Sean Holman, the online journalist who has deep hooks into the behind-the-scenes world of our provincial capital, offers an example of bad management practices in a big city newsroom:
The Times Colonist’s newsroom is beginning to look like a cross between Brave New World’s antiseptic society and 1984’s security state, according to Public Eye tipsters. Last Monday, management notified the broadsheet’s word slaves that food and beverages would no longer be allowed in the newsroom. No reason for the restriction was given. … Meanwhile, our tipsters tells us security cameras were also installed in the newsroom on the same day – not to monitor cleanliness but instead deal with a supposed theft problem. No word whether the video feed from those cameras is being piped directly into publisher Bob McKenzie’s office or recorded for a future reality show.
Sean’s using unnamed sources here but if it’s all true, neither of the moves — the ban on food and drink and especially the security cameras — is a sign of healthy management. I can’t help but wonder what effect that’s going to have on the journalism being produced in that atmosphere.
TECHNORATI TAGS: JOURNALISM, NEWSROOM, TIMES-COLONIST
Kind of reminiscent of the worst excesses of the Thomson chain in the 80s and early 90s — meting out paper clips like they were platinum, that sort of thing. Drove morale sky-high.
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