We learn today that the rumors have been true, Kit Atwell is retiring, and Kelly Soldwedel is replacing her at the top of the masthead. It will be fascinating to see whether this makes any difference in the paper.
On a newspaper, the publisher is the cheese. She makes the big business decisions on behalf of the financial interests who pocket the dividends. She's the strategist for the future and crisis manager for the present. The editors create the product, but the publisher tells them what sort of product it has to be.
From the announcement in the paper it's clear Ms Soldwedel didn't reach this position by climbing the experience ladder. She's all of seven and a half years out of college, and made general manager in four. The paper seems proud that she's only running the company because her progenitors did. I hope she's got enough pride in herself to overcome her elevation-as-inheritance. The paper needs it.
Any attentive reader can see pretty quickly that the Courier desperately needs new blood and real-world experience to blow the cobwebs out of its congested, incestuous culture and make the changes necessary to survive and thrive in a radically changing media environment. Our community needs a vibrant, engaged and muscular Courier.
I challenge Ms Soldwedel to seek out and learn from her more worldly peers, eschew flabby tradition, embrace community service first, kick out the dead wood and push the paper bodily into the 21st century. There is no other hope for its future.
For readers of the Daily Courier in Prescott, Arizona. Comment and discuss. Be nice, now.
Muggs archive
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Saturday, January 1, 2011
4 comments:
I encourage you to share your own views and experience with me and other readers. How you do that matters, and I'm committed to maintaining a place where readers and commenters can feel safe from adolescent BS. So here's the deal:
There are two kinds of anonymous comments: those by people who have a genuine fear of revenge from the dark side, and those from darksiders just hiding to avoid accountability. You may post comments anonymously, but I reserve the right to treat anonymous comments as found items that belong to me and do with them as I see fit.
If, on the other hand, you're willing to stand by your convictions and post under your own name or a regular handle, your comments belong to you, and I'll edit them only on egregious violations of respect for others.
If this doesn't work for you, I'm sure you'll be happier somewhere else.
I'm not sure if I should interpret this as an early warning of things to come, but I noticed that the "Reader Comments" feature that would normally have been attached to the announcement of Ms. Soldwedel's advancement had been disabled. Maybe she wasn't ready to get her feet wet as a public figure. I can think of a few others who would like to have that priviledge extended to them! Oh well, "keep blogging in the free world."
ReplyDeleteOh, that's brilliant. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteI remember Kelly when she came to PNI and was doing photography. Regardless of her family's ownership of print media in Yavapai County, etc. she was always a great person to talk with. I wish her well in the challengin' task of making the Daily Courier relevant in post-Aughts. Maybe she'll pull a Truman and surprise 'em all when she gets the reins? I hope so.
ReplyDeleteI notice the promotion story in today's biz section on Kelly's bro, also doesn't allow people to post comments. Even if the courier had zero intentions, it still sends the wrong message.
ReplyDelete