Unsolicited Advice Carries Whiff of Self-Pity
Over at Slate, media critic Jack Shafer takes time away from reviewing meth-use statistics to give a little advice to recent Observer purchaser Jared Kushner. It's pretty innocuous stuff: Beef up the real estate coverage, don't be afraid to try new things, the web is your friend, etc. But the best part is in the middle, when Shafer, who writes for an organization which has sent so many reporters off to 43rd Street that it may as well be considered a New York Times Triple-A affiliate, offers the following:
The Observer's well-deserved reputation as the top farm team for New York journalism must die. If you want Kaplan to teach journalism, give him cab fare to the Columbia J-school. If you want him to run a newspaper, spend more money on talent so he can fully exploit the bright young things he's developed. Establish the Observer as a paper where you can build a career, not just start one.
Hey, Jack, you might as well send the memo directly to Donald Graham; you think he's actually bothering to parse this stuff?