Bryce Williams, the disgruntled former TV newsman who gunned down two of his ex-colleagues during a live newscast in Virginia Wednesday, was told in 2012 to seek counseling or risk losing his job at WDBJ-7, according to internal memos from his personnel file obtained by the Guardian.
Yesterday, Buzzfeed published a memo telling staffers that they could be fired for leaking internal company information to the press. Allow us to point out the implications of this.
Many media outlets have style guides, which governs all matters related to writing style. We got a copy of Vice's style guide. Here it is.
Retail juggernaut Walmart maintains an internal website for employees only. There, Walmart workers are free to bitch anonymously to executives. Sometimes, these comments are leaked to us.
Genetically modified agribusiness and pesticide conglomerate Monsanto has a reputation (rightly or wrongly) as one of the most evil companies in America. Here's one way they're working on their PR: by enlisting the help of Conde Nast, and Mo Rocca, and some desperate charities.
New York Times Magazine editor Hugo Lindgren will be leaving at the end of the year. Who's his replacement? The Times revealed today: we're stalling! Stalling!
With each passing year, it seems, American retailers find some way to make to make "Black Friday," the terrifying shopping day after Thanksgiving, a worse experience for their poor employees. This year is no exception.
The New York Times, like the rest of the newspaper industry, went through a painful series of buyouts after the 2008 financial collapse exacerbated the already ongoing collapse of the newspaper industry. In 2009, they cut 100 positions. In 2011, they had 20 more buyouts. This morning, they announced they want 30 more.
Union-busting soul destroyer Target, the Wal-Mart of the aspirational set, is in a period of existential peril. The company must find a way to defeat Amazon's online retail empire. The company's big plan (really): a training program, just rolled out, to teach its employees how to be AMAZING.
Devil-tinted big box retailer Target has one great competitor that keeps its executives awake at night. No, not Wal-Mart—Amazon. It's Amazon that is poised to become the amorphous online "big box" of the future, leaving today's big, concrete boxes in a perilous position. But Target has a plan to save itself: it will give all of its customers an AMAZING shopping experience.
Backhanded reality TV casting request of the day, culled from a Gawker inbox:
Put on your thinking caps, go into active listening mode, and stretch out your inside voices, Washington Post employees: it's time for a good old-fashioned in-house daylong corporate brainstorming session. No idea is too wacky to win the $1,000 prize! Looking at you, Hipness Desk. So remember to RSVP for this big event, #PostDisrupt. Is it on Twitter? No, there's just a hash tag in the name. For reasons of #Disrupt #Journalism #Hipness #BobWoodwardIsDoneAndWeNeedSomethingBig. The full email is below.
A.G. "Baller of a New Generation" Sulzberger—son of NYT publisher Pinch Sulzberger, heir to the throne of the Times empire, and natural wisenheimer—has completed his exile in Middle America, where he helmed the Kansas City desk and was forced to endure prolonged periods of subpar vegetarian cooking. He's coming home... TO RULE. To work on the Metro Desk, we mean. Don't fool yourselves; he'll be ruling soon enough.
Well, HMMM: the New York Times Co. just announced that CEO Janet Robinson is "retiring." It's fair to call this unexpected. Try reading between these lines, from the NYT's own story:
You would think that the AP would be satisfied with its status as "last remaining source of non-local 'news' for 95% of American newspapers." But no! Now they want to be kings of the internet, and whatnot, as well.
The following email just went out to New York Times newsroom staffers. These are the first buyout offers the paper's put out since the real depths of the recession in 2009. "Voluntary," yes. But not a good sign.
New York Times ethics cop Phil Corbett just sent out the following memo to the newsroom, reminding them about the paper's rules for paid speaking engagements. (Thomas Friedman, among others, has had trouble with this in the past.) An NYT source says "they don't send these reminders out unless someone breaks the rules or screws up." So who was it? Email me if you know.
In your departing Tuesday media column: Sam Sifton says goodbye to the NYT restaurant critic gig (with memo!), Nancy Franklin quits as NYer TV critic, more News Corp scandalism, and Mashable expands.
As predicted, economics columnist David Leonhardt is the new Washington bureau chief of the New York Times, taking over for Dean Baquet, who's moved up in the world. The announcement memo, which just went out, is below.
In your treacly Tuesday media column: News Corp stock is a buy sell, Dan Doctoroff is Bloomberg's new CEO, the economy barely beats Casey Anthony, magazine ad pages are flat, and Time Out Boston folds.
