— From Saturday’s Wichita Eagle

Give us an A, Wichita Eagle!
* Santa Barbara News-Press employees vote to cut ties with the Teamsters. (AP via vcstar.com)
* “College reporters live in a universe that more closely resembles the post-AP subpoena world, for professional reporters, than the pre-AP subpoena world.” (usatodayeducate.com)
* Michael Musto writes after getting pink-slipped by the Village Voice: “I got to meet my icons, piss off power brokers, and write whatever I wanted.” (nymag.com)
* The Voice is now advertising for a full-time staff writer. (journalismjobs.com) | Food bloggers/writers are wanted, too. (journalismjobs.com)
* Yahoo and AOL have been better investments in 2013 than Facebook. (mashable.com)
* New York Times and Financial Times are hit by hackers. (nytimes.com) | (ft.com)
* Prof: “Journalists should say, ‘Thanks, but no thanks!’ to a shield law.” (journalismprofessor.com)
* The $200,000 Rob Ford Crackstarter campaign makes smart business sense for Gawker. (forbes.com) | Gawker reports $45,000 has been raised. (gawker.com)
* Judge’s ruling in the Hearst intern case is a “setback” that could have implications for other cases. (npr.org)
* Gizmodo has a new editor (Geoff Manaugh) and a new focus (design and ideas). (observer.com) | The death of tech blogging? (niemanlab.org)
* Arthur Ochs Sulzberger’s apartment sells for $12.5 million – $1.5 million below asking price. (seattletimes.com)
* “I should send that to Romenesko!” Send letters, anonymous news tips, memos, and typo alerts to jim@jimromenesko.com| Follow Romenesko on Twitter | Romenesko on Facebook | Romenesko on Pinterest
* Have news to share with the journalism community? Want to promote an upcoming conference? Contact Tom Kwas for Sponsored Post information.

The piece was written by The Truth About Cars editor-in-chief Bertel Schmitt. He ends his piece this way:

PS: Before you start to tar and feather me for Detroit bashing LGBT discrimination, please be notified that according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, the term “dyke” originated “as a derogatory label for a masculine woman, and this usage still exists.” Shame on them. “However, some persons attempt to use it in a manner that they see as positive, or as a neutral synonym for lesbian,” and those persons include the Schmitts.

Lang says in an email that “the resignation was furnished to the Content Director of Verticalscope, which is the parent company of TTAC, after I was told by the Managing Editor that there would be no consequences for the article. Now I contribute articles to Yahoo! and Jalopnik.”

I’ve asked Schmitt to comment.

UPDATE: “The PR nightmare is already happening,” writes Lang.

* “I have officially resigned my editor position…” (facebook.com)
* Small SUV Crashopalooza: Detroit loses, dykes win (thetruthaboutcars.com)

“This is interesting,” he wrote. “I can’t ad [sic] much more to this. The person filing is his marketing person.”

Cari Dawson Bartley (credit: @cariwho)

The Fair Labor Standards Act suit against Cagle Cartoons Inc. and Daryl Cagle was filed by Cari Dawson Bartley. (Her Twitter bio says she’s Cagle’s executive editor and marketing director.) The suit says she was “intentionally misclassified as salary exempt employee and not paid overtime and minimum wages as required by law.”

I asked Bartley about the case and she emailed: “On advice of counsel, I don’t have any comment on the specifics. The lawsuit is public record and it speaks for itself. I continue to be employed by Cagle Cartoons Inc., as I have been since January 2002.”

Some passages from the lawsuit:

When Plaintiff began her employment with Defendants, she was paid on an hourly basis. Over the past four (4) years, Plaintiff was paid a salary of approximately $1751.70 twiceper month, which equaled $42,040.80 per year. Plaintiff’s change to a salary position was not a result of taking on more managerial type duties. In fact, as her employment progressed, Plaintiff was expected to, and did, perform more and more basic customer service, reception, and bookkeeper duties on behalf of the company.

Over the past four (4) years, Plaintiff was not paid overtime for working over eight (8) hours in a day or forty (40) hours in a week, including weekends and holidays. Plaintiff worked long hours, approximately sixty (60) to sixty-five (65) hours per week. She began receiving calls early in the morning, sometimes as early as 5:00 a.m. Plaintiff also regularly worked late into the evenings, which would be as late as 11:00 p.m. or later.

I’ve invited Cagle to comment.

* Dawson vs. Cagle Cartoons (dockets.justia.com)

An email I received Friday afternoon from another person: “Layoffs at Patch. Not sure of the scope or who is affected but Tim Armstrong just emailed all of us about eliminating some positions. There is a company-wide conference call for 6pm tonight to learn more. If you’d like, let me know your email and I can forward you Armstrong’s memo.”

And the reader did….

From: Armstrong, Tim
Date: Fri, May 17, 2013 at 1:33 PM
Subject: Patch’s Long-Term Future
To:
Cc: AOLCorpStaff

Patchers,

Since the day Jon, Warren, and I founded Patch, we have had one mission in mind – improve the lives of people in local communities by 25 percent. Patch has become an important brand in the hundreds of towns we serve, and it is a staple of our communities. With the average Patch just over two years old, we are well on the way toward our goal of improving peoples’ lives and building a sustainable business in the process.

Over the past year, Patch has made an enormous impact in our communities. The coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings, the lifeline that Patch provided residents during the Sandy Hook school shootings and Superstorm Sandy, and the exclusive Sanford-Colbert Busch debate in South Carolina stand out as powerful examples. The new Patch platform that is rolling out now will only increase Patch’s ability to instantly improve communities.

As we have made a commitment to improve our Patch towns and communities, we made a similar commitment to make Patch profitable in 2013 and a commitment to continue to improve our business model. Just as we have rolled out new products and services to Patch, we are announcing today the rollout of the recently tested town structures, which will help us serve communities in a more local way and move Patch meaningfully toward profitability.

The changes have two main goals:

1. Improve and increase our hyper-local programming and deepen our user engagement through the Patch 2.0 platform; and

2. Implement a structure that unlocks the path to profitability.

To accomplish these goals we are taking the following steps, effective immediately:

* We are combining the East, Central and West editorial zones to create a simpler structure that will enable faster decision-making and a more coordinated editorial effort across Patch. Anthony Duignan-Cabrera has been promoted to VP, Editorial Director, overseeing day-to-day editorial field operations, and will continue to report into Rachel in her role as Chief Content Officer. /CONTINUES

* We are streamlining our regional editorial structure across the country by moving from 20 to nine teams. We are not reducing our number of sites or our coverage area as a result of this change.

* We are promoting Katie O’Connor to Director of Editorial Operations and Content Strategy. In this role, she will work with our editorial teams to help create new content and programming.

* We are implementing a “team approach” for our sites, based on the success of our field tests earlier this year. This approach allows for flexibility based on the unique needs of each community and the strengths of editors.

* Jon and I have decided to elevate Steve Kalin to the CEO position at Patch. Steve has done a fantastic job since he began at Patch in December as President and COO. Jon and I hired Steve with the thought that his extensive background in scaled, local platforms would eventually allow him to run Patch on a day-to-day basis.

* Jon has led Patch since it was just an idea and helped scale it into one of the most significant brands in local communities in the U.S. Under his guidance, Patch has gained tens of millions of users and more than ten thousand advertisers; and it has covered millions of local stories. Going forward, Jon will return to AOL Ventures full-time and lead our push into several areas we have identified as significant future growth opportunities for AOL.

The changes we are making at Patch, however, come with the difficult decision to eliminate some positions. These employees have contributed greatly to Patch’s business with passion and dedication. We sincerely thank them for all they have done to make Patch what it is today. Their impact will always be felt here. We wish all affected employees continued success. They are truly Patchers for life.

This is an important time for Patch. We have many great opportunities in front of us, and we continue to make decisions to ensure Patch’s success. AOL’s Board of Directors and I remain firmly supportive of Patch and our mission. Together we are building a company for the long term, one that can grow and thrive – now and far into the future.

We will be having team calls today and a Patch All-Company call this afternoon at 6pm ET, to discuss these changes in more detail. I encourage you to join these calls. Keep an eye out for invitations to follow.

I want to thank you for your continued commitment to Patch and to serving your communities, and for staying focused on our goals. Patch is one of the fastest growing sites and brands on the Internet. We have the right plan, we have a great team, and I’m confident we can win together.

Keep going – TA

Conners wrote on Facebook earlier this week:

The Obama interview caught fire and got wide-spread attention because I questioned his spending.

I said some viewers expressed concern, saying they think he’s “out of touch” because of his personal and family trips in the midst of our economic crisis.

The President’s face clearly showed his anger; afterwards, his staff which had been so polite … suddenly went cold.

That’s to be expected, and I can deal with that just as I did with President George H. Bush’s staff when he didn’t like my questions.

Journalistic integrity is of the utmost importance to me. My job is to ask the hard questions, because I believe viewers have a right to be well-informed. I cannot and will not promote anyone’s agenda – political or otherwise – at the expense of the reporting the truth.

What I don’t like to even consider … is that because of the Obama interview … the IRS put a target on me.

Can I prove it? At this time, no.

But it is a fact that since that April 2012 interview … the IRS has been pressuring me.

The Post-Dispatch reports that a federal tax lien has been placed on the anchor’s property, and that the lien claims Conners and his wife owe more than $85,000 in “small business/self employed” taxes.

Later from Conners: “To be fair, I should disclose that my issues with the IRS preceded that interview [with Obama] by several years.”

* KMOV’s Conners off the air until further notice after IRS flap (stltoday.com)
* Conners: “Almost immediately after the interview, the IRS started hammering me” (facebook.com)

Unfortunate ad wrap placement.

* Gawker’s Tom Scocca chides the Toronto Star for sitting on the Mayor Rob Ford crack story. (@tomscocca) | Gawker’s story | The Star’s story.
* “Get fired up for the weekend!” (Don’t take that the wrong way, Mayor Ford!) (@sladurantaye)
* Time Inc. Sports Group editor: “It means a lot to us that Jason [Collins] trusted us to present his story in a responsible and meaningful way.” (shermanreport.com)
* Yahoo, which paid $3.6 billion for “cool” GeoCities (remember that?) in 1999, wants to be cool again by owning Tumblr. (theawl.com)
* Politico has some problems with its “I am a politico” promo. (washingtonpost.com)
* High school kills student newspaper op-ed that criticized school board for not renewing lacrosse coach’s contract. (oregonlive.com)
* I’m terrible in math, too: “For the reeling Rockies, who are 3-8 over their past 10 games…” (fourth graf) (denverpost.com)