Report: ‘Courier-Post’ Lays Off Mascot

The Courier-Post recently ended a round of layoffs, and the last one was surely the toughest: The paper has fired its mascot, Spot News.

The paper probably still has the 30-pound dog suit, but the employee who had to labor in it is gone. The Gannett Blog also gets another story from the tipster: That of the officewide prayer circle.

“In other strange news, I witnessed my first newsroom prayer circle yesterday. After the newsroom was notified it was spared, the metro editor summoned everyone into the conference room. He then asked everyone to pray with him for our colleagues who lost their jobs. I quickly exited the room. Other people also were pissed.”

Eh. Gotta find salvation somewhere — why not a more convenient conference room than a church?

In Cherry Hill, ‘Spot News’ goes [Gannett Blog]

Great Moments In Contextual Advertising

Thanks, Courier-Post, though I would have preferred something like, “Been in an accident? Call…”

Moorestown teen dies after being struck by car [Courier-Post]

Courier-Post Employees Write Open Letter

An email arrived over the transom last night from one “inruinsnj,” which was ostensibly a letter from Courier-Post employees to Publisher Walt Lafferty. Apparently, people aren’t too happy there! Here’s the info on Poopgate contained in the letter:

This climate of crisis is embodied by the soiling of the bathrooms. In the first incident, in the men’s bathroom, it took 24 hours for the feces to be removed from the floor. A reporter had to send out an electronic message warning employees about the situation. In the second incident, in the women’s bathroom, management quickly responded to have the feces removed and the area sanitized. Still, some employees believe the incidents were meant as a symbol of the mounting frustration they face on a daily basis.

The full inside baseball letter is after the jump.

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Poopgate At The Courier-Post

Jim Hopkins of the Gannett Blog sends along the story of Poopgate at the Courier-Post. Morale is apparently low at the Camden/Cherry Hill paper, so much that somebody shit on the floor of the bathroom:

“Two months back, it was discovered that someone defecated on the floor of the editorial men’s restroom. It went 13 hours before being cleaned up, I might add. 13 hours. The ‘evidence’ was nowhere near any of the toilets, so one of the operations folks designated it an act of vandalism… The event was christened ‘Poopgate.’ Fast forward to today when the same thing happened in the editorial women’s restroom.”

Somebody used to do this with cupcakes at my high school, and it closed the downstairs bathroom every couple of days for a few months. I supposed the editorial team is pissed at management, because at every newspaper everywhere ever, the editorial team is pissed at management. It’s good to know the commenters on the paper’s forum… are actually Courier-Post employees?

Corporate said probing Cherry Hill’s ‘Poopgate’ [Gannett Blog]

Greatest Forums On Web Closed

Nooooooooooo! The great Courier-Post Forums have apparently been closed. Although it’s simply part of a move to a newly-designed website for the C-P that launches tomorrow, one can only believe it just won’t be the same. Alas.

Correction Of The Day

On the cover of today’s Your Health, a preprinted section, the word surgery is misspelled.

Correction [Courier-Post]