Marty's reviews to Velocity - now a CJ section

I too take exception to comments about Marty Rosen. As Atticus said, you need to walk around in someone's shoes to know what he thinks or feels. Marty is a professional doing a job, I think to most peoples' opinions posted here, doing a basically fair job. Remember, a reviewer's opinion is just that, an opinion, influencing or not. Do you or I agree on your reviews, or Marty's? Never 100%.

But Marty's decision to stay or go, is none of our business. What is his family situation, his financial situation? Can he leave Gannet and move to LA, Dallas, or New York? Does he want to? None of our business. If he is writing fair and balanced opinions, I mean reviews, what business is it of ours. Judge him on his reviews, not our opinion of his soul.

How many people who contribute to this excellent webpage could make a decision on Tuesday to leave their job based on their intellectual property and their souls? Everybody here LOVE their job? Have an alternative in this economy?

Robin, you decided to leave the CJ years ago based upon your ownership of your intellectual property and upon your soul. Kudos with a capital K. We all appreciate your position, and your work since. Let Marty have his personal position with no criticism from us.

[Robin Garr]

I went to dine at Coals on the Saturday that the article in CJ appeared. In a line out the door, everyone I spoke with mentioned Marty's article in the CJ.

Very scientific, Brian. Look. I'm not going to argue this, but for the sake of lookers-on, the distinction that you are making between print and digital advertising is simply invalid. I appreciate that you have strong opinions, but it's really helpful to back up opinions with valid data.

[Robin Garr]

I too take exception to comments about Marty Rosen. As Atticus said, you need to walk around in someone's shoes to know what he thinks or feels. Marty is a professional doing a job, I think to most peoples' opinions posted here, doing a basically fair job. Remember, a reviewer's opinion is just that, an opinion, influencing or not. Do you or I agree on your reviews, or Marty's? Never 100%..

I am not criticizing Marty's fairness or his literary skill, David. Let's get that abundantly clear.

Marty is not a full-time Gannett employee, by the way. He's a free-lancer. Again, this has nothing to do with his literary merit or his writing skill or his personality, none of which are under question here.

On the subject of this thread, I have to say that - even more after the latest roundof layoffs with no severance pay - I'm sorry, but I just can't respect Marty or any other Louisvillian who sells his soul to those pirates.

I too take exception to comments about Marty Rosen. As Atticus said, you need to walk around in someone's shoes to know what he thinks or feels. Marty is a professional doing a job, I think to most peoples' opinions posted here, doing a basically fair job. Remember, a reviewer's opinion is just that, an opinion, influencing or not. Do you or I agree on your reviews, or Marty's? Never 100%..

I am not criticizing Marty's fairness or his literary skill, David. Let's get that abundantly clear.

Marty is not a full-time Gannett employee, by the way. He's a free-lancer. Again, this has nothing to do with his literary merit or his writing skill or his personality, none of which are under question here.

Agreed, what is under question is your respect for Marty because he writes food reviews for the CJ. So far, it seems others have much respect for Marty, regardless of where his reviews appear.

[Robin Garr]

Agreed, what is under question is your respect for Marty because he writes food reviews for the CJ. So far, it seems others have much respect for Marty, regardless of where his reviews appear.

Brian, I have a lot of old friends who continued to work at the CJ, knowing what was happening there. I wish every one of them had chosen to walk away, as so many others of us did. This thread is ABOUT Marty and the latest step in the decline and fall of a once-great newspaper. But okayfine. You are clearly going to read what you think rather than what I say, so let's drop it.

Brian Curl wrote:
I went to dine at Coals on the Saturday that the article in CJ appeared. In a line out the door, everyone I spoke with mentioned Marty's article in the CJ.

Very scientific, Brian. Look. I'm not going to argue this, but for the sake of lookers-on, the distinction that you are making between print and digital advertising is simply invalid. I appreciate that you have strong opinions, but it's really helpful to back up opinions with valid data.

Talk about Journalism and taking a quote out of context!

Why not included my entire statement which stated it was unscientific?

Brian Curl wrote: As far as an unscientific comparison of the impact of food reviews, the week that LEO and the CJ both featured Coals, I went to dine at Coals on the Saturday that the article in CJ appeared. In a line out the door, everyone I spoke with mentioned Marty's article in the CJ.

I'm not going to argue this, but for the sake of lookers-on, the distinction that you are making between print and digital advertising is simply invalid. I appreciate that you have strong opinions, but it's really helpful to back up opinions with valid data.

Not being argumentative but I feel like defending my positions today. Obviously print and web advertising are two different things and I think you misunderstood my post. I was speaking to the reach/circulation of the respective reviews in the CJ vs LEO.

Comparing apples to apples, I'd be willing to be a dollar that that at least 10 times more people read the online restaurant reviews in the CJ online compared to the LEO online review combined with the LHB posted review.

I'd bet another dollar that 15 times more people read the print circulation of the CJ restaurant review compared with the LEO print circulation review.

I'm not in journalism but I do understand marketing and the only data I can get is on each of the publications websites in which they post their circulation and reach data.

If I'm gullible to believe one is exaggerating their numbers then I'd have to assume that the numbers of both are exaggerated. However, I think these numbers are required to be somewhat accurate.

[Robin Garr]

Comparing apples to apples, I'd be willing to be a dollar that that at least 10 times more people read the online restaurant reviews in the CJ online compared to the LEO online review combined with the LHB posted review.

You would be wrong even in raw numbers, Brian - but even if I granted that, you're missing a critical factor: "Wasted" vs. "no-waste" advertising. Everyone who comes to HotBytes comes to learn about Louisville-area food and drink. Only a tiny fraction of people who come to the daily newspaper do. THAT is the money number for the advertiser.

"I just can't respect Marty or any other Louisvillian who sells his soul to those pirates."

". . . sold their intellectual property, if not their souls, to Gannett"

"I am not criticizing Marty's fairness or his literary skill, David. Let's get that abundantly clear. Marty is not a full-time Gannett employee, by the way. He's a free-lancer. Again, this has nothing to do with his literary merit or his writing skill or his personality, none of which are under question here."

But you are questioning his intellectual property and his soul????? Full-time, part-time or free lance, maybe the words "intellectual property" and "sells his soul" are my hangup, maybe too individualized and too personal. It is his intellectual property and his soul, and his decision to contribute to Gannett, not ours to judge. Is it just me, are are we crossing the line into personal comments and not just reviews of food and food establishments?

Sorry, having trouble understanding how to use "quotes".

[Robin Garr]

Is it just me, are are we crossing the line into personal comments and not just reviews of food and food establishments?

David, I don't want to do that, and it wasn't my intention. As an alum of the Bingham papers who loved my job at the old Louisville Times before things went down the drain, I do get angry about the multinational corporation that took over our local papers, yes. But I'm not sure we're making any progress or have much to gain from continuing this discussion. I'm not telling you to shaddap, I'm just saying that I've had my say, that (believe it or not) it wasn't meant personally against Marty or others so much as against the firm they work for; and that whatever I think isn't going to change anything anyway.

[Robin Garr]

[quote="David Sanders"]Sorry, having trouble understanding how to use "quotes".[/quote]

I'm going to suppress the activity of the "BBCode" commands that you would normally use to show a backquote. If I hadn't toggled it off for this specific post, those commands would function to make the quote happen but would not actually show up in the post.

See how it works? Just make sure that the complete [quote] or [quote="Person's Name"] remains BEFORE the quoted material, and the [/quote] with the backslash after. Got it? If not, ask, and I'll go at it again.

I'm curious --

Are those of us who have friends at the C-J who were fortunate enough NOT to lose their jobs in the latest round of layoffs now supposed to think less of them if they don't now voluntarily QUIT those jobs to protest the firing of their colleagues?

This makes my head hurt.

i miss when the Binghams were the owners of the courier ,it gets smaller every day . I waited on barry jr at parkplace for lunch he had class and always made me smile . i will miss getting up on sat to the
review in the scene ,it could make or break u . and its sad to me so few people who work in the bar and
restaurants even keep up with who got 4 stars or a bad review ,it gave u something work hard for and sweat it out on friday night if u new your time was coming .