Sunday resurrection and roundup

Billionaires to the rescue? 

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has an opinion piece calling on the deep pocketed to assist daily newspapers in their struggle to keep communities informed. 

I don't know. This feels too late and short sighted, since newspaper owners who think they know how to survive the game are usually the first to find out how little they really know.

Just ask the people working there: Romenesko. 

At this point, big checks would seem to do more to stave off the inevitable than rescue an industry that for too long lacked the humility to break up bad management structures. Instead it gutted newsrooms to ensure those at the top got their legacy pensions.

As scary fast as changes are coming now, it feels as if the corporate lamentations that pitted bottom lines against journalistic values have started to quiet. The stagnant business culture is starting to face its mortality. New lines of thought are sprouting.

Our job is to keep pushing the principles of good journalism (SCOTUSblog has gotten well-deserved attention today for doing just that) and hope the new business models coalesce around them.

Because with the big-check largesse of a single person or foundation comes demands. Look at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, which must contend with the singular benevolence of billionaire businessman and art (institution) collector Eli Broad: WWLA. 

Does this mean the L.A. Times should turn the $1-million grant from the Ford Foundation? No. But the survival of news gathering institutions is going to depend on the largesse of lots of little checks: donors, members, subscribers, listeners, readers, watchers. 

Four today

1. If you like the smell of news print (and who does) you can buy a candle and pretend its still 2004. refinery29

2. We were already a curation nation. Nieman Journalism Lab

3. Gannett axes 700 employees from its newspaper division. Romenesko

4. David Carr reviews James O'Shea's tell-all about the Tribune Co.'s disastrous deal to buy the LA Times. NYT

Four Monday

1. Andrew Breitbart tells the L.A. chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition that objectivity in journalism means surrender, and unveils plans to start a Big Jerusalem site. fishbowlLA

2. An ad in today's Miami Herald congratulations the Miami Heat, which lost the NBA championships. Miami New Times

3. AOL's Patch sites are busy, but not with muckraking stories. LAT

4. ABC's Chris Cuomo embarrasses himself as he rationalizes paying sources. Poynter

Four today

1. Historian D.J. Waldie dismisses Atlantic writer Conor Friedersdorf's I-Heart-New York critique of Los  Angeles County, saying to view the county as a tangled web of corrupt and confused jurisdictions is a simplistic misunderstanding of the region's history.

2. You know you're getting old when ... The new AP political editor is four years younger than you are. Romenesko

3. Speaking of AP, the business staff doesn't have much good to say about the AP business editor. Romenesko

4. As you might have heard, a group calling itself Lulzsec hacked the PBS website to show its displeasure at the Frontline report on Wikileaks. Boing Boing

Four Monday

The Los Angeles Press Club nominees are set. Some categories look surprisingly uncompetitive, but maybe that's not new. LAPC (.pdf)

2. As public media go online, the line that used to separate public and private sometimes blurs. PBS viewers, for instance, will see 15 and 30 second commercials if they watch PBS shows online. This should worry people depend on public television and public radio to avoid the pressures private companies have as they compete for ad dollars. PBS has already gotten into trouble over commercials from Goldman Sachs. Romenesko and PBS Ombudsman

3. Joe Biden goes a courtin' in the White House press room. NY Magazine

4. Turning every experience into a digital pose. NPR

Texas paper spikes column critical of major advertiser

Romenesko has linked to a troubling story about the Hearst-owned San Antonio Express-News and its decision to spike a column from a veteran writer that took the HEB supermarket chain to task for the dilapidated condition of stores in predominantly black neighborhoods, and the shoddy quality of meats sold there.

Challenged by a writer for the Plaza de Armas news site, Express-News Editor Bob Rivard said this:

You are free, of course, to campaign against us by asserting without any evidence that we are not publishing what you want us to publish because H-E-B is a major advertiser. I’d suggest instead that we approach any story about H-E-B based on its long-standing and well-deserved reputation in the city, region and state as a best-in-class business, leading corporate citizen, and a company and ownership with an unrivaled record of philanthropy and support for public education in Texas.

So... it's not the company's money that led to the column being spiked, it's the company's influence that led to the column being spiked... influence that stems from making lots of money.

Circular logic does not get the paper around its responsibility to keep a watchful eye on all powerful corporate citizens, even the "leading" ones - "without fear or favor" does not work well when editors pick favorites.

(Let me disclose that I tried to buy a six-pack of beer at an HEB grocery store in Elgin, Texas a couple years back and was refused because I had an out of state ID. Pointing out that the beer also came from out of state did not change the manager's mind. So, one could argue I'm less than objective about the chain.)

Four in the morning

1. Utah wants to limit the pesky public from making requests for public documents. Poynter

2. Huffington Post names six new reporters, including former Yahoo-er Michael Calderon. Romenesko; Arianna Huffington says "meh" to the threat of unpaid bloggers going on strike (i.e., some people doing free work deciding not to work for free). fishbowlLA

3. Most media outlets are the worst at covering themselves - still, the New York Times ombud says it's about time the paper did some reporting on its highly anticipated paywall plan. NYT

4. For those living and voting in Los Angeles, the city will suspend parking restrictions on Election Day. City Maven (found via LA Observed)

No national consolidation plan, Singleton says

Dean Singleton, who's still the voice of MediaNews Group, put out a statement late today saying the newspaper chain has no plans for a national copy desk, despite a union letter warning of just such a proposal. He blames the union for jumping the gun, based on a casual conversation, and adds that this is why he doesn't include the guild in any planning sessions.

Romenesko also got hold of a memo sent from Dave Butler, head of MNG's California papers, that also says no national copy desk is planned, but indicates more regional clustering is probable. I'm reprinting the memos here, both taken from the Romenesko website. First Dave, then Dean:

Fellow MNG editors: 

FYI. I spoke to Dean Singleton this afternoon about the statement put out by the Guild regarding a national copy editing center. Below is his response to their press release. I would further add that we have two projects going on that fly in the face of any “national” center. We have consultant Ken Harding working with editors in Denver, Salt Lake and St. Paul to figure out ways to make local news production more efficient at each paper, and just yesterday a group from BANG went to LANG to exchange ideas on how we might streamline our regional desks. We also have some mini-regional desks around the company and may, at some point, consider more. Like most other newspaper companies, regionalization — where appropriate — seems to work well. Would we rule out doing something else? Nope. But the capital costs of one center and the challenges involved seem pretty daunting to me. Please share this information as is appropriate. 

-Dave 

******* 

Dean’s statement:
The Newspaper Guild on Friday issued a press release referring to a casual phone conversation I had with Bernie Lunser, president of the Guild, concerning the future of the newspaper industry and how newspapers can better serve their readers in print, online and on mobile products. 

Contrary to the assertions made in the release, there are no plans for “national consolidation” of MNG’s editing processes. 

While we constantly assess better ways to serve our readers in this changing and uncertain world, including the Guild in these considerations are not a part of those assessments.
The irresponsible Guild press release is a perfect example of why we don’t. 

There is no future for any of us if we continue to live in the past. Someone should tell that to the Guild. 

- Dean

Another black eye for Patch

A stringer for AOL's Patch site in Palo Alto got caught poaching a business report from the website VentureBeat. The Palo Alto Patch acknowledged what had happened in an apology to readers.

Patch sites in West Hollywood and New Rochelle, New York have run into problems with stolen content as well, as FishbowlLA has reported.

The Patch network is largely decentralized, with individual editors running city sites under a regional editor. The model calls for the local editors (some of whom having journalism training, some of whom don't) to hire stringers (some of whom have journalism training, some of whom don't) to help produce content and keep the web pages filled. It's a system that invites people to cut corners.

As I just argued in the post below, Patch sites should not be graded on a curve - no excuses for plagiarism, no pats on the back for doing what they promised to do. But it only takes a few rotten apples to spoil the barrel. So AOL better get its shit together - it owes it to the Patch writers and editors who are doing a good job.

(found via FishbowlLA)

Four in the morning

1. Tribune Co. announces a modest profit-sharing plan with employees and better employee outreach. Romenesko

2. There are some leaks WikeLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot abide. Cutline

3. US population grows slowly, Census data show. California's population grew 10 percent, but for the first time in the state's history, it will not add another House seat. LAT

4. The FCC is poised to adopt net neutrality standards that no one seems to like. WaPo

Four today

1. Reuters is looking for News Ninjas to do New & Cool stuff. Context: Forge (via Nieman Journalism Lab)

2. The Society of Environmental Journalists awarded Charles Duhigg of the New York Times first place for his woefully under-read series on toxic water. SEJ (via Romenesko)

3. Google and Verizon are for net neutrality ... sort of. Time

4. If you ate paste in first grade, you're probably eating paste now. Gawker

Four in the morning

1. The Los Angeles food truck economy is blowing up - these days, any outdoor event that doesn't include a food truck is probably lame. Atlantic

2. KQED in San Francisco is boosting its ranks to boost its newscasts. SF Chronicle (via LA Observed)

3. Playboy is now safe for work (i.e., boring; i.e., what more proof do we need that the Internet is an online distraction zone?). fishbowlLA

4. Politico needs a corrections policy. Regret the Error (via Romenesko)

The Huffington Post sectional

The revolutionary Huffington Post seems to be following the old newspaper model in developing sections that focus on different interests. The latest, HuffPo Arts. From Amy Wicks at WWD (via Romenesko):

The section is an outgrowth of the kind of stories that formerly ran in local editions or relevant sections, such as Style. “It won’t be overly formal,” said editor Kimberly Brooks (who happens to be married to filmmaker Albert Brooks, so she should get lots of film world dish). Brooks talked about posting photography of emerging bands and mentioned a new feature called “The Skinny,” which will have the latest on the arts scene, including gallery and museum openings. “The site will also have blogs that people are not normally exposed to,” Brooks added. Senior editor Willow Bay (who is married to Disney chief Robert Iger, so there could be lots of gossip about Mickey, Buzz and Miley) noted that stories about the arts have been popular on The Huffington Post, especially in New York and Los Angeles, and it “felt like the right time” to create a dedicated section.

Four in the morning

1. The Wall Street Journal is making googly eyes at Los Angeles, hoping, as the New York Times does, to take advantage of a severely weakened Los Angeles Times. LAO

2. AOL plans to be the "largest net hirer" of journalists next year. Ad Age (via Romenesko)

3. Yahoo and Huffington Post are getting cozy. Beet.tv (via Romenesko)

4. Meg Whitman wants to buy your vote, but you'll have to buy your own drink. fishbowlLA

Four in the morning

1. James Rainey profiles "Roger the Scanner Guy," Santa Barbara's police blotter phenom. LA Times

2. The military denies a reporter entry to a murder trial because the reporter won't sign away his rights. Fayetteville Observer (via Romenesko)

3. What the Intertubes have done to our fragile brains. Atlantic

4. Politifact's Truth-o-Meter goes on down to Georgia. PolitiFact

Four in the morning

1. Republicans Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner have spent nearly $100 million between them in an increasingly bizarre primary contest. The headline for Dan Morain's latest column in the Sacramento Bee says it all: "Never before has so much been spent for so little" SacBee

2. Alan Mutter says local television stations could go the way of the newspaper (would that really be so bad?) Mutter

3. Reporters at Tribune Co.'s WGN Channel 9 are asked to shill for L.L. Bean. ChiTrib (found via Romenesko)

4. The Los Angeles Times has yet to close its printing press in Orange County. The new deadline is June 15, but the change in ownership at the Orange County Register could win the plant a reprieve. LA Pressmens' blog

In your face

The managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier used his column and his Pulitzer Prize win to settle old and new scores with the Washington Post. (via Romenesko)

Bankruptcy costs

From the Chicago Tribune:

In the 15 months since Chicago-based Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy, law firms and other professionals have billed the media conglomerate $138 million, or about one-quarter of the company's cash flow last year, an analysis of court documents shows.

(via Romenesko)

On abortion

National Public Radio has adopted new etiquette for discussing the abortion debate. "Pro-choice" and "pro-life" are out. "Abortion-rights advocates" and "Abortion-rights opponents" are in. NPR

(found via Romenesko)

The 119 words you can't say on (Tribune) radio

Randy Michaels is a list maker.

The CEO of Tribune Co. drew up a list of 119 words and phrases he never again wants to hear on the company's talk radio station, WGN-AM (720), and has asked staff to rat each other out if any of the banned "newsspeak" gets uttered on air.

The list is a mix of AP style and personal irritants. Most examples are perfectly reasonable, such as bans on the meaningless "going forward" and cliche "perfect storm." Some are oddities, such as banning "white stuff," which I assume is used to refer to snow. Then there are words that no one wants to use but are sometimes unavoidable, such as "reportedly" and "officials."

The whole list is here.

(found via Romenesko)