Former Patch Editor To Helm Middletown Press

Cassandra Day learned on January 29th that she was out of work -- via conference call.

Patch.com was throwing in the towel.  The system of local news websites, formerly owned by AOL, has been lopping off staff.  For three years, Day had virtually single-handedly made the Middletown Patch one of the more successful sites, and she survived several rounds of closures and layoffs.  But not this time.

Despite the current bleak job prospects for journalists, Day, a Middletown resident, did have something to look forward to.

For the past two years she has been chronicling bits and pieces of the city she loves via her Instagram feed.  A collection of her photos are appropriately enough being featured as part of Klekolo World Coffee's rotating artwork, and Thursday night was the opening celebration.

Day, and her friends and supporters, had a bit more to celebrate than they planned.  Thursday afternoon, The Middletown Press announced via Facebook that Day had been named managing editor, starting February 24th.

"I'm thrilled to be covering my old stomping grounds" Day said.  Not surprisingly, considering Day's work for the past three years, The Press has asked her to focus on their online operations.

It's a familiar work environment for her.  Day was the features editor for the Press for 13 years.

Meanwhile, her photographs will be on display at Klekolo until the end of the month.  The collection includes "sidewalk grates, survey markers, fire sprinkler covers, oxidized meters, weathered signs, ramshackle barns — corroded and dilapidated yet ordinary things we pass every day without consideration." Day framed them herself, and yes, they are available for purchase.

The Joys of the Corporate World (and the Death of Truth)

You may be missing George Gombossy's byline in the Hartford Courant. His bosses at the Tribune Company let him go (fired is a better word) because the truth was getting in the way of revenues or what's left of them.

"The Courant fired me, for speaking out on issues of public concern as the paper's Watchdog columnist: as the voice and protector of consumers and taxpayers.

The late-19th and early 20th-century news columnist Finley Peter Dunne said a newspaper's job is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." It's a motto I believe in."

His full explanation is in this week's Hartford Advocate and on his new website, ctwatchdog.com. Read it and you'll continue to sigh for the eventual demise of a once independent voice in central Connecticut.

Middletown Eye on WNPR's Where We Live

The topic was "the future of newspapers," and our little newsblog was mentioned, not always kindly (though John Dankosky seems to have a slight affection for us.) The entire show is worth a listen, and we don't get mentioned until it's nearly over. I wonder, is a "trained" journalist like a trained sea lion?

As If We Needed More Evidence

Here's the trailer for a new documentary that has just been finished. "Stop The Presses" is the work of reporter Manny Mendoza and filmmaker Mark Birnbaum. I understand the movie probably doesn't tell readers of the "EYE" anything we don't already know (or, at least, suspect) but, perhaps, it will provide the more puzzled "news" consumer a blueprint for the future.