Saturday, May 9, 2009

Jennifer Preston, NYT Regionals Editor, Invites Laid-Off Writers To A Party. P.S.: Bring Money, It's A Cash Bar!

This Wednesday night, Jennifer Preston -- the editor of the NYT's soon-to-be-folded regional sections -- is throwing a party to commemorate the closings at the nearby Houndstooth Pub on 8th Avenue.

Want to come? Great. But don't forget to bring money, because the NYT doesn't have any to spend on you!

Yes, it's the dreaded "cash bar" -- which means that if you're one of the writers recently laid off from the sections, you're going to have to withdraw funds from your dwindling bank account before you get there.

And we recommend eating at home, first. One order of fried calamari at the Houndstooth will set you back ten bucks!

Still want to come and spend your last few nickels on the chance to mingle with the people who just pushed you out the door? Here's the full text of Preston's email, below, obtained by The NYTPicker. Start saving now:

Folks,

We have been able to reserve the lower room of the Houndstooth Pub, a few short blocks from here on 8th avenue, at 37th Street, to gather and celebrate our fine work these last few years. Please invite friends of the sections (folks who worked here or wish they did) and our freelance writers. Thanks, Jennifer


DATE: Wed. May 13, 2009
TIME: 7 p.m.
WHERE: Houndstooth Pub - website
520 8th Avenue @ 37th Street,
Fashion Center, NYC, 10018
Ph. (212) 643-0034
CASH BAR


By the way, Preston went to school to learn these awesome management techniques. Here's an excerpt from her bio at the Columbia U. Graduate School of Journalism, where she currently teaches:

She has attended newsroom management and leadership programs at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business Administration.

It could not be learned at press time whether it was at Northwestern or Dartmouth that she was taught, when inviting recently laid-off employees to a "cash bar" party, to refer to them as "folks."


More of The NYTPicker's Jennifer Preston party coverage:

May 10, 2009: Jacob Harris, NYT's Senior Software Architect, To NYTPicker: "Wow, This Is What You've Sunk To."

May 10, 2009: Joe Sharkey, NYT Columnist, Tells NYTPicker: "This Business Used To Have Manners."

May 10, 2009: NYT Political Reporter Michael Powell Calls The NYTPicker "Some Ivy League Pin Head."

3 comments:

Michael Powell said...

Jennifer Preston is one of the truly good people at the New York Times, and has fought for her staff well at a time when the paper has decided to lance -- quite good -- regionals, even though they make money. She is an excellent editor who has fashioned the regionals into a shelter from the storm for many fine reporters from the Star Ledger, Hartford Courant and several other near-to-death newspapers.
She's also the daughter of working class Irish Boston parents and so comes by her skill with people rather naturally. I'm quite sure she is not in need of a snotty lecture on the use of "folks" from some Ivy League pin head. (Or perhaps you're not from the Ivy Leagues, or perhaps even if you are, a stupid generalization such as mine only goes so far, eh?)
It's unfortunate the NYT does not have the dough for the journalistic wakes, although as we've all just voted a five percent cut, that's probably in the nature of the straitened beast. It's also unfortunate that Jennifer lacks a trust fund, and so cannot buy endless rounds out of her pocket. But I imagine that she'll buy some and that a good time nonetheless will be had ...
She's been treating well those who work with her for decades. This was beneath you.

Michael Powell said...

Now you've compounded cattiness with high-dosage disingenuousness. To argue that your post wasn't personal in light of the below is silly:

"By the way, Preston went to school to learn these awesome management techniques. Here's an excerpt from her bio at the Columbia U. Graduate School of Journalism, where she currently teaches:

She has attended newsroom management and leadership programs at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business Administration."

Given these very tight times, a manager faces unpalatable choices. In this case, forgo the Irish Wake that traditionally accompanies the death of any newspaper or section (By the way, Jennifer worked at New York Newsday, a magnificent paper that folded one Friday afternoon in 1995
, so really she needs no lectures in newspaper loss and uncertaintly), or throw a party and have everyone buy a beer.
I don't doubt it's a horrible time to be a free-lancer. Nor do I doubt, from having observed in the newsroom, that Jennifer and Connie R. treated their charges with respect and kindness--and got great work back in return.
If you want to carp about the NYT refusing to spring for such parties, fine. Knock yourself out. But if you choose to go after the editor in question by snarking about a few lines from a Columbia J-School bio, well, you can't be surprised if this so called reporting is called to task.
Best

Michael Powell

Anonymous said...

"She's also the daughter of working class Irish Boston parents..."
Mr. Powell offers this as a mark of character, as if having a prole childhood automatically endows one with people skills. By that token should we assume that coming from a background of wealth and power and taking over the family business might account for a dandy's lack of the same skill set?
Hardly.
Such talk disregards the fact that the posting had nothing to do with Preston herself, but rather criticized the NYT ham-handed approach to the non-annointed down in steerage. She was just the singer rather than the song.