Red Room Where the Writers Are

I had planned to ease my way back into the habit of writing after a bit of time off. Maybe start off by acknowledging (I hope not too belatedly) my second place showing in Red Room’s Housewarming Party; when I left for vacation, I was in third place, but by the time I returned, it was two women writing about soap operas on top, me, and winner, Jennifer Gibbons. But, as John Lennon put it, “life is what happens while you’re making plans for something else.”

And that brings me to recent seismic events in the world of soap opera journalism. This past weekend, while the rest of the world surfed from the escalating war between Russia and Georgia, to the Olympics, and of course, the unfolding John Edwards saga, the soap opera world was reacting to the firing of Soap Opera Weekly editor, Carolyn Hinsey.

Actually, reacting doesn’t begin to describe the fallout. The comments now exceed 1000, a record for Jossip, a site I’d never heard of before Friday, when Snark alerted soap fans (interestingly, there are now ATWT ads running on Jossip; I wonder if that was the case prior to the Hinsey post. And is it a coincidence that ATWT’s now running ads on Perez Hilton’s site? Anyone know? ). I have to say, the sheer volume of comments brings new meaning to phrase, scrolling through the chaff... But, as Sara Bibel pointed out this morning, “Buried in the addictive train wreck is some serious commentary about soap opera journalism.”

I’ll leave you to enjoy the addictive train wreck at your leisure. But, before I join in the “serious commentary about soap opera journalism,” full disclosure: As I’ve mentioned, in the 1990s, I wrote a handful of articles for Weekly¸ as a freelance contributor. My last piece for Weekly, Who Really Watches the Daytime Soaps?, was published in 1996.

As a freelancer, I was treated well: my editor, Freeman Günter, was happy to hear any idea I pitched, and in fact, he never turned any down; the pay rate was competitive; they paid on acceptance, not publication (a big deal; articles can sit for months before being published). And there was minimal editorial interference: with a couple of minor exceptions, they published exactly what I wrote. When I was in NYC on other business, and had the time, I stopped by the office, which was clearly being run as a business, not the “junior high school yearbook” described by on Jossip poster (at 1000+- posts, you’ll have to find it on your own:). As for Soap Opera Digest, when Lynn Leahey rejected my proposal for a piece on how nurses are portrayed in soaps, she suggested I pitch Freeman at Weekly, which I did, and that was that.

All of this is by way of saying I have absolutely no firsthand knowledge of the accuracy of what’s been posted re Carolyn Hinsey, Stephanie Sloane and Lynn Leahey. Yes, as Tom Casiello pointed out, many posters are taking advantage of non de plumes, to pile on with vile and spurious claims, and for the life of me, and MarkH, this fascination with which soap actors are gay eludes me. To be fair, given what’s been said, I can’t say that I blame current and former employees, fearful for their current and future employment, for hiding behind aliases.But former Soap Opera Digest editor, Alan Carter, is using his real name (Bravo!), and given what he’s posted, along with a few back channel exchanges I’ve had with people who would know, the substance of the thread seems to be correct. As one poster put it, “When there’s this much smoke, there has to be a fire.” And as “Reva Shayne” suggested in Jossip post #779, “I do hope the CEO, CFO, and the legal department of the parent company have a nice long read for themselves. If even a portion of what’s reported here can be substantiated, they need to thoroughly clean house and commit to creating a work place that won’t get them sued.”

And what about the parent company? Primemedia, which bought both Digest and Weekly from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp around the turn of the century, sold the publications some time last year to Interlink Media. Given the events of this weekend (don’t imagine the Interlink HR and PR people got much rest), I don’t think we’ll ever know whether Hinsey’s firing was part of a planned housecleaning on the part of the new owners, or a random event based on behavior said to have been witnessed by an Interlink HR person (scroll down to 783) so egregious it could not be ignored. Whatever Interlink’s plans may have been, as things stand now, with serious legal workplace issues being raised and Digest and Weekly employees being advised to file complaints with both the Department of Labor and New York State’s Attorney General, it’s hard to see how they can do anything other than finish cleaning house.   

While it’s too soon to know what all of this will mean for the future of soap opera journalism and commentary, I have some thoughts about how it could go. But first, how did it get so bad. Again, I have no real inside information. I’m just connecting together what I do know as fact into a possible, and, I hope, plausible explanation

As with most things, it’s all about the money. Early in the game, the money flowed at Weekly. In an interview with Nelson Branco, Mimi talked about the old days:

“We had a much bigger budget back in those days, to be fair. We had a lot of money, and I was allowed to do anything I wanted to do with it. The soap magazines don’t have that latitude anymore. We revolutionized the way the press created covers — even with that horrible newsprint paper of ours! Luckily, we were able to overcome that obstacle. Because I have a certain standard, I hired the best production staff.”

And it wasn’t just the productions values. It was the content – articles, interviews, analysis and reporting – Weekly was never just a fan magazine. But, News Corp sold Digest and Weekly to Primemedia in the late 1990s, a fan magazine was what the new owners wanted. Why? I don’t know. Cheaper, I’m guessing. Cutting costs is the generally the first item on new owners’ “to do list.” So, freelancers disappeared, along with real reporting. In addition to cutting costs, there were efforts to attract a wider readership, so in addition to the covers that led to a very funny Snark spoof, Weekly critics were, in the words of one, “encouraged” to include reality shows like Survivor and Big Brother in their “soap” criticism.

According to Torchin, she “resisted Weekly becoming like The National Enquirer and that signaled my exit.” That was in 2000; with her gone, Weekly lost its focus and edge, and as the Jossip train wreck so sadly illustrates, has never gotten it back.

As for the future of soap opera journalism, this situation brings to mind the Chinese symbol for crisis being a combination of symbols for danger and opportunity. I believe that opportunity lies on the Internet, and it is likely fraught with danger, as most change is. Lots more to say that will have to wait until next time…

© 2008 Lynn Liccardo

Limited Licensing: I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the Creative Commons Attribution license, granting distribution of my copyrighted work without making changes, with mandatory attribution to Lynn Liccardo and for non-commercial purposes only. Lynn Liccardo