But this wasn't just any ordinary commenting troll.

All the way from Birmingham, Michigan, one Kurt Luedtke commented with a story (emphasis ours):

I've been waiting for a chance to blow this whistle.

I once employed a reporter who liked to talk on the phone. The reason he came to work was to talk on the phone. Most of his calls never produced a story but they were free, because the newspaper paid for them. This is why he got out of bed to come to work before dialing.

Going through the phone bills one month, we came upon a godawful charge for a 45 minute call to Santiago, Chile, hundreds of dollars. Our newspaper was in Detroit. Not that what happens in Santiago is not important, but it was not of great interest to Detroit readers.

Asked to explain, the reporter said: they put me on hold! He was indignant. That he chose not to hang up and that he was not paying for the call did not penetrate. I don't remember that he ever said why he was calling Santiago but trust me, it was not work-related.

Here is why this story is important, and why there is hope for the ink-stained wretches who may wish to soldier on: The reporter who thought it was cool to call Santiago on the company's dime is now in charge of editorial budgets for the New York Times.

Questions:

• Who the hell does this Kurt Luedtke guy think he is?
• Who is the Times brass in question?
• And is the story true? If so, it's nothing earth-shattering, but it would certainly illustrate an interesting moment in the past of the person with one of the most precarious and "tough, but someone's gotta do it" jobs in the entire world of journalism.

 
One quick Googling of Mr. Luedtke's name turned up a more-than-kind-of incredible answer as to his identity:

Not only was he most definitely once the executive editor of a newspaper in Detroit—the Free Press—but he also happens to be the screenwriter of 1985's Out of Africa. Among its eight Academy Awards, it took home Best Picture, Best Director for Sydney Pollack, and Best Screenplay for Mr. Luedtke, who also wrote Pollack's journalism-based thriller Absence of Malice and Pollack's 1998 Harrison Ford-starring thriller Random Hearts.

The Observer called Mr. Luedtke on Friday afternoon to see if he'd tell us who he was naming. "How'd you get this number?" he asked. We explained to him: Google. Also, we're reporters. "That's right!" he laughed. "The guy I was talking about, well, we're still friends. I want to see how they react, first. Try me after the weekend," he snickered. We detected a hint of mischief in his voice.

The fact is, there's only one person on the Times upper-masthead who both worked at the Detroit Free-Press and whose job it is to "oversee newsroom administration and finances": Times deputy managing editor William "Bill" Schmidt.

A source familiar with Mr. Schmidt's position inside the newsroom explained that part of Mr. Schmidt's unenviable job—besides rabidly guarding the ever-diminishing Times coffers—is to send out the good or bad news regarding Times staffer buyouts, a tough gig this year, especially given the looming fact of what many feel was an unfair $10.9M "golden parachute" given to former New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson.

We reached out to Mr. Schmidt: Is it he Mr. Luedtke is referring to? And if so, is his former editor's story true?

Mr. Schmidt responded the next day over email:

So here's the deal: nearly 40 years ago, as a young reporter in Detroit, I did, alas, run up some charges on the Free Press phone bill, chasing a story that involved -- improbably -- an angle in Chile. If I had studied Spanish rather than Chinese, maybe the calls would have been shorter. Who knows? Story never panned out.

Kurt was the editor of The Free Press at the time, and over the years, he liked to remind me about it. Each time, his recollection gets a bit more cinematic. Of course it would. The guy wrote "Out of Africa" and "Absence of Malice."

For my part, all I can say is that lessons were learned back then that serve me well today.

The Observer attempted to contact to Mr. Luedtke for the opportunity to comment on Mr. Schmidt's email, on which he was copied. Mr. Luedtke was not home, and did not respond to another request for quote over email.

And now you know:

1. Your mistakes as a young reporter will haunt you forever in the form of mischievous former editors.
2. That said, your mistakes as a young reporter won't haunt your forever on your ascent upward, assuming the most anyone can do with them is troll you in comment sections to hysterical effect.
3. Young reporters totally have it easy because they can just Skype arbitrary (or arbitrary-seeming) calls to Chile.
4. The New York Times has Oscar-winning commenters.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Back in January, deputy managing editor Bill Schmidt instructed staffers on how to produce cheaper expense reports—book less pricey hotels, monitor lunch and dinner costs, etc.—but this takes the newsroom cost-savings measures to a new level.

First, the texting effectively needs to stop.

"Although we recognize that texting has become an indispensable means of communication for many people, our basic company plans with Verizon and AT&T do not provide for unlimited texting," wrote Mr. Schmidt. "A lot of texting costs us a lot of money, whether as a per-message fee or as an unlimited-message add-on."

Specific instructions follow: If you can email or leave a voice mail, there’s no reason to text! Don't text Twitter messages, either; get a program like Tweetberry! Don't send texts when you can use BlackBerry messenger, an IMing program that is available to BlackBerry users.

"Do not send picture or video messages ('MMS') from company phones except for work purposes," he continued. "And do not text from overseas."

Mr. Schmidt wrote that staffers really shouldn’t be making calls on company phones when they’re overseas—even if they’re working on a story. 

“If you are going abroad for work for more than a day or two, please rent a local phone or get a local SIM card, which can be inserted into your phone to make it, in effect, a local phone,” he wrote. “You can forward calls from your U.S. number to the local number of your rented phone or SIM card.”

If you’re on vacation and not on Times business, well, don’t even bother.

As far as 411 is concerned, every time a Times reporter uses that number it costs “us $1.49 apiece,” wrote Mr. Schmidt.

Here is the memo:

If you have a company-paid cellphone or Blackberry, here are some basic guidelines on ways to help us keep down costs. Jessica Bagdorf in News Technology and Gloria Bell in Metro can provide even more detailed information, if you have additional questions. 
 
INTERNATIONAL USE:

Please do NOT routinely use your cellphone or your Blackberry when traveling outside the lower 48 states.
 
Under the company’s plan with AT&T, use of your phone in Alaska, Hawaii or foreign countries is very expensive, even with discount packages applied. (Verizon phones, of course, do not work in most other countries, but may incur similar charges in Alaska, Hawaii and Canada.)
 
If you are going abroad for work for more than a day or two, please rent a local phone or get a local SIM card, which can be inserted into your phone to make it, in effect, a local phone. You can forward calls from your U.S. number to the local number of your rented phone or SIM card. You may include the cost of the phone or SIM card in your Concur report for the trip.
 
If you are going abroad for vacation, please do not use your company phone or Blackberry unless you have urgent reason to contact the office.  If you must use your phone or Blackberry for personal matters while overseas, the company will gratefully accept reimbursement.
 
For help with these or other communications options, please consult News Technology before your trip.
 
DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE:

If you are need help finding a phone number or an address, do not automatically dial 411.
 
Calls to directory assistance from a company cellphone cost us $1.49 apiece. Google’s information line is free. You can use it by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone. Please do so.

TEXTING:

Although we recognize that texting has become an indispensable means of communication for many people, our basic company plans with Verizon and AT&T do not provide for unlimited texting.  A lot of texting costs us a lot of money, whether as a per-message fee or as an unlimited-message add-on.
 
So please use discretion when deciding to send a text, especially if a voice call or e-mail would get your message to the recipient equally well. Do not use Twitter via text messages; install a client like Twitterberry on your phone instead.  Do not send picture or video messages (“MMS”) from company phones except for work purposes.   And do not text from overseas.
 
Also, if you have a Blackberry and are trying to reach someone else who also has a Blackberry, consider using Blackberry’s free Messenger service rather than texting. You will need to know in advance the PIN number that Blackberry has assigned to the other person’s device, but once you have that, it is at least as easy to use as texting. Click on the “Blackberry Messenger” icon on your main screen and follow the instructions. You can find your own PIN number by clicking on “Options” from the main menu, then “Status.”

Mr. Schmidt is the administration-man of the Times newsroom—the one who sends out emails reminding reporters to file their expenses—and he'll have a similar, if expanded, role at The Times' sister publication. Bill Keller writes in a memo, "He will be, in effect, the chief operating officer of the Trib newsroom, the principle liaison with the publisher and with the Executive Editor of The Times."

Here's the whole memo:

The drop-dead deadline is fast approaching for the staffers in The New York Times newsroom to raise their hand and volunteer for a buyout. An internal memo from the paper's assistant managing editor, Bill Schmidt, just went out and said that "we expect" that the buyout numbers aren't looking good and that for the first time the paper will be forced to cut the newsroom through layoffs.

"While layoffs have become all too common across our industry, this is the first time the newsroom as a whole has confronted that blunt reality, and we approach it with a heavy heart," he said in the e-mail.

The entire memo is below:

To the Staff:

In the past few years we've had a tidal surge in the yearning of Times staffers to put their wisdom between hard covers. One result has been a lot of very good, even award-winning books that showcase the talents of the paper. Another has been a certain amount of stress on a hard-working staff, as important players disappear temporarily from the field. And a third has been a degree of confusion about what Times policies apply to book-writing. This is an attempt to set the record straight.

First, if you are contemplating a book, we need to know -- before you circulate a proposal or open negotiations with a publisher. Our current policy, spelled out in the ethical journalism handbook, says that anyone contemplating a book project that derives from his or her assignment or beat must notify the paper in advance. What I want to add is that whatever kind of book project you have in mind, you should contact me, Jill, John or Bill Schmidt (as well as your immediate superior) and arrange a meeting in which we can discuss whether your book-writing is compatible with your responsibilities to the paper. We should have this conversation even if you intend to write a book on your own time.

Second, there is no one-size-fits-all policy regarding book leaves. Often we ask staffers to take a pass on -- or postpone -- a book opportunity because we cannot afford to release them from the daily competition at that time. Sometimes we grant leaves, of various lengths and configurations. Sometimes we ask book-writers to temporarily leave the staff -- with written assurance they will be landed again when they finish their project -- because we cannot afford to freeze their slot. (Particularly, in the case of a long or indeterminate leave, having a book-writer go off staff gives us more flexibility to hire a replacement.) We do our best to balance the needs of the paper with the interests of staffers, but each case is unique.

Third, whether a Times staffer writes a book for our own publishing arm or for an outside publisher, he or she continues to be a representative of The New York Times. That imposes certain ethical requirements designed to protect the paper from questions about our impartiality and from perceived conflicts of interest. If reporters put material in books that calls into question their ability to be impartial journalists, they may limit their future options at the paper. This just underscores the importance of keeping us in the loop as you contemplate, plan, pitch and write a book. We can advise you on how to stay within the boundaries of our ethics policies.

None of this is new, but given the rising interest in book-writing, it probably bears repeating.

Bill