And the "Star" System Helped Kill Them

The Star system. What is it? It's a management-instigated system of preference and prejudice under which big newspapers were -- and are -- operated. It affects primarily the newsrooms. Executive management encourage only their favorite reporters -- the stars -- to spend all their time researching and writing in-depth series -- successive articles that focus on malfeasance in government or Liberal social causes, and that seek to raise consciousness or social or political change. They're generally boring for newspaper readers, the vast majority of whom just want the relevant news, the movie reviews, stock trading, or the police report.

It's cyclical. The stars are given every opportunity (and a lot of money) to write award-winning journalism. They're given the time and the assistance to complete series that may require months or even a year or more of work. All the while, their non-star colleagues are expected to grind out daily news -- the life's blood of a newspaper. The more awards these stars win, the more opportunities they're given to write yet more grand series of investigative journalism -- in short, to pretend they're staffers at the New Republic or the Nation.

The stars are coddled by the executive management, who give them by far the biggest raises and the best working conditions. Execs often move from paper to paper, and they often take their stars with them. Imagine what that does to employee morale. A new exec moves in and shakes things up, which is bad enough, but he brings along his favored group of star reporters, who proceed to kick back and enjoy their preferential treatment, once again, in this new environment, under the frustrated, seething gazes of the rest of the longtime staff.

This poisonous environment in the newsroom -- calculated and engineered to foment jealousy, greed, and extreme dissension among the staff -- has a direct effect on newspaper quality. The staffers in the newsroom watch their "special" colleagues rise to the top of the newsroom hierarchy, with better salaries, greater status, more freedom on and off work, and more opportunity to build glowing careers in every way.

The staffers get their noses rubbed in it, and justifiably figure, "Why should I bust out the work year after year with little or no recognition or reward while these stars are coddled like Cinderella's step-sisters?"