Barney’s On the Beat
Fired: Randy Alcorn, the newspaper’s veteran chief financial officer, was canned Monday, a major loss to a paper already staggering under lost circulation, defecting advertisers, and ongoing controversy.
Alcorn said he had planned to resign anyway, deeply discouraged that the paper had degenerated into a “propaganda campaign and petty vindictiveness” instead of dealing with the serious problems of running a daily newspaper. But, he told me, owner Wendy McCaw made “a pre-emptive strike,” firing him Monday afternoon because “we didn’t see eye-to-eye and she wasn’t comfortable with me.”
“Nope. You must be mistaken. If you actually read the pertinent laws, we did nothing wrong.” That’s the layman’s translation for the 10 pages of paperwork filed on Monday afternoon, December 11, by the attorneys for The Independent in response to the lawsuit being brought by the News-Press and Wendy McCaw. Also, was Randy Alcorn fired? And check out a link to the latest McCaw memo circulating her employees’ saddened desks.
News-Pressers get gagged again; the Woodman cometh; cruelty on Coast Village; Foodbank needs; Cota clutter; Transition House happy ending
‘Tis the season for planting a tree and decorating one, watching the Boat Parade of Lights, getting your eat on at the Tee Off for throwback prices, seeing Nutcrackers galore, and a whole lot more.
This week, a march is scheduled on Wednesday, December 6, to protest the current state of affairs at the News-Press, support the newsroom staffers still sticking it out, ask for Melinda Burns to get her job back, and call for union demands to be honored.