Just like most of their lame coverage of Kansas City’s two-day-old history The Star’s layoffs don’t make much sense either.
While some of my least favorite writers keep on collecting a check, the so-called “paper-of-record” doesn’t make the obvious cuts. No one has benefited from this anomaly more than Star Reader Representative Derek Donovan.
Don’t get me wrong, I hear Donovan is actually a really nice guy. He’s a big time David Bowie fan and even worked with the icon on an Internet project. But there’s no denying that as a Reader’s Rep his professional career is part of a dying breed.
Journalism purists (i.e. old white people) will nitpick at my comparison, but the career fortune of a Readers’ Rep closely follows the fate of the modern day ombudsman. And for that legendary class of newsie things have never been worse for the past few years. Here’s just one example:
“Editor & Publisher picks up on a trend that
DPW
Librarian, herself…Tony are you a sexist?
36 ACT
Donovan scored pefect on his ACT’s. You bet he’s one smart cookie.
I’ve always looked up to the guy. Obviously not being in control of destiny is annoying, but Whateveh.
GO Donovan!
Robertoe
He scored perfect on the ACTs and he’s got this deadend job at the sinking ship KCStar? Something’s amiss.
Jeffrey Dvorkin
Rumors of the demise of ombudsmen is greatly exaggerated. ONO is alive and well and has just marked its 30th anniversary at it’s annual conference in Oxford, England. Our membership is up overall and in the US we have regained 4 members after losing 10. We are down slightly (stateside) but far from out. We are growing rapidly in Europe, Latin America and in Asia.As the executive director of ONO, things are looking up once more.