Although I have never worked for Gannett, there is a day filled with derogatory posts naming me, simply because I dared to post with my name at Jim’s site. Because Jim is a poor moderator who believes he can do no wrong, he has deleted my posts, but he has left the other posts.

No one with much journalism sense would do this. I have e-mailed him about this matter, but he refuses to respond.

Jim Hopkins isn’t on some crusade against evil. He’s on a delusional power trip, and he doesn’t care about laid-off employees or declining newsrooms. His blog is about him and the lemmings he can get to agree with him.

They are:
http://eyeonthesentinel.blogspot.com/
http://amazingshrinkingsentinel.blogspot.com/

And don’t forget http://www.tellzell.com. Its content is outdated, but it does provide some backstory to the Tribune drama.

And Richard Michem gives us a new rationalization: People HAD to post anonymous attacks, or they would have killed scores of people!

Newsrooms apparently have not changed. People keep using weak justifications for anything they do. No wonder the industry is failing.

It’s clear that Gannett Blog’s success was a surprise to everyone, including Jim Hopkins. As activity exploded, he was faced with the difficult decision of whether to try to take the blog’s celebrity to the next level or keep it as an interesting sidelight. Jim tried to make a run at a sustainable financial model last fall through a kind of tip jar approach, but that ran into the same problems that all publishers encounter these days: people don’t want to pay for news.

Faced with the prospect of continuing to sustain the effort on a labor of love basis while also becoming a lightning rod for criticism, Jim made a reasonable decision in my view. If he’s been a little dramatic in winding down the operation, I can understand that. Gannett Blog has provided a valuable service for many Gannett employees for two years, but no one is willing or able to step up and support the effort. It’s not surprising that Jim is pointing out what they’re about to lose.

Whether or not you agree with the way Jim has handled comments from readers, it’s clear that this blog has taxed the limits of one man’s ability to give without compensation. He deserves thanks and respect for all he is put into the effort.

To address Martin’s comment about the lack of watchdogs, the problem is that no one wants to pay watchdogs. My own blogging activities on Newspaper Death Watch have consumed hundreds of hours of time over the last 27 months while yielding a few hundred dollars in advertising revenue and no meaningful business opportunities. That’s okay. I do it because I love it, but if my family’s livelihood were ever at stake, it’s the first activity I would have to jettison.

That’s where this story is also a microcosm of the industry. Newspapers are the watchdogs of our institutions, but their financial predicament makes that role less and less viable. It would be nice to look to the blogosphere for salvation, but those who choose a watchdog role must also face up to the realities of the market. New media has yet to figure out a viable financial model for watchdogs, and it may never do so. For the time being, we are increasingly delegating that function to people like Jim Hopkins, who can only give so much.

In any case, thank you, Martin, for the shout-out and the kind words. In the category of silent watchdogs I would include Tell Zell (www.tellzell.com), a witty and pugnacious blog by a Los Angeles Times staffer that suddenly fell silent nine months ago. Rumor was that management threatened the anonymous author with unemployment if he continued. I have no idea if the rumor is true. Who’s got time to check all this stuff out, anyway? :-)

Wouldn’t you agree, Jim? Or are you more comfortable with anonymous posts that may not be true? After all, checking the accuracy of facts is hard. That makes your head hurt.

Nice melodrama, “Mark.” But people haven’t known this train was headed off the tracks? Please, ground yourself in some reality.

“But that is the only way info could be shared without retribution.”

You typed a period before the end of the sentence. You forgot to add: “at least for lazy folks like Jim Hopkins, who think that as long they can trumpet their cause as noble, then all rules should be thrown out the window.” Glad to help finish your thoughts, “Mark.”

“Yes, he left up attacks on management types, but …”

No need to explain, “Mark.” You’ve told us what we need to know.

“No wonder journalism as I’ve known it for some 32 years is dying.”

Journalism is dying because someone told the truth about Jim Hopkins’ blog? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! So it’s not dying because of people like you who think it’s OK to allow anonymous slams, just as long as they can be “justified?”

I’d say it’s dying because of people like you, “Mark.” If you have “known” journalism for 32 years and you are justifying what Jim Hopkins did in the name of “journalism,” then you have put in a shallow 32 years, “Mark.”

I’d say this “Mark” is off the mark. It’s yet another person who thinks anything and everything can be justified in the name of “ink in the veins” journalism.

And to Martin Langeveld: You slam the guy for what happened to his blog, then dismiss his reasons as irrelevant? Nice work. No wonder journalism as I’ve known it for some 32 years is dying.

I did look at the site, obviously, and I’ll stand by my prior comment — NYTPicker is more about the journalism than about the company, in contrast to the other watchblogs I’ve mentioned, which are not particularly concerned about journalistic nuances but mostly deal with dollars, cents and jobs. But OK, I stand corrected: NYTPicker occasionally has posts about the company’s financial doings, as well. Although I looked for, but couldn’t find, anything recent about Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram being up for sale.

All that said, I’d say NYTPicker is closer to the kind of company watchblog I’d prefer than Gannett Blog ever was. So let me add it to the official Watchblog List.

Tribune: TribuneWatch, also operated by the Newspaper Guild, similar to MediaNews Monitor.

Hartford Courant: CourantAlumni

And OregonMediaCentral, linked in the first comment above, takes the approach of monitoring all media in its geographic area.

His moderation policy at the site has been pathetic. Anonymous posters could take vicious shots at any of the Gannett management people, who were usually named and “slammed” with a juvenile, unoriginal comment, and Hopkins would leave these posts up for lengthy periods of time. Regardless of what the false legal “experts” trumpet all over the Internet, I tend to believe these statements were forms of actionable libel, and I would not be surprised to find out Hopkins was warned by the company to take more steps to deal with them.

(I’d like to have a direct response from Jim on that issue, but I could never get him to answer more than one e-mail. Like many arrogant and thin-skinned pseudojournalists, he is great at putting the heat on others, but he is not very good at responding to legitimate criticism.)

Also, you nailed the issue of “feelings of entitlement.” The people with “ink in their veins” but no other abilities need a strong glass of realism, stat.

Finally, I’ll mention that my own site has archived many examples of the craziness of journalism in the last couple of years. My posts have tapered off, and I don’t allow anonymous posting, as lazy folks like Hopkins and others do, but that at least restores the credibility that was always missing at the Gannett Blog. Regardless of the rationalizations the lazy folks like Hopkins use, anonymous posts have no credibility anywhere. They’re often simply a way for a coward to attack someone without fear of ramifications. Jim Hopkins enabled these attacks, and I believe his lack of responsibility in this area shows us why journalism won’t miss him.

And I certainly wish you the best, as I’m sure your followers do. Hopefully, Gannettoid will improve and evolve a little to fill the gap.

From my July 2 post, Why I’m shutting down this blog; Sparky is my domestic partner:

My decision to shut this blog on July 10 is mine alone, with Sparky’s support and encouragement. He and I had grown concerned about health problems I’ve experienced as I’ve tried to keep up with the demands of blogging about a company with 41,500 employees, and many more who have left.

In the past year, I have lost quite a bit of weight as I’ve neglected proper nutrition and exercise. I could have made better choices, to be sure. But I am a very competitive journalist. I wanted this to be the best newspaper blog possible, because I think the employees deserve that much.