Was one of a few, maybe jst two, finalists to be managing editor of a semiweekly in Rio Ranch, New Mexico. Didn't get it.
Publisher left me head-scratching. Before I interviewed in person, I forwarded by email a list of references, even though he said he didn't need them until we were closer to a handshake.
He contacted nary a one.
Best I can figure is he had locked in on one or more candidates, possibly or probably younger and/or less experienced, to see if he could get them for less money, even though he had mentioned some definite numbers to me. He said, in a query to him after he told me his decision, that I interviewed well, when I said I was hoping for a "takeaway" from the decision. I should have been more direct with asking why somebody else, not me.
So, to recap ... a weird interview ... and from a "family owned" paper, not a corporate guy, who, IMO, didn't hire the best candidate.
Before that? Allegedly passed over from editing a week due to possible age discrimination. (Also a "family" group.)
Before that? Passed over on running a five-day daily (yest, it's CNHI) by a publisher now "looking" again, six months later or so.
On both the corporate-owned and family-owned sides, one has to "wonder" at times, right?
Corporate-owned newspapers may, by and large, NEVER adjust to the fact that 30 percent profit margins will NEVER return. They certainly have made a hash, in general, of monetizing online operations and likely will continue to do so.
Family-owned newspapers? Well, there are good ones. The Albuquerque Journal, once the Net took off, never made its online content free in the first place. That's rare, though. Many nondailies, with no wire compettion, still give ou their online content for free, and the ads don't pay the freight.
