[Former Eureka Reporter managing editor Glenn Franco Simmons responded to a recent post on the Humboldt Herald with a scathing, inside scoop on the reason he quit the now defunct paper. Below is an excerpt. --HH]
To clarify my comment on Bleacher Report: The Eureka Reporter was successful as an online-only publication because it was affordable and focused on Eureka City Council and the Board of Supervisors.
When I was hired, I was told we would not branch out to Arcata, Fortuna, McKinleyville, etc. The operation was to stay small.
That was the initial agreement I signed up for. It changed. It is no secret going to print was a waste of millions upon millions upon millions of dollars.
As far as my critics contend concerning circulation, you give me no credit for not repeating the lie of a 25,000 circulation, yet all the other Eureka Reporter employees did.
Since I doubted the circulation totals the spring I resigned, then found out all kinds of papers were ending up being dumped, stored in houses, etc., and when the publisher refused to remove defamatory comments from The Eureka Reporter’s Web site (which the owner finally agreed with me and forced their removal), and when I was told (NOT by the owner) to fire an employee whose “long” “hair was unkept” and “because he wore his beany to his desk,” and when I refused, and then I was told “find a way,” I went home, talked to my wife, and then sent by e-mail a resignation to Rob Arkley II.
If the North Coast Journal were a real newspaper, and if it had a real media critic, it would have found out this information.
[Read the rest here.]
Sounds like Glen was working for some real fine folks.
That Robin Arkley is one class act-
Quick, SN/Arkley apologists, shut this guy up ASAP before our agenda is exposed.
Where is Steven Glazier when you need him?!?
Reading Glenn’s post, one realizes Judi Pollace, who became publisher of the Eureka Reporter about a year after it started, is really as vile as her reputation.
First, she back-stabbed her friend and mentor, Gerry Adolph, the publisher of the Times-Standard to get the Eureka Reporter job. Pollace was publisher of some small sister papers to the Times-Standard in Lake County. Gerry supervised those papers. Pollace asked for a copy of the Times-Standard’s strategic plan. Trusting her, Gerry sent it to her. As soon as Pollace received it, she quit without notice and gave the plan to Rob Arkley, who appointed her publisher of the Eureka Reporter. Arkley then sent taunting emails to Adolph, bragging about having the Times-Standard’s strategic plan, boasting about how he was going take over the market and force the Times-Standard out of business. The Times-Standard still has those emails, and that is one reason Arkley buckled when Dean Singleton sued him.
When Pollace moved to Eureka, they sold their Lake County house to a couple, without disclosing the fact a deck they had build illegally encroached on their neighbor’s property. Pollace knew about the encroachment. The buyer sued the Pollaces, who declared bankruptcy in an effort to avoid paying compensation to the buyer they had screwed.
This is who Arkley hired to be the public face of his newspaper. Small wonder the community never accepted it, even though it did have some fine reporting for awhile. It’s also not surprising that Glenn could no longer stand to work under Pollace after a few years. I’m surprised he last as long as he did.
In my book, any of Glenn’s sins were absolved with that web comment. Humboldt is critically ill with divisive politics.
The NCJ criticism is spot-on. Presenting an academic as some sort of journalism industry expert is amusing to people who actually work in newsrooms. How hard is it to get a retired news veteran to write a column? There are plenty in Humboldt who have decades of experience on the front line.
4:23 writes, The Times-Standard still has those emails, and that is one reason Arkley buckled when Dean Singleton sued him..
So, that begs the question as to why the Eureka Reporter has had editorials included in the Times- Standard editorial page twice a week since the lawsuit took place?
I suspect things might have actually gone the opposite way that you’re suggesting.
Uh Fred, no. The Times-Standard gets free content. Content that appeals to a readership the Times-Standard wouldn’t normally get to buy their paper.
Sounds like Glen Franco Simmons might be a bitter ex-employee, back-stabbing the people who hired him & paid him a good wage for years. He hasn’t done well since he “resigned”.
Maybe some of what he said is true, maybe not. But don’t just accept it at face value. Sounds like there may be other things that went on.
Defensive, HF? Sounds like Glenn is doing quite well.
The Arkley apologists are trying to shut Glenn up or discredit him. Why?
Heraldo, I’ve never commented on your blog before, but as a former ER staffer I feel compelled to make a few observations. First, of the thousand or so things Glenn asserts, possibly one or two might be true. Yes, he quit. Yes, he had earlier that day been asked by Judi Pollace to fire one of my more unkempt co-workers. Possibly the two were related. We took his word for it. But the rest of his assertions are pure fantasy. One quick example: Not only did he not write the same sex marriage editorial, he voted against running it. Pollace voted for it, as did Diane Batley, who wrote the piece with the ample assistance of a copy editor named Ann Rohde. Glenn didn’t seem particularly anti-gay, but he vehemently opposed publication of that editorial. To hear him now take credit for it is an affront to anyone who cares about the issue or the truth. Further, his repositioning of himself now as a moderate bulwark against the conservatism of that organization would be laughable were it not another sign of what many of us have long believed to be a serious and progressive mental illness, This is not an interpretive disagreement. This is delusional, and I sincerely hope he gets help.
Heraldo and all,
You left out the best quote from Glenn Franco Simmons:
Bravo, Glenn, bravo.
He signed his name to his words, unlike almost everyone who comments here. Anon opinions are fine — great even. But when it comes to allegations, I’m inclined to trust a person backing up his allegations with his name more than some anonymous coward who is saying the opposite.
“. . . what many of us have long believed to be a serious and progressive mental illness, This is not an interpretive disagreement. This is delusional, and I sincerely hope he gets help.”
That encapsulates everything I observed about the man from start to finish in his career at the Eureka Reporter. Pathologically, obsessively delusional.
Fair to his employees, yes; evil, certainly not; but, in regard to him being mentally ill, a strong case could surely be made.
Backstabbing – friends backstab friends, family backstabs family and apparently employers and employees too. Greed and jealousy will do people in. Kinda sad that people delve to such extents.
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
9:41 and Average, I too worked with Glenn and your experience of him mirrored mine exactly. I think beneath it all he might have been a good mine, but there were a lot of layers of weakness and delusion to dig through first.
I remember quite clearly the tumult in the newsroom whenever one blog or another would accuse him of some fresh right-wing machination. In reality, he did virtually none of the things the blogs accused him of. (And this blog, I recall, was particularly hard on him.) The big joke about the Eureka Reporter is that it took everything we had just to put out a newspaper every day without screwing it up too badly. We certainly weren’t committing staff time to any kind of right-wing conspiracy. Almost every stupid thing we did, and we did our share, was the result of incompetence, not partisanship. All that hateful maligning of a good but flawed man was as misguided as the slavish adulation of him now that he’s willing to say a few obliquely negative things about a man you hate worse.
Reading Mr. Simmons tomes on multiple threads; I come away with two observations:
1) Sometimes typing 120wpm is not such a great thing.
2) If someone talks about themselves long enough, you will see they’re nuts.
FTFY.
I knew Glen and liked him. I am saddened that his self exile at home has resulted in such revisionist history. This is very very sad.
The Eureka Reporter web site sucked from day one to the end. Look at the pathetic mess in the internet time machine if you didn’t observe it when it was up. Perhaps the incompetence of their web staff is why they went to print. Sure, the web competition of NCJ and Times-Standard sucks too, but c’mon… it wasn’t like the Eureka Reporter website was any better. The print edition was pretty fucking good when compared to the website.
Why couldn’t they just tell this long haired dumbass to cut his hair? What a shitty manager to fire talent just because they didn’t have the guts to talk to them. Should have fired her, not the scruffmaster.
The ER came out strong and had some good writers at first. Then, after a couple of years, it seemed to me like all the writing turned to bullshit with new authors. What happened to the talent, did the management scare them all away? Fire them for being slobs? I don’t think it would be revisionist at all to imply that something happened and some people quit writing for the paper which turned it into a piece of crap. I don’t know what it was exactly, but this Glenn fellow seems to shed some light on it.
I don’t know a thing about the Eureka Reporter controversy. However, for someone who claims to love editing, Mr. Simmon’s use of the English language is clumsy and his grammer is incorrect. He should probably consider going to community college.
“So, that begs the question…”
No Fred, that does not beg the question:
“Begging the question” is a form of logical fallacy in which a statement or claim is assumed to be true without evidence other than the statement or claim itself.
yea, the north coast journal sucks its just Neo-Liberal propaganda, garbage. It should be called Arcata Journal, cause anyone living outside of arcata would wounder what humboldt this newspaper is talking about? sure isnt repusenting anyone else!
Which raises the question… Why do peeps keep tryna use English but that mess be all comin out hella bad?
Good one Mr. Nice. Where was the Word Nerd on this one?
Repusent!
Word Nerd would not know where to start with asdfa; there are so many problems with grammar, syntax and, not least of all, logic.
Commas are to make reading easier. You are omitting the serial comma all newspaper bitch-style and also using commas to separate a series in which you inject more explanation with another fucking comma. That is some messed up shit.
There is one thing that comes through all the side bars. Mr. Arkley has tried and is still trying to white wash himself through his supporters. Of course Glen is not pleased with the way he was treated, and many others in this community are not pleased with Arkely’s heavy handed approach to having his way here. The stories are too numerous to throw them out as baseless. He feels he has an entitlement to do what he pleases because of his billions. He has tried to ruin peoples lives who stand up to him or find themselves to the left of Attila the Hun. He will use the same high handed tactics when it come time to move ahead on the balloon tract. It won’t be pretty, and he could give a damn if it has a negative impact on the community. That is who he is, so keep an eye on his next move. He wants to own Humboldt County politically so watch the next county election very carefully. It will be hard ball, mark my words. It could be he already owns Eureka’s City manager, and it has certainly been his money behind Nancy Flemming. That relationship dates back to when Arkley’s wife was on council. You can dislike what he does, but you must give the man credit for playing a great game of hard ball.
Time to get real, you have vastly overrated Arkley’s political prowess. In the most recent elections, Arkley has supported…
Nancy Flemming, loser
Mary Beth Wolford, loser
Polly Endert, loser
Johanna Rodoni, loser
Bryan Plumley, loser
John Vevoda, loser
Charles Ollivier, loser
Arkley was 0-3 in the last Board of Supervisors election, the elected body he most wants to control.
Arkley needs to focus on the Coastal Commission, who holds his keys to the balloon tract. I know it’s not an elected position, just saying that he needs to make some new friends.
My guess is that Glen had more problems with Pollace than Arkley
It is not so much his prowess but his constant attempts at control and the way he goes about it. Thank goodness his success rate is so low, but he sure has made some decent peoples lives very uncomfortable.
10:50…Bonnie Neely chairs the Coastal Commission. Arkley has been trying to unseat Neely for years.
Arkley’s endorsement has pretty much become the kiss of death for any candidate he supports in Humboldt County. He couldn’t even get his own wife elected mayor of Eureka. She lost to Peter LaVallee for Heaven’s sake.
Is Mr. Nice a new name for CPR?