Word is that Michael Wilkins - the Ogre of Ogden Street - has completed his slash and burn Fly In Fly Out tasks here in Townsville and has been relocated back to Sydney.
A couple of other News Ltd appointments in Queensland are vying for the Irony of the Week award.
Details here is a brief Magpie Extra at www.townsvillemagpie.com.au
Wilkins may not yet have left us and will probably walk amongst for a while before his departure causes us to rend out garments in an anguish of grief.
Not a surprise really, his manager's position was one of the 14 of the nationwide 19 managerial positions to be scrapped in News Ltd centralisation restructure.
His relocation to a so-far unrevealed role in Sydney is probably a reward for successfully laying waste to the staff ranks of The Astonisher and its satellite publications in Ayr, Ingham and Charters Towers. About 50 jobs have disappeared, many to a centralised operation in Brisbane - that's about a quarter of NQN's staff
Perhaps The Magpie shouldn't be too hard on The Ogre - if it wasn't him, it would've been someone else of a similar caring and compassionate nature. The constant but unproven story is that Wilkins was given the Townsville job as some sort of corporate punishment for an unnamed executive indiscretion. In other words, in a display of corporate caring for a lucrative cash cow, News bosses saw an appointment to Townsville as a 'punishment'. (Apparently, the latest FIFO editor Lachlan 'Harry Potter' Heywood is also here on a simiiar deal ... with the big reshuffles going on in Brisbane, he initially refused to travel north to become the Bulletin's editor, but changed his mind lickety split when told the alternative choice was a demotion.)
So at least the Wilkin's clan is being blinded by the silver lining of being returned to bright lights, and the breadwinner remains lucratively employed - which is more than can be said of many in the smouldering employment landscape Wilkins leaves behind. Those who remain are the bunnies caught in the headlights, waiting for a loving and caring inter office memo pointing them to the front door - or as the modern metro fashion has it, they may well be fired by text. Wouldn't put it past them.
A couple of restructured executive announcement late last week raised a grim chuckle in The 'Pie's twisted mind ... Jason Scott, the then lightweight whom Wilkins replaced as general manager, is now the Regional Director for all operations in the Queensland's sticks - so The Ogre just managed to avoid the ignominy of having a person well known to suffer 'cranial rectal' syndrome as his immediate boss.
Another appointment of interest is that of David Fagin, former Curious Snail top dog. He is in charge of all news operations in Queensland. So what's so funny? Just that David Fagin has, for reasons not known, a healthy dislike - some insiders have used the word 'loathing' - of Peter Typo Gleeson, who is bumbling his way around the glitter strip as editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin. Fagin apparently vehemently opposed the then chief reporter Gleeson's appointment as Townsville editor - and he was unhappy when his view didn't prevail. Typo has already blotted his copybook on a couple of matters on the coast (surprise,surprise) so one imagines there are interesting times ahead for Typo.
And finally, even if The Ogre is departing, it doesn't mean that The Astonisher will be without at least one local executive deserving of the title.
The definition of 'ogre' is a term 'often applied in a metaphorical sense to disgusting persons who exploit, brutalise, harass or bully others'. The Magpie would never be so impudent or presumptuous as to name any candidates to replace Wilkins in the affections of the remaining staff, oh indeedy, no siree bob, that would be naughty. The 'Pie's beak is sealed.
By the way, the feminine singular of ogre is 'ogress'.
It will be interesting to see how The Astonisher spins the so called "restructure" and it's impact on the paper- all good for the paper, staff and community of course. Even more so when former editors are "promoted" up the News Ltd ranks as a result of their Townsville "success". The paper's dicatorial approach to faux support of council's drive to get more businesses into the CBD is galling. The paper calls for other businesses to move its operations into the CBD while it plans to move its editorial offices to the edge of the CBD and nary a word is said!
ReplyDeleteCould be worse.... could be a Fairfax paper.
ReplyDeleteUnless people have discounted the paper and its putative influence. Many times, the media is earnestly pursuing a story line which their readers/viewers have already deemed 'not important', and the media frenzy over such is a source of amusement. The NYTimes suffers from this.
DeleteThe Bulletin is nothing more than a cash cow not a news service.
it might be a good timing to start a free suburban mag? Who wants to come and work for me for free, running around like a dog, supplying images and stories for free. I'll give you a by-line (think of the free exposure and great publicity for you) and a free add for your business, and then in ten years I sell the mag for a million $$$ and sail off into the sunset. What a great lifestyle you could have! Please send me your resume with experience etc. And obviously you must have your own car, phone, internet, public liability & insurance, professional indemnity etc, and a lot of get up and go - but think of the lifestyle you could have! The Bulletin's HR department.
DeleteAh! what a devious web they've woven.
ReplyDeleteNow the Magpies theory has been proven
Dont' forget the Ogre wanted to hide the asbestos roof in the building.
Deletep.s. Have they thought about hiring the AGES editor for General manager?
once again the tsv/bull has got a name wrong refer page 6 tue 26 jun NO LABOR CHALLENGER . NAME THROWN AROUND ETC MANY WHO OF COURSE MANDY THOMPSON
ReplyDeletePage 6 June 26th.......
ReplyDeleteNo Labor challenger in Herbert.
"Names which have been floated around include former mayor and 2010 candidate Tony Mooney, 2007 candidate George Colbran and former State MP Mandy Thompson, but they all but ruled themselves out"
And
"Ms Thompson, who recently took up the role of the Townsville Fire general manager, said she also had no interest in running"
by Anthony Galloway.
Who the hell is she?
How quickly they forget.
Surely someone should have picked that one up before going to print.
When you see an image included with a story, chances are the journalist tells the photographer what to photograph in order to suit the agenda.
ReplyDeleteFor example: Mickey mouse asks the photographer to photographer a 'hot female' lifesaver for a story.
This also includes: ensure 'all the faces in a group shot are in focus and are against a wall so the designer can cut them out of the picture'
Did you know that the photographers ask for your suburbs not to publish but for other reasons such as having your face on file incase you might be a fatality, seen at court, become famous etc....
Err, chaps and chapettes, the Bulletin revels in the ability to confuse, but in the case of Mandy The Party Parrot Johnson, they confuse by either the sin of omission or of misplaced arrogance. The Magpie is told that for personal reasons, Ms Johnson has reverted to her presumably maiden name of Thompson for her new job with basketball in Townsville. This was in fact reported in the paper when she took the new job, so the lofty Bulletin crowd assumed that everybody would know this because it was once mentioned on page 762 of some edition a while back. It was a dopey way to write a story and for the 99.9% of those who only made it to page 761, it was taken to be a mistake. Just goes to prove the old journo's saying 'Assumption is the mother of all fu$k-ups.
ReplyDeleteum, just wondering if her cushy seat was the only job she was booted out of? There is a pretty strong rumor....
DeleteSee in today's news (not local news, that's a joke) that there is blood all over the floor at the Townsville Bully at the hands of one Jason Scott, a former Bully general manager and Alice Springs upstart who has risen up the ranks not because of his ability, but his willingness to brown nose and treat his employees with contempt. If the truth about some of the things he got up to here in Townsville and later in Perth ever come out, Jason could be facing a media inquiry similar to that in which his News Of The World colleagues have recently been exposed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Anon 27 june @ 9:50 am
DeleteWe talk of freedom of the press, but for some of the workers inside the Bulletin, there was no freedom. Freedom for the certain 'protected' and unbearable conditions for some.
Would like to know what has happened to John Anderson - has he gone the way of Mary Vernon and Col Pearce?
ReplyDeleteLast shift for Astonisher subs is August 19. Attila the Hen, who broke the news, endures for a season.
ReplyDeleteAt least we'll be able to read her 'human resource, nepotistic column.
DeleteRe Ando: Still there but on extended leave because of accumulated holidays. He will be back in a few more weeks, with his xlt column ... he's one old dog who knows all the tricks, long may he scribe on.
ReplyDelete