Charles Apple

Oh, man, does this one make me ill.

I hired Jeff Bash in the summer of 1999 while he was still a student at Grand View College to work for me in the graphics department of The Des Moines Register. He had done a fabulous job that summer as my intern. I had two positions to fill and was having no luck recruiting candidates; Jeff wanted part-time and weekend work.

Me, Jeff Bash and illustrator and page
designer Mark Marturello in 2003.
—

So we extended his internship into a part-time gig. By that November, I knew: I wanted him full-time. So I made a deal with him: I’ll hire you now; work whatever hours you can. But you have to graduate on time.

And he did. Not only did he become my first full-time hire in Des Moines, but also he directed my attention to his college buddy Katie VanDalsem, designer and researcher. Hiring Jeff and Katie were two of the best moves I ever made as a newspaper manager. They both kicked ass. They both made me look smart as hell.

A couple of years in, I was taking a giant Ed Miller-taught management class via the Poynter Institute and, in need of a challenging project, I dreamt up a classic: I’ll train this kid to be my successor. Folks in Des Moines thought I was nuts: Are you sure? He’s so young. He’s so quiet.

Oh, yeah. I was sure.

I spent a lot of time working with him, one-on-one. I sent him off to the local community college to take a class in business writing: Grammar was not his strong point, and in a newsroom full of world-class writers, that could be a liability.

And when I finally left Des Moines for the Virginian-Pilot in 2003, I made only one recommendation: Hire Jeff to replace me.

They did. And they weren’t sorry. Hell, I think it’s a hoot that Jeff was actually graphics editor of the Register longer than I was.

So now Gannett, wishing to cut loose 600 of the hardworking journalists who put content on its pages, accepts buyouts from two incredibly talented reporters like Jerry Perkins and Ken Fuson — hell, Ken is one of the best writers working in journalism today! How can any paper let Ken Fuson leave?

But that’s not enough blood from the Des Moines turnip. So the Register laid off five people today. Four of them, I remember from my time there.

But only one of them was Jeff Bash.

Sigh.

Jeff is 31 years old. He has four years of experience as a news artist and five years of experience as a graphics editor/art director.

A few samples of Jeff’s work:

Find more in his NewsPageDesigner gallery.

This comes on the heels of a big, big news year in Iowa. Jeff’s staff has been doing superb work in print and online, covering floods and tornadoes and 15-year-old Olympians.

One of his Des Moines co-workers — who might not want to be quoted by name — writes:

He was so darned good, I was totally shocked.

He was the one who did the popular pumpkin carving templates (huge response) and the map/diagram/graphic of the DM levee system failure, if I remember correctly.

I can’t imagine what they are thinking …

I can’t either. I can’t either.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Graphics, Industry woes, Job changes, News design, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.