Al Diamon
Anybody editing?
(page 1 of 2)
Good news/bad news: The front page of the July 24 Portland Press Herald seemed to a carry grim warning for Bath Iron Works, one of Maine’s largest private employers. The U.S. Navy had changed its mind about building six more Zumwalt-class destroyers, several of which were to have been constructed at BIW. And, according to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, additional Navy contracts for nine older-style destroyers, called Arleigh Burkes, would not be sufficient to maintain current employment levels at the shipyard.
“Bath needs to construct two of the old-style destroyers each year in order to maintain its work force, and it needs to be able to build seven of the nine, at least,” the story quotes Collins as saying. “What I heard was disquieting. The Navy plans to give Bath the majority of the nine new destroyers, but at a rate of one a year and not as many as seven.”
Oh, wait. Cancel the doom and gloom. A sidebar story in the same paper appeared below the headline, “Forecast of no layoffs warms Bath’s heart” and a sub-headline that said, “Workers are assured that building six more of the Arleigh Burke destroyers will be better for the yard.”
This piece cites U.S. Rep. Tom Allen as saying BIW would get contracts for six of the nine Burke-class ships, which would be plenty to keep everyone employed. It doesn’t say how many destroyers the yard would build each year, nor how long this construction spree would last. It also doesn’t explain why Allen and Collins are making contradictory statements on the same newspaper page.
Who’s right? Seems as if an experienced editor would have made reporters Matt Wickenheiser (first story) and John Richardson (second story) sort it out. But these days, experienced editors are rarer than destroyer contracts.
Good team/no team: The Kennebec Journal is Augusta plans to save a few bucks by filling the vacant post of city editor with the paper’s current photo editor. As of August 18, Jim Evans will oversee both photographers and reporters at the paper. Evans’ promotion was announced by editor Eric Conrad last month in his blog on the KJ’s Web site.
Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 in Permalink
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Reader Comments:
A correction: According to an e-mail from Eric Conrad, editor of the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal, George Myers is still at the Sentinel and still the city editor. Conrad also writes that the consolidation of the photo editor's and city editor's positions at the KJ was not done to save money. He said a new photographer will be hired. although he doesn't explain how that will fit in with pending layoffs at the papers.
The claim that Myers had left the paper constitutes a major mistake on my part, and I apologize. I relied on information from a previously reliable source and did not thoroughly doublecheck what I was told. I'll try not to let that happen again.
Al Diamon