I admire reader's persistence in defending WAM, but overall picture not pretty for what once shined

A reader of this blog has been sending me repeated messages correcting wrong information I posted about the Williamson A.M. bureau of The Tennessean.

The reader says the ad staff remains at the Franklin office; two ad designers are gone to downtown. Also, ad volume is slightly up for the year.

I stand corrected and apologize. I would have posted the messsges earlier but I was out most of the day.

Still, my overall point remains. The quality of what was once The Tennessean's star product has declined considerably. Staff vacancies have not been filled. More and more work is being forced on fewer people, who certainly are dedicated to their craft. Yet every few weeks, a staff member is forced to go downtown to cover night cops for a week. So their beat goes mostly uncovered. Pity the poor reader.

But with community editor Susan Leathers being canned, two editors will now have to do the work of three and put out all the weeklies. That leaves them much less time to plan for a better product.

Finally, the direction of the section is no longer solely in the hands of the editors in Franklin. Big boss Mark Silverman calls too many of the shots, from downtown Nashville.

Yes, WAM was once a jewel. But what once sparkled no longer carries its previous luster. And readers are noticing.