Annie quotes the Strib's Lou Gelfand: > >The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board named Jon Gurban superintendent > >at about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 17. > >City Hall reporter Rochelle Olson, who on occasion has stretched her > >assigned terrain to cover the board, was not there. > >She found out the next morning when board members called her at home. > >Result: On Dec. 19, two days after Gurban's naming, her story appeared on > >the front page. Even so, the Star Tribune owned the story. No one from the > >media was at the board meeting.
This is incorrect. Scott Russell from the Southwest Journal/Skyway News was there. The only reason the Strib "owned" the story is because we don't publish for a couple of weeks at the end of the year. I hope the Strib will run a correction on this point. But for the record, Scott is chomping at the bit to write the story. (It will appear in the Jan. 5 Skyway News and Jan. 8 SW Journal.) <snip> > >But reporter Olson's supervisors didn't grasp the possibility that a new > >superintendent might be named that night. > >Olson had. She made her case for the assignment to supervisor Cathy > >Riddick. That meant overtime, and she said she was turned down. > >"The desire to avoid paying Rochelle overtime pay is true -- partly," said > >Joe Williams, assistant managing editor-local news. > >He said the overtime to cover a number of major breaking stories in the > >last 90 days -- Saddam Hussein's capture, Dru Sjodin's disappearance and > >Stephen Porter's accusations of police abuse, to name a few -- had come at > >a price. Williams' explanation omits a major reason why the Strib got to his story late. It wasn't just "major breaking stories" elsewhere - it was their own internal staffing decisions. A major reason the Strib had no one at the meeting is because they transferred Steve Brandt from the neighborhoods/parks beat to schools. (In effect, the Strib eliminated a Minneapolis reporter to move Allie Shah to a "youth issues" beat.) So this is what you get - a day late and not first-hand. I have resisted commenting on the Strib's staffing choices because I am a nominal competitor and it might seem self-serving. In truth, I'm a citizen of the city and even if it means competition for us, I wish they hadn't eliminated one Minneapolis position. Kudos to Rochelle for fighting for the story - and her editors should take a greater responsibility for why it happened. If a politician had obfuscated like this, one of the Strib's good reporters would have nailed them. David Brauer Kingfield Editor, SW Journal and Skyway News REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
