A quick look at people who are not currently with newspaper companies

Chris Jennewein, Ron James and Jim Drummond are out at SignOnSanDiego.com. We can only hope they land newspaper industry jobs soon, if that’s what they want to do.
Sean Polay left Ottaway for a magazine company.
Bob Benz, Wes Jackson, Mike Higgins and Heather Lamm are now with Maroon Ventures, which consults for newspapers, but is more than just a newspaper-related company.
Michael Bazeley now works for Berekley’s law school.
Lucas Grindley, according to his LinkedIn profile, is still looking for work.
Joe Michaud left MaineToday.com to become a consultant. John Wilpers is consulting. Melinda Gipson is consulting.
Ken Sands is now with Congressional Quarterly.
Ed Canale, VP of Interactive for the Sacramento Bee, is moving on.

Wow, that’s a lot of smart, talented, experienced people — people who pioneered the online newspaper business — who are not currently employed by newspaper companies. Though some still help newspaper online operations through consulting, that’s quite a brain drain.

Of course, there are still lots of smart, talented, experienced people — including many pioneers — still in their newspaper jobs; it’s just surprising to look at such a distinguished list of people who are in different roles now.

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http://www.spolay.com spolay

Correction: NameMedia is a pure new media company. No print in our arsenal.

Though he’s been out of newspapers for a while longer than the rest of us, Howard, I’d include Adrian Holovaty in that mix.
http://localvisibility.net/2008/06/28/screenwerk-newspapers-of-the-future/ Screenwerk: Newspapers of the Future « Local Visibility

[...] that note, I read an eye opening post by Howard Owens describing the amount of key talent that has left the industry. On a bright note, I [...]
http://lucasgrindley.com Lucas

Good news . . . I will soon start work as Online Managing Editor for NationalJournal.com in D.C. Bad news with relation to this post: This means I’m leaving newspapers for magazines.

If you ask me, it’s the right time to leave. Combining newspaper woes with the impending recession means things are about to get so ugly in newspaper land that it will be hard to recognize.
http://www.howardowens.com/ Howard Owens

Good luck to you, Lucas. You’ll do well there, I’m sure. It’s good to know at least that you’ll still be making an online contribution … and I bet you still blog about newspapers.
http://www.howardowens.com/2008/update-on-bright-new-media-leaders-who-have-left-newspapers/ Update on bright new media leaders who have left newspapers

[...] while back, I did a blog post about bright people who have left the industry. Here’s a quick update (and I welcome further input from anybody who has other names to [...]