Toluu

ruthholladay.com

Ruth's Blog

Is McCain taking Indiana for granted?October 10

The Star's political writer Matt Tully has a pretty good column this morning, questioning why Sen. John McCain is ignoring Indiana in terms of campaign visits -- an absence all the more apparent since Sen. Barack Obama, his rival, was here Wednesday.

Tully, who was at Obama's massive (21,000) gathering at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Wednesday, says the question of "where is McCain?" was on everyone's lips during Obama's appearance.

Not where I sat, it wasn't. McCain is not even an afterthought; he's a zero, less than. The people sitting around me -- union workers, middle class black and white men and women, kids, pissed off Republicans -- were excited about Obama, not fretting over McCain.

"Of course, some Republicans downplay the importance of visits," writes Tully. "They say they're nice but not vital. They suggest that if McCain loses a reliably red state such as Indiana, he'll have lost the election in a landslide."

Wouldn't that be sweet?

Guild flap with Star makes Editor and PublisherOctober 9

Thanks to reader Jim Burns, who sent the following story which is running today on the Editor and Publisher website:

"Guild: 'Indy Star' Should Have Sought Layoff Volunteers

By Joe Strupp

Published: October 09, 2008 11:50 AM ET

NEW YORK Should The Indianapolis Star have asked for volunteers before announcing specific layoffs last August? The Indianapolis Newspaper Guild thinks so.

At least in the case of five of its members that the union claims were wrongly terminated.

"There would have been volunteers, I know of three for sure," Guild President Abe Aamidor contends. "There were several others who were thinking about it."

Aamidor's comments followed this week's decision by the guild to formally seek arbitration in the layoff of five newsroom employees.

Aamidor said the Aug. 19 layoff announcement of 23 Star employees, including seven newsroom staffers, did not follow a seniority provision in the contract. He said that would have protected five of the newsroom employees who were let go.

"Layoffs have to be by seniority," he said of the three-year guild agreement that expires at the end of 2008.

The disputed layoffs include sports copy editor Mark Morrow, designer Mark Koenig, picture editor Greg Fisher, and non-reporter newsroom staffers Kathleen Singleton and Jonathon LaRosa. "Other people were hired more recently than them," Aamidor has said. "There are people who have been working at the pap

Just save the jobs, pleaseOctober 8

Here is part of the Gannett party line on the changes coming for Indy.com. Let it rip:

"Currently, the plan is the have Indy.com and Metromix.com coexist until the beginning of December and then Indy.com will go through a transformation. The calendar portion of Indy.com will be moving to Metromix.com and this will become Indianapolis's new entertainment website. Indy.com will continue to exist in the future but will have more editorial content on lifestyles of the young, socially active. Indy.com will also become more of a social networking site and will become customizable, such as a MyYahoo where you can create your own page based on what you would like to see there."

Newspapers et all are always evolving. I recall working for Scripps Howard and having fits because the head office kept messing with the symbol of the chain: the lighthouse. Just leave the lighthouse alone, I thought. Don't modify the lighthouse.

But "change is what makes the world go 'round," and change is what is happening in the industry. My biggest concern at this stage of the game: don't eliminate any more positions. And keep the faith....

Gannett burying Indy.comOctober 8

First the Star launched INTake, with some fanfare and vision, then it went to Indy.com, a much more watered down and less intense version of a youth-oriented publication, geared to the online readers.

The latest word on the street is that Gannett will now use the national service Metromix to provide calendar/restaurant/event info for Indianapolis and readers of the paper.

As for Indy.com, it's destined to morph into a social networking site. How dated and quaint.

Trust Gannett: if there is a formula for ruining newspapers and careers, they have it mastered.

Also, this info bears out a rumor that was circulating a few weeks ago. Anybody else want to weigh in?

Here's the metromix link:

http://www.metromix.com/pick_your_city

Read it and weep....

My lunch with AndreOctober 8

That's my friend and fellow Obama volunteer Andre Lee, 32. We happened to be joined by Barack Obama.

We met, 21,000 or so of us, at non at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in the open-air coliseum Wednesday for a three-hour rally featuring a totally relaxed and on-task Sen. Obama. Despite overcast skies, we cheered, stomped our feet, chanted "Yes We Can!" and "OBAMA!" but mostly we listened and got our batteries re-charged by Obama, who believes in us.

"Us" is the middle class, and that's what this Indianapolis crowd looked like: young, old, white, black, in wheelchairs, in arms, and, like the rounded, middle-aged, bald Republican sitting just in front of us, in an orange shirt.

"I'm pumpkins for Obama," joked the Republican, whose Bloomington-based son explained his dad's presence: "He bought into everything Bush and the GOP said about the markets. Now he's for Obama."

And who wouldn't be, listening to the speech?

"Ronald Reagan asked, (when he ran for president} 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?'" asked Obama. At today's pace, he said, the question is "how are you compared to four weeks ago?" But, "this is not a time for fear or panic...it is a time for resolve and steady leadership.

"...This is the UNITED States of America," said Obama. "We have faced great challenges and great threats...Our destiny is not written for us but by us. We make the decisions.

"Indiana, that's