Montorio rallies the troops

Facing a Monday with more bad circulation news and head scratching about the Times' outsized devotion to Hollywood awards hype, Associate Editor John Montorio dispatched an email to the Calendar staff congratulating them on the weekend's papers, which included the sneak preview of holiday movies.

Friends,

We've all begun to regard the continuing excellence of our entertainment report as a fact of life at The Times. Even by your standards, though, this was a remarkable weekend. Lynn Smith, Rachel Abramowitz and Mary McNamara gave us a fresh and provocative Page One presence both days. Our Holiday Sneaks issue was a spectacular success--good reading and great service, marked by the incredible diversity of our staff's voices. On the music front, Maria Elena and Agustin gave us incisive and stylish follows on the Latin Grammys, while Bob Hilburn's superb review of the Stones apparently prodded them into changing their act. Kinsey even made a stylish piece of journalism out of the box office piece. It was a great performance from every angle and I want all the reporters, critics, photographers, editors and designers involved to know how much we admired it.

Cheers, John

Meanwhile, what's really on the staff's minds are how many of them might be laid off. Hushed meetings and grim faces on the editors have that kind of effect on morale.