It sounds like former Civil Beat editor John Temple arrived at the Washington Post at a very tough time, described in this column by the newspaper’s ombudsman (“The Post fails a young blogger“).
The Post just had a rough few days. It was shut out of the 2012 Pulitzer Prizes, which were announced Monday. On the same day, journalists here had to accept or reject The Post’s fifth buyout offer in nine years. The union representing newsroom workers says that at least 32 accepted, and probably more. And the prior Friday, a Post blogger, Elizabeth Flock, resigned.
According to the Huffington Post:
Washington Post Guild representative Fredrick Kunkle posted an update to the organization’s Facebook page on Wednesday. He revealed that thirty-two Guild members have accepted the buyout, while the total number of employees comes close to fifty.
Kunkle also said it appears “a high number of the participants are Asian, African-American or Latino. By our count, more a dozen of these Guild-covered employees are minorities, most of whom are black.”
He wrote that the buyout deadline, along with the resignation of writer Elizabeth Flock and Pulitzer snub, has made this “one of most dismal weeks in recent Post history.”
For those who are interested, here’s a rundown of that buyout package.
While looking for that info, I ran across this 2009 column by Temple, “Twelve Lessons For Editors From the Demise of the Rocky Mountain News,” available on the Post’s Newspaper Guild web site.
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One thing that was never discussed publicly regarding Temple’s tenure at Civil Beat but was the subject of considerable water cooler talk: in Civil Beat’s short existence, almost two times as many its staff left the publication than those who stayed. I’ve wondered what the Post sees in someone with one failed newspaper and another not-quite-succeeded blog under his belt. How’s he going to handle his new job?