Matt Ried

Matt Ried.

One of the more pleasant surprises of my nearly 10-year employ at the mighty Mezz was Matt Ried (“REED”).
Matt Ried is a Postie (“Post-eee”); that is, he came with the Messenger’s purchase of the Post weeklies from Andy Wolfe.
The Post newspapers were nine weekly newspapers published by Post Publications, which Publisher/Owner Andy Wolfe sold to the Messenger when he retired. (He died shortly after that.)
They were suburban weeklies around Rochester.
Compared to the Messenger they seemed elitist — although I don’t consider that a bad thing. If they were, it was Andy’s solution to minimal pay.
The Messenger paid low too; but were very feet-on-the-ground. Things were a bit disorganized and messy, but we put out a quality product. The Messenger was a happy ship; and the staff was all on the same mission: to put out a superior product.
The Post papers were similar.
At first the Post newspapers continued production in their old buildings, but then production was brought to Canandaigua, and the Post buildings sold.
When first there, the Posties and Messenger people aligned into two separate camps; Posties along here, and Messenger people over there.
Staffs were slowly merged, and various Posties bumped out Messenger people, particularly ‘pyooter-guru, who had been a Postie.
The Messenger had significantly expanded its office building, making integration of the Post newspapers possible.
It was decided Messenger-Post should do a web-site, which at first was a function of the Photo-Department; i.e. the old waazoo that if someone can do it, they get assigned to it.
Then it was decided Messenger-Post should wick up its Internet presence, so the vaunted “Electronics Team” was established: Matt Ried, page-editor Bill Robinson, and me.
My inclusion in this erstwhile group seemed a bit strange, since I was a stroke-survivor, and not running on all eight.
The one really ‘pyooter-savvy was Matt Ried, although as I recall the team-leader was Bill Robinson, who was also quite savvy.
Our main function was to do the web-site, which I had to learn, and wanted to.
I pretty much learned it according to my usual procedure; figuring out what we were doing so I could do it, although this was frustrating to others. (“Too many questions, Hughsey. Don’t think; just do,” I was told.)
Then Robinson left, leaving just Ried and I to do all the electronic functions.
We also aligned with a new web service, thus instituting web-site iteration number three.
The new site included sub-sites for all the Post weeklies, which had been separate before.
Ried was also producing Post and Messenger pages.
So we divided up the web functions; Ried doing the Messenger, and me the Post sites.
But often we were off or out, so we covered for each other.
Then we swapped so I could reduce my hours and go part-time.
I began to exercise my tastes, namely that the Messenger site should have as much artistic content (photos) as possible, it being a visual medium.
I also had written macros to streamline some of our processing.
When the Electronics-Team was formed, Robinson, Ried and I were set up along the back wall of the office, and everything we did was from our ‘pyooters; although web-site iteration number-two had to be published from our single remaining PC, a clunker at a faraway table.
Everything else, including our own ‘pyooters, were Apple Macintosh.
I suppose it helped I wasn’t all there; I might have been more negative if I had been.
I certainly witnessed enough negativism among other staff-members.
When Robinson left he was replaced by Marcy Dewey, who kind of did what Robinson did, minus the web-site.
She got roped into other things, and Ried and I seemed to be able to do the web-site ourselves, although I was doing other things too.
One day we were all beavering away, and someone commented about vegetarianism.
“Well, vegetables have rights too,” Ried said.
VIOLA! The kind of insanity I would come up with. “All is forgiven, Ried. Ya got potential!”
All of us have since left the Messenger; me retired, Marcy to Boston with her ex-Messenger reporter husband (“the best reporter I ever knew”) Bryan Mahoney, and Ried to Denver.
Ried is I guess now a radio-dispatcher for a hospital, similar to secondary employment here; and Marcy is currently unemployed.
Robinson went with nearby Guardian Glass, a “stupid, meaningless job,” I said; much like my 16&1/2 years of driving bus.
“Don’t ever put your pen down,” I told him.
Sometimes I think I should tell Marcy to do the same; a “stupid, meaningless job,” yet not put her pen down — drawing, whatever.
And there’s Ried out in Colorado, reduced to a stupid, meaningless job because his money was about to run out.
So much for journalism and similar intellectual pursuits.
This culture doesn’t have much room for intellectual pursuits.
With Obama we get to build bridges.

The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired three years ago. Best job I ever had.

“‘Pyooter” is computer. “‘Pyooter-guru” was the manager of technical stuff at the Messenger, mainly computers used in newspaper production.

I had a stroke October 26, 1993, prior to my employ at the Messenger. RE: “Not running on all eight.......” —As a result of the stroke, I was slightly brain-damaged.

Toward the end of my employ, I went part-time to reduce my working.

“Macros” are essentially tiny ‘pyooter programs that do functions. My “macros” were all Appleworks, the Apple word-processing software we used.

A “PC” is the usual Windows computer; “PC” meaning “Personal-Computer.”

RE: “Much like my 16&1/2 years of driving bus........” —For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY. My stroke ended that.