'holes

Thursday night

Rod S. was the editor of a newspaper, and I was in his newsroom. I overheard him say, "Al Neuharth was surprised to hear that we put him in the news hole [this week]."

*****

As all two of my readers are aware, Rod S. was my boss at a foundation where I was employed for 10 years. He is a former newspaper editor.

Al Neuharth is the founder of the foundation mentioned above, or at least he's the founder of what that foundation became, after morphing away from the real founder's original intent. I never thought much of Neuharth, a guy who had his own elevator constructed at great expense so he wouldn't have to ride with the rank and file. He also had a giant bust of himself (his head was about as tall as I am) installed at Gannett headquarters. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. It was a ridiculous thing. Who does that? Napoleon? I heard that they conveniently got rid of it when they moved to their new HQ in McLean, VA.

Newspapers are assembled like jigsaw puzzles. The news hole is what is left after the ads are mapped out.