The Occasional Odd Crop

The Occasional Odd Thought

JPG follow-up

The turmoil at JPG magazine that I posted about yesterday seems to be dissipating somewhat. CEO Paul Cloutier has finally come through with a more complete and human-sounding explanation of his thinking and actions, and it has eased my mind a bit. My response is the fourth one down in the thread:

This is helpful, Paul. After reading and stewing about this for a couple of days, I'd concluded that the sticking point for me was that of the back issues, not what were essentially personnel matters involving you and Derek.

I have to balance this post against your corporatespeak for the past couple of days, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now. I'll be among the many watching to make sure you follow through on what you've said here ("soon" can mean many things), but I'm breathing more easily about JPG now that you've said it. Thanks.

In the same thread, Laura Brunow Miner, JPG's senior designer, shed a bit more light on the situation and made it obvious that there are more than two sides to the story.

As you'd expect, Paul's explanation meant nothing to people who either still think Derek got screwed or see Paul's words as either weaselly or too little, too late. In any case, the whole mess is a real shame, because it cost JPG a lot of credibility and some of its best photographers.

Although I'm glad I didn't drop my membership, I'm also pretty glad I'm not a subscriber. While I still obsessively check to see how my JPG photos are faring in terms of votes, I haven't voted on anything myself this week. No, those fence posts don't hurt my butt at all; I've got plenty of padding back there.

Mostly unrelated tangent: I noticed yesterday that one of my photos has been marked as a favorite by a woman whose only other two favorites are Paul's photos. Given the events of the past few days, that feels weird.