Look at that "hasn't slept in six months" thing again. This tends to play on someone's emotions quite heavily.
To be fair, it is quite possible that in a media-based startup like a newspaper, the company did make these people a star. However, I don't think I'm seeing anger as much as "oh shit, what do we do now?"
I think you've got it right. There were people who were nobodies who we hired out of college and made into brands who jumped ship at the first sign of trouble. That sucked, but it's too be expected. There were many others who stayed and fought the good fight.
Imagine having a print magazine about the dotcom industry in 2000 that was 300 pages.... and then the dotcom crash happens and 98% of your revenue goes away while 90% of the companies you cover go away.
It was brutal to say the least.... but it made me into a killer. :-)
To be fair, it is quite possible that in a media-based startup like a newspaper, the company did make these people a star. However, I don't think I'm seeing anger as much as "oh shit, what do we do now?"