An update of sorts
We will be running a story tomorrow announcing my resignation as managing editor at the Journal. We told the staff yesterday. So consider this the tease, as it will make you read the article.
But the short version is that a) I wanted to try some other things besides running a newsroom before I got too old to make the transition and that b) I had some substantial disagreements with our corporate staff about some planned changes for our newsroom in the coming year. My last day will be at the end of January, and OTTERBLOG will likely cease publication at that time.
This online conversation, digital as it must be, critical as it often has been, has been one of the highlights of my tenure here. Even the scolding.
I’ll have more on this during the next few weeks, and my plan is not to get all weepy about my time here, etc. The Journal is a strong paper, certainly stronger than any one person, and it will survive. That’s my hope. It’s been a great ride here. I love Winston-Salem and plan to stay here, if possible. But after 21+ years here, it’s time to move on.
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
I hope you’re wildly successful at whatever you try your hand at next. More importantly, I hope you’re wildly happy.
Best,
Lucy
best to you, Ken, and good luck in future endeavors. Thanks for all the hard work trying to keep our community a better informed, and simply better, place to be.
Media General’s loss will be someone else’s gain. Time to enjoy the next chapter in your life. Best wishes.
Best of luck and ditto what Esbee wrote.
Hey Ken—
Just saw a post about you on Romenesko. I think you replaced me in Torrington but remember meeting you a few times on trips back into town.
I left journalism five years ago but my wife is still plugging away at the WSJ.
Good luck.
Thanks for the nice thoughts.
Mark, you were a tough act to follow. Everytime I thought I had a good story, I would find that you had already done it.
Best wishes for future projects. Thanks for making a statement for other journalist and the “forced restructuring” of newspapers. I am familiar with the process in that family members have lost jobs as a result of other newspapers consolidating the copy-editing and design functions. It appears in the future, I’ll be forced to secure a device that will be portable—so that I can continue to read the news with details and not just get the t.v. version.
Thanks for all you have done to make the Winston
Salem Journal a quality news source.
Good luck in the future. I hope that whatever the things you want to try are things you’re happy doing.
It’s funny (not really) isn’t it; Often the corporate types wanting to make changes are often the very ones who were in charge and either created or contributed to the current problems or didn’t see or react to business changes in time to prevent the inevitable. I wonder what that “Uh oh” moment feels like.
Enjoyed your blog Ken. Hope you have success wherever you go.
Very disappointing, it was obvious to me that you listened(did not always agree)to what I wrote and I saw changes from the paper. W-S’s loss! Hopefully the next managing editor will continue to look at your sport’s department and their propensity to ignore girls’ sports as well as private schools. If crowd participation was the reason to not cover Garber then Spencer did not lead to more than the Garber coverage. (FYI, blog has been going for 6 months and not one time has a private school not participating in the public school league been mentioned). Good luck to you.
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