Forum Publishing Group
As a subsidiary of the Sun-Sentinel, Forum Publishing Group's original business plan was to keep other 
small community weeklies from sprouting on Sentinel turf. Thus, Forum's 29 publications mostly cover the same Broward and Palm Beach County territory the Sun-Sentinel does. But in 2007, the Sentinel downsized its own community news coverage and replaced it with FPG stories selectively lifted from its city weeklies (Delray Forum, Pompano Forum...) and monthlies (Parkland Gazette, Weston Gazette...). FPG also publishes six zones of the Jewish Journal, an in-school weekly called Teenlink, and the alternative weekly City Link, which has its own entry here.
30 comments:
Bare bones existence will be your life here at FPG. Expect less and do more. Working at FPG is like working for a sculptor who asks you to create a statue for God himself, but your materials consist of 1 can of Playdough, a nail file and some dental floss. Oh, and it has to be done in an hour.
One amazing thing about Forum is that if you have talent, if you can pull together a good piece quickly, you'll be calling your own shots in no time. The most important thing to learn here is to manage up.
No, manage out and be fast. The Sun Sentinel's dying but FPG goes first.
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When a Pubisher and Executive Editors openly show HATRED for one another and Advertising honchos do the same, the ship's sunk. FPG's Editorial blunder was thinking the inexperienced reporters could carry the show, they can't. These are grads who couldn't find jobs "anywhere" They are bottom tier with few exceptions. They make basic reporting errors, can't shape an article, can't interview properly, are dangerous on the phone or in a meeting, & have no professional demeanor. They are ammo for city and town council jokes.
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FPG's Advertising mistake is talking too loudly about Editorial losers, their comments head right to the Sentinel.
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A few good reporters and editors remain, all looking elsewhere. When the Publisher & Executive Editor finally have words, who REALLY wants to be around?
I work hard for promotion but it was my waste of time. Forum won't last and there's no calling your own shots as that person above wrote. Newspapers are not read and no one cares about communities. That's obvious if you walk inside Forum and feel the hatred. Where does community start? There is a bias for new grads or what w ecall airheads with no experience or curiosity. That issue should not be examined here. I'm in my 20's with good ideas and work habits, but I'm married and viewed as old as is anyone over 30 or 35. As for upper management at forum, it is awful. Such unhappy people, that the feeling spreads. forum has become hostile place over past yr.
What I find amazing is that you people were even hired by Forum. Based on your spelling and punctuation, you seem like the bottom of the barrel to me. The idea behind Forum is it is a stepping stone to other jobs or a place to spend your last years before retirement; it's not the kind of environment to get comfy and stay awhile, unless you let the power that a big fish in a small pond has go to your head. You said yes to the salary and benefits that Forum has to offer; if you're unhappy with them, you have no one to blame but yourself. And if you think Forum is in danger of dying, you're very uninformed. Forum is the Sun-Sentinel's cash cow, and it, along with Cher and cockroaches, will still be around after a nuclear holocaust, unlike you whiny amateurs. If I was an administrator there, I'd be pretty unhappy, too, having to work with the likes of you wastoids.
Wrong Lisa? There's life after FPG. I'm proof.
1. Yesterday's news about exec ed. Sounds like her above, about a final place to retire!! FPG would be better without that attitude & one who manages by manipulation. the result is hate and harm. in compasison, the ME is likeable, talented & respected. She might be in her office cuz she's busy!
2. All paychecks are tiny.
3. FPG's publisher still hates the edit product and the executive ed. Why is HE there? Why is SHE there??
4. The exec editor divided a company into US versus advertising (posted about above) and young v. old (above), then writes about hiring the "bottom of the barrel"? Who's the wastoid?
5. Cash cow?? Old line.
6. Everything here is OLD. The age divide is recent & shows she's hiring young hotties. Laws protect against age discrim, all! :) New is the sorry state of the Jewish Journal.
This soap opera is BORING!
I'm a Forum employee and I love it. Smiles fill my office, one of the departments always has free bagels, the demands are rough but all my coworkers seem to handle it just fine. The managers may be a little cutthroat with each other, but the upper management are golden to each other when in the office. Saturday night someone from Circulation is playing with his band at a local pub and someone from almost every department has spoken their intention to show up. Everyone's not a great person, but working at Forum is a good deal better than any other working environment I've been in or hoped for.
And, judging from the comments posted above this one, FPG now puts morphine in the water...
You need a morphine drip just to enter that place...
To "would be" administrator, take your own advice, demote yourself. Kind of late to change FPG's image into retirement home or cash cow. Who can love smiles and free bagels with the FPG kiss of death around your neck.
Let FPG die fast and quietly so all can start to heal. Cobra covers some drugs, don't worry.
It was a lot worse in the Andy Polin days. People didn't sit in offices to collect paychecks -- they just never showed up. People also got lots of free handouts by promising stories about various businesses: spas, restaurants, etc. etc. Some got free trips.
Most of the people hired by Andy were losers who had no business being in the newspaper business and didn't know how to write or edit.
FPG is where you go when there are no other options, just to get some money coming in and insurance, while you look for something better.
sometimes when i'm at work, i pass the office defibrillator and think that i should use it on myself. this job really saved my ass when i needed it. but now i'm in desperate need for a new job. check, please!
I find it hilarious that the July 19 post ("Based on your spelling and punctuation, you seem like the bottom of the barrel to me") chided previous posters for spelling and grammar errors ... and made two him/herself! "[I]t's not the kind of environment to get comfy and stay awhile" should read " ... stay a while" and "If I was an administrator" should read "if I WERE" because what follows is known to be untrue.
I agree with the general nature of most of the posts, though; FPG is cheap, so if you're a young writer, get in, get some clips (quantity, not quality, is the best you can expect), get along with management, maybe get a new title for the resume and -- this is the most important step -- get out of there!
Forum is going down as is City Link. New Times will likely be around long after the Tribune Company tosses the last shovel load onto the CL's paupers grave. When Forum Publishing took over City Link, they soon began to turn it from a very entertaining and informative mag to another piece of crap shopper-style, cookie-cutter rag that Forum is known for. Jake Cline's absolute lack of management skills drove off a large group of their more talented staffers. The good one's that are left are stifled to the point that they are forced to regurgitate pablum-like drivel. It appears that the decline started after Forum's Ken Mitchell took charge, fired Publisher Michael Farver, and took Cline under his wing and inserted him as Managing Editor, basically acting as Publisher. With his belfry cozily inserted betwixt Mitchell's mighty buttocks, Cline was an ideal lackey. Spineless to speak up against Mitchell’s off-the-mark ideas, Cline put into play the bleak working conditions and bad business sense that have slowly led to the feculent throwaway that grace our streets weekly. Under Cline’s command the indescribably damaging decision to kill the City Link website assured that the publication exists in a readership vacuum. Speaking of readership, as the population of the distribution area for City Link has exploded, the Link’s readership has stayed a constant, dismal 53,000. There is a possibility that Forum is looking to sell or close City Link and moving toward diverting its energies to the Tribune’s Metrominx website. Anyone who has read City Link over the past few years would recognize it’s rapid decline. This week, under a cloud of suspicious secrecy, Ken Mitchell was let go. Speculation varies from poor performance of the magazine to sexual harassment (Mitchell is well-known to freely convey wildly off-color remarks to women in his employ). Further speculation is that Jake Cline will replace Mitchell in some capacity. If this happens, the smart money is that Cline’s horrible management skills and even worse business sense will be the death nell for the ailing publication. Either that or will bring to light Cline’s ineptness and hasten his departure from Forum as they continue to scramble to increase their ever-shrinking bottom line. The latter would be the best scenario for anyone who cares to salvage any part of the soul of the magazine. No matter what happens, it doesn’t look like we’ll ever see the once proud cornerstone of South Florida news and entertainment we once new.
The one telling thing that stands out among these posts is that none are willing to use their name. So why should anyone take anything seriously from anyone who won't say who he/she is? You're all a bunch of candy-ass wimps looking down your phoney noses. You sit back behind a veil of secrecy afraid to say what you think. I suspect most or all of you are graduates from some kind of journalism school and you think you know something. None of you do.You're a sack of journalist wannabes. I was one of the mediocre writer/editors at FPG, but I never pretended to be anything more than that. I was at FPG (and SFNN and Worell before that) for more than 11 years - longer than all of you I suspect - and like any other place I've worked at since the early 1970s it had it good points and its bad points. So go ahead and cry to mommy about all that's wrong. Ding Dongs, grow up and get a job and if you're not going to say what you think and let others know who you are - shut up.
I agree with Lenny, use your name if you feel so strongly. I started my career at FPG, but I was far from bottom of the barrel. I had to earn my keep, yes, but it was the most rewarding position I have ever been in. The managers and editors were compassionate and helpful. They went out of their way to help those who showed some initiative. I have found that new graduates tend to need coddling, which I suspect is behind most of the comments here. If you have issues with your company/former company, anonymously posting on some random board is not the way to resolve it.
People don't want to leave their names because the world of newspapers in South Florida is small, and the boss you criticize today may be the person hiring at a job down the road.
Why burn bridges, Lenny?
This forum allows a person to vent, to give inside advice on a particular newspaper company.
I always take anything -- signed or unsigned -- with a grain of salt anyway.
You know, one man's job from hell is another man's job of a lifetime.
Hey Lenny, I heard you were in town. I am surprised at the tone of your posting here. You are usually so upbeat. I am not a candy-ass wimp. A lot has changed at FPG since you were there. It's nothing like those olden days. And they weren't the "good old days" for some of us. You remember the witch of Coral Springs.
Nobody is putting a gun to your head and making you work here. Get some experience and move on, kids.
Harassment is harassment, and FPG used to be pretty strict on anything like that.
People would complain about each other all the time. Zero tolerance for anything!
I knew 2 guys who got spoken to because they had a can labeled "whoop ass" at their station. Big whoop.
Working at Forum Publishing Group was worse than having your fingernails slowly ripped out and having a drill slowly penetrate and push through your temple. Talentless and delusional collectively describes the "journalists" and "scholars" employed there. Reminds me of being in high school- gossipy insecure girls desperate for acceptance, wannabes thinking whatever they think they are (award winning journalists I suppose,) know-it-alls who don't know anything except the book they read over the weekend given they have no discernable life except for each other, haggard miserable old women, dykey Executive Editor hiring young females (hmmm.,) slave wages, published stories that no one reads and the list goes on infinitely.
Sounds like a bunch of losers work there. I've read some of their papers and I have can't understand how people can call themselves journalists and not be able to spell simple words, punctuate a sentence or even write a half-way interesting story.
I was interviewed once by a reporter from Forum and they are the most unprofessional people. Mispronouncing words, stuttering, uninteresting questions, couldn't find their notes, late, disheveled and physically nauseous, smelled and no return calls after they get the story. And the final product was a lousy story. Where did these journalists get their degree- a paper mill?
The only reason I even look at this page occasionally is because I still work here. I like it here but I can still say there is no way in hell I will bother looking back once I've moved on. You people who come on here to rant and rave about how much you hated it and how much the people here suck are bitter and ridiculous. If you've moved on, move on already! And hating the "young women" and saying ignorant homophobic things about your former boss makes you look jealous and idiotic. What's the matter, none of them would go out with you? Also, while this may be an informal place to post, if you're going to insult someone else's grammar, check your own, genius. Not every job can be a gem. You all knew the pay scale when you were hired, so quit bitching. This is a place where you start out at the beginning of your career, or end up at the end. You've obviously moved on, so why all the hate? If you're so sensitive about being left out of the"cool clique" then you're the ones who brought the high school mentality to your job. Grow up.
People who anonymously post hateful, scathing, ignorant comments are close-minded individuals who lead small, petty lives. Instead of spending so much energy putting others down, why not try and figure out why you all seem so discontented with your personal lives? It is a reflection of your own sorry existence, not the other way around.
And insulting people who read is incredibly ridiculous.
Question, Do you know that this can be seen by anyone? I guess it is better not to pay a psyciatrist to tell all your problems. Poor souls who have a job, a place to go everyday, and income, and some people actually are interested in what you may have to write. God forbid any of you who don't care for the work environment ever get to see what NOT working feels like.
I say, everyone who is happy or glad to have a paycheck, bring in a bottle of bubbles to your office and at 12 noon every Friday, just go blow some bubbles!
smile people
If all of you people have gripes take it to the top and let Sam Zell know. He answers the writers and gets the problems taken care of. If you've got bills to pay pick up some freelancing or find a weekend gig. Alot of people do it. Saying that everyone is twenty or fifty is as wrong as saying you have to be best buds. I never expected my job to turn out like this but I'm dealing with the anger productively. I need this job just like you do.
I have been a freelance writer for Jewish Journal and Shalom for seven years and have nothing but high praise for the support of my editors, Sylvia Gurinsky and now Alan Goch. I can't comment on working full time for Forum Publishing, but as a freelancer, there is a great need for some of the articles I generated over the years. Also, so many freelancers have commented that cheques have bounced and were never paid, but Forum Publishing Group have always paid me on time and in full- and that says a lot.
Over the years, I am proud of my Jewish Journal articles and had some of them syndicated to markets elsewhere in the country.
I am also very proud of writing on exceptional individuals and many not for profit organizations that make our community a great place to live. You can't put a price tag on feeling proud that my articles have helped worthy organizations grow in stature.
In response to the myriad of harsh indictments previously posted:
Forum Publishing, despite what the previous misanthropic posts read, was in many ways a rewarding experience.
First, I found most of the employees to be intelligent, witty, talented and generally altruistic. A lot were still in school and trying to build both a portfolio and a career path. Nothing wrong with that.
As far as the executive editor, she is actually very personable and talented. (She didn't merely sit in her office as others have posted.) She made a habit of walking through the news room and involving herself with subordinates.
Most importantly, Forum gives people interested in writing an opportunity to have their work published. A feeling that only true writers can appreciate. For years I wanted to write stories, but was afraid I never would. Forum allowed me to see my published work and it made me warm inside.
Instead of dumping on others who have goals and dreams and are actually trying to materialize them, ask yourself- "What have I done lately?"
To all Forum employees, I enjoyed working with you and had nothing but respect for you. Take care.
Woah, nelly! Touche!
I interned at the Forum for 3 months when I attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. I really enjoyed my time there, and was really looking foward to having a permanent job there. Lee Hershfield the photo editor at the time offered me the position, but I do not know what happened to him. If anyone can help me get my feet back in the door it would be greatly appreciated. I did really enjoy it, and honestly would do anything to work somewhere where I could use my camera.
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