Story Archive

Working Against Deadline

Missouri’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper urged readers to check out the “Truth” video it posted on its web site for its “Employee Appreciation Day” — “images and words that say it all,” said its publisher, Ray Farris. The video, “clearly meant to boost the paper’s image, and self-esteem,” noted another local paper, included “inspiring” scenes of busy reporters gathering the news. The problem: the people shown weren’t actual reporters, but rather models or actors. One scene showed people reading newspapers that appeared to have been printed in Polish. Management quickly took the video down “to adjust a few of the images,” said the paper’s public relations director, Tracy Rouch. Meanwhile, staffers don’t feel very “appreciated,” since at the same time, the paper’s management had pushed several reporters into early retirement, and reassigned others without even talking to them about it first. (RC/St. Louis Riverfront Times) ...So really, the images and words didn’t quite say it all.