The bullshit artist breaks his silence

Image via CrunchBase

Francis "Frank" Scandale

Former Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale, who was fired on Halloween, is up to his old tricks as he attempts to find a new job.


Scandale, 54, of Glen Rock, has updated his LinkedIn profile -- complete with corporate jargon, typos and at least one misspelling.


He tells potential employers he was "decorated in major markets," refers to the "9/11 era" and "Columbine era," and discusses his "vision for relevant, objective coverage of the world's events" and his "core journalistic and managerial competencies."


News gathering comes out "new gathering," and he misspells crystallized.


Look at this atrocious sentence:

"Behind my vision for relevant, objective coverage of the world's events amid the evolution of the new gathering and delivery processes itself are core journalistic and managerial competencies." 

He crows about his bi-monthly columns, but doesn't say they haven't run for years or that they were poorly written and filled with cliches.


Of course, he doesn't mention his lackluster personality, uninspiring leadership, flawed news judgment, obsession with running sports on Page 1, the precipitous drop in both local news and circulation during his 10-plus years as editor or that he was fired by Publisher Stephen A. Borg.


Nor does discuss how he turned his back on older newsroom employees, especially members of the hard-working news copy desk. 


Here are excerpts from LinkedIn:


Frank Scandale's Summary


Senior news executive with 30+ years multi-platform editorial leadership. As a Vice President and Editor-in-Chief, my tenure at two prominent daily print/digital breaking news operations is proven and decorated in major markets, among them New York/Northern New Jersey during the 9/11 era, and Denver, Colorado, during the Columbine era. Behind my vision for relevant, objective coverage of the world's events amid the evolution of the new gathering and delivery processes itself are core journalistic and managerial competencies. As challenges arise, news professionals must be educated, motivated and inspired from their leadership in order to reach and build audiences. My skill set is uniquely positioned to accomplish exactly that, with an eye on the big picture and the ability to balance corporate directives with the mission of an authentic news gathering operations.

My experience traveling throughout the world has crystalized the need for conveying information beyond the geographic borders a company may have. With professional and personal contacts throughout Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia and the United States, I understand the potential reach organizations must embrace as they attempt to extend their reach.

Frank Scandale's Experience

Editor/Vice President

North Jersey Media Group

Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Publishing industry

January 2001 – November 2011 (10 years 11 months) New Jersey

Responsible for overall print and web operations of major metropolitan news organization. Oversaw the founding of Northjersey Media Group's Breaking News Operation (2005) and migrated web group into an 18/7 operation. Engaged the public with an open door policy and regular speaking engagements with Law Enforcement, Education, Community and Civic Organizations, the growing ethnic communities and the general public. Met or exceeded corporate directives over two distinct corporate leadership administrations, restored Environmental Reporting to its important place it deserves in the region, culminating in the first ever Grantham Prize for environmental reporting for the groundbreaking multi-platform Toxic Legacy.com effort, and the recent sequel Toxic Landscape. Ushered in the first all-color newspaper in the region, forged strategic ties with competitors in the era of sharing content, and created new, electronic partners such as Fox TV and Fios. Created new content and sections based on marketing data, oversaw financial budgets, wrote bi-monthly columns explaining the news business and celebrating the achievements of employees. Formed a mentorship program with the 50-newspaper weekly division to develop talent and personally took several journalists under my guidance.

As the evidence mounted that digital was the future, I retooled the newsroom into a resource pool to feed the demands of the digital group - photographers make daily videos, photo galleries (proven traffic driver)and contribute to the blogs. Graphic artists create interactive maps to bring in more users with relevant information about their world. First to employ Twitter in the newsroom to set the example needed to reach multiple potential users.
We began blogging high-profile trials, broke news first online and set up regular webinars to establish digital-first thinking throughout the newsroom.
Traffic has doubled to our website - www.northjersey.com - under my command to 2010 from 2009.

Scandale also discusses his previous jobs at The Denver Post, the now-defunct Elizabeth (N.J.) Daily Journal and Reuters. Here is a link to his profile:

Read all of Frank's bullshit here

Today's rag

John Brennan, perhaps the most inept reporter at the Woodland Park daily, somehow still manages to get most of his stories on Page 1, such as today's celebration of a proposed amusement park at the former Xanadu retail complex in the Meadowlands.

His lead paragraph is a prime example of an anti-news story, telling readers how many people attended a hearing instead of reporting what happened there.

Putting out a fire

A second front-page story today amounts to little more than damage control by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- in reaction to Tuesday's expose.

Significantly, a new executive director says the bi-state agency will "do better," but never promises to end hidden executive pay of up to $70,000 a year.

Executive Director Pat Foye is being paid more than $289,000 a year -- compared to $175,000 for Governor Christie. He laid out his vision at a commissioners meeting on Tuesday and apparently said nothing about improving mass transit.

No easy reading

For one of the most confusing pieces on E-ZPass in recent memory, see Road Warrior John Cichowski's column on L-1 today.

Hackensack readers may live in the Bergen County seat, as well as its most populous community, but they will search in vain for any news of their city today.

Maybe it's just a question of what head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes considers to be news. 

According to a reliable source, Hackensack City Clerk Debbie Heck stormed out of her office on Thursday, prompting the city manager to send an e-mail to City Council members, but she was back at her desk on Monday at noon. 

Heck, who also is secretary to the governing body, reportedly has had a tough time getting along with City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono.

Is that Hackensack news? I guess Sykes and her lazy minions don't think so.

Related post

• Good riddance to bad rubbish (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)