Former Media General Employee Speaks Out

Journalist Becky Blanton spoke out about her experiences working for Media General Corporation. Her comments were originally posted on the "Sticks of Fire" blog, on June 23rd, 2008.

According to Ms. Blanton

I worked for Media General until last week. I was part of the move to “Convergence.” They don’t get it. They never will. MG is TOTALLY incompetent when it comes to online operations. They turned down all attempts from staffers who understand what it means and how it works to protect their own jobs. They’re understaffed, overworked and undertrained. Their sites are hard to read, contain national instead of local news and they don’t listen to reader feedback.

“Convergence” to MG means firing more people and combining jobs to increase profit. It means weaker content, poorer coverage and unhappy readers. Add to that the fact that the turnover is incredible - most folks in Danville leave within 6 months of arriving…and the fact they chase talent away - morale sucks and so does management…all part of how they are failing to plan and thus planning to fail. Read my blog for more on the two EEOC complaints and the reporter who filmed women’s breasts without their knowledge or consent and then showed them around the newsroom….you’ll get an idea of why MG sucks from the corporate level on down…

Ms. Blanton has posted additional comments about Media General and the Danville Register Bee on her blog at http://www.danvilleva.blogspot.com/.

Citations:

"Blanton, Becky. "media general killing convergence?." Sticks of Fire: a Tampa Blog. 23 June 2008. 29 Dec. 20 http://sticksoffire.com/2007/03/06/media-general-killing-convergence/#comment-219705.

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