Notes from a Publisher: On my Departure from The Star Press

Colts Fan recently asked why I left my job at The Star Press in Muncie as it must have paid pretty well. I left an answer there, but I wanted to repost it as a blog for some people who might not know me. Thanks.

The official word / designation I was given was that my position was being eliminated and I was being downsized. There's a story behind the story, of course. My position was combined with the same position in Marion, IN to save costs. Gannett is in even more serious trouble now financially.

For those who don't know, I started in The Star Press newsroom as 'webmonkey' or 'web copy boy' in may of 1998, just as the Internet was taking off. I'd taught myself what I knew about the Internet working third shift in the Robert Bell computer lab at BSU (While taking a full load of classes and driving pizzas too...) 

The newspaper had a website at the time, but it was primitive and it took someone hours and hours to shovel all the content from print to the website. So, via some connects at the BSU journalism department - I got a part time job taking newspaper stories and cutting and pasting them online.

After a few short weeks, I had it down to a science and could get out at a reasonable hour with all the news on the website. Well, except for one thing - the sports department. What makes the story a little ironic, I guess, is that The Star Press sports department at that time was run by none other than Mr. Scott Underwood. 

Oh yes, he was my nemesis a long, long time ago. LOL. You see, I couldn't leave until the different departments sent me their final copy for the website. On many a night, the sports department would get caught up in a game of catch the football or checking out some website and forget about sending the content to me. Grrr.

Anyway, while the newsroom was cool, I was obviously on the bottom of the totem pole. Working nights, I worked with the managing editor at the time. No, I think he was the night editor. I forget his exact title. Mr. Brian Walker. Ah, I miss him. He taught me a lot about newspapering and how to get ahead at the newspaper.

After a few months, I knew who I needed to talk to - Mr. Bob Reese in the IT department, a mythical land on the third floor of the older south building (that used to be a Masonic Hall, I believe. Or maybe a Moose Lodge...) You had to climb up this tunnel like thing to reach it after walking over the pressroom from the newsroom. I loved that walk.

But I get ahead of myself. Mr. Bob Reese had heard good things about me, about my ideas to AUTOMATE the process of getting the news online and saving time. I don't remember all the details, but the talk went well.

Before I knew it, I was taken from the newsroom and implanted in the IT department. I was still low man on the totem pole in the department of 4, but IT ... well, it was IT. Heh. We were, for a while anyway, the only area of the building you could still smoke cigarettes in. We'd get visitors from every department stopping in for one reason or another if they were smokers.

So I worked long 60+ hour weeks and went to school and lived through a bad marriage - all at the same time. All the while, I soaked up everything I could about newspapering. I reported to Bob Reese until ... I can't remember the year to be honest. Gannett bought us out - the Pulliams sold - found a loophole and sold... His boss was none other than Mr. Henry Bird, publisher of The Herald Bulletin.

I worked really hard for many years automating systems, installing servers, training the newsroom, training the community and more. One project I'm proud of was started when Bob returned from Cinncinnatti with a sketch of some software he'd seen. This is what it did, he said. Can you build it?

And it took me many weeks and it was always a little buggy, but I BUILT IT. And the newsroom loved it. And production loved it. And the pressroom loved it. It allowed them to communicate about where pages were in the process w/out having to pick up a phone. Among other things. It was really rather slick, imho. My plan was to have the reports sent to the publisher's cellphone every morning, but I only had so much time I could dedicate to it. I figure they saved anywhere from $50k to $100k having me build the software from scratch, though.

Around that time there was a new Gannett publisher - Mr. Emmett Smelser. For a while I still had Bob Reese to buffer me from the big man, but soon Bob Reese was let go. A lot of good people were let go. Especially when they stopped printing locally in Muncie. It was sad. It made me upset that the big wigs were making in excess of $12 million (MILLION) per year and people who had dedicated their lives to the Pulliam company were being let go left and right.

My job switched. My title went from webmaster to Online Manager. I used to joke that my title (which I got to pick) was to compensate for my lack of a decent salary. (Which was still higher than a lot of staffers who had been there a lot more years than I had. I had a skillset, though...) 

They took me off the thing I was best at, though, and I suddenly had to bring in revenue from the website - more and more and more revenue. And I did. I hit or exceeded my numbers month after month. I didn't fit the corporate culture, though.

I remember once we had a visitor from corporate who said she wanted to meet the infamous 'kpaul' because I was blacklisted in the "Glass Tower" (aka Gannett Headquarters in McLean, VA - which I visited once, but that's another story. Smile.) That was kinda funny.

At the end, I reported directly to the publisher (Emmett Smelser.) He announced that my position was being cut a short while before he retired. I'm thankful he did, though, because that (and other things in my life at the time) pushed me into starting the Free Press project.

And it didn't blossom in Muncie ... yet ... but it has here in Anderson, where Henry Bird, my old boss, is now in charge of the newspaper. 

The Star Press website seems to be doing great today. Gannett poured a lot of money into their online all over the world. They're hurting, though. 

Anyway, I think I forgot your question. Did this help answer it some?