Two heavyweights leave The Californian

This has been a tough week in Bakersfield, as The Californian said goodbye to two supremely talented people who helped take our company to new heights.

Editor Mike Jenner left the paper today after nearly two decades in Bakersfield. He's taking a prime journalism teaching gig at his alma mater, the University of Missouri, one of the best journalism schools in the country. If there's paradise in a tumultuous business like ours, that might be it.

Mike started working with the paper as a design consultant 17 years ago, but soon was hired to fill a series of top newsroom and "new media" positions, including executive editor. I've never met anyone who had a better mix of news, design and technical skills. Some editors are great wordsmiths or managers but lack the knowledge or want to understand the processes and technology that can make or break good journalism. It's hard work to get "underneath the hood," but that knowledge is invaluable, and I've always marveled at Mike's thirst to understand exactly how things like press configurations worked so he could take full advantage in producing a newspaper every day.

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Subscription silliness

Updated on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 8:39 PM by Logan Molen

Updated on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 8:56 PM by Logan Molen

A couple invoices came in the mail that have me questioning two longtime subscriptions to print publications I've read and valued for years.

Newsweek

Newsweek sent me a notice to renew the subscription I've maintained annually since the mid-1980s. Unless you've been in a cave recently, you know that Newsweek is up for sale. Its owners, The Washington Post Co., bluntly said in announcing the sale, "We do not see a path to continuing profitability under our management." Not a good circulation builder.

If Washington Post sees no future for the company, why would I want to renew for one year let alone three, as the invoice suggests to save money? It's sad because I think the magazine provides context to the craziness of our 24-7 news cycle. But I'm not stupid. Sadly, a 35-year relationship is about to come to an end barring some kind of last-minute rescue.

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Changes ahead for our community strategy on bakersfield.com

There's much more to come on this in the coming months, but we're going to be making some major changes to how we engage our readers on bakersfield.com and elsewhere in what we call the Bakosphere ("Where Bakersfield and the Web collide").

Those changes include a next-generation Opinion site to come that will require real names to post and comment, new strategies with our popular bakersfield.com blogs, and more engagement with local people outside of our network of websites.

You can read more in the BdotCOM blog on bakersfield.com, where reaction understandably has has been mixed.