tvnwz

He has none. Statement is strictly propaganda.

tvnwz

I don't see that in his stories, but to each his own. We tend to be too close to the issue many times and when we complain "old news" it may be for us. But, it is not, necessarily, for the general population. I got nothing new from the article. to my next door neighbor it was a revelation. Daykin is writing to him, not us.

BlueHorseShoe2000

Very true. Perhaps my sweeping statements regarding Daykin's reporting went too far. I readily admit that my views on Daykin are colored primarily due to his artcles on another Milwaukee company that I once worked for.

knope2001

Certainly things can be "old news" to us because we follow things so closely, as opposed to the average reader. However this is a story (Republic may end Midwest name) which JS has reported twice before in recent months. Reporting essentially the same thing again and again...without any substantial new information...may make it seem "new" to casual readers. But that doesn't make it new.

I don't think anything reported as fact was incorrect. But the responsibility and liability (I'm not specifically using that in a legal sense) goes far beyond correct facts.

1. This story was front-page news in the print edition. Not the front page of the business section, but the front page of the entire newspaper. And if I recall correctly, the headline was more salacious than the online version. The story was continued from page 1 onto page 6 or so. On that page was another boldfaced headline (for the continued story) something like “Midwest May Be on Last Wings” accompanied by a graphic of a Midwest plane. The placement and headline choices for the story are not justified by the new content of the article, and seem intended to continue to harm Midwest.

2. The section of the story which contained facts was generally accurate, however lots of people don’t read deeply into stories which are of only passing interest. Headline choice and story placement did damage regardless of how accurate or inaccurate the facts of the story were.

3. The story that the Midwest brand might go away has been reported three times by the Journal Sentinel in the past few months, each time without any real definitive information. The “new” information we got from this conference call was that they have decided not to pick one brand and retire the other. If that had been the headline, or had been the slant of the story, at least it would have been new information. Instead, though they did list the quote which told us that, the headline and the slant did not reflect the new information. This story could (and might as well have been) written 3 months ago, with the new quotes from the Q4 conference call pasted in.

4. The salacious nature of the headline feeds the local news media, including but not limited to the Journal Company’s TV and radio station (WTMJ) who pick up on these sorts of stories and pass them on. Only the depth of print journalism (which at least has some factual material) is missed in the broadcast media, who essentially pass just the headlines on.

5. The final, and perhaps overriding point of responsibility is the decision on what to report as news. I don’t think anything was factually incorrect in the story, but was it a story with enough new information to justify reporting it, and for what reason did they decide to create the story? And how much of the content was opinion, and whose? The Journal Sentinel can’t do much about people only skimming headlines, or that other media feed of their stories, or that things go viral on the web. Their primary responsibility is what they choose to report and how they choose to present it. The Journal Sentinel chose not to report Republic’s order for up to 80 C-series jets, nor did they report on Republic’s earnings, nor did they report on Republic’s financial results for the branded operation. That was news. In contrast, this hand-wringing-Midwest-is-dead story was old news. It was not substantially advanced by any new information. And it was featured and titled in a manner well out of proportion with the “news” aspect of the story.

Obviously that's my personal take on it, but the JS reporting has been an ongoing source of frustration for years when it comes to airlines. I don't think that Daykin so much has it out for Midwest in particular, but rather that he likes to pump up the drama and stir controversy. Certainly he's not the only reporter in the world like this, but he has the misfortune of covering the airline beat in Milwaukee.

n735

Cutting corners too close is summarized in this PBS investigation.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl.../synopsis.html


BB is only experienced in Flying Cheap. He has never had to sell one airline ticket in his experience at Mesaba or Republic. His focus is lowering CASMs and that is only half the story at Midwest and Frontier.

NoOneOfImportance

"While the Journal-Sentinel article is mildly sensational and speculative, I see nothing in it that is inaccurate."

Most people, including Daykin, seem to think rebranding means renaming. They seem to be having a difficult time accepting that perhaps Bedford isn't going to rename at all.

It is as if Bryan Bedford had said this:


A plan which would quickly engender an agreeable response from Daykin:


So, yeah, I guess you could say Daykin's article was accurate, depending on how you read between the lines.

NoOneOfImportance

"His focus is lowering CASMs and that is only half the story at Midwest and Frontier."

I wonder why he is bothering with STRETCH seating then.

n735

Have you heard about any seats coming out?

flyYX

You are correct about Daykin and the Journal Sentinel. I work for a company that is the largest in Wisconsin in a particular field of industry. Time after time they slam the company I work for because we are a big target. But now that times are tough they applaud the fact we are still around and actually hiring people. Midwest is/was the only airline based in Milwaukee, so they choose to go with the negative more than the positive when reporting. The headlines were negative but when you read further into the story the big word was "may" and not "will" drop the Midwest Brand.

knope2001

The other wonderful corollary to these repeated "Midwest is dead" stories is that each one prompts another round of letters from bitter former employees, one or more of which the editorial board usually prints. Here's today's:

Katherine and others like her have every right to feel bitter and to hold opinions such as these. But how many letters from angry laid off employees has the Journal Sentinel printed, slamming the former employer? Next to none...except Midwest. Obviously the editorial board holds key responsibility for choosing to continue to print these letters. But with very rare exceptions, the letters to the editor are reserved for commentary about topics the paper has recently chosen to report. If today someone was to write a letter to the editor on the topic of, say, a shortage of police officers in West Bend, they'd never print it. But if they recently ran a story about shortages of police offers in general, or about a crime wave in West Bend, then the very same letter to the editor would have a good shot at printing. By rehashing the same Midwest-is-dead story as news, they refresh the cycle of bitter letters to the editor.

There are thousands of people who feel screwed by their former employer these days, some of whom undoubtedly have as much or more reason to wish vengeance on their former employer than these people. But we pretty much only hear of Midwest in the letters to the editor. Repeatedly.

Daze

The Milwaukee media probably thinks their readers want to hear these type of stories, that's why they go with it instead of Republic ordering new planes. And probably their readers do want it. But what this should show Rev. Bedford is that Midwest is damaged goods, and Republic is seen as the bad guy. That's the general feeling, like it or not. Republic is also seen as the bad guy in Denver, regardless if they may have saved Frontier from being stapled to the bottom of Southwest. So, Republic ought to bury Midwest, and not call it Republic either. Call it Frontier, or call it Cabbages, whatever, just bury the damaged and bad brands, and get on with it. The pain will subside, especially with video and cookies, but everytime a "Midwest operated by Republic" flight rolls, it fans flames of discontent that need to be left behind.

RSVP

Can you recall Daykin's headline story from 2007?

Midwest's Cookie Crumbling

I think I emailed him after the takeover failed, he replied, "At the time it appeared the takeover would be successful"

IIRC he offered to discuss it by telephone with me.

n735

I see BB handling of the Midwest employees as a bigger story then you do Knope.

How would Harley-Davidson or Miller Brewing employees react if they were outsourced by bring thousands of workers from say New Mexico to Milwaukee and laying-off all the life-long production employees.

Is could be the next step in corporate america... move the cheap labor to the plant verses building a new plant in Mississippi or Mexico.

Midwest is still flying with no attempts by BB to help/honor the original employees that built Midwest. The fact is these were loyal employees, these were hard working employees, these were employee that provided some of the best customer service in the airline industry, these were very easy going Unions that only asked for industry average wages, and add on top of that the worst economy since the Great Depression.

You don't see the story? Why are you surprised it makes the Milwaukee paper?

knope2001

Of course I see the story, and I wasn't surprised it made the paper. At least the first time. Or even the second time.

Does it make much difference if you lose your job by having it moved out of town, or if instead it stays but other workers perform it?

Even if the answer is yes...it's happened thousnds of times before. It's call outsourcing. And it continues to happen.

Do you think that the thousands of local people who lost jobs in other industries were any more deserving of being laid off than you? And how about the hundreds and hundreds of remaining employees at the airline who also built the brand. Clearly some former employees would like nothing better than to see Republic go down in (methaphorical) flames. That would put all those hundreds of other loyal, hard-working employees that build Midwest and provided some of the best customer service in the airline industry out on the street. Do they deserve that fate?

The sympathy people deserve for suffering a layoff evaporates pretty quickly when the bitterness keeps growing into the outward desire to see others suffer the same fate. To think that your story is somehow so special that it deserves to be dragged through the press again and again and again is to ignore the fate of countless others who no more deserved to be laid off than you did -- people whose stories don't see the light of day once.

n735

Knope, I understand your point of view. Thanks for all the information you posted on Yahoo and FlyerTalk.