Xark!: The betrayal of the Fourth Estate:
The tarnish on the halo newspaper execs have spent so much time polishing isn’t just their unwillingness to acknowledge their own limitations and failures. It’s how they treat their people. The betrayal of the Fourth Estate contract by newspaper management has played a huge role in their impending doom. It may be the one thing that guarantees their slide into irrelevancy.
Why? Because when the companies need their best and brightest to pull together, to help work smarter and better, they’ve got … nothing. Many of the best and brightest have moved on because they can. Or they were the first out the door in layoffs. Those left feel trapped, bitter and betrayed. No pay raises. Furloughs. “Doing more with less.” Not exactly a prescription for an ailing industry.