SouthComm Inc., owner of the Nashville Post, the Nashville CityPaper, and the Nashville Scene laid off seven employees today as a result of losing an account to The Westview, a Bellevue (Nashville) paper recently purchased by the Memphis Daily News.
As some of you may know by now, one of those seven was Adam Kleinheider, who built Post Politics from the ground up when he arrived there. He had already done it once under the auspices of WKRN-TV with Volunteer Voters. WKRN moved away from blogging, and let Kleinheider go three years ago.
I can say without any trace of understatement that he was, and is, because I am convinced he will turn up somewhere in this state, the most important political source in Tennessee. No, he didn't do interviews, he linked to other stories (many of them from this fine blog, and vice versa) and he was a MUST-READ for anyone who wanted to know what was going on here.
His stories had brilliant headlines, and could provoke arguments going for well over a hundred comments. Yes, he occasionally went too far, but he was our linchpin. And, for now, he's gone.
Considering that he drew 250,000 pageviews a year to Post Politics, I suspect he won't be gone for long, I certainly hope not, because he was a gold mine of information, and he will be missed. He's too good to be gone for long.
We certainly wish him the best of luck, as we do the same for JR Lind, Jeff Woods and Ken Whitehouse, the three SouthComm reporters tasked with keeping Post Politics alive and well for all of Tennessee's political junkies (many of who are elected officials).
Other viewpoints:
Speak To Power here and here
Aunt B.
GoldnI
Grand Divisions
Southern Beale
Nashville Jefferson
4 comments:
Kleinheider wasn't MY linchpin. He was a kid who got lucky in Nashville, where the seat of state government is. He is not some genius we can't do without. I told him to go to law school, so he could earn a more reliable living. Maybe now he will.
Now all you suckasses can diss me again. As Lou Reed sang, "Whip it on me, Jim."
Heh, :)
Kleinheider is probably the only Tennessee blogger to as many, or more, death threats as I get.
Remember the "blackface" thread? LOL
I personally would have spent more time at his place but I'm so far away I know little about Nashville. But he was one of the bloggers I relied on to try and stay connected to the Western part of our state. Just like LWC is my voice of Memphis. :)
I'll have to find another busy Nashvegas blog to read I guess.
I feel bad for the Lind guy. But the way this has gone down is unconscionable, though typical of many in business.
Kleinheider had no experience in journalism, and linked others he liked. A high school drop out could do that.(Though not come up with his clever headlines)
He didn't link the most experienced journalist that I am aware of,(me) because he didn't like me. There were numerous times I had exclusives and interviews, and he wouldn't even mention it.
A professional doesn't ever NOT do her/his job the best s/he can because he doesn't like someone, and the kicker is, like what's her face, doesn't even know me--just likes to slander me. But link me when I had breaking overnight news?
Never.
Someday the sheep will quit following leaders, and watch the parking meters.
This is a fine blog with Cracker having more experience than most.
It is my hope that the Cracker's of the blog world will take their own lead and not get behind people who have never stuffed an envelope and couldn't tell you how to get voter records or plan strategy with candidates and so on.
Kleinheider got his job over lunch with Mike Sechrist at WKRN with Brittney who recommended him and Mike hired him then. Before that?
And during that, for that matter, no experience.
But like I said, he could sure write a headline. But link a breaking story? If it came from someone he didn't like, he didn't link it. Totally unprofessional.
Cracker, you're one of the few on the left who knows about local and state politics and does it because you care, not for the attention like what's her face. I hope you keep doing what you're doing and ignore the rest. Be your own leader. You know too much and have worked too hard for the party to play high school, to the point of the head idiot wanting to control the democratic party without ever working for the democratic party.
Keep doing what you are doing. You do it well, but for God's sake, ignore the ones that have to be the center of attention and are using politics as a way of feeding their narcissism, and wouldn't think of going door to door in the summer.
There's a lot of armchair warriors.
You're,thankfully, not one of them.
What do you say about encouraging the people who get out there and do the work no one else wants to do and not encouraging those who just want attention.
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