Khristopher Brooks has a post up over at Huffington Post regarding his hiring and firing by The News Journal. Turns out getting fired by The News Journal may have been the best thing that ever happened to him.
And then my cell phone rang.
Phil Freedman, the News Journal’s local editor, called and said the newspaper is rescinding its job offer. I was being fired for using the company’s logo on my personal blog and quoting the executive editor from my job offer letter.
I was at a loss for words. When I finally spoke I said, “Well, can I just take it down? I know Romenesko’s cell number. I can have him take it down, I’ll take mine down, this never happened.”
Freedman said the decision was out of his hands and that the final axe came from the publisher, HR and corporate. To me, that says there was an internal conversation about this, a conversation that I wasn’t invited to join. Had I been brought in, I could have said “I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was bad. I’ll take it down. End of story.”
Nice, News Journal. Real nice.
But here’s the good part, the good part for Brooks.
I pondered all this while sitting at my desk at Black Voices. I looked at the computer screen and suddenly I had a handful of emails. Job offers. All across the country, from as near as Connecticut, out to Iowa and even more pouring in today. I received an offer to write a essay for a popular online magazine and my followers on Twitter have reached out to me. Most of them are saying, “ahh, you didn’t want to be with Gannett anyway.”
And I appreciate those condolences. I appreciate all the new Twitter and Tumblr followers I’ve received. I want everyone to know I’ll be OK. I’m from Detroit, a city that knows how to respond in the face of negative publicity and I’m no different. Hopefully the next time you’ll see my name, it’s under a headline and not in it.