Chicago Tribune editor and senior vice president Ann Marie Lipinski announced her resignation, less than a week after the paper announced significant cuts to its newsroom staff and a reduction in the number of weekly pages it prints.
Two things occur to me:
- There is a glut of top editors resigning from top news papers, these leaves a lot of talent out there for the picking. One the one hand, it's a crying shame:
"[The] decision was difficult and a long time coming and it would be inaccurate to attribute it to any one event," Lipinski, 52, who joined the paper as an intern in 1978 and was named the 161-year-old newspaper's 20th editor in 2001, wrote in her memo.
On the other, it leaves other top papers the option of getting top talent that they need.
- Which nicely goes to my second thought: the free market strikes again! Papers that are pursuing a loosing strategy, and I strongly believe that the Tribune Co. falls into that category, will cause all of their talent to go to other papers. These companies will make it through the tough times boosted by their smart employees.
So I say this: yes the job market sucks, but newspapers should keep this in mind: buy low, sell high. The 'market' sucks right now - it's time to invest!