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"Disturbing"
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the ninth and penultimate in a series of Monday odes that chronicle the legacy newsroom. Each is written from a different first-person perspective. Together they create the mumbled narrative of a special and sadly contracting culture. The author, Don Nelson, has been a newsman for almost 50 years. Links to previous odes follow this poem.
FORMER STAFFER, UNDER THE BUS
A while back all the airlines adopted
A long-term strategy:
Make your product increasingly worse;
Treat your customers like crap;
Blame all problems on the employees.Works for them.
The newspaper industry tried the same thing.
How do you think that’s going?
To see previous poems:
Ode #1, City Editor, Friday Night
Ode #2: Reporter, On Deadline
Ode #3: Copy Editor, Standing Guard
Ode #4: Photographer, Under The Gun
Ode #5: Pity the Poor Publisher
Ode #6: CEO, In the Catbird Seat
Ode #7: Media Consultant, At a Cost
Ode #8: Keynote Speaker, Faking It