Obit

“Our editor, George Rodrigue, called me on Monday morning . . . . [H]e said he knew it was my regular day off, but would I mind coming in and writing the story? I said, ‘The layoffs story, you mean?’ When I hung up the phone after talking to him about the improbability of it, I laughed all day.

“Some people thought it was extraordinary that I wrote it. One of my sons said, ‘Dad, you get to write your own obit.’ I said, ‘It’s kind of perfect in its way.’”

 —Tom Feran, veteran reporter and editor whose 40-year career at the Cleveland Plain Dealer ended when he was laid off in March, “The Reporter Who Wrote About Layoffs at The Cleveland Plain Dealer After He Was Laid Off,” The New Yorker, April 5, 2019.

  

• Editorial Comment: Another death in the family.

• Fun Fact: The Plain Dealer, founded in 1842, was long Ohio’s largest newspaper. In the 1980s, Feran says, the PD’s arts and entertainment staff was about the same size as the entire newsroom is now — 33 unionized reporting/editing staff. “Plain Dealer lays off a third of unionized newsroom staff,” April 1, 2019.

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