Captain's Quarters -

Well that was certainly an absurd move on their part. All of his internet fans, reading his daily column online, certainly raised their stats to some degree. Now that will be gone.

He needs to be picked up by a larger and more forward-thinking "paper".

He's being punished...isn't that obvious? Or, more likely, they're urging him to go out the front door.

Unfortunately union rules prevail. At one paper where I worked, we were faced with layoffs. Guild contracts state layoffs must be done in inverse order of seniority by job (pay level) category. A reporter is a reporter whether he or she covers lifestyle, entertainment or sports. Typical of most papers, our sports department had a high percentage of young males and the lifestyle department a large number of senior females.

The only answer, it appeared, was to lay off the junior sportswriters and transfer some elderly lifestyle ladies to cover college and NFL football, motorcycle racing and the like. Ultimately we offered buyouts/early retirements and were able to keep the proper balance.

But these are the problems that face newspapers now. Logic sometimes doesn’t enter in.

Did I miss something?

I like Lileks too, a lot, most of the time. I read him every day.

But he's still getting paid, except now he will have to GO TO WORK every day like 99% of working America does.

What? He doesn't get to do EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS, WHEN HE WANTS, AND FROM HIS OWN KITCHEN TO BOOT? And we should write his employer and complain on his behalf?

Did his employer prevent him from writing the Bleat at night or over lunch time? Did his employer prevent him from going to post card shows on the weekend? Did his employer prevent him from 'writing' more books?

Come on. I like the guy too. But this is hardly a terrible tragedy, either for us, James, or the Trib.

Calm down.

Unfortunately, I cancelled the Red Star a long time ago, so I can't cancel it now.

Hey, Arizona's getting a new Columnist!

As soon as the paper changed hands, James wrote that there was an assumption of change, the question was more 'when' and 'what' rather than 'if'. Now that the new owners have shown what they think of him, Mr. L can finally free himself from the Gloom of the upper mid-west and open up an island of Sanity down South in the Sun. There has to be a newspaper in the Sun who can figure out that there is a maniacally proficient Talent waving out in the wind. I say we start a pool for when he moves.

As for me, I don't see him staying through another January unless his beloved Wife reallllly loves her job.

There goes the OTHER half of the Strib's readership!

You get a job assignment like this after having written a column for so many years, and it sounds like a not-so-subtle attempt by the Star-Trib to get James to quit on his own, rather than have to go through the expense of firing him and having to then comply with union rules on severance packages, etc.

The New York Times pulled a similar stunt with columnist and "The Killing Fields" author Sydney Schanberg about 20 years ago because they were angry with his columns that were at odds with the paper's editorial policy (ironically Schanberg's complaints were that the Times wasn't far enough to the left -- nowadays, he'd fit right in with the paper's current stable of op-edders). They killed his column and assigned him to regular city beat stories, knowing that he would likely resign over the demotion. I don't know if politics is at play here as well (though obviously not because Lileks is to the left of the Star-Trib's editorial page), or if the paper did some marketing survey that led them to this change of strategerie, but the demotion does have similarities to how the Times handled the Schanberg situation.

Real creativity thrives under duress and scarcity, so let's see just how creative James really is. I'd bet on his ability and temperment all day!

He'll be fine if he chooses to be fine! Remember, real revenge is in doing well in spite of the bastards!

I just dropped them an email. Nothing steamy or impolite, just something that got my point across that "the Strib's (Mis)management" is driving readership & profits into the ground.

As the other commenters have said, this is a non too subtle attempt to force a resignation either to save money or simply because he has worn out his welcome.

He should hang on like grim death until they cough up a lot of cash to show him the door. They think if they can humiliate him enough he will quit; he should beat them at their own game if he can. It will make them even more annoyed with him.

I have been reading and enjoying Lileks for many years -- since back when he was a fixture in the local BBS scene. Since the Backfence format went away, and his Strib column was reduced to a couple hundred words, his talents have been squandered. Each of his recent Strib columns reads like a single joke from a weak stand-up comic's routine. The length constraints seem to put unreasonable dampers on his great, casual, loping style, and we lose the roundabout-but-logical path he can take to nail a point. I don't see how making him a news reporter could make his work any worse. But giving him an actual column and letting him stretch his legs the way he does regularly in The Bleat would certainly be a vast improvement over his current atonal column.

Rather than see any malice on the part of this laughable dinosaur of a paper, I will assume 'good intention' until proven otherwise.

Using a journalistic talent and fine, friendly wit like James Lileks to report on 'busted fire hydrants' does seem a bit like using a concert virtuoso to make ring tones2484861166

It's like hearing that Mark Steyn had been reassigned as a beat reporter. This may be a blessing in disguise for a great talent such as Lileks.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity -- Robert J Hanlon. Stupidity at the Strib? Nah, never happen. Hugh posted ten excellent ideas for places Lileks could end up and at least some of them are probably smart enough to let him telecommute from Jasperwood.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" -- Robert J Hanlon. Stupidity at the Strib? Nah, never happen. Hugh posted ten excellent ideas for places Lileks could end up and at least some of them are probably smart enough to let him telecommute from Jasperwood.

Ed, Lileks' column in the Strib has become the journalistic equivalent of Hostess Twinkies. Neither are that good, even if they haven't passed their shelf-life quite yet. Lileks is likely one the more highly paid employees at the Strib, and it isn't hard to understand why they're preparing to cut him loose for that reason. If he's that funny, he can find a decent writing gig elsewhere.

Cap'n Ed wrote:

One indicator of bad management is the underuse of assets and the inability to recognize opportunity to use the talent of the employees to their fullest. In this case, management knows what it has in James, and they're tossing it away anyway. That's not just bad management; they should keep sharp objects away from these managers and only allow them to use crayons. Please tell me that the men and women who made this decision do not drive to work unsupervised.

One of my pet soapboxes is the fact that, despite the money and time spent on management training, management seminars, management CD's, and management books in America, most management in my experience is bloody awful. Not only that, but many managers are blissfully unaware of just how terrible they are.

Assuming that the management at the Strib ISN'T simply trying to force Lileks to quit on his own, I'm sure they're patting themselves on the back for a "brilliant" decision.

I'm with starfleet_dude. Newsrooms around the country are shrinking. They'll continue to do so until papers figure out how to get money from people who read their stuff online for free. Until then, writers like Lileks, whose focus is not for a local audience, will be in danger of being "reassigned."

Besides, he may think this switch sucks, but not so much that he's quit his position at the paper entirely. We all make trade-offs in life. Perhaps some place will hire him to do what he does well. For now, I imagine he likes the regular paycheck so he can feed his family.

And by the way, how many of you who are complaining about Likeks' job change subscribe to the Strib? That's how he gets paid -- from circulation revenues and dollars from local advertisers. If you want to set up an adoption fund for Lileks, go ahead. Meantime, there may be other young journalists who are way below Lileks' pay grade who might appreciate the chance to report for a big metro daily.

A few questions. Aside from his fame, and online fans, is he getting treatment any different from anyone else in the newsroom? I recall there were layoffs a few months ago, and wonder if this is round two in cost-cutting reassigning.

That said, it's a stupidly inefficient use of talent, unless he's asked to bring his column sensibilities to "local" news, but his comments indicate that's not the case. The opportunity, of course, is exactly as he outlined it - papers need to be heavily local. He could take the chance, and cover locally and write globally.

Then again, Phoenix is a growing media market.