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Thursday, November 20, 2008
Studs Terkel & The Copy Boy With Homicidal Fantasies Based on what I've read over the weekend, I'm one of the few Chicago journalists who didn't know Studs Terkel personally. I had several chance encounters with him that I look back on fondly -- because each one so fit his image.
- November 02, 2008
But I Promised the Pirates' Flack That I Wouldn't Quote Anyone But Him! In recent years, The New York Times has ever more assiduously disclosed the reasons someone is being quoted anonymously or otherwise go off the record in its articles. But surely the explanation that came up in a Times article this week deserves a place in the history of journalism -- and perhaps in the story of what's already shaping up as mankind's most absurd century ever. - October 04, 2008
What, M.E. Worry? Managing Editors May Be On The Way Out In the rest of corporate America, the middle manager has been an endangered species for the better part of three decades. With so many papers losing them, will the managing editor position soon disappear?- September 16, 2008
Meanwhile, Up North, A Newspaper Chain Actually Flourishes
Glacier Media is turning a group of Hollinger International cast-offs into cash cows: Profits up 22.4% on a revenue jump of 22.3%, with cash flow up more than 35% and margins actually increasing to 26.8% from 24.2% a year-ago. These aren't the kind of second-quarter results we've seen much of in this dismal financial reporting season.
- August 13, 2008
Playing Through: What Newspapers Could Learn From Golf
Channel surfing the other night, I came across a cable business news show featuring the CEO of Callaway Golf Co. as its guest. "What's your biggest frustration about Wall Street?" he was asked.
- August 07, 2008
In New Orleans, A Riveting Murder Series (And Not Chandra Levy)
While some readers and bloggers criticize the 12-part Washington Post series on the Chandra Levy 2001 murder, The Times-Picayune rivets with its multi-part account of a killing. Here the writer and editor explain.- July 30, 2008
Last Notes From Unity '08 Some last notes from Unity '08, the joint convention of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), and Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) that wrapped up in Chicago on Sunday.
- July 28, 2008
Wall Street Sours On GateHouse's Big Stakeholder, Too Back when GateHouse Media Inc. was shaping itself up for its October 2006 initial public offering (IPO), it faced plenty of skeptics on Wall Street who look pretty prescient now that its share price teeters at $1 or less, and the New York Stock Exchange has stopped floor trading in the stock.- July 21, 2008
The New Single-Digit Newspaper Stock
Is this the Big Board, or the Dollar Store? Nearly all newspaper stock prices have shrunk to the single-figure level.- July 16, 2008
At Age 42, FOIA Is Feeling a Little 'Bush-ed'
To open-government advocates, President George W. Bush's 2006 presidential order that federal agencies speed up their response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests was a kind of unexpected miracle coming from the leader of the most secretive administration in modern times. - July 06, 2008
Behind McClatchy Layoffs -- A Mountain Of Debt The 1,400 McClatchy Co. employees targeted for layoffs can blame their job loss on the faltering newspaper economy in general, their company's specific concentration of papers in California and Florida where the housing collapse has been most acute -- and a forward-looking strategy once hailed as a way to avoid precisely this kind of pain. - June 17, 2008
In Palo Alto, a Dead-Tree Medium Rises Brooding over the dismal industry news of the day -- Gannett's gold-plated credit rating downgraded, the Newspaper Association of America's dog-and-pony show to Wall Street canceled for a seeming lack of interest, and Tribune Co. becoming one of those annoying neighbors who hold a garage sale every weekend -- the last thing I expected was to be cheered up by phone call from a newspaper owner in California, of all places.- May 29, 2008
Globally, Newspapers Are Thinking Locally I was a speaker the other day at a seminar for the senior editors of some of the leading dailies in Latin America, and as usual I walked away having learned far more than I imparted.
- May 09, 2008
Finally, A Campaign Debate Over Openness Presidential candidates receive surveys from every special interest from PETA to Planned Parenthood, but the one they apparently find easiest to disregard comes from Sunshine Week, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) initiative on open government. - March 17, 2008
At 'SF Bay Guardian' Trial -- Alternative Realities Bay Area mainstream media are studiously ignoring the courtroom action in the San Francisco Bay Guardian's "predatory pricing" lawsuit against Village Voice Media (VVM). Judging by the wildly divergent coverage the company's alternative papers are giving it, that's a shame.- February 24, 2008
Talking With Journalism's New Blood In Florida Next month marks 20 years since the publication of T.D. Allman's hymn to his adopted hometown, "Miami: City of the Future." Normally two decades are not kind to books that purport to know the future. Titles that looked prescient at the time -- think of all those books along the lines of "The Coming Global Economic Domination Of Japan" -- look silly when they've been out of print for a few years- February 08, 2008
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