“By a Baltimore Sun Staff Writer”

Jule Banville — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:58:59 +0000

Nice story today in the Baltimore Sun about the U of Maryland's plan to put a parking lot and maintenance sheds where there are now 15 acres of woods. Don't bother calling up the writer to give a compliment. They're on a byline strike today. The one-day protest is against Sun owners the Tribune Co., which recently laid off about one-third of their newsroom, mostly editors and bureau chiefs. Tribune's filed for Chapter 11 protection. Union rep Brent Jones tells the Washington Biz Journal injury's insulted because “[t]hese decisions were made without any discussions on alternative cost-saving methods.”

Wire creator, former Sun staffer, and the most reliable of Tribune's management's critics, David Simon, fired off some choice thoughts on the cutbacks on Facebook:

[I am] revulsed at what has happened at the Baltimore Sun this week. i really don’t know who Monty Cook is or what he stands for as the editor in chief, but before I asked the likes of Ann LoLordo or Eileen Canzian to leave the building — people who given their working lives to that institution — I would scratch together enough integrity to refuse and be fired my ownself.

It’s almost unfathomable. The Baltimore newspaper’s only plan is slow suicide, with Chicago leeching the last nickels and dimes even to the moment when they shutter the doors. Never has an industry so willingly butchered itself or shown its own product such contempt. (Via Baltimore Brew)

City Desk » byline strike

“By a Baltimore Sun Staff Writer”