May 04, 2007
FAREWELL BUT NOT GOODBYE
I haven't written much about the changes taking place at the Tribune for several reasons. First, it's not my place. Second, it's private. As someone who lost my job 15 years ago next month when my paper closed, I have an extreme amount of sympathy for anyone in that situation. It's gut-wrenching and horrible and scary. I wouldn't wish it on my biggest foe.
Well, maybe a taste.
But I digress.
The changes that happen at a newspaper are very public. They have to be. To write about other businesses and institutions downsizing or laying off people to survive, you can't exactly shut the door when your own company does the same. If anything, you're required to go beyond the expectations of public disclosure. If you don't, your readers will further lose trust and what remains of your staff will no longer follow your lead. It's a dicey little cha-cha. Then there's the gift of giving your competition a free shot at you on your worst day. That's always two tons of fun.
Writing about it from the inside seems a tad too exploitive to me.
What I do feel comfortable writing about is how it hurts when someone like Judy Hill, a fixture at the paper, is shown the door. You don't replace that kind of relationship with readers. I used to edit Judy's columns. I went to high school with her son. She has a pet name for me that would insult anyone else but me: Shit-ass. I get Judy. Judy gets me.
It's horrible when someone like Bob Ross, a fixture at the paper, is asked to go. There's no filling the void of experience and friendship when that decision gets made.
It's brutal when someone with the world-class caliber of talent like David O'Keefe isn't in the building to play with. You can't even wrap your head around that reality.
And now today another friend, Chris Kuhn, is working her last day in Marketing. This is a dagger on another order altogether.
You don't know Chris, unless you've tripped over her cool blog at Cankuhn's Lagoon or read her comments here in the Salad Bowl. She didn't get a byline for the work she did. But if you read a promo in the paper that a story was coming to print in the next few days and you were intrigued enough to check that story out when it showed up in the paper, you know Chris' work.
She took a job that had been dicey at best, one that pinned her beneath the girders of journalism and business and promotion, and elevated it into a seamless production. Where once there had been difficulty and strife, Chris worked her ass off to make things run smoothly. To me, she was the Sherpa who brought readers to my stories. She cared enough to check the copy of the promos with me. She listened in news meetings when most sane people would be flatlining comatose. She chased through the byzantine system to get the best photos for what she needed. When something needed tweaking, she took the suggestion in stride and made the necessary changes. When stories changed run dates - which, you know, happens almost daily - she snapped into action and adjusted without complaint.
I don't know if she enjoyed what she did for the Tribune, WFLA and TBO.com, but from all appearances, she looked like she was having a blast, even on her worst day. Sometimes that matters more than actual enjoyment. People feed off that positive energy.
For all her work, though, what I've enjoyed most is getting to know her as a friend. She's just a monumental amount of fun.
We found this out early.
This is the photo I shot when Rommie and I and her colleague Andrea baptised her in the soothing, burrito-filled waters of El Taconazo. It's a rite of passage at the Tribune. You're new? We think you might be a good hang? We test it by giving you The Sombrero Treatment.
Not everyone takes kindly to the initiation. Many balk at the idea of putting on enormous headgear and eating food from a bus.
Chris, pictured at right, chugged the experience like it was a Meister Brau-filled beer bong at a frat house.
From that lunch, I knew immediately that we would be friends.
Life goes on. Bob found the life raft that is Sticks of Fire. He became BobRossMovies.com doing video movie reviews - something that he did so well on Friday mornings on WFLA for so long.
But you don't replace Bob's sense of fun. It's not often you can get a guy to swing a tiki torch while wearing a gigantic hat. Or put on a goofy mullet wig.
As for Judy, she decided retirement was the best option. But she's still going at her blog. Her fans can find her there and she can continue to do the good work she's done for charities, animal shelters and needy people in the Bay area. She can write about her children and grandchildren at will.
I called to wish her well after I heard she'd been let go.
"Hello?"
"It's Shit-ass."
"Which one?"
That's vintage Judy.
David will go on doing what he does best; painting and sculpting for some of the country's biggest publications.
Chris? Well, the future is an unwritten page at the moment.
She wrote on her blog:
Maybe it's time to determine the color of my parachute or celebrate the potential of escaping cubicle life altogether.I should be happy. There really are a number of possibilities and directions I could go....
I'm trying to remain open-minded, keep communication lines open to welcome opportunities to talk about available positions, regardless of the field. You just never know which door will be the right one, so why close any of them?
As a farewell, she wrote to her friends at the News Center:
Before I arrived at the Tribune, I was just a loyal reader for many, many years - who read my Belcher column faithfully, chuckled with the Ruth observations, shouted at the letters to the editor, checked out my Ross reviews every Friday and (I have to say it, Kevin) couldn’t wait for the Bobo the Dog trivia challenges.I feel that I have been very lucky to have been given a visitor pass to the newsroom. It’s been a great learning experience, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Thanks again and take care,
Chris
The Salad Bowl wishes you well, Chris. Whomever hires you - and whomever you meet at your next stop - they'll be lucky indeed. You're a bargain as an employee and a treasure as a friend.
UPDATE: This just in; Chris has been asked to join the advertising staff at the Tribune. Her first day: Monday.
Congrats, Chris.