July 18, 2007
The Blog Post Too Hot for SF Weekly?
Having co-founded the now-defunct Deek Magazine, talented Matt Stroud was plucked from the other coast to act as web editor at VVM's SF Weekly to spearhead their nascent blogs. Yesterday, it seems, Stroud was swiftly removed from said position. Although he claims to have given proper quitting notice to his superiors, he was soon asked to leave right-quick. Why? Well, his final post (obviously taken down soon after getting up) about being required to take part in the VVM (SF Weekly)/Bay Guardian feud might be one reason. Let's take a look, yes?
Also, we contacted VVM for their input, and will update you with it as soon as we hear back from them.
(Disclosure time, kids! Gather around: your SFist editor gleefully and happily worked at SF Weekly for four-plus years before coming over here.)
Stroud's last post, or what he sent to us as his final post, is as follows:
Impulsively, I'm not only discontinuing my training and ridiculous observational writing about 3rd Street Gym's Boxing Bootcamp, but also leaving SFWeekly. If you don't care, this is a good time to duck out, but, for the couple thousand people who followed the growth of SFWeekly's blogs from nothing to something over the past six weeks, here's an explanation:I was made painfully aware this weekend -- after being asked to consider writing freelance "promo material, like what [I] write for 3rd Street Gym" -- that both myself and Rob Quintiliani (from the Guardian) are making fools of ourselves. Especially me, though. He's an advertising manager; I am not.
The concept of our participation in the bootcamp -- that the Bay Guardian and SFWeekly would go through rigorous training together and then literally fight each other in a boxing match -- is ill-conceived. Simon Redmond and I thought it up. And while it works for 3rd Street Gym as a promotional device, it serves only to disserve SFWeekly and the Bay Guardian by not-too-subtly poking fun at the lawsuit they're currently scuffling through.
Regarding that: As an out-of-towner, when I first started this job, I thought the rift/rivalry between the Bay Guardian and SFWeekly was something I could poke and prod to humorous effect. But as my job and my editors' jobs began to require more and more devotion to writing and displaying anti-Guardian material on sfweekly.com, I realized that the battle between the two publications is very real, and that I had been placed on the front lines. That made me seriously uncomfortable. If the Bay Guardian and SFWeekly want to make war, they can do so in court. I, however, want nothing to do with it -- sarcastically or not, with or without boxing gloves. So that's that.
Regarding my resignation from SFWeekly: After doing quite a bit of work in editorial circles (mostly independent), I've realized that my mentality and impulses are more attuned to smaller editorial staffs, where I can openly communicate in person with bosses and editors. And while San Francisco's SFWeekly staff is filled with very talented, very personable writers and editors, my bosses technically aren't in San Francisco -- they're in Phoenix. The Phoenix editors seem like fine people, too, but, to be honest, if I have one more two-hour Friday morning conference call with all the Village Voice Web Editors, or have to deal with one more cryptic editorial comment ("Your slideshow template is off…") from my seldom-seen corporate superiors (who are, by the way, overburdened with 17 different websites all over the country), I might have a nervous breakdown. So fuck it -- I'm quitting. If Bill Jensen and Pam Mitchell, the Village Voice Media New Media managers, will allow me to, I'll happily stay until Friday.
From there, I'll close with two pleas: 1) if any independent journalists or editors are looking for a young, shrewd editor/writer, I can forever be reached at matt.stroud@yahoo.com. And 2: If you think you can do my job (edit and write for the SFWeekly blogs), send an e-mail to Pam.Mitchell@VillageVoiceMedia.com. If she doesn't think you're retarded, she'll respond hastily.
Many thanks to everyone at SFWeekly.
Selah,
Stroud
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Nice to see that the Village Voice is promoting a diverse range of opinions on their blogs. It's just this kind of open-mindedness that fosters successful online communities . . . not. Big ups to Matt for sticking to his principles and for a very well written resignation letter.
Wow, major bummer. I'd had some short email conversations with Matt and he seemed like a really smart, motivated guy.
As the guy who was going to fight Matt, I have a few things to add to the thread. First off, Matt and I got along fine, or as well as you can when it's 6 in the morning and your muscles are hurting all over. I enjoyed his blog posts, and the idea of writing each day after training...Judging from his post he'd probably have been happier working at the Guardian, where I've had nothing but support from my coworkers and bosses (who sit upstairs and are more than happy to talk anytime). But that's probably why I've been working here for 4 years.
Anyway, I take offense to his comment that we were somehow making fools of ourselves over this. If he needed to prove something to his employers or if he felt that failure was a big deal, then that's on him. I signed up for this to go through 6 rigorous weeks of training and to better myself, first and foremost. The fight at the end was going to be serious for me, but as a reward for making it through this.
He kind of reminds me of Ivan Drago at the end of Rocky 4 when he turns on his elite training staff and cries out that he did it, "FOR ME!" C'mon Matt, like a sloppy fight is going to effect a lawsuit...
So, whatever. I will see the bootcamp through and fight someone else, and win or lose be proud of my accomplishment. It's just too bad that being affiliated with the Weakly made it so that Matt didn't get to enjoy the same finality...Then again, since the Weakly is involved I'm not surprised...RobQ
We are all fucking miserable at the Voice in New York - that is all of us who worked there pre-merger and who haven't been laid-off... YET. What kind of idiots lay off Robert Christgau for chrissake? love him or hate him, he is a living legend.
New Times are like the Borg. They come in and assimilate everything to the standard of Phoenix. All their papers are the same. Same number of stories, same number of staff. How much goes on in Phoenix in a given week? Fucking nothing, that's what.
Thanks David Scheiderman for selling us all out, asshole.
I know it's a travesty, but over the years I have been seriously -- and quite literally -- LOLing every time I think of big-city journalism in places like New York being dictated from Phoenix. Oh, how it must burn the egos there.
bring back mecklin, cuz walsh would get his ass handed to him by redmond much less b3. these guys are fucking up every paper they touch!
Wow, that's the most immature way to leave a job I've ever seen. That's the problem with so many bloggers -- they think everyone cares about their insecurities and deeply muddled ideological concerns.
And to clarify -- what Stroud send in is not his final post, though it's similar. The final post that was briefly online did mention the Weekly-Guardian lawsuit, made no reference to editors issuing orders to sling mud at the Guardian.
Obviously you care enough about a blogger's "insecurities and deeply muddled ideological concerns" to take time out of your busy day to read them and comment on them.
There are things I like about both weeklies, but yes, SF Weekly is not locally owned and looks exactly like the Westword in Denver, another New Times paper. So it sucks compared to our dear local Guardian.
The Guardian's business model is to compete with the dozen or more alternative papers in the bay area, as they have done for thirty years.
The Weekly's business model is to drive the other alternative papers out of business in order to monopolize ad revenue and editorial voice.
I would say that over time the company that can compete in a media ecosystem is the company most likely to survive long term, and the company that must operate as a monopoly is brittle and inflexible to sudden changes in business climate.
Obviously you care enough about a blogger's "insecurities and deeply muddled ideological concerns" to take time out of your busy day to read them and comment on them.
Wow... what a sensitive moron. What makes this news of interest? Everyone commenting here is in the biz. We are all pissing and moaning about things that are irrelevant. As someone who worked with Mat, I can say this was all invented in his head, and his actions after his termination, show that he wasn't mature enough for the position. He wasn't forced out... quite the opposite. He was well liked, and given much responsibility. He couldn't handle his job... plain and simple. I feel sorry for him... the Guardian... and all of us wasting our time on this crappy blog. Oh, by the way, 372 more Iraqi children were just murdered in the streets by our family memebers, but let's keep this thread going.
Matt invented the freakin boxing event. VVM approved his idea. Before making shit up, why don't you verify your facts... bad blog, bad.
"Hey, I'm outa here this Friday". That's "given proper quitting notice"? Oh, and the same day mentioning the sensitive lawsuit during his whinny salutation? Nice.
It's true that I didn't give a customary two-week notice, and also true that I couldn't handle my job. But let's be clear: At issue was 1) the low threshold for what I'd tolerate from my superiors re: pushing forward the VVM glacier, and 2) the feeling that my work was too rushed to be affecting to anyone. Sorry if I was too long-winded to adequately explain that earlier.
But whatever. I, too, am ready to move on to other topics. Did someone say something about Iraq?
-Stroud
"Wow, that's the most immature way to leave a job I've ever seen. That's the problem with so many bloggers -- they think everyone cares about their insecurities and deeply muddled ideological concerns."
Being that you care so little, I'm curious not only as to why you read the blog in the first place, but why you went the extra step to post a comment on it. That's as bad as going to a bar and complaining that they serve booze prior to getting shit-faced.
It would be one thing if this were a cover story in print. However, this is a blog and exactly where this kind of material belongs.
I certainly don't blame Stroud for becoming disillusioned (young, free, impetuous and principled always makes exciting copy, and good on him), but I do know that he was not "plucked from the other coast" to spearhead the Weekly's blogs. As the Chron blog makes clear, he moved here with a girlfriend, shuffled through a few jobs, then hired on at the Weekly.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=3&entry_id=19117#readmore
the new yorkers don't burn because it hurts their egos to see denver/ and phoenix run their paper. they burn because the new times is ruining a once-great paper (which, though it had faults was still largely intact) and because people from faraway second-tier cities are imposing guidelines and taste to a paper in new york, a city they know nothing about and, worse, actually hate and don't respect. this means they are killing writers off that actually brought readers and hits to the paper, ridgeway, xgau being the most obvious idiotic decisions, and choosing articles based on a model that new yorkers do not respond to. the voice's music section had been a shambles for a long time, but the eddy section still used heavy hitting critics; the new times has no need for criticism. this wouldn't be problematic if our readers weren't interested in it either, but i am pretty sure they are. turning your back on the core of long-term readers who have followed the voice for more than 20 something years is not really a good business decision. anyway, that's why the new yorkers are burning. The new times are systematically destroying a legendary paper, and instead of leaving well enough alone, because they are arrogant, with huge chips on their shoulders and want 'to show us' (not getting that by showing 'us' they are just showing themselves), they continue to destroy it. RIP Village Voice. Long live the New York New Times.