Media Grunt: Michael Bazeley

Dave Butler is right, of course. It’s time to focus on the future - not the past - at the Mercury News. In a memo to staffers yesterday, the executive editor noted a recent photo essay by designer Martin Gee that documents the empty desks and offices left behind by recent layoffs and buyouts.

“I think we have to let go of what was,” Butler wrote, “face the realities of the business as it is today, and concentrate on what can be now to best serve our readers….Somehow, we must shake loose of these constant reminders of what was and focus on what can be.”

Indeed. I have argued and will continue to argue that papers like the Merc need to completely retool themselves for the new realities of the media world, even if that means stripping the operation down to its core and rebuilding it. The threats are that big.

But you can’t deny people their hard-earned grief, especially when reminders of better times surround them at every turn. The Merc newsroom was a haunting, depressing shell of itself when I left four months ago, and frankly I’m glad that Martin decided to capture this moment in time. He is a journalist after all.

When Dean Singleton bought the Oakland Tribune back in 1992, he moved its newsroom out of its iconic downtown building to a non-descript waterfront office building. (It wasn’t a calculated move. It’s just that Singleton didn’t buy the Tribune building.) Many people howled. A link with history was broken. But I think ultimately it was easier for the reporters and editors who stayed with the Singleton Tribune to begin to let go of the Robert Maynard Tribune by leaving the old newsroom. Singleton could do the Mercury News staffers a similar favor by moving them out of the crummy old Merc offices to somewhere new and different, giving them a fresh perspective on things.

Speaking of moving on, I don’t see myself blogging about the Merc much more. I’ve said what I need to say. And it’s frankly not fair for me to toss pebbles at the windows from outside. More pertinently, my new job has me very busy. And I’ve foolishly taken on a personal side project that I’ll probably be more interested in writing about, once it’s up and running.

So we’ll leave it at that. Good luck, Merc. Cheers.

Executive Editor Dave Butler sent the following email to the Mercury News newsroom. There’s a part of me that wants to deconstruct it line-by-line. But I think I’ll just let the words speak for themselves.

Colleagues:

Where are we headed? What’s my vision for The Mercury News? I’ve been asked those questions many times. In preparation for an upcoming staff meeting (time and date still to be set) I thought I’d spell out a few thoughts after having been here almost 3 months. Certainly a large part of our news mission remains focused on technology and diversity.

The Mercury News continues to be THE local news source for residents of Silicon Valley and beyond. It also can be and should be the leader for our Bay area sister publications in many areas of topical content. And, we can be and should be the leaders of news experimentation on the Web - trying new ways to satisfy the varying needs of our readers.

Are we still: The Newspaper of Silicon Valley? Or should we change that motto to get beyond the “paper” part to reflect the changing world? I donno - but we ought to decide soon.
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