Goodbye Desert Sun Editor Rick Green
The Desert Sun's executive editor, Rick Green, is moving on and, presumably, up to another senior editorial position within the Gannett Company newspaper empire. His replacement could result in a newspaper more representative of the Coachella Valley community, interested in credible feedback, and one able to reflect a broad range of perspectives.
Goodbye Desert Sun Editor Rick Green
Posted 1/4/2011 11:18 AM PST on MyDesert.com
The Desert Sun's executive editor, Rick Green, is moving on and, presumably, up to another senior editorial position within the Gannett Company newspaper empire. His new job is reported to be in Des Moines, Iowa. Green's departure will undoubtedly result in expressions ranging from applause to sorrow and, depending upon one's perspective, he probably merits both.
When Rick Green arrived in the desert in 2004 as the newspaper's Managing Editor, Executive Editor Steve Silberman was his boss. Silberman provided the balance that served to keep Green in check and the paper was a better product during that time. When Silberman left in 2008 Green was promoted to Executive Editor and the job of Managing Editor was eliminated. It's rumored the managing editor slot was cut in order to save a few bucks. Afterwards, without someone to provide balance and critique, Green ran the operation like a personal fiefdom. Today's Desert Sun product is smaller in content, provides less coverage and has fewer subscribers than was the case during its heyday under previous management. Some ascribe these setbacks as endemic to the newspaper publishing business, but others see evidence of poor management as a contributing culprit.
Green emphasized local coverage during his tenure and sometimes resorted to steps designed to make news where little or none existed. Probably his most notorious effort at making news was the paper's determination to portray last years 45th Congressional District race between incumbent Mary Bono Mack and Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet as a contest of the century news event. The paper devoted pages and pages of coverage to what was essentially a foregone conclusion - the reelection of Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack. None familiar with the local political scene saw credible evidence the 45th CD race would result in Pougnet's election. Nevertheless The Desert Sun announced early on their intent to provide coverage of the race to the fullest extent possible and they certainly did so - ad nauseam.
Green was definitely a self-promoter and none more so than during the early election season televised debate his paper sponsored between candidates Mary Bono Mack and Steve Pougnet. Since he was footing most of the bills for the debate's costs, he made the rules. His self-promotion antics reached a peak when, though lacking in experience or appropriate skills, Green chose himself to host the debates and as the one asking questions of the candidates. His performance was not only poor, he managed to clearly, though perhaps inadvertently, reveal his preference for Mary Bono Mack as his candidate of choice. And, of course, the paper endorsed Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack for re-election during the final days of the election season.
The MyDesert.com website, created in 2007, has suffered greatly during Rick Green's tenure. It started with a dedicated and enthusiastic staff who approached the project as pioneers and in that vein appeared to give the enterprise much love and attention. Those pioneers are gone and the vast array of interesting and credible bloggers they recruited has also moved on. The website design has not evolved and surely merits at best a mediocre rating. It's overpopulated with advertisements, web pages are visibly confusing and unattractive, and page loading is far too slow. The website clearly exists in a minimal maintenance mode.
The paper's editorial and opinion section has definitely seen better days. The cutting-edge editorials of a liberal like Cindy Uken must have been a stomach churning time for the conservative Rick Green. Her forced departure did not result in an equally talented replacement and today's editorial opinions, not a daily occurrence, rarely stir the community and none have proven memorable. The editorial board composition is quite conservative with little community involvement.
Green claims to have made significant community outreach efforts and certainly proved adept at promoting his coffee house visits. What effect such activities had on his views remains unknown. What is clear is his inability to accept critique or disagreement. The paper has no ombudsman or other community representative giving voice to reader concerns. The only avenue for community input is via a letter that may or may not be printed. The remaining avenue for those who feel the paper is unfair, unbalanced, unrepresentative or overpriced is to cancel their subscription and use the funds to purchase a better product.
Today's Desert Sun has a new publisher and now is looking forward to a new Executive Editor. Hopefully these changes will result in the better product the Coachella Valley deserves. A newspaper more representative of the entire community, interested in credible feedback, and one able to reflect a broad range of perspectives, could prove quite refreshing.
Bond Shands
Palm Springs
Posted by Desert Observer at 1/4/2011 12:33 PM 
Categories: Opinion, The Desert Sun
Tags: The Desert Sun Rick Green
Categories: Opinion, The Desert Sun
Tags: The Desert Sun Rick Green
I agree with everything said in this article.
It seems that over the last 3 years the staff of the Desert Sun looks like it is composed of high schoolers, for the most part, and from the shallowness of many of the local articles.
I will be looking forward to big changes in the newspaper if it wants my continued subscription.
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