Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
A loyal reader recently sent me an old e-mail that flew around in the days when Asheville Citizen-Times Executive Editor Susan Ihne was at the newspaper and working for Publisher Randy Hammer. Hammer arrived in late 2007. Ihne was fired in May 2008. Ihne this past week filed a $15 million wrongful termination lawsuit against Hammer and Gannett Co, the corporate owner of the Citizen-Times.
This portion of an e-mail shows that Hammer immediately began making his presence felt in the newsroom. Hammer’s first big project: getting behind a Mission Hospital’s weight-loss initiative dubbed “Lighten Up for Life.” Much like the hit reality television show “The Biggest Loser,” people in Asheville were asked to come together in teams of four, then keep track of how much weight they lost in a year. Local businesses, not the least of which was Mission and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, chipped in support, and a series was born.
The newspaper’s role was to write weekly profiles of teams, as well as regular news stories featuring individual success stories or focusing on local health issues. It seemed kind of a light story coming from Hammer, who built a news career around hard-hitting news investigations. But Hammer demanded that this be a priority.
The newsroom hit the ground running and got together a front-page story. It went over like a lead balloon with Hammer, who e-mailed Ihne about his displeasure. Ihne sent this missive to newsroom managers:
And figure out how we can make what Randy wants to happen on the
Health initiative. I don’t care who we have to throw into to make it
happen. He hates the logo — what can we do to improve it? He wants
page proofs by this afternoon? When this afternoon can we have
something ready to show him? Which story do we go with? Something
Nanci had prepared for next Tuesday? How do we do it everyday in
January — team profile each day?
Let’s meet at 1:45 p.m. with a plan.
"No one in the newsroom or in lowly staff positions can afford the houses that they feature every Saturday."
I’m with you on that! I get tired of reporting and reading about all the rich people who are doing so great right now. The majority of Americans can barely afford food, medical care and so on. i’m sure that most people don’t want to read about some rich person’s second home and their wonderful lifestyle.
The lighten up series is going to start again. I think that Hatcher Hammer has a fat phobia. There have been more stories about weight loss and staying fit in the past year than in the paper’s history. The email is so typical of Hammer’s communication (or lack thereof) to his staff. Susan Ihne was pushed to move quickly so she pushed her staff to respond. Do it his way! Do it now! Or, off with their heads.
Instead of featuring the mansions that only 1% of residents can afford maybe he should run some stories on needy families and how people can help out charities and non-profits this year. No one in the newsroom or in lowly staff positions can afford the houses that they feature every Saturday.
Hammer’s "hard news" image? Are you kidding? The only hard news he ever did resulted in an $18 million libel suit against Gannett, and although it was finally reversed on appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, it was basically about sloppy editing. And he was the editor in charge.
The "Lighten Up for Life" series was one of the most boring features the Citizen-Times ever ran. I thought I was seeing the same article over and over and over and . . .Hammer also started the "Home of the Week" series, which is also repetitive and feels like the same article over and over. Hammer clearly has no feel for the community and what real newspaper readers want to read.