So what REALLY happened with SND?
So what really happened to the Society of News Design?
The society hosted a live chat Tuesday in which it promised to answer questions about the massive upheaval the group has experienced over the past week. But I didn’t feel like the chat helped at all. Judging by the comments folks have posted after that chat, many of you feel the same way.
So what really happened? I spoke with most of the major players today. And, I’m sorry to report, what really happened depends on whose version of the story you believe. And as much as I’d like to get away from describing the society, as it stands now, as two factions… well, it’s pretty much split into two factions.
Can the rift be repaired? Good question. But that will have to come later.
Last night, I constructed a timeline of what I knew so far and I passed it around to key players, seeking comment and additional pieces. Now, 24 hours later, I’m told the society has prepared its own timeline and is currently tweaking it to suit all parties involved. (This was announced shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday. Ten hours later, it’s still not posted.)
Based on what I’ve heard today, I wonder if even that’s going to be possible. The sides are really that far apart. I’m eagerly awaiting the publication of that timeline, though. I think you’ll find it interesting as well.
Matt Mansfield at SND/Boston, October 2007.
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We’ve been told that Matt Mansfield resigned as president “in the best interests of the society” and because of “an internal dispute” among board members.
As you might expect, those two statements are true. But they give us only a small part of the story.
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By now, you’ve read the article published Tuesday afternoon by Steve Myers of the Poynter Institute. In it, he details how the society’s search for a new executive director derailed the University of North Carolina’s offer to host SND headquarters on campus — a move that all agree would be wonderful for the society.
The problem, though, was this: The university was leery of dealing with a group that didn’t have stable leadership at the executive director level. They wanted to know that SND’s executive director — Elise Burroughs, who’s held that post for five years — would remain in that job after the move to Chapel Hill.
SND executive director Elise Burroughs with Region 1
director Scott Griffin at the Small-Paper Summit
Quickcourse in Waterbury, Conn., May 2008.
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Matt reportedly gave the school a verbal assurance that he would extend her contract for another three years.
What happened next is the confusing part. One side tells me that certain board members weren’t crazy about keeping Elise on longer and urged a search for a new director. The other side tells me that Matt later changed his mind. Either way, Matt made a major mistake in that he didn’t bring his UNC partners into the loop, as soon as possible.
Matt told us today:
If I have one regret, it’d be that immediately after the executive committee made that decision, I should have called UNC right away.
But while he didn’t call, he did feel like he had brought the subject up, he told me. A May 11 e-mail memo mentioned that the full-time office staffing issue had not been resolved. A copy of this memo went to the society’s UNC members who were working on the Chapel Hill deal, Matt says. He acknowledges, though, that this note should have been more explicit.
If that’s all there was to it, then the story would be so much simpler. But, as you might guess, that’s not all there was to it.
The gap between what UNC thought it knew and what SND knew grew over the course of several weeks. I had one source today describe to me what sounds like a nightmare scenario: A search committee had been formed and was actively seeking candidates for the soon-to-be-relocated executive director post while poor Elise actually traveled to Chapel Hill to look over the proposed facilities and to check out neighborhoods where she might find a deal on a house.
Yeah. It was that bad.
And how the communications problems got that far — again — depends upon whom you speak to.
One side tells me that’s all it was — basically, one phone call that didn’t happen. A simple communication missed. The other side cites mounds of evidence that untruths were told. And that even when the story began to unravel, more untruths were uncovered.
This, of course, is why no one really wants to talk about what actually happened. Why it’s seemed so mysterious in all those SND posts and memos and such. It really is very, very nasty. One source told me today they hoped I could retell the story in a way that minimized the rift that resulted in the board; that didn’t make it sound like everyone got so upset as time went on. But I can’t write that. It just wouldn’t be true.
Eventually, the university halted negotiations. On May 29, the SND board received a memo from Jean Folkerts, dean of UNC’s j-school, informing them that the offer — which had been made and unanimously accepted by the society — was suspended. The memo cited trust issues with the society. Specifically, Matt.
Tempers flared — and perhaps for good reason. The board split pretty much down the middle: One side backing the president and the other citing a growing distrust of the president.
Three days later, on June 1, two of SND’s regional directors called upon Matt to resign. Another three days later, Matt offered his resignation, to be effective June 18. A motion was made to ask Matt to reconsider. The board set up a vote of confidence in Matt’s leadership, scheduled for June 13: This past Saturday.
A conference call with a consortium of past SND presidents was held on June 11. The next day — Friday — Matt went public with his intention to resign, ending the matter.
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Now, let’s try to answer some of the most common questions that have come our way today…
Q: Did Bonita force Matt out?
A: The question wounds her, of course. She says she’s just now coming to terms with the notion that many folks are convinced she indeed twisted Matt’s arm to resign.
Bonita told us today:
Matt and I had many long conversations. It became clear that we had a better chance of putting all this behind us if Matt stepped aside.
The decision to leave was Matt’s. I agree it was the right decision.
When I asked Matt the same question, he only laughed and went on and on about how closely he’s worked with Bonita over the years and how closely he’s working with her on the transition.
If there’s any bitterness there, they’re each certainly saying the right things to deny it.
Q: The Poynter story suggested the Elise Burroughs wasn’t told she was going to be replaced. Is that true?
A: I asked Elise for comment today but she didn’t reply. Now that I know more about what’s happened, I don’t blame her.
However, when I sent a separate e-mail to Elise today, asking for membership numbers, she fired the material right off to me.
This illustrates the Elise Burroughs I know: Efficient. Easy to work with. Helpful to a fault. I can’t imagine a better executive director.
But then again, I’m not on the board. I asked Matt why they were moving to let her go. Matt replied:
The Executive Committee decided not to renew Elise’s contract. It was our opinion that the Society needed someone with more digital skill and a proven track record of growing membership, securing grants, and establishing authority in the journalism community.
Given what’s happening in the industry, it’s clear that the executive director position in any journalism association will be challenging. There’s no doubt, though, that because of the shakeup in the industry, the Society also has the benefit of a larger candidate pool than ever before. The ability to explore that option, we felt, remains the best course of action for the Society’s members.
Was Elise given proper notice that her contract wasn’t to be renewed? Matt says she was:
Elise was told, both verbally and in writing, in advance of the six-month warning that her contract requires.
Q: So why did so many key board members resign?
A: In addition to Matt, the president; and Elise, the executive director, this whole affair has seen the loss of:
- SND Foundation president Bill Gaspard
- Publications chairman Tyson Evans
- Region 3 director Jon Wile
Tyson is quite blunt in his reasons for leaving:
I can’t speak for the others, but my resignation was the only productive path forward for me personally, this particular board and, thusly, the Society’s members. As I told my fellow directors:
This is a pivotal time for SND and our craft. We can’t afford to focus on egos and internal politics — and those battles are clearly a priority for a handful of board members. I hope my departure helps extinguish those flames so they can focus on more worthwhile pursuits.
This debacle has always been a folly of poor timing and miscommunication. Never malice. Never deception. And the push to prosecute Matt was unwarranted. As both a voting board member and executive committee member, I take responsibility for my votes that led us down this path. Any directors who feel they lacked information should have stood up and asked rather than rushing to judge and criticize in the aftermath. I cannot be part of a board that was so short-sighted as to vilify its leadership and abandon its fiercest advocate at a time when our industry faces extinction.
I disagree with Bonita’s handling of this situation and her leadership tactics, which leave me questioning her agenda for SND. I cannot, in good conscience, remain a director while she is acting-president.
Left: Tyson Evans of the New York Times.
Right: Jon Wile of the Washington Post.
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Jon, too, quoted from his official letter of resignation:
“Another reason for my resignation lies with the leadership of the current organization. Matt and Tyson have been crucial in my development as a new media thinker, and each has pushed me into unknown areas with a deft touch. Without them I don’t see a viable new media leader that will continue to push me, and others, into the future. This is a major concern for me.”
The resignations aren’t there to serve a purpose. It’s not to make a statement. I just don’t agree with how this whole situation was handled. I, like many others on the board, voiced my opinion that if Matt resigned that I would walk away with him. And that’s what I did.
We invited a quote from SND’s Education and Training Director Denise Reagan — who did NOT step down – but then we found the comment she posted Wednesday on the SND/Update site:
Do not mistake my decision to remain on the board as approval of what has occurred over the last few weeks. I am outraged that a few individuals caused the resignation of a president who has contributed more to SND than most people will ever know.
Denise Reagan
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I hope you will join me in pushing forward to rebuild the SND in which many of us have invested so much of ourselves.
We asked Matt specifically about all the resignations. Matt replied:
I was overwhelmed by the notes of support from so many board members when I resigned. I did not expect that others would follow my lead, but I respect that they are people of conscience and wanted to do what they felt was right to help SND move on.
I did contact everyone who said they would resign and encouraged each person to stay on with SND’s board if that was the path they believed would help members most.
Q: So why didn’t the board — or Matt or Bonita or someone; anyone — come right out and tell us all this in the first place?
A: Because, as we said up top, it’s really not all that simple. Did the discrepancies that started with UNC’s understanding of the executive director come about because of a simple oversight? Or was it something more than that? The folks who believe the former tend to feel that Matt has been railroaded. The folks who believe the latter tend to believe that justice has been done.
In their effort to gloss over this rift — and, yes, to not increase emotions any more than they had to — the entire board — both sides — characterized the whole thing as an “internal dispute.” And yes, they hoped you’d let it slide. You’d take their word for it.
After all, as you can see, there is plenty of blame to go around. Once conditions among board members began to deteriorate, things reportedly got nasty very rapidly.
And that’s where the real shame lies. You’d think a group of design editors and AMEs and visual journalists could find a way to get past the finger-pointing, the name-calling, the emotions to work out a solution. You’d think a bunch of professional communicators would communicate better than this.
What we’ve learned, of course, is that the members of the SND board are just as human as the rest of us. Dammit.
Q: Shouldn’t a group of journalists be more transparent in the operation of its society, though?
A: Oh, most definitely. You saw me make the transparency argument in the chat on Tuesday.
If anything good has come from this, it’s that you, the rank and file member, have made your point. The board and administration of the society most definitely understand the importance of transparency — now, at least.
For anyone who still doesn’t get it, just hop over to the archived chat and read the comments.
Q: OK, now that we have a better idea of what happened, how do we move forward?
A: Glad you asked.
Josh Crutchmer of the SportsDesigner blog posted a passionate essay today, declaring:
The Society for News Design is dead.
Is Crutch right? Is SND a goner?
Over the past few years, we’ve heard a lot of criticism of the society. Does it focus too much attention on contests? Does it offer too little value — especially to visual journalists at small- or medium-sized newspapers in the U.S.? Has it indeed become cliquish?
I’ve tried to report this story today impartially, despite having strong feelings myself. I’m on the record, time and time again, defending the society against the cliquishness charge, but no longer. I’ve had enough unsatisfactory dealings with various SND movers and shakers over the past couple of years — really, since I ramped up this very blog — that I’ve grown increasingly disenchanted with the society myself. I still recommend SND in my seminars to folks who have never heard of the group, but, in fact, I didn’t renew my own membership this year.
It’s the first time in 23 years I’ve not been a member of SND.
Apparently, I’m not the only dissatisfied ex-member. I requested numbers today from the society, so I could build this chart:
Scary, huh?
But look at the things the society has done just recently: The very popular free “meet-ups” in various cities. The online and multimedia boot camps. Attempting (and failing, perhaps, but at least they attempted) to beef up content at the SND/Update site. Revenue Two Point Zero.
Hell, Jonathan Berlin — truly, a saint of a guy himself — ripped up eight pages from the most recent issue of Design magazine in order to make room for a lengthy article I had posted in this very blog as a guide to visual journalists who find themselves laid off.
These SND guys go to a lot of trouble to serve their readers; their users; their members.
And the entire society — the board, the executive committee, the regional directors — are all volunteers. Every one of them.
Is it time to toss them all out? Is it time to toss out the society?
I’m not so sure. In fact, despite this whole sordid mess, I’m considering sending the society a check after all.
Considering. We’ll see.
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What would it take to turn SND around?
I have a few ideas.
Some of these, granted, are a bit half-baked. But hear me out…
1. Make the society transparent.
I suspect the debacle yesterday with the Q&A live chat taught the folks who lead the society something some of us have been saying for a while: In this day and age, it’s absolutely vital the organization be transparent in the way it conducts business, in the proposals it floats — hell, even in the debates it holds among its board members. You don’t want your questions or objections on the record? Then get off the board.
Why aren’t minutes published? If they are, then why didn’t I know this?
For exampke, I see in the minutes of the April 19th board meeting that Matt Erickson resigned as director of Region 4 and that Regions 5 and 6 are also without directors. Why wasn’t this posted at SND/Update? I see that Update magazine is cutting back to only two print issues a year. Why am I only now hearing about this, two months after the fact?
You’re not even doing an adequate job of keeping us posted about what’s happening in our own society!
We’re not in just any profession, y’know. We’re journalists. We’re supposed to hold ourselves to a higher standard when it comes to communicating and operating in the open.
So, by God, let’s do it. Let’s start now.
2. Stop pretending there is no dissent.
OK, so there are factions within the board. So what? There are factions in the U.S. Congress, too, and it’s managed to operate reasonably well for a couple of centuries.
Hell, you’re all creative people. Why not admit you have factions and then have some fun with it? Each faction show up to board meetings with political buttons displaying your loyalties. I can see posting board minutes that note that the Red-Faced Baboon party made proposal X but then the Mickey Mouse/Goofy party agreed to support it only if certain concessions are made by accepting proposal Y.
Rather than get irritated at each other for having differing opinions or priorities, why not take delight in those differences? Behave like adults. Hell, many of you are managing editors and AMEs and supervise large numbers of people. Some of you, I’ve even wished to work for. If you guys can’t behave any better than this, then I’m glad I didn’t work for you. Life is too short to work for a screamer.
3. Continue to reach out to the little guy.
While it seems many of the society’s movers and shakers work at large newspapers, I’ve felt strongly that the backbone of the group are members from smaller newspapers. You don’t hear from them because they don’t get time off from their bosses to attend workshops or board meetings. They have to pay their dues out of their pockets. They’re desperate for advice on how to improve tonight’s newspaper; what they can do to get themselves out of a time-and-resource jam tonight.
With the meetups and such, I think the society has done a much better job lately of reaching out to these folks. What else can be done to help them? These folks have no time to attend a quickcourse and money is non-existant as well. What resources can SND offer?
How about this: For the next calendar year, offer a 50 percent price break for any member who’s paying out of their pocket, as opposed to having their newspaper pay for membership. Yeah, that’d hurt SND finances for a year or so. But everyone’s hurting these days, to the point where folks are dropping out of SND. This might help retain folks — especially ones at smaller papers.
4. Continue to reach out internationally.
A lot of Americans have a tendency to dismiss anything not on their radar screen. It’s not pretty, but it’s true. I did it myself until I had my eyes opened by my good friend Anders Tapola at SND/Houston.
I think SND has done a great job reaching out to the international community over the past few years. Keep it up.
Not only that, but when you feature these international papers in U.S.-oriented venues, do it in a way that helps everyone — even those folks at tiny U.S. papers. For example, instead of “A look at design in Russian papers,” how about “Eight cool things Russian papers do that you can pick up and use in your 25,000-circulation daily.”
You write it like that and deliver some good content, you’ll be amazed at how many American eyeballs will fall on that article. And how much good it’ll do.
5. Rebuild your credibility.
Face it: Trust is going to be an issue with SND for some time. This whole debacle should never have happened in the first place. And once it happened, it should never have become politicized and spiraled out of control like it did.
And once that happened, no resignations should have ever taken place. None of them.
And once they did, the society should have taken a proactive stance at the inevitable criticism and come clean immediately with all the sordid details.
But instead: Fail. Fail. Fail. And Epic fail.
It’s going to take a lot of work from the new administration and from the new board to overcome this. There will be no room for egos. There will be no room for posturing. There will be no room for politics.
My message to the remaining board members: You’re all pretty selfless people to serve through this mess. But the next few miles are going to be very, very tough. If you’re not up to it, get out now.
6. Recognize service to the society where recognition is due.
I’ve heard a lot of accusations about Matt and the way he handled things this spring. I talked to enough people this week that I feel like I have a pretty good picture of what happened — where the mistakes were made. And yeah, there were plenty of mistakes.
But despite what’s happened this year and the hysteria surrounding the past month or so, there’s no denying that Matt had done a lot for the society. A lot.
You leaders who are left in SND: You might be advised to recognize Matt’s work with the society in an appropriate venue — perhaps in Buenos Aires this fall. And you might want to do that in a big way.
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My thanks to the folks who spoke with me about this story: Matt, Bonita, Jon, Tyson and a number of others who didn’t want to be mentioned by name.
June 17th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Wow, thanks Charles.
I love many many people within the SND fabric. But I let my membership lapse more than a year ago. I just couldn’t afford it anymore. $300 is A LOT of money, not including travel etc. I no longer could justify the expense.
Unfortunately, I can’t say I miss it. Near the end I wasn’t even reading the magazine or the updates anymore (sorry guys). The organization always felt somewhat cliquish to many and I can’t say I faulted that argument.
I think it’s great that the society does so much for students, but the poverty doesn’t end with the mortarboard. There’s so much more online learning that the society could help pilot. (For example, look at the Poynter Web chats, et al.) Why can’t I learn Flash in an online class with Don Wittekind? Why do I have to travel to Chapel Hill or Memphis?
I don’t think it’s effective at all to flame anyone in all of this. We all truly want to learn and help each other, right?
June 17th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Wow, SND. If you lost Apple, you’ve lost SND.
good job.
Crutchmer is right. SND is dead….
June 17th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Thank you Charles, I was beginning to squirm.
I agree with Francie.
I also live in Nevada, where SND is kind of non-existent and we’re all poor. Just talk to people in Vegas, they can’t even afford AC this summer, let alone trips to far away places. I don’t mind the membership dues (granted I’m still on student status right now) because I know what they go to. But I think, like Francie said, Poynter has the right idea. We need more online presentations. The SND site is horrible and never kept up. Design exists all around us, not just on paper. We need to step up our game.
Internationally, I agree with you, Charles. I’m sick of hearing people (especially during yesterday’s chat) complain that this year’s conference is in Buenos Aires. It’s good that it’s not in the U.S. this year. We’re all a bunch of toxic naysayers right now. We need new blood. That means international blood. Young blood.
In the U.S., we need smaller localized events. Save money by driving down the street instead of flying across the country. Think Ignite type presentations. More get togethers on smaller scales. Sometimes the large conferences are about sucking up, not learning. It’s better to build smaller local networks at this time. Network with people in your area instead.
Let the U.S. air out its stink and gather international members who can teach us to be better.
June 17th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
SND is not dead. Man, journalists are so damned dramatic.
Just like everything else, it’s entering a stage of severe transition (also known as the Phoenix).
Proclaiming SND is dead is like proclaiming newspapers are dead. Way to approach the problem constructively, eh?
Oh well, get it out of your system so we can start fresh.
Although I’d agree the ego and politics are extremely disheartening.
June 17th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Bravo, Charles, on a story reported and told quite well.
If only you hadn’t scooped our own paralyzed leadership.
The only thing I’d edit: When you say “We’ve found out that the board is human.” I think you left out a sentence. You should add afterward: “We also found out that the board considers itself above human.”
Through Damon Cain, we’re finding out that even the most basic of 501(c)(3) information isn’t available on the web site, which still trumpets “NIGEL HOLMES TO SPEAK IN BUENOS!”
It’s as if everyone’s legitimate concerns are a sideshow to be dealt with only by reciting the same tired lines delivered by politicians: “We’re moving forward.” “We don’t want to dwell.” “We don’t want to look back.”
Basically saying “Screw you.”
The members are owed an apology from someone. And nobody seems to feel bad about the way this has been handled. They’re too busy covering it up.
What is disturbing also: Early this afternoon, Burton said their version of this account “would be coming momentarily.”
As you pointed out, it’s now dozens of hours later. What would have been wrong with coming out and saying: “You know what? It’s important to get this right, so we’re going to work on this overnight and we will post it at 10 a.m. Thursday.”
But they have no such regard for members who clearly want — and deserve — the information.
They appear to be beholden only to each other and not the folks in steerage.
And that is the saddest part of all this: That they’re reinforcing all the things many have suspected about the inner workings of the place all along.
June 17th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
given the ill wind blowing through newspapers in this changing economy, i’ll bet everyone’s nerves were shot and they were stressed out. these are smart, thoughtful people — this one just got away from them as the boiling pot of anger and frustration probably found a convenient vent. not sure where things go from here, but SND was as prestigious an organization in journalism as any. hopefully, they’ll find their way back.
June 17th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
SND isn’t dead. It just smells funny.
As design is increasingly lumped in with other skill sets, and as designers are less a standalone group and more likely to be copy editors, seems to me the best thing all these alphabet groups can do is see how they can work together — or maybe even merge. What would be so wrong about ACES and SND, for instance, finding common ground and coming together?
My renewal form waits on my desk. It may wait a while, since I’m not currently in a newsroom and money’s tight. But I’m still one of the thousands of faces of SND and/or the visual journalism movement. We are still relevant, and we can be more impactful together. So no, SND isn’t dead, at least not unless we all decide it no longer represents or reinforces our profession.
June 17th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Reminds me of the saying that campus politics are so ugly because the stakes are so low.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Thanks Charles, I was worried that you were going to write a hit piece, but this was pretty balanced. I would comment on this debacle especially since I am on the SND board, but I think enough has been said already.
However, beneath the soap opera, charges of elitism and inefficiencies, everyone needs to realize that this is a VOLUNTEER organization. The membership you pay for goes to things like the annual, workshops, promotions, office administration, etc. The folks on the board and other directors who make this Society run don’t see a dime. What drives this organization is passion and a belief in what we do, and there is plenty of it throughout SND, which is why there is so much butting heads.
So, for those who complain about not getting enough from the blog, magazine or whatever we’re sorry, but we do our best…and we are listening. It is just that when you are juggling with your day job, the crappy economy and family, it is sometimes impossible to invest that time to making SND better. And instead of complaining, why don’t you volunteer to help fix it? If you believe in what you do is good for the industry, SND could use a person like you.
And lastly, this is the worst time ever for the news industry, which is why SND initiated FREE meetups throughout the country: D.C., N.Y. and Chicago. I’m setting one up in San Francisco on July 18. For more details, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104605407128. Again it is free and open to anyone (non-members as well).
Hope to see you there!
June 18th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Hmm.
If SND folded tomorrow, who would notice? Would readers — a vast majority of whom have never heard of SND, and likely never will — notice a difference in their newspaper the next day? Would their favorite news site be missing something, feel different? Would you, as a graphic designer, suddenly not be able to lay out a news page? Would some portion of your knowledge, of your journalistic background disappear?
What would be different?
Nothing.
There is no value in this organization. Why would anyone — especially in this economy — spend their hard-earned money on this group?
If you are looking to expand your skills as a designer, there are better options. Join the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, for instance. Attend one of their conferences using that money you might have spent in the past on SND dues. They offer much more than just techniques on using Photoshop filters and drop shadows.
Use those SND dues to buy books or subscribe to magazines. In terms of design, I’ve learned more from reading numerous books on design and typography than I could ever have learned at a dozen SND Quick Courses. Two magazines to consider are Layers and HOW. Buy them now.
Set your feed readers for numerous design blogs — Smashing Magazine, David Airey, Jacob Cass, PSDtuts, VectorTuts, BittBox, etc. Follow designers on Twitter and Facebook.
The bottom line: There are better resources (many free) out there to hone your design skills. If you think you can keep your nose only in newspaper design, you are setting yourself up for trouble. Good luck.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:03 am
I’m with Clonts. Damon’s asked some thoughtful questions. And Charles, you’ve done a great job boiling all this down, as always.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:28 am
Charles, great job as usual! I’ve been waiting for you to blog all day because I knew you would get to the truth of what is going on with SND.
Francie and Mike make great points about doing more online presentations. I attended Don’s quick course back in February, but that is only because I live in Raleigh and didn’t have to get a hotel room. I have done a couple of Poynter/NewsU online seminars, and they are great. What is also nice is they are archived on the website, and I can go back at a later date and rewatch the program which I can’t do with the quick courses.
I also have to echo Josh on exploring different organizations, magazines and web sites. I have been a member of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) for over three years, and when my membership expires in October there is no question that I’m renewing. However, when my membership is up next month in SND, I doubt I’m renewing because I don’t see me getting my money’s worth from them. NAPP not only has a fantastic web site full of different information, but they put out a great magazine and many of them also help put out Layers (which I also subscribe to, along with How).
Whoever remains on the board of SND needs to take a hard look on how relevant this organization is in 2009. Friday was the first time in months that I had even thought of visiting SND.org.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:10 am
SND is a clique like a bar is a clique, we’re doing the same thing and we’re in this together, we might as well be friends.
When I started working at The Times, MattE and I got along because we understood each other. He said I was a shit designer and I was a shit designer, but he and others like Theresa Badovich (SND member) and Bill Thornbro (SND member) and Ben Cunningham (SND member) wouldn’t let me be shit. They challenged me and infected me and I’m better because of them.
As a college student, I asked for help. SND members helped. As a college student, I said I have 3 free days, can I come to your paper? More than 10 SND members said yes. I drove 3,000 miles in 3 days. When I moved to DC, I said, hey I’m new here, does anyone want to hang out? Matt Mansfield contacted me and said come meet us. I said I wanted to go to Syracuse to help judging, SND said come. SND asked for donations to help college students and two people ponied up more than $1,000 in one night on the guise of hearing Bill Gaspard sing Karaoke. One of them was Tysone Evans. Bill Gaspard sang. It was beautiful. This is the SND I know.
These are good people who have given their lives to help an organization, to help students, to help newspapers and our industry, yes our industry — don’t stop me now — move forward and prosper.
I was recently invited to Revenue 2.0 in DC, where people from around the industry came, many of us hungover, to come up with 4 prototypes in a single day to save the industry. This is the SND I know.
My fear is that we’re losing some of the best people in SND and some of the best people in journalism today. Charles Apple, who was one of my greatest mentors in college, has left. MattE, who challenged me at The Times, resigned and now Matt Mansfield, Tysone Evans, Bill Gaspard and Jon Wile have resigned.
We’re good people. We’re good people who care so much that we’d rather resign than hurt others. We care so deeply that we want SND to succeed that we’ll fight each other, we’ll bring down thresholds and edifices long existing to keep visual journalism alive because this isn’t about SND anymore. This is about the future of journalism. This is about news. This is about America and the world and fighting so that we never have to rely on twitter to find information about a post-election rally. We’re story tellers and game changers. This is the SND I know.
Yes, I’m friends with Matt Mansfield, but I’m friends with all SND members. I love Bonita Burton and Denise Reagan and Mike Higdon, who I don’t know very well, but we’ve exchanged words online and I’m sure if we met in person we could get drunk and have a good time together. This is the SND I know. This is the SND I love.
It’s time to move on because we’re all shouting “What happened?” but we know what happened. We put 32 brilliant people in a room and things got ugly. I can’t get 5 people in a room to agree on toppings for a pizza and we expect things to be clean when 32 people come together to decide the fate of an industry in peril, to decide where are we going, where are we going to be in five years and what steps do we need to take to get there. It’s dirty and it’s mean and if we we’re sitting at a city council meeting we’d write this down and we’d love it because it’s sexy and salacious and dirty and our editors would say, “readers don’t care about sexy, they care about what affects them.” This has affected us all. And yes, SND should have and should continue to be more transparent. We have a voice so let’s use it to challenge SND to move forward, to change the game again. To stop thinking about old journalism, the good old days when things just worked — did this ever really exist? — when it was clean and beautiful. It’s not true anymore and yelling and screaming isn’t going to change the new world we live in.
So, here’s my proposition. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, so let’s put down our swords and have a beer and start talking about what’s next. Where are we going and how are we going to get there. This isn’t to discount a very serious situation. I realize the gravity of what happened.
We have a choice. We can talk about problems or we can fix them. Right now we have a problem much bigger than resignations, we work for a hurting industry. We can turn journalism right. We can succeed. This is the SND I know. This is the SND I’ve always known. This is the SND I love. And I do love you all. First round is on me. And yes, I’m buying shots.
Also, for the record, my captcha was “Belittle Illinois.” I took a screen cap. Just saying.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:38 am
Look, there’s no healthy way to remove a CEO. There were bound to be hurt feelings in this and communication issues. And I’m not trying to say anything bad about Elise (I have no reason to), it’s just a messy thing that the board faced.
And UNC has no right to play politics over this. That bothers me, too.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:51 am
Charles,
If you — like so many of us — are calling for transparency from our SND leaders, why do you use unnamed sources for this blog?
Also, you advise: “Recognize service to the society where recognition is due.” Following your own advise, you would re-up on your SND membership, recognizing all of the good that the society and its members have done for you over the years, right?
June 18th, 2009 at 1:56 am
Make that, “Following your own advice…”
It’s been a long day, hasn’t it?
June 18th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Thanks, Charles, for the report.
Organizations, including newspapers, just don’t report on themselves well. For those of us not in SND leadership, it helps a great deal.
SND leaders are likely trying to balance transparency with respect for personnel. They’re journalists, yes, but they’re human, too.
Exacerbating the situation, the organization is slumping with the industry. We all want and need more from SND, even as resources wither.
SND’s strength is also its weakness. It’s a grassroots organization of volunteers who love the business, love the association and love the fellowship of like-minded journalists.
And none of us have deep pockets.
Again, thanks for the report.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:50 am
“And UNC has no right to play politics over this.” -RB
No. But they do have a right to be treated honestly and fairly. I doubt they would have pulled their offer if they thought this was a misunderstanding.
“Matt reportedly gave the school a verbal assurance that he would extend her contract for another three years.” -CA
Lies, untruths, misunderstandings, whatever. This whole mess seems to be about trust — or its absence. The representatives of UNC are SND board members. So if just one board member was deliberately mislead, Matt did the right thing — the honorable thing — by stepping down.
And if a board member is misled, any board member who thinks that it won’t happen to them, lets loyalty obscure common sense.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Thanks for the report, Charles. Good work, as usual.
And I agree with Len that UNC has a right to be treated fairly and honestly. Besides, it’s perfectly reasonable for them to ask for stability at the top levels of an organization looking to move to their campus. Of course, there seems to be much still left unsaid in this fiasco.
I also agree with those who are calling for more online events. Even if you cut down on prices for attending some of the events, there’s still travel and lodging. That’s one reason I never became an SND member or went to an SND event. With all the online tools available, it’s inexcusable to not use them to better serve your members and potential members.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Not at all surprising that nobody mentioned that SND lost a third of its members in the last two years.
I’ve worked with many of the lions of SND, current and former, and respect their design skills immensely … nevertheless, we lost a third of our readers while they were putting world-class wrappers on our product.
I always felt that SND figured some magic combination of fonts and refers would bring all those readers back. I heard a hundred speakers at the conferences say “it’s all about the content” and such. And I’ve worked with dozens of designers who have tried to make stories better.
My conclusion is that SND at best slowed the plunge in the industry’s fortunes, but all these great minds were, as the saying goes, so busy fighting alligators that they forgot the job was to drain the swamp.
Society for News Distraction might be a better title.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:51 am
I’ll just echo the sentiments from Josh, John and Tom that SND completely missed the boat these past few years and especially in this economic climate by refusing to adapt at all. It’s idea of “adapting” was to offer web-design quick courses at a few locations across the country each year, as if in this economy it’s feasible for people to be traveling great distances to spend 1-2 days learning Flash. Do they realize there are online courses that cost significantly less? Have they even considered putting something like that together?
The organization ceased to become relevant once cracks started to form in the industry and SND was exposed for what it is — an organization that’s great for networking and handing out awards, but ultimately meaningless and inept at making real change in journalism.
This Revenue 2.0 project sounds wonderful and I’m sure some great ideas have been tossed out, but what has been implemented? Is Matt getting a sit down interview with Sam Zell? Or Dean Singleton? The fact is this all is a gigantic waste of everyone’s fucking time if a large number of newspapers and jobs won’t even exist 5 years from now.
As I’m sure anyone who worked at the Rocky Mountain News or Seattle P-I could tell you, that SND membership won’t buy you a job or the skills needed to complete in a changing marketplace. But hey, I hope you enjoyed seeing your page in SND27!
June 18th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Thanks for doing the digging, Charles.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Charles
Nice job of getting the story behind the story out there. The SND needed to do it first, though, and failed.
It’s real failure, though, is in it not being a valuable resource for smaller papers and the people who work at them. Until they provide value for them, the backbone of the newspaper industry, it’s nothing but big paper elites arguing over how many angels can dance on a head of a pin
June 18th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Thanks, Charles.
I hope SND gets its act together. And I hope it’s not too late.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Just wanted to echo the sentiments expressed time and again by others here. Fantastic job, Charles.
I’m not sure why this story couldn’t have been told by the SND board. I understand the need for discretion, and that a certain amount of privacy is necessary for boards to operate without fear of sensitive conversations getting out and being misconstrued.
But geez folks, it IS possible to speak in generalities without getting personal, without revealing details that need to be private and without the discussion turning into he said/she said/he said and a bunch of finger pointing.
Charles’ piece proved that. Thank you, Charles, for handling this the right way. Perhaps someone on the SND board is taking notes.
June 18th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Thanks for this story. (I should have written that when I read it in the wee hours of this morning. My apologies.)
Also, I was curious whether you’ve talked to any of the Chapel Hill folks. It would be interesting, as well, to get their perspective on all this. Are they willing to deal with anyone who’s left? Should SND be looking to another site altogether? I’m sure there’s plenty of colleges/universities out there who would love to jump in here…
Keep at it! And thanks again!
June 18th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
I’d just like to re-visit what I said earlier.
I think it’s nice that SND is starting “meetups” but why are they all in big cities? I live in Iowa. Chicago is 3 hours away. Des Moines is 2. Minneapolis and St. Louis are 5. It’s a pain in the ass to drag myself to a big city, and I don’t have Saturdays off. Would be nice, but hey it’s the newspaper business.
Yeah, I’m sure some will respond “well then organize a meetup!!” But seriously, events don’t have to be in person. We can all virtually raise up a pint; we don’t have to meet at the Billy Goat (although that would be nice). And I don’t mean that as a slam.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Hi Francie,
The meetups are in big cities for now for convenience sake. Because these meetups are free, there is no travel budget to bring in speakers. Speakers donate their time for coming in, and most of them live within the city where the meetup is held, so the cost to them is minimal.
But don’t fret on not making it. The NYC meetup had live Web casts and video posted on the SND Web site. (Other meetups did not unfortunately because of lack of funding or equipment, but transcripts and pdfs were posted.) I am trying to get live Web cast and video done for the meetup in San Francisco on July 18. So cross your fingers, and look for announcements as we get closer to the event. Hope you join us.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:40 am
This whole thing strikes me — and others I was chatting with today — as more funny than tragic. Actually, high-larious would be a better term. Perhaps it’s residual anger over what happened to the late, lamented Link in SND judging a couple years back. We got screwed badly enough that one of the judges wrote to me an apologized. I don’t need the awards, but it would at least be a sign that the organization supposedly preaching innovation recognized that were were trying to innovate.
I’m not designing any more, so I don’t even have a dog in this fight. But to me this whole kerfuffle has all the gravity of an argument by the prom decorations committee.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
“But to me this whole kerfuffle has all the gravity of an argument by the prom decorations committee.”
Amen.
The funniest is listening to people bringing up Watergate and whatnot as though what happened involving a miscommunication with UNC is somehow worth bringing up a presidential scandal.
It’d be one thing if Matt was accused of stealing funds or doing something unethical, this whole thing is just ridiculous drama bullshit that is more appropriate for a high school drama class than a bunch of professionals.
Everyone involved in this should be ashamed of themselves. Not only as journalists but as human beings. It’s pathetic.
June 19th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
What’s happening with SND leadership sounds very much like what I encountered in newspaper management, which is why I’m out now. What’s good for the business is thrust aside for favoritism and cliques. Bad writers and designers get prime assignments, all because they can kiss up better than the guy next to them. In almost two years out the business, I have yet to encounter the amount of worthless bickering and petty BS that circulated the places I worked in the newspaper industry.
After 15 years in front of a monitor at newspapers across the nation, I decided enough is enough. So I spent a year studying books and taking online courses after work. I learned enough CSS and HTML and Flash to build a few sites, which allowed me to score a job in marketing design. It ain’t newspapers, but it’s a pretty good gig. And pays pretty well, too.
So learn the tools. It’s not that hard. Build a site. Or design one and have someone else code it. If you don’t, you’ll be the last one designing print. And if SND isn’t branching out in this way, then it’ll be the one turning out the lights for the last time.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:06 pm
I would recommend an experiment. Take your SND membership dues for the coming year and buy a subscription to Lynda.com.
Use it for 1 hour a day - learn the CS4 suite (especially the web pieces) and learn to use your skills on something other than newsprint.
Its a much better investment of your time and money right now.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:25 pm
So, Bonita portrays Matt as the big villain, Bonita basically pushes Matt out, Bonita gets to hire the new SND Execs, Bonita moves up the chain early, Bonita is the lead editor on the “official version†of the chronology, Bonita gave us that lame and patronizing online “conversation,†and Bonita will no doubt ride in on her white shining horse and save the UNC deal. That’s an awful lot of Bonita - too much for my liking. I won’t be renewing.