Year in Fly 2
Last week, Fly on the Wall’s “Year in Fly 1” listed some lists Memphis made in 2017 and waxed nostalgic about Andy Wise’s bathroom habits.
But if we’d wanted to give this annual “best of the worst” a completely different spin, we could have titled the whole project …
DAMMIT, GANNETT!
The Commercial Appeal’s been going through changes since its acquisition by media giant Gannett Co.
Layoffs were followed by an announcement that the company will sell the paper’s longtime home at 495 Union.
Reduced security and shortened business hours prompted an ominous staff memo from Executive Editor Mark Russell:
“If you are worried about working in your department alone after, say, 6 or 7 p.m., please consider leaving at 5 to work from a coffee shop, home, or some other location …”
A few months later, The Commercial Appeal honored Memphis’ best workplaces by handing out plaques with pictures of Nashville on them.
The Big One!
The year’s most pulse-pounding local news spot was WREG’s story of a grandmother risking everything to save her grandchild from the terrifying maw of a five-foot hole.
“It seems shallow, but there’s much more to this hole than what meets the eye,” a WREG reporter said of the five-foot hole.
“All I could say was ‘Lord, take me and not my grandchild,'” Grandma said.
