbling for at least a little last year while the Titantic sunk the rest of the music biz… and were applauded for it in the Virginia General Assembly.

Other Moral Relativisms…

Can I give out a political award now.

It comes from the heart, and it’s for the (sob) kids:

The “Lies about selling drugs to kids aren’t lies” award goes to Rep. Virgil Goode (D, Rocky Mt.)

Congressman Virgil Goode, a Democrat who represents the Charlottesville area as well as the rural areas that surround it, was praised in some quarters for having had “the guts” to be one of a handful of national Democrats to vote to impeach the President. What Goode REALLY had was the courage of his numbers– only 42% of those who actually cast an unchallenged vote for the faux-Republican (he’s a VIRGINIA Democrat) among Goode’s mostly rural base also voted for Clinton in the last election. So, seeing the numbers, where was the COURAGE in Goode’s vote??

But numbers are flexible, apparently. The Congressman DIDN’T listen to the many constituents who e-mailed and wrote him in numbers nearly 9-1 AGAINST a vote to impeach the President.

Instead, the congressman showed he is beholden to a higher power than the voters– using his place in Congress to lodge a REVENGE vote for his ongoing pet project, Big Tobacco protection.

Yes, sports fans, for this Virgil Goode, the moralist who “wrestled with his conscience” to vote to remove a president because of the President’s supposed lies about PERSONAL behavior is the same Virgil Goode who has for years protected and apologized for the Big Tobacco Company executives who lied their asses off and committed perjury, under oath (think they know what is, is?)– about attempts to hook people on scientifically-enhanced tobacco and to protect their own Federally-protected “non-drug” status– IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE SENATE! (The same tobacco company execs who’d stop at nothing to get back at the Clinton administration for being the first to attempt to punish these scheming bastards. . . )

Even if it wasn’t a REVENGE vote for Big Tobacco, it was some pretty convenient, selective “conscience” from Rep. Goode. He deserves more than a symbolic award from us– he needs a Democratic primary opponent in 2000.

How NOT to cover an important time in American History

Want to throw a raspberry out to those AM Talk Radio stations who chose NOT to air broadcasts of the Senate Trial unedited; instead these stations littered the air with their usual anti-Clinton Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy programming. . . with Rush and Co. “interpreting” for their listeners what was going on in the proceedings.

That’s community service for you Even worse (because they should know better), most of the Public Radio stations in Virginia chose not to pre-empt their umpteenth airings of 200-year-old Mozart concertos to give their subscribers an unvarnished peek into this most momentous of national debates. By not plugging into National Public Radio’s gavel-to-gavel coverage, these stations truly shamed themselves. It kind of underscores what many people have been verbalizing here of late– that Virginia’s public radio stations are boring, lame and out of touch.

Big exception to the rule: Norfolk’s WHRV 89.5, who did feel that those who couldn’t get near a TV set during office hours deserved to hear the full Senate debate from NPR’s feed. Kudos to them, at least.

Last thoughts on the Circus…

If you know anything about American history (and other recent Presidential DNA testing) , it must’ve struck you at least once during The Impeachment Trial that even our beloved Thomas Jefferson (one of the “founders” quoted ad nauseum during the trial) could’ve been charged by these GOP phonies if a sitting President could be removed from office on charges of “lying about sex .” I dunno– left-wing moral relativism or not, what’s seems worse to you: having an affair with an office underling and lying about it or having an affair with your SLAVE and doing likewise??

History is what we make of it. So are the reputations of leaders and the words attributed to them. I say thank goodness that our “founders” had the foresight to set the bar of Impeachment high enough– there was a reason for that, you know.

OK. . . OK. . . Music now

I want to thank all those who made it out to Charlottesville’s first record convention in many a moon, held at the Holiday Inn on Rt. 29 south on Apr. 25th. Grip co-sponsored the event along with the guys at the Richmond Record Collectors Assn., also known as The Invasion of the Record Collectors.

Based in Chester, VA, the Richmond Record Collector’s Assn was formed in 1983 simply from local collectors who were tired of traveling out of state to find odd, imported, rare collector’s items, or simply out-of-print records. Tastes have expanded since then to include memorabilia, posters, videos, compact discs, and just about anything dealing with music and entertainment. The current active membership of the Association well exceeds 2,300 members and their “conventions” feature dealers from across the east coast who sell musical materials ranging from backstage passes and tourbooks, from videos to memorabilia, and of course records of all formats (albums, 45′s and 78′s) and Compact Discs.

The association’s next shows are May 30 in Richmond at the Midtown Inn Conference Centre, 3200 W Broad St. . . .July 25 in Richmond at the Midtown Inn Conference Centre. . . another Charlottesville show on Sept. 26 at the Holiday Inn. . . and October 24 in Richmond again at the Midtown Inn.

The public is welcome to bring in their old records (or CD’s… for that matter) to get FREE appraisals, and to sell them to any of the many dealers who will be in attendance at these shows. The Invasion of the Record Collectors Association will also provide space, planning and pricing assistance at no charge to any area charitable organization that would like to set up at the show to sell donated music. Dealers interested in selling records, or exhibiting music at the Convention, can inquire about dealer and table rates at (804) 796-4919 or by e-mailing John Wood and the Invasion of the Record Collectors at rekordman@aol.com.

Lifestyles…not Lives, Pt. 1

Overheard recently at an undisclosed Charlottesville eatery: The editor-in-chief of a certain Central Virginia-based lifestyle weekly desperately attempting to “hire” one of the Grip editors to oversee the carefully managed info-manipulation at his press release-saturated music section for pennies a week (about as much as Grip editors get up here– yes, that cheap!). It seems this Central Virginia-based lifestyle weekly lost his music columnist. . . or she was fired. In between mumbles about “growing the company,” this editor didn’t seem to have much of a clue about what to do about his music section.

Weird thing is: A few months ago, this paper ran a “review” of Grip Monthly that would’ve had you believe that there are no editors here at Grip / virginiamusicflash, except for myself. This particular weekly also had a problem telling their readers that Grip was widely distributed in their Central Virginia distribution area, something it didn’t have a problem doing with the other area publications it “reviewed.”

And, yet, you see where the know-nothings at those “arts & entertainment” weeklies run to when they’re in trouble, right?

First Winner

Congrats to Sid Daughtrey of Suffolk. He’s the first winner in the Virginia Music trivia game that we’ve got going on this here web site.

Sid tells us via the e-mail that’s he’s 43 year old real estate appraiser, living in Suffolk, Va. (the former haunts of 1/2 of this magazine’s editorial staff) who cut his musical & party teeth in the Fan in the 70′s, booking concerts at VCU “before they caught on to me (Cold Blood/Tower of Power, John Mayall,Les McCann / The Crusaders, Gary Burton / Keith Jarrett.”

For answering the most questions correctly in the contest’s first two “heats,” Sid beat out nearly a thousand entries to win two regional CDs that placed on our annual roundup of the year’s best regional releases, the debut from Union of a Man & a Woman and the latest from Richmond’s Trouble With Larry. Sid also gets a Trouble With Larry T-shirt.

Sid adds, for the record (he is the champ): “For all the folks who piss & moan about the lack of a R’mond music scene, shut up til you live in Tidewater for awhile.”

The next “heat” in our perpetual trivia contest has already begun on the web site… so go to it. The prizes for this go-around are a complete Drunk discography (A Derby Spiritual, To Corner Wounds and Raised Toward), the second release from the acclaimed Aaron Binder Quartet (As Modern as Tomorrow), and the already-controversial Draw The Kitten & Friends’ Music From Big Grip CD release. . . amongst other “surprises.”

The Odd Couple Tour

Hey, anyone but NO NO NO think the big Bob Dylan-Paul Simon tour barnstorming its way across the U.S. this summer (including June 24 at the Nissan Pavilion in Northern Va.) seems a little. . . weird?

Anyone who has read a Dylan biography knows that these two longtime Columbia Records artists have been bitter professional enemies for over thirty years.

It’s been an entertaining feud. There’s the whole “Girl From the North Country” / “Scarborough Fair” issue. . . there’s Simon & Garfunkel’s scathing Dylan parody , ” A Most Delusory Phillipic” (just about the most acid screw-you in the history of labelmate relations– “I lost my harmonica, Albert!!”). . . and no one who has heard Dylan’s hilariously cartoonish version of “The Boxer”– with Mr. D. perversely imitating both Simon AND Garfunkel– could think it was anything but an equally pointed salvo in a deeply personal little music war.

Who knows, maybe Simon and Dylan made up, or maybe money talks louder than feuding. . . but NO NO NO predicts summer tour fireworks.

Double Uh-Oh

Not sure you heard about Cellar Door Inc.’s ongoing woes concerning that certain-cash-cow(?) the GTE Virginia Beach Ampitheatre. The company recently lost a multi-million dollar court case with OUR favorite guy Bill Reid over who actually thought of building the thing.

And now Cellar Door is being forced to build an expensive”soundwall” due to noise complaints.

Subscriptions

Since we’re compiling lists around this time of year, here’s a list of some awesome Pop Culture Magazines that are, in our opinion, aces and worth ANY music fan’s subscription:

- Mojo

Quite simply: The best magazine on popular music currently publishing– provocative, funny, covering everything (in detail) from Clapton to Beck to Nick Drake to Pink Floyd to Howlin’ Wolf, today’s AND yesterday’s music (from a FAN’s perspective, not a sales chart). Expensive in the U.S., available in selected record shops and bookstores, but worth every penny. Each issue is like a little book on popular music, to be kept and savored. For inquiries on US subscriptions, e-mail amy.thom@ecm.emap.com

- The Big Takeover

For over 15 years, Jack Rabid has published a quarterly magazine that REALLY covers popular music– again, from the perspective of people who love music and NOT people looking to exploit trends or ad markets. Jack’s love for old music perfectly complements his magazine’s search for new stories to tell and new musicmakers to interview. (49 Eldridge St. #14, New York, New York. 10002)

- Goldmine

For years, Goldmine has been the place where music collectors meet. Their career- and discography-spanning articles on everyone from James Brown to Sonic Youth to Peggy Lee give you something good to do in-between the wallet-lightening advertisements. Aces! (700 E. State St., Iola, WI. 54990)

- Hip-Hop Connection

Another U.K. Magazine– this one explores the world of rap and hip-hop honestly and perceptively, criticizing as well as praising. Get an offshore perspective and pick this up some month instead of The Source. (30 Monmouth St., Bath, BA 2BW)

- Pulse

Hard to believe that one of the world’s biggest music chains is responsible for this– a straightforward, non-kiss-ass monthly guide to the music world. Maybe they got where they are by believing that honesty is the best policy; don’t you wish other record stores– including so-called “independent” ones– would get the message? For our money, Jackson Griffith’s “Spins” column is the best in the biz– a music overview that doesn’t forget the world that we live in. (Available free in Tower Records locations, or from 2500 Del Monte St. #C, West Sacramento, CA. 95691).

Media Follies 1

The Harrisonburg Daily-News Record found it self in an unfortunate legal bind when it was discovered that Editor / General Manager James Perkins had signed an “agreement of understanding” that would give free advertising space to Blue Ridge Community College. No problem there, but according to a report by American Journalism Review’s Bridget Guitierrez, the agreement also included a clause that would give the college “24 published news articles about college activities.” Perkins denies that he knew about the clause in this agreement and, apparently, after the Richmond Times-Dispatch (not the Daily-News Record) broke the story, the deal is now off.

Media Follies 2

The Liberal Media??? Not in Virginia, where more and more newspapers are being bought out by a Richmond-based media conglomerate called Media General. The company’s flagship paper is the Richmond Times-Dispatch, but has acquired a dozen dailies and weeklies, including the Lynchburg News & Advance, Danville Bee and Charlottesville-based Daily Progress, giving them something of a mini-monopoly as far as the press goes in Central & Western Virginia and other parts of the Commonwealth.

But while the chain’s flagship paper strains its neck arguing for less centralized bureaucratic control from Washington, something curious seems to happen when Media General buys your hometown newspaper. Immediately, your editorial page becomes more conservative, and suddenly smaller papers in towns that would benefit from a more stable staff of reporters and editors become places to work for awhile before you are forced out to search for a decent wage from “real” papers, while resources are sapped and profits sent to the big Media General home office in, natch, Richmond.

This isn’t Grip’s opinion, folks, or mine (my opinion of M.G. is tainted– I’ve not only worked for Media General papers before, but am intimately acquainted with those who have, so I might be a little biased: No comments at this present time)– this is the opinion of present and former staffers who chose to air their grievances on the now-defunct MAIT web site that was set up for reporters, editors and newspaper personnel to grade working experiences in a field that is slowly turning into a corporate grab-for-all that leaves employees the prisoner of sudden buyouts and dubious policies. (Recently the heat from these opinions got a little too high– the webmaster was forced to take it off the net).

Media General isn’t the only corporate behemoth that was criticized in the state-by-state assemblage found on the site– other Virginia-heavy newspaper companies are also raked over the coals (and, sometimes, praised) for their corporate policies: Landmark (which owns the Roanoke Times and Va. Pilot) and Gannett (which owns the Staunton Daily-News Leader).

Not all papers were evaluated and / or criticized, but the Virginia section of the MAIT Line was pretty informative. Sure, a reader had to factor in the shoulder chips, the cynicism and the corporate toadying, but these internet MAIT ratings were an invaluable tool for journalists in an unstable and low-paying job climate. Since newspaper folk can’t form their own union in Virginia, one could argue that public grousing places are the only check-and-balance resource for hapless writers in our neck of the woods.

“Liberal” media? “Good” media, even? Here are some of the comments– pro and con– from anonymous former and present staffers of some of Virginia’s newspapers, courtesy of the now-defunct MAIT Line:

Lynchburg News & Advance

“Media General purchased this paper from Worrell, a horrible little chain… everyone hoped this meant better salaries, upgraded equipment and lots of other dandy things, but it didn’t. Some good journalists have worked there over the years, and five to seven years ago, it was doing amazing stuff. Now the reporters seem fairly steady and don’t seem to miss much, but don’t expect much innovation or creativity. The lifestyles dept. seems stuck in another era. Color registration is the worst I’ve ever seen. Lynchburg is cheap to live in, but not cheap enough for the salaries they pay. Morale dips a lot because of the pay. . . newsjudgement is off track. Media General seems to have no plans for improvements, so don’t hold your breath. Money has been so tight there that they literally grounded people and told them not to go anywhere because they couldn’t afford the mileage. All Media General money goes to the Richmond TImes-Dispatch and don’t expect to go to the TD after Lynchburg. (7 / 6 / 98)

Virginian Pilot

“A wonderful paper that talks better than it acts. The Pilot has tons of money, pays well, but doesn’t push hard enough. Sure the paper’s longtime city editor retired a few years ago, whatever zip it had was lost. Unimaginative stories presented in a hot, if sometimes cluttered, way. The former editor was an egghead who was more interested in the theory of journalism than in its practice, and his lack of leadership showed. Other editors were caring, but have no idea of the big picture. So they flounder, reporters flounder and what should be a great paper collapses. Morale fluctuates, practically with the weather.” (5 /23/98)

Another view of the Virginian Pilot: “The paper lacks decent leadership, pure and simple. The folks are friendly and the work atmosphere is pretty collegial. But upper management– the editors, managing editor, deputy managing editors– don’t have a real vision that makes any sense. It’s so sad. To make matters worse, most of the top editors were not exactly stellar reporters or stellar lower-level editors themselves. “Leaders” also tend to jump from one thing to another, in terms of overall strategy. Finally, the pay is NOT “great.” It’s decent, but it’s not great. The headline: It’s a decent place to work for 2-5 years. Split after you get some clips!! It’s pretty much a sweat shop.” (7 / 11 / 98)

Another view of the Pilot: “I’d agree, for the most part, with the previous (opinion). Days go by and we never see the editor, who seems to be a pleasant, intelligent woman. Unfortunately, however, she’s not around, so her second-in-command runs amok. Constant pissing matches between him and another DME. Latest incredibly stupid, condescending trend? The WIMTY. Stands for “what it means to you.” For our readers, who are clearly too moronic to figure that out from, say, a headline or a story, we put it right there in a little box for them. How embarrassing. And there’s a frightening lack of concern about libel on a couple of reporting desks. . . people on the whole are friendly and fun. Some are incredibly talented. Design as a rule is outstanding, and the news editor is a good guy. It’s possible to learn a lot here. Work on deadline can be grueling. Copy editors and designers shouldn’t expect dinner breaks. Workload is huge, time is short. Morale isn’t great right now.” (8 / 10 / 98)

Bristol Herald Courier

“I bailed out of the place just before the rich owners (who live 250 miles away) sold to Media General. . . there’s no opportunity for professional advancement. Continuing education is unheard of. The paper won a few awards while I was there, but we wondered if any of our clips were actually submitted in contests. Anyway, it’s tough to produce award-winning copy at a place where reporters are expected to churn out 4-5 stories a day. There’s little time for depth, context or polish. A friend who still works there said Media General canned the executive editor two days before the sale was complete. I hear the news hole is shrinking at the paper because the new owners jacked ad rates on the auto dealerships and pissed them off. Now a boycott’s in full swing and management’s response was to cut pages. The incredible shrinking newspaper. Being in the news room was hell. Hardly anyone spoke to each other. The decent jobs were held by bureau reporters who NEVER came to the main office unless it was to pick up supplies. . . I hear people worry about their jobs since the new owners haven’t hired a management team and plan to close one of the bureaus, a two-reporter office deep in Appalachia coalfields country, which is dead anyway from the perspective of the advertising department. Watch out for the City Editor. Motto: “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too.” (3 / 21 / 98)

Another view of the Bristol Herald Courier: “Well, I can’t really argue with the original writer’s assessment of the city editor, but she’s a CITY EDITOR, for Pete’s Sake. You can’t expect her to be a timid little waif, can you? Anyway, the Herald-Courier isn’t such a bad place to work. The staff is small and workload grueling sometimes, but it’s a pretty good place to get your foot in the door. Media General is not so bad, either. They’ve been mostly hands-off so far. They haven’t made any drastic changes that directly affect the staff. I may wind up eating crow over that comment, but nothing has happened yet and it’s been almost six months. The pay’s not so great, but it’s in line with other area newspapers, and the cost of living here is pretty good. If you’re looking to get a lot of varied experience in a relatively short period of time, this is a good place. But if you can’t take the heat from a demanding city editor, then go work in PR somewhere. (5 / 16 / 98)

Roanoke Times

“Very Conservative, low pay, high turnover” (7 / 29 / 98)

Another view of the Roanoke Times: “The Roanoke Times (owned by Landmark Communications) has a 100,000+ circulation in Southwestern Virginia. Unfortunately, the paper has no real competition. The upper management has no real vision, poor news judgment and provides no consistency in decision-making. Not only does this negatively affect employees, it offends readers and damages the paper’s credibility. The pay is low, although the benefits are decent, including tuition reimbursement (provided the paper approves your classes). Morale has been at an all-time low over last six months, and it seems things are spiraling downward. . . there is also a great deal of job combining / downsizing going on, so people are extremely stressed out and overworked. Basically the focus is on the bottom line. . . more time is spent on statistics and surveys than on journalism. The employees are basically treated like machines, and entire product suffers for it. It is really an unfortunate situation because it could certainly be much better, and the Roanoke Valley is really a lovely place to live.” (8 / 24 / 98)

Another View of the Times: “I’ve only been here a short time so I’m not well versed in the ways of office politics. But from what I’ve seen this is a very good, well-written, highly conservative newspaper with a very high turnover. In the last two years, a business editor, seven reporters and three copy editors, including the copy desk chief, have jumped ship. As far as morale… I’m still looking for it. Other bad points: No diversity in upper or lower newsroom management nor has there ever been. . . the paper talks a good game about recruiting minorities but so far it’s been cheap talk. Cost of living in Roanoke is low which is probably why the paper pays so low. Editors are good to work with but young reporters and interns won’t see much guidance or feedback. . . . get some clips and do what everyone else does: Get the HELL OUT!” (8 / 24 / 98)

Charlottesville Daily-Progress

“A great little paper that could be so much more– if only Media General would wake up and put a little money into it. Pay sucks, in fact, it’s the key reason everyone leaves. The editors are good, but the workload is pretty heavy most of the time. The publisher is a joke. . . Media General didn’t blink. Still, I’d recommend this paper. There are a lot of opportunities to get good clips. Charlottesville is a great place to live and hard to leave. Just expect to have trouble affording anything! ” (8 17 / 98)

Staunton News-Leader

“I’ve been working at this paper for a few months now. . . from what I’ve seen, the paper itself has been on the rise since Gannett purchased them. . . especially when the new Managing Editor they sent came in and took over the show. Changes have been slow but steady and very positive in that the appearance and quality of the publication are of a higher (caliber). Give it some time under this man’s leadership, and this publication has the possibility of moving from a smaller daily to a larger. As for office politics, it exists as it does everywhere but is more in the form of blowing off steam and gossiping (shutters at that word) but with generally good spirits.” (8 / 10 / 98)

Until Next Time. . .

Is That YES YES YES in Your Eyes?????