This is an unplanned follow-up to my last post. But really, given the topic, I guess we would have enough material to do an on-going series indefinitely. Today’s reason for why journalists hate management comes from the South Florida SunSentinel, via Charles Apple’s blog. Looks like most of the papers in the Tribune Co. will start using prefab A-section modules from the Chicago Tribune. Content sharing among newspapers in the same chain is nothing new, but what makes this different is that the other papers in the chain won’t just be using stories or even just layouts from the Tribune, but also its typography and headline style.

The frustrating thing about this is that it comes only a few months after the SunSentinel, like several other newspapers in the chain, underwent a drastic redesign that was mandated by the Tribune brass. So less than half a year after making the staff put in all that work (with pretty appealing results, IMO), the brass now starts to wipe out the fruits of their labor. And obviously, this also likely sets the stage for more job cuts in the design and copy editing departments, since more shared prefab work means fewer bodies needed to churn out the product.

Yes, you can make the argument that this makes sense from a financial standpoint for the bankrupt Tribune Co., and perhaps it does. But it’s also indicative of the lack of long-term vision and commitment to initiatives so common in the industry. And this is one of the things that drive hard-working journalists up the wall. You embrace a new company initiative and does a good job with it. The brass pat you on the head for your efforts, then not even six months later they start to tear down what you did before it really even had a legitimate chance to bear results. The same with the next initiative, and the next … How many of these cycles of futility will it take before you lose faith in the brass and enthusiasm for that next big initiative?