Wow...

...Plain Dealer Journalists Get Axed Over the Phone

Update: I am reminded of an incident. When I started out in journalism, it was with book reviews in a few American dailies. Frank was, of course, the first books editor to give me work. (Thanks, Frank!) Once I had a byline in an American paper, it became easy to find work at other outlets. I was soon writing for Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, St Petersburg Times, and others.

However, one paper that I was unable to crack was the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The books editor of the paper, I remember distinctly, asked me to send her hard copies of my published reviews. When I explained to her that I was in India and it would be much faster if I could simply send attachments, she replied it was procedure. It was splendidly fatuous but I was starting out and wanted all the work I could get. I made a neat bundle of my reviews and packed them off to Cleveland, OH.

I waited. Fifteen days, a month, then two months. No word. I wrote her, to no avail. I kept writing, buoyed by the advice that another books editor had given me. Persistence, he had told me, always works with Americans. So I wrote to the Cleveland lady every week. Finally, she replied saying she was not interested.

Wow. Was that terse! I wondered if this was something unique to this newspaper since I had generally received favorable responses. Not everyone published me but they sure as hell did not ask me to get lost after making me send a big packet halfway across the world.

So, it is with some amusement that I read reports of the rather indiscreet sacking method employed by the Plain Dealer management.