This Makes a Journalist's Blood Boil!
Sorry, Burlington Free Press, but after reading this news item from Read Up On It , I am riled!
The gist of the story is this: reporters and other staff at BFP (in Vermont) were apparently informed last week that their parking spaces were being revoked, forcing them to pay daily for dowtown parking.
The change did not affect executives or outside sales staff.
In addition, the writers are also reportedly losing their water cooler, which has been replaced by mesh on the bathroom faucets, according to Read Up On It's report.
argh!
This brings to light a disturbing trend that I, too, have experienced in the past. Journalists who work for smaller, community-based publications have no less important a job than those in more well-heeled newsrooms, and yet are often treated like second-class citizens. Most news writers will tell you they knew full-well when they embarked on this career path that it wasn't necessarily going to be a lucrative one. But a little respect for the craft goes a long way.
I once worked for an outfit that placed all of its writers in a basement newsroom with no windows. We got over that, joking about 'the dungeon' as we trekked into the office.
But then, one year our Christmas bonuses magically transformed from cash into frozen hams and turkeys which, incidentally, the publisher did not have to pay for unless we went to the specific butcher in East Nowhere to collect. It was right out of National Lampoon.
Then, the mice began visiting us in the dungeon. When it rained, we typed gingerly on our off-market keyboards while holding our feet off the floor. The list goes on and on.
I understand the financial travails of print newspapers everywhere, but slashing the basic benefits of core staff, no matter how small, will only lead to a disgruntled workforce and a suffering product.
I am privileged -- and it shouldn't be a privilege -- to write full-time for a progressive company that allows me a parking space and clean water whenever I feel like it. We identify money-saving opportunities as a team, using business partnerships and barter whenever possible. It does work.
For a reporter who likely isn't even being paid their own worth in salt, a water cooler and parking (for the car they'll need to use to cover 90% of their stories, hello) are certain unalienable rights.
Step it up, BFP! Ad revenues and editorial content work hand-in-hand. Without words, your paper is nothing more than a grocery store circular. And without writers, your pages will soon languish in silence.
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