Jackson Jambalaya

How many 'editors' does a paper have anyway? I saw their ad today for some sort of manager of paper deliverers and it said 'We are here to stay'. I have subscribed for thirty years and my paper that used to be here at 5:00 is lucky to hit the drive now at 7:15, if at all. I would estimate that at least four days a month there is NO paper.

Bet Jimmie Gates wasn't one of them

6:26
We have, as well, and most days the paper is so thin they might as well not bother. My grandfather was a day editor back in the 50's for the Hedermans and both he, and they, would be embarrassed by what this so-called paper has become.

The reporters suck as well. The ladies covering crime are horrible.

The JSU beat writer was one of them. I really hate that for the guy; hadn't even been there a year, I think.

Whomever they RIFd won't be who should have been RIFd.

Anna Wolfe is a good reporter. And she is hot!

they'll get picked up by jim barksdale's new blog and make twice as much money for doing a quarter of the work.

Therese Apel is the only reason I still read the CL. Man I love those redheads.

Who even reads that pack of lies anyway?

I read two sections. The Front Page and the one that has puzzles and comics. I do not even open the USA Today as I consider it harmful to one's mind. Have wondered recently what it would be like to not take the paper.

This is a real problem in our country and will get worse before it gets better. We citizens need a fair minded and robust press to keep the politicians honest. With revenues declining at newspapers, they just do a terrible job at this. They don't have the staff. And they fire the best writers and replace them with young people who will work cheep. The national media is about 85% in the tank for Democrats so you don't get honest reporting from them.
Kingfish digs out more stuff by himself than the entire staff at the Clarion Liar. I don't know what the solution is, but our democracy is suffering because newspapers are so weak.

The job title 'Editor' must be at least as popular as 'Manager Trainee' at the fast food places.

Requirement: "Understands the basics of subject/verb agreement and gets it right at least 58% of the time as judged by peers."

They were offering "free umbrellas" at the fair if you would sign up for a subscription. Had a bunch of senior citizens sweating it out hasseling fair goers.

Railing against the liberalism of the CL is preaching to the choir. The reality is technology and the internet spelled the doom of newspapers over a decade ago. They are just bayoneting the wounded.

This is what old timers in baseball call addition by subtraction. No matter who they canned, the few subscribers they have left will be better served.

a strong local paper is good for a community. Sad that it is disintegrating, but they brought a lot of it on themselves. I would rather they cut off some of their columnist than lay off reporters. Get rid of Bill Minor, the dinosaur from the 60's and Sid Salter. Sid has a full time big job at MSU and he probably writes his column on taxpayer time. He use to have a mid afternoon radio show while employed full time by the C-L. Also get rid of the idiot that has a gues column that tries to be so funny. He is a far far left nut cake. I enjoy reading both liberal and conservative writes but that guy is not an honest writer.

It doesn't surprise me that some editors were canned. Ever noticed the multiple typos in each day's paper ? Look at today's paper...the caption below the photo of Megan West, one in Jimmie Gates' article, the obit for Donna Owen Maxwell, etc. Isn't part of a editor's job to review articles and correct mistakes ? Yes, we all make typos every now and then, but the CL has multiple typos daily, which is just one indicator of a lack of quality.

8:22 obituaries are written by the family of the deceased or the funeral home.

This hasn't been a newspaper in a long time. But that's OK. Jackson hasn't been a city in a long time.

Please let one of them be Hugh "Flounder" Kellenburger.

As a young person who will never subscribe to the paper (I can get the same info from Twitter/facebook in real time), I cannot say I am surprised. I do feel bad for the individuals that lost their job but it's not like they were shocked either. The only one I know for sure, Daniel Pauling, the JSU beat writer who started as the Ole Miss beat writer, will bounce back. He was only there around a year.

Everyone saying it's a shame that its going away etc., get over it. Its a dead business. You are just prolonging a slow death.

(I can get the same info from Twitter/facebook in real time)

Dumbing down of the populace.

Sherry Lucas is gone as well.

Yes, 8:45, I understand that. But they are then proofread and typeset by the editor before printing, or at least they're supposed to be. Otherwise, a person could write or say anything including defamatory statements, cuss words, other inappropriate things, etc.

Lucas, too? Damn. She was one of the few reasons we continue to subscribe.
C.L. corporate statement: "See foot, shoot foot, wonder why foot hurts".

Sounds like they had more workers than subscribers.
Why would anyone buy a newspaper?

Good riddance to Sherry Lucas. Why pay that old woman forty-two thou a year to copy and paste recipes about cakes and pies when they can get a girl fresh out of Belhaven to do it for nineteen-five?

I doubt Minor and Salter are on the regular payroll. Surely they are only paid piece-rate, if anything at all. If the organization gets real desperate, they can sell off all that 7 ft tall iron fencing and let the locals roam around and into the building. Would a true liberal organization fence out the natives? Aren't all liberals opposed to fences and walls?

Hope the Hedermans are happy. They are the ones who sold out to
Gannett for a pretty penny in the eighties around the time Jackson began to sink. Coincidence?

Yeah its the Hedderman's fault Jackson is sinking due to selling the Clarion Ledger. But, because you inquire, they are doing just fine and pretty happy.

On another note, I wonder if Ole Miss will help fund them a little since they are their favorite propaganda outlet.

It's pretty good....to start your coals for your outdoor grill....

What I don't get is how a company which will pry into anyones personal business, print often unfounded damaging rumors about people with on regard for the damage they inflict WILL NOT ANSWER A SIMPLE QUESTION like who has been laid off.

Not that many years ago "single copy" (stores & racks) had in the metro 20 carriers. Home delivery worked out of distribution centers in Jackson(2), Pearl, and Ridgeland with hundreds of carriers. Today the plan is to merge single copy paper delivery with home delivery carriers. The only way it works, circulation at a stand still. If you have ever been inside the C-L in its hay day (not that long ago),its now a ghost town that could easily be subdivided and rented out.

I am a newspaper reader in spite of the Clarion Ledger's self. Hope the cuts started close to the top with Sam R. Hall. He recently admitted that he did not edit, after a major gaffe in the sports section. Hate that about Sherry. They just started a section called "The Upside", where they cram all the positive news. Her columns and reports on what's up in the metro are very informative and would fit nicely there.

@12:02 - Once the Hedermans cashed out, no one was left in the fourth estate with a local investment in digging into what was (and still is) going on in the metro area. Sigh.

"A strong local paper is good for a community."

Who said that? Mark Twain or Andy Rooney? There we go with an editorial from an adjunct community activist. Whose definition of 'strong' will we use? Are you suggesting the paper had a 'local' service area? Jackson is not a 'community'. Nor is the Metro, nor the state.

We're not talking here about the Deer Creek Pilot over in the Delta where the locals check to see the price on cantaloupe at Sunflower or to see when the Methodist Church Bizarre is. This used to be a statewide paper of relevance and significance. That it's labored breathing can best be defined as moribund is undeniable.

Maybe they should have learned to tell the truth. So long!

I stopped getting home subscription after they axed the Clinton News. I thought that if Clinton wasn't important to the CL, neither am I.

We now have a locally-owned paper called the Clinton Courier. It fulfills the same purpose as the Clinton News did, but its free and generates revenue through advertising. Apparently it's not enough revenue for Gannett, but it has worked for its owner.

I assume all of the remaining staff at the CL have resumes out.

I won't reveal names but from an insider at the newspaper, I'm told those laid off were two editors, one digital and print "producer" (I think that's the reinvented title for what used to be copy editors), and three reporters (one news, one sports, and one features).

Gannett said it was laying off 2% of it's total staff. Six people in Jackson sounds like more than 2% locally, but I could be wrong.

The list of those axed is a little strange, but at least they left at least one good reporter - Anna Wolfe. Before her arrival I couldn't even find a reason to pay for the digital service, much less a subscription for the hard copy. Since she's been there the CL has actually covered many of the issues facing 'our fair city', understanding that there are several there to be covered. Hopefully she will stay around for a while.

Therese Apel should've been on that list instead of Sherry Lucas.

Lucas and Bryant will be missed. I don't recognize the other names.

They have editors?!

I cancelled my subscription to the CL after they published the MSU SEC Championship edition giving credit to Ole Miss for helping us win. In the freakin above the fold Headline! But that was just the last straw, its been fish wrap for many years. and I am a newspaper guy, I love reading the newspaper in the morning with my coffee, but To Hell with that paper and everyone that works there.

I'm shocked that they still pay an editorial cartoonist. talk about being stuck in the old days.

An editorial cartoonist on the MSGOP payroll at that!

What, no sense of humor, 11:01 and 11:28?
Marshall is the only thing worthwhile about that paper. And he strikes both Dem and GOP. What a talent to be able to capture and get a timely message across in one frame.

Thanks for that editorial on yourself Marshal!

Please define a 'community paper'? There is no way to call anybody local about non-delivery. You wind up with somebody in another state and the complaint never gets handled.

Their 'how to submit a letter to the editor' instructions have been obsolete for over a year. It does not work. When you finally do get a complaint heard, you get contacted by someone who tells you to mail your letter to them. Then you won't be published since you aren't that Joe Dove idiot or a couple of other repetitive, harping democrats.

Well, they should've kept Mollie. I can think immediately of three reporters who should've been cut before her.

Who the hell is Mollie and exactly why is/was she relevant to the rest of us?

Who cares. It has turned into a liberal rag.

Obvious from the cuts that Sam R Hall doesn't possess the stones to cull any of the sacred cows.

What an awful, awful place to work. Corporate shirts in D.C. have no idea how to run a newspaper. Haven't read that waste of good trees since Orley Hood, Rick Cleveland, and David Hampton were unceremoniously dumped. Combine that with the fact that the former executive director of the Mississippi Democratic Party is currently running the newsroom, and there's no reason whatsoever to read it.

It seems odd that Mollie Bryant has the lead story in Sunday'/ edition.

Not so odd when you consider those long, investigative pieces are often done weeks in advance of the date they're published.