If you look, you'll find support - even in Girl Scouts

The first time I learned that the recent national Girl Scout convention was evidence of the movement leaning left was through a Yahoo group called GreenBlood News.

Carol Lee Spages, who runs the group does a great job of sourcing her posts, so she led us to Politically Direct Jane Chastain. "Girl Scouts go hard left – and downhill" is Chastain's analysis of what happened at the convention.

Chastain, the former Girl Scout who has come out against the Girl Scouts and its Journey programming before, starts off:

Change” was the buzz word for the Obama campaign. Change was also the buzz word at the 51st Girl Scout National Council Session and Convention held earlier this month in Indianapolis, Indiana. It stands as further proof that change is not always for the better.

From the opening ceremony to the exhibitors in the convention hall, it is clear that the direction the Girl Scouts has chosen is a hard left, downhill.

Over on GreenBlood Gab, a companion Yahoo group where anyone can speak, reaction was swift with some agreeing and some not.

What amused me is how quickly Google and Yahoo searches started sending me links to what was Chastain's piece, only posted under different attributions. I'm amazed at how many just pick it up word for word.

Like American Daily, which says it is a site of "Analysis with Political and Social Commentary." and picked up Girl Scouts go Hard Left and downhill. word for word. At least the poster only put the first few paragraphs and linked to the rest.

There's some reaction over on the blog from Lighthouse Trails Research. See Girl Scouts Continue Plunge into New Age Spirituality there, a site devoted to exposing the "dangers of contemplative spirituality."

And some in the Feminine-Genius blog, where the writer starts off by saying she's not into the outdoors in a blog that "explores the richness of authentic femininty."

The original by Politically Direct Jane Chastain has gotten some reaction, like this one by Lee Ross under "Watching the watcher."

Lee starts this way:

"Why does Jane Chastain fear, hate, and/or disdain the Girl Scouts of America (GSA), of all groups? Well, apparently because they're leftists addicted to change kind of like Barack Obama, and because they've added an asterisk to God. And you were worried about al Qaeda while all the while the Girl Scouts were selling God and country down the river of new age waters and multicultural streams!

Now being anti-Girl Scout is hardly a crime, and you have to take into account that Chastain is the same person who basically said that America's financial meltdown was one of God's little ways of telling us that abortion (and a bunch of other modern stuff, I presume) is bad. In the same column where she flat out said that "Obama, has pledged his allegiance to Roe v. Wade, while giving lip service to God. The other candidate, McCain, is honoring God with his stand and, for the most part, has a record to back it up." So we're not talking a lot of open mindedness, here, we're talking the right wing tip of Christian literalness and extremity. But, come on, fear of the Girl Scouts?"

You can read the rest over on Watching the Watchers ("a journal of media criticism and political coverage that has been published since July 2004"), but I really like this reaction to Chastain being upset that Geena Davis spoke to the convention on Sunday:

"Geena Davis is a "left-wing" political activist because she has sought equal treatment of males and females? And even worse, she starred in "Commander in Chief?" Holy crap, how could they foist such filth on young female minds?"

Want to know how scary another speaker was? Former Ms. Foundation president Marie Wilson, who founded the White House Project and Take Your Daughter to Work Day, upset at least one convention goer.

"I was at the national convention, and the feminism of Ms. MS and Ms. Davis was so overwhelming and scary for me that I had to leave the convention hall and go outside for a breath of fresh air. Ms. MS told us that we’d have to help ourselves, “the military won’t help us”. That did it for me - my son is becoming a Marine as I write this, and that was absolutely all I wanted to hear from her.

"

If you want to see more comments on the original posting, you need to go to Jane Chastain's blog.

Going back: Happiness better then safety

At least three journalists are returning to Advance Publications newsrooms.

Former Star Ledger political columnist and Montclair resident TOM MORAN, who quit the paper in February 2008 for a safe job in PR, is back at the Ledger. The tip came from Journalism gets one back over on the Baristanet.

She refers to "After safe exit, a journalist returns" in the New Yrok Times, where David Carr talks about ways Moran's mood changed while he worked outside the news business and interviewed the editor who hired Moran back. “We are missing a lot after last year’s departures, but one of the bigger things we were missing was a political columnist during a very overheated gubernatorial race," Jim Willse is quoted as saying.

At NJ Voices, Linda Stamato welcomed the political columnist back. Moran's got a post up in NJ Voices - reminding us there are seven weeks until the NJ governor's race is settled.

In Michigan, JENNIFER JORDAN KILDE has returned to The Flint Journal. I first noticed her staff status on a print report on the people who guessed the weight of a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the Flint Institute of Arts. She recently confirmed her return as a features writer.

Also back at The Journal is TERI BANAS, who met her husband John Foren when both were at the newspaper. She's been back in the suburbs but also has had some Flint datelines.

Also going back is another Advance newspaper. The Oregonian is going to give readers more "local daily news" as part of a "strategy by the newspaper to get back to giving readers daily news and information that's more specifically targeted to their part of the world -- where they live, work, have kids in schools."

Also promised are pages specifically targeted to specific cities on OregonLive.com

Something special: Looking back at newspaper careers

This was a weekend that had three former reporters looking at their careers while Twitter exploded with moans about mass media failures.

That explosion prompted Louis Gray, who blogs mostly about technology and social media but obviously cares about journalism, to ask his audience if it wants old media to die or thrive.

The former newspaper addict wants to know if the harsh criticism of CNN and mass media is to show how bad it is or "we want to bash the old media when we don’t need them, but flock to them when we do."

Check the conversation on his blog post. for the answers. As Gray says, some folks seem eager to attack all that is wrong with mass media and not pay for any services but then "we hold them accountable for not being there, first to respond" when a real newsworthy event happens.

"Journalism is not a charity event. Its reporters cost money, as do papers and stations’ branch offices, travel expenses, and equipment, yet many of us on the bleeding edge are all too excited to mention how we’re not paying them a dime."

But I don't want to talk about dimes today. I need something lighter to balance my real life.

Journalism privileges

There are a lot of great things about being a journalist, special privileges even.

As Grand Rapids Press Editor Mike Lloyd creeps closer to retiring, he is sharing photos and stories of visits with presidents and presidential wanna-bes. It is part of his series updating stories from his career at the Grand Rapids Press.

A note from a reader led him to update what happened 13 years after a career day visit. The once curious student is still curious, now at Newsday.

Another graduation gave him a reason to remember the class of 1986 and one "superstar." In fact, the annual 100 Superstars feature is what Lloyd calls a highlight of his career. It features outstanding seniors, positive news stories.

Some in the community, like George Woons, agree that Lloyd's project was a good one. Woons was at the meeting when the name of "Superstar Seniors" was proposed for the section. Lloyd writes that Woons said:

"It was a great title that captured everything we were trying to do. You grabbed it and ran with it, and you're still running with it. Superstar Seniors is a heck of a gift to the community from The Press."

Making the right choice

Also looking back is a publisher who recalls days as young reporter and the idealism of the 1970s while reminiscing about "late baby boomers who cut our freak flags and went into business and the professions."

John Christie, now publisher of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, concludes:

"And I'd like to think that putting out a newspaper is a good use of a lifetime, too."

I think Lloyd would agree. Just don't expect agreement from President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod, who spoke to 1,300 DePaul University College of Communications graduates over the weekend.

Journalism changes

Several news organizations reported that Axelrod left journalism to pursue a career backstage of politics because the field was becoming "more business than calling."

At first, I thought it mightbe a story about one more person who decided to take the high road and leave journalism because of business pressures.

But the more I looked into his background, I think it might be more that the politics of the newsroom became less inviting then the possibility of putting people into office. It doesn't take much research to learn that his interest in politics started when he was a kid.

Yes, you can

Certainly, Axelrod used his journalism experiences effectively in helping others get elected or get their messages out. That means he can serve as a model for transferring journalism skills to other fields to the many journalists out of the newsroom now.

Axelrod, who graduated from the University of Chicago, holds out hope that the graduates will change journalism and pursue with passion.

“Your generation changed politics forever. There’s no reason you can’t do the same wth journalism, radio and the Internet or any other field.”

Also from the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported that he shared stories about his days in college, is why he once wanted to be a journalist:

“In those days, superb reporting played a historic role in uncovering the truth, shining a bright light on events like Vietnam and Watergate. Journalists heped save the republic, and I wanted to be a part of that."

The Chicago Tribune hired him when he graduated with a degree in politics in 1977. Within a few years, he was able to combine two passions - journalism and politics - by becoming the newspaper's political writer.

Receipts, not reporting

The Sun-Times reported he told the graduates:

"But, over time, things changed. By the mid-1980s, journalism was becoming more business than calling. The front office began to take over the newsroom. The emphasis went from veracity to velocity, from reporting to receipts.”

So, in 1984 Axelrod left what was "more business than calling" to work on a political campaign. He moved on, eventually owning two consulting firms and building a successful career in politics behind the scenes. That career includes working on Detroit's Dennis Archer's campaign.

Perhaps what the students should remember is that when Axelrod collected degree in politics in 1977 he had no idea that one day he'd be advising the president of the United States. They can also review those 40 reasons why studying journalism is a good idea.

Even frogs can report

Do you need an uplift? Check out this article about the career path of reporter Kermit over on the Muppet Wiki.

Or perhaps you are ready to check out what Darlene Koenig , has been up to with Worthless Gifts for Print News Veterans on Facebook. Last I looked there were at least 72 items to send to friends. The owner of Koenig Educational Media keeps adding gifts to the application created in late March.

I especially like her names for objects - messy desks become "time-honored filing system" while a film cannister is "an all-purpose container." "Night shift wheel of death" is the vending machine and "old school filing center" is a pay phone.

On LinkedIn, she's described as an "award-winning writer and editor, combining a journalist's background with additional experience in children's media and education. Particular interests include government, political science, geography, literature and media literacy and their application to students in the real world."

I'd say she has a way with words and quite a memory.

Related posts:
Another editor leaving Booth
Facebook quiz leads to post-journalism jobs
Storyteller won't get regrets from me

Around the 'net:
Tired of my voice? Check A lost opportunity to talk to Grandmother

Reporting Michigan ready for prime time.

A journalist who started covering Michigan politics in 2000 but lost his printing press when the Ann Arbor News closed in July launched Reporting Michigan with a web site, Twitter account. and a group on Facebook.

The traditional print journalist has thought about handling comments, too.

Tom Gantert's plans for a non-profit, statewide online political newspaper were part of an article in the Ann Arbor News on its last day. Geoff Larcom told us then that Gantert wanted to stay in journalism, but didn't think a traditional, for-profit model could work anymore.

In a post labeled opinion, Gantert explained "Reporting Michigan is not a blog. It is a non-profit registered with the state of Michigan that will report about political topics on a daily 24/7 news cycle."

It's a solo effort, although there is a board of directors.

"I just decided to "go for it." I am in front of all the right people. It's just, "How bad do they want an outlet that won't rip on conservative values?" We'll find out."

Gantert says he start selling advertising within a couple weeks.

"But even if I "make it big" all the other organizations have one full timer and hire freelancers to contribute on a daily basis. Tis' the new journalism model."

And that came from a Facebook reply, just part of that model.

Gantert tells me he considers the competition the Michigan Messenger, which he describes as the far left non-profit news site.

A Reporting Michigan post explains:

"We started Reporting Michigan because there was a gap in the coverage done by the mainstream news media. Conservative issues are often overlooked or not given fair treatment.

Back in July, Gantert told the Ann Arbor News he was "anxious, nervous and sad" as the newspaper ceased publication and he was working on this new enterprise on his own where "For the first time, I'll be working for the smartest man I know."

The about page fleshes out Gantert's 20 years in journalism, including time at at USA Today, the Jackson Citizen Patriot, Lansing State Journal and Ann Arbor News. He also worked in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Those who know Gantert know he has opinions, opinions he' willing to share. His opinion on citizen journalists led to uncovering moderation problems over on AnnArbor.com

It's clear that he's been watching AnnArbor.com and other web sites to see what they do with moderation. He's used some of that experience in formatting his own system.

"We will not allow comments on stories to be posted. Simply put, there hasn’t been a news site yet that has found a way to handle commentary in an acceptable manner.
Either vulgar and insulting comments are allowed to be posted, or the censorship of some posts is uneven at best, biased at worst.
But your voice can be heard and in your own words. There will be an “email to the editor” section."

His rules for an "email to the editor" section include:

• Use a working email and a name. I prefer a real name, but as long as the email works, if you feel more comfortable with a nomme de plume, so be it.
• Don’t be profane or insulting or libelous.
• Reporting Michigan reserves the right to edit entries but that is not our intention. We believe in free speech, healthy debate and the “email to the editor” is your opportunity to get your two cents in with your words, pretty much untouched. But be reasonable in length.
• Also, we reserve the right to make editor’s comments notes about factual misrepresentations about Reporting Michigan. That means if you write that Reporting Michigan wasn’t at an event and we were, we will make an editor’s note at the end of your commentary to correct it."

Go visit Reporting Michigan to see what another unemployed print journalist has decided to do.

---

Turns out I haven't published any of the things I wrote about Tom. I've written about the AnnArbor.com and Ann Arbor News, though.

A video, now on YouTube, was an outlet for Tom's moaning what was the Ann Arbor News. It was put together by Jordan Miller, who explained how it came about on AnnArbor.com

Does Star-Ledger editor retiring mean less news coming?

Another goodbye at an Advance Publications was announced to staff Monday at noon and I don't think it's the last one.

Jim Willse, editor of the Star-Ledger, announced today he's retiring in October - a quiet sendoff, please - and that managing editor Kevin Whitmer, 42, will take his place.

I'm surprised Willse has stayed as long as he did, yet grateful that he did. The 65-year-old editor told staff he plans to travel - I hope he gets to sample more of his favorite jazz, Celtic and world music, and Celtic first hand. He also said he will continue teaching, becoming a visiting professor at Princeton University where he's taught and spoken numerous times since coming to the New Jersey newspaper in the 1995.

Willse is a great Scrabble opponent so I hope there's time for that too.

It's been a painful year for Willse who came to the Star-Ledger when hiring was possible and watched about 200 people leave his newsroom in the past year. At a Princeton University symposium on Newspapers in Crisis in May, Willse recalled how Dec. 31, 2008, the day 150 walked away with buyouts, was one of the worst in his professional career, almost a "mass funeral."

Some wrote off any hope of the news organization recovering from losing so many experienced reporters, editors and employees. Yet as noted on his DNA2009 bio, the organization has morphed into surviving organization. It has taken changes, including revising the Ledger Live video program, hiring replacements at a  wage that even Willse agreed was not good and sharing political coverage with other New Jersey newspapers.

I think you get a hint that more bad times are coming if you listen to what Willse says to editorial interns, at symposiums, in video, on podcasts, and online. There's always a cautionary intro that no plans are made, are solid but I think the three-days-a-week publishing schedule of the Advance Publications in Bay City, Flint, and Saginaw, Michigan, is likely to happen in New Jersey and other cities with Newhouse newspapers.

At a  lunch with interns, Willse echoed what he said at the Newspapers in Crisis symposium: Nearly all of the advertising revenue at the Star-Ledger comes from three days -- Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. He drops hints that a news company could still effectively inform its readers by  printing three days a week and relying on a news website on other days.

In May, he warned that newspapers need to get out of the printing and distribution business and restructure the newsroom. One report quotes Willse saying

“Of our 330 journalists, half were involved in processing the news as opposed to generating the news. We have to concentrate on journalism that matters, and on good writing.”

You know that's why he was pleased to bring back a political reporter in time for the governor's race.

Willse, who grew up with a father who shared what he read, always knew the type of news organization he wanted - shocked that when he came the Star-Ledger did not have its own photography department, pleased with the Pulitizer Prize that came once it did. (See After the Fire. a project that Willse credits with helping to build morale in the newsroom in his interview with The Digital Journalist.)

Willse carried the torch for watchdog journalism.

“Newspapers find things that people don’t want the public to know," he said at the May symposium. "It’s hard. Sometimes you get a story, sometimes you don’t.” 

A dogged reporter like Dustan McNichol (who also speaking that day), “would read stuff that no one else would read.” With the buyout, Willse said, “all that went away.”"

That same day, Willse related that he had just hired 24 reporters at $700 a week, prompting an audience member to ask where Willse thought those reporters, making $36,000 a year, might live — in a pup tent?

After the laughter stopped, Willse agreed that the new hires are “clearly not a long-term solution. We can’t survive by indulging in child exploitation.”

He has many ideas for the 400-level course, Inside the News Business, on the spring 2010 schedule. The description promises to help students to understand where news comes from; why it matters; the digital revolution, citizen journalism; the economics of news; and where it is headed.

Willse can teach that because he hasn't stopped learning, recently a fellow for the Knight Foundation's Transforming news organizations for a digital future, on Jeff Jarvis's Guardian Media Talk USA podcast discussing the CUNY New Business Models for News recommendations, and elsewhere.

He thinks about possibilities - and is willing to discuss them, then change his mind. Remember a joint community guide? Or these projects?

It is not surprising that he's returning to Princeton, where he has been a short-term fellow at Princeton, including in 2001-02 when he taught "Documentary Journalism" as the Harold McGraw '40 Professor of Writing and the current Ferris Professorship of Journalism and Public Relations.
  
A video of the presentation, Newspapers in Crisis in the Region, is still available at Princeton. Or watch the video below, when Willse talked with The Star-Ledger's Brian Donohue about the future of the paper in October 2008.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping Jim will have time to drag out the virtual Scrabble game once more.

Ledger Live - 10-08-08

---

I've written about the Star-Ledger before.

Newspapers agreed to wait on endorsements

An agreement to wait on endorsements in a state governor's race caught the attention of PolitickerNJ.com Aug. 31.

It caught my eye because it involves Newhouse newspapers in New Jersey, where the Advance Publications organization decided to have the Star-Ledger do the political reporting for itself and the six other newspapers in the state.

The PolitickerNJ.com reported the Newhouse newspapers in New Jersey agreed with the New Jersey's Election Law Enforcement Commission's request to wait until after the candidates for governor debated before announcing an endorsement.

The debate - looks like the date is still being debated- is co-sponsored by the Star-Ledger.

Speaking of New Jersey, this interesting juxtaposition of posts popped up on my computer screen recently. You've got G.D. Gearino saying in North Carolina, "I thought: Boy, when a guy from Jersey is complaining about our political corruption, things must really be bad" and the Jersey Guy learning about the "whacked view" of his home state abroad.

Tickling the funny bone: Staff cuts and the future of newspapers

Sometimes, the most political thing happening takes place in your newsroom. Just ask Dan Wasserman, who recently illustrated cuts at the Boston Globe in an editorial cartoon.

You can click on the cartoon to see the rest of this artwork.

Or you can catch up with some of the insights of why he drew it through an interview posted on the Washington Post. Don't worry, the cartoon is there too.

Making a mistake

The political cartoonist, at the Globe since 1985, also shared what he sees as a mistake many newspapers are making:

"Newspapers are really shortsighted in letting go of people who are distinct commentators. Because that's one of the few things [newspapers] have to offer that you can't get off of a CNN Web site or a Google news update. We have a connection to the community. We have accessibility. We have an unpredictability that is not reproducible by any of these news aggregators."

I agree that news organizations shouldn't let go of distinct voices. That's what makes a news organization different from others.

I agree with the unpredictability statement.

But I disagree with his reasoning that only newspapers have distinct personalities, community connections and accessibility. Any good media organization should claim those attributes.

Still the interview in The Comic Riff is worth a read. Then, consider going to Wasserman's Out of Line blog with its tagline of "A notebook of graphic disobedience" to see some of his other work.

Snip, snip, snip

Another cartoon also reminded me of a distinct advantage newspapers have over some media. That cartoon shows a woman speaking to her husband as she cuts out a newspaper. It's not easy to cut out the TV or radio story, so print does reign sometimes.

But I wonder if newspapers are leaving enough in for folks to cut out as they scramble to cut expenses. I miss reading about the top graduates, newly engaged and wed, and the just-opened businesses.

When William Haefeli published his cartoon in The New Yorker on May 11, 2009, the worry was how long the newspaper would be around to cut. But with enough cuts it won't matter, will it.

Another cartoonist, another viewpoint

Wasserman isn't the only cartoonist talking about the future of newspapers. Bruce Tinsley, who left the newsroom to create Mallard Filmore, also touched on the subject in a Wall Street Journal article, Mallard cartoonist touts web, mourns newspapers.

He says he's doing well, partly because of the web.

“I’m online only for more newspapers’ websites and in more papers that only have an online presence now, the most recent being the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and it’s weird — but I’m still here.”

He's somewhat optimistic about newspapers:

“I think newspapers are always going to be needed; I just don’t know in what form they’ll still exist.

“The best case for the need for newspapers in an electronic age that I’ve read is a Leonard Pitts column in the Miami Herald where he essentially lays out what each medium does best. He specifically points to state and local news coverage — stories that readers rely on to know how to vote, what to think about scandals in their local state house — that no other medium covers as well, and probably could or would want to.”

Tingley was in the Wall Street Journal and on the O'Reilly show last week because the comic was launched in June 1994. By the way, Michigan's Muskegon Chronicle's decision in April 2008 to drop the duck had editor Paul Keep tasting duck, not crow. That makes it into Tingley's Wikepedia entry.

Technology 'ruins' night for political geeks - columnist

Many Michigan ex-journalists will need to adjust to something different tonight - an election night without waiting for results, an election night without pizza, an election night outside the newsroom.

Brad Flory of the Jackson Citizen Patriot, who is still collecting a paycheck from a Michigan news organization, mourns the way technology has changed coverage of voting results in Election nights aren't the party they used to be

He calls the gathering and waiting of votes a "fairyland for political junkies." Check it out.

A little video to go with 'Copy Editor's Lament"

An all volunteer crew of journalists put action to Christopher Ave's Copy Editor's Lament's - also known as the Layoff Song. The journalist/musician first posted the song in March 2009, posted revised lyrics in October. You can get more insight into why in a Poynter Institute posting. And though Christopher is still working as a political editor in St. Louis - never was a copy editor - he's also combining his love for stories and music in Music for Media business.


Yes, I wrote about the song before but now there's a video :) Enjoy

Multimedia musings: A video on saving newspapers, a Copy Editor's Lament, and some weary journalists to entertain

Life is far too mysterious to be serious all the time, so thanks to Flint Expatriates and the Gannett Blog we can enjoy some outside-the-box revenue generating ideas in the Saving the Newspaper video.

That reminded me I never shared the Copy Editor's Lament (The Layoff Song).

The video is an adaption of song #79 from Jonathan Mann, who set up a goal of a song a day.

"The music is the same, but I enlisted the lip-dub and acting chops of my friends down at the East Bay Express, the local alt-weekly here in the East Bay. Yay!"

Express editor Stephen Buell, who has collected and framed final editions of newspapers since 1982, shares more revenue ideas in New Practices and Revenues for a New Era in Journalism.

"We're not just whining about our finances like the Chronicle. We're doing something about them" says Buell.

The Copy Editor's Lament (The Layoff Song) is from Christopher Ave, political editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He explained on his blog that copy editors struck him as having the most under-appreciated job in the newsroom.

Here are a few of the words:

'm a human safety net
I double-check the facts and vet
assertions before they are set in type.

I can provide punctuation
appropriate for publication
make the capitalization right.

I was there to fix your grammar
when you thought it wouldn't matter
cut all your extraneous blather down.

Listen to the MP3 for the rest. We'll wait.

Kurt Greenbaum shared a video from some colleagues tagged "Got rest ye weary journalists" back in December. It's seasonal, but I think as long as we're singing I'll share it.

May your day be merry and bright.

Culture shock: Living with 24-year-olds, living here

I did not expect smooth sailing when I moved in with my daughter and her boyfriend. It is surprising, to me, the things that shock me.

Like, I have learned to bring my own reading material now to the waiting rooms of the hospitals and clinics near this small Tennessee town. First, I never know if I will have Internet access. And second, I'm a reader and I guess many folks around here are not. Otherwise, why so many out-of-date magazines.

I now look to see what is the newest magazine and the oldest magazine in the designated waiting area. Yesterday, the oldest was from 2002 and the newest from 2006.

Today, I read Wired while waiting. Imagine my surprise when I was asked if it was a home magazine. Really. I left the magazine behind so perhaps she read it.

I missed the changing of the leaves in Michigan so it is nice to catch them here in Tennessee. However, I would like some horizontal parking lots here. It is a struggle to get out of the car each time we stop.

The city I left was fairly Democratic; the one I am in now swings Republican. That led to a whole new set of political ads the days of the campaign and conversations I am sure I would not have heard back home. Interesting, but different. OK, I don't want to hear any more about the KKK.

Last, but not least, is finding the differences in how 24-year-olds live. I am discovering new TV programs and channels, new foods, new routines and even some new attitudes.

Did I mention the futon? Or exercise machine that is my clothes closet?

I also discovered the advantages of being first up are a hot shower and a fast Internet connection. Boy, games are Internet hogs :-)

Facebook replacing rallies, picket lines? Citizens aim to ‘Save the Jersey Journal’

The Jersey City Independent chose to report on what's happening with the Jersey Journal, an Advance Publication facing closure by focusing on a community effort happening on Facebook.

A 36-year-old journalist started the Save the Jersey Journal” group on Facebook "just a week after the Evening Journal Association, which publishes the tabloid daily, announced an April 13 expiration date for the 142-year-old paper if its revenue was not sufficient to support a “reduced expense plan.” "

Just one more Facebook group among zillions, today's replacement for petitions and picket lines. I've got The Path to Pink, and Feel Your Boobies for breast cancer; closer to home Support downtown Flint neighborhoods. and in a way, close to home: Don't Let Newspapers Die and Stop Outsourcing US Jobs - Support American jobs . There's Save GM and Support The UAW and so many more. (Am I really stopping global warning with each plant in Green Patch?)

Kate Kaye told Jon Whiten, the article's author, why she started the Facebook group:

"I decided it was the very least I could do to show the publishers that people care.

I realize to many this seems like a futile effort, and as one who has covered the online newspaper sector for years as a business reporter, I’m well aware of the reality — and cynicism — print papers face.

But I’m also someone who recognizes the value of having a daily print publication for any city for historical, cultural, communal, political, and utilitarian purposes.””

By the time of Whiten's article, the group collected 124 members.

The group's purpose:

"This group has been created to foster ideas to help save The Jersey Journal , the only daily paper covering Jersey City, New Jersey's second largest city, and the county seat of Hudson County. The paper has served Jersey City for over 140 years. It survived the Great Depression. Let's not let it die now, especially in a year when a tight mayoral election race is heating up."

There's advice there that the best way to save the newspaper is to subscribe.

You'll also find a post suggesting folks sign a petition (not that petitions do much to get businesses to change their ways when they are failing.)

Whiten, who has freelanced for the newspaper, said includes information about fewer editorial employees, including management's hope that four to six of the about 13 remaining newsroom staffers to leave voluntarily (down from about 60 in 1972.) and a request to the Newspaper Guild to let the growing number of interns stay longer then nine months.

Whiten also writes about how overall coverage is going, the newspaper's Internet presence, why the local government won't save the press and why some don't read the printed newspaper.


Related posts - Advance Publications:

• Advance newspapers get warning of closure
• Flint Journal sister paper to hire Local News Service
• Nothing new in news business

Related posts - Facebook:

• Facebook's 25 Things gets noticed by Time, NYT; gi.ves me some attention
• Graphing Social Patterns: The Business

Mid-Michigan gets another day to read newspaper

 As promised, a new newspaper for the Bay City - Saginaw Michigan area hit the newsstands today.

The Great Lakes Bay Edition comes one week after the start of a newsstand-only Tuesday version of The Flint Journal. The Bay City Times and the Saginaw News contribute to the Great Lakes Bay edition. (The three newspapers went to a Thursday, Friday, Sunday publication schedule in June 2009. The Tuesday versions are not delivered to homes, which some tea-leave readers, I mean commenters, suggest indicates delivery of all editions will be dropped.)

A nice feature for both editions is newsstand locator online. Type in a ZIP code and you get a list of where the newspapers are available. (Great Lakes finder under a short snappy URL of www.mlive.com/glbedition and the Flint Journal finder.)

I also noticed that today's announcement of the Great Lakes Bay  edition includes an invitation to "become friends" with John Hiner, executive editor of the newspapers that are part of Booth Mid-Michigan, which is part of the Advance Publications network of the Newhouse company.

John Hiner is the executive editor of The Bay City Times and The Saginaw News. He can be reached at (989) 894-9629, by e-mail at jhiner@boothmidmichigan.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/john.p.hiner.

The Great Lakes Bay Tuesday was announced March 14 in The Saginaw News to partner with The Bay City Times for Great Lakes Bay Tuesday print edition. 

Potential readers were told to expect a traditional newspaper filled with local news, sports, opinion, lottery numbers and ads. The audience, defined as those living in Bay City, Midland and Saginaw counties  (mid-Michigan, north of the state capitol, northwest of Detroit), also said expect a focus on news, people and causes making the region "more competitive for businesses and more attractive to families."

Support area

Today's announcement highlighted two reasons for adding a print newspaper under a new banner:

•  "People still love a printed newspaper" and
• Supporting regionalism.

Hiner's announcement includes this:

"Two, the communities that make up this region genuinely are pulling together in tangible ways to improve the business climate, attract outside investment, create efficiencies for institutions and governments in a tough economy, and bolster social and cultural offerings."

Shared mission

He also answers some of the objections heard within the community:

"I have heard some opposition to the regionalism movement. Some say it is an attempt to mask our communities’ problems; others suggest that the Great Lakes Bay name is too vague and, in that way, insults the heritage and unique identities of Bay City, Saginaw and Midland in service of public relations.

To the contrary, very little of what I’ve seen of the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance is packaging. I see key leaders, business and political, working together to pursue opportunities, both in and out of the area. I see institutions and businesses that were hidden gems in their towns getting more exposure to residents in the broader region. I see people from all walks of life networking, and hear them identifying opportunities to work and prosper together."

He rejects the idea of a master agenda.

This is a shared endeavor, one that will come together piece by piece as people, institutions and whole communities find they are strengthened, not diminished, by uniting."

Some of the snaping found in "Struggling newspapers promote rebranding of Saginaw Area Watershed." 

The announcement also says a reporter, Holly Setter, will cover the Midland area in print and online at mlive.com/midland.

Politics in the press: West Michigan newspapers wrapped up in politics

Muskegon Chronicle editor Cindy Fairfield says a conservative voice will join Opinions page in her latest Sunday column.

The decision means another former Chronicle writer returns to the fold. Steve Gunn, who the editor says "currently advocates for conservative issues, is a fantastic writer, a knowledgeable journalist and a person who embraces a point of view similar to many conservatives in our area."

Gunn's weekly column starts Thursday.

(By the way, she also shared that a "good news" column .... a collection of items and tidbits that show Muskegon area people doing good things" is coming soon.)

Meanwhile, over in Grand Rapids, Press editor Paul Keep tells readers "We report the news, not political agendas" by sharing conversations with two readers with opposing viewpoints of what the daily newspaper does. One was a sometime subscriber, upset with not seeing his liberal viewpoint often enough in the newspaper. Another saw the paper as too liberal, set off this time by an article about Michael Moore's latest film.

Now some would take the opposing characterizations as indications that the paper is balanced. Keep uses it to remind readers that

"A newspaper isn't doing its job if it makes decisions about what to print based on whether its editors agree with the person being written about. We are not pushing agendas. Our job is to tell readers what is going on in the world, as best we can. That may well stir some people up from time to time."

Of course, not all agree that all voices are represented in mass media. Isn't that one reason for Reporting Michigan's debut to ensure a conservative voice. The former Ann Arbor News reporter Tom Gantert is doing a good job of frequently updating his site and Facebook.

One last thought from Paul Keep:

"When did people start wanting to read only what they agree with in their daily newspaper? Like him or hate him, isn't it legitimate news when a famous filmmaker like Moore turns out a new movie? As a conservative, don't you want to know what this influential liberal is up to?"

Yeah, know your enemies.

See a story about Michigan media moves? Bookmark it in the Publish2 Michigan News about News  newsgroup.

Hurry! It's time for Fantasy Congress

Now, my husband will tell you that this former political science student doesn't get excited about politics much anymore.


And there are a ton of friends and colleagues who will tell you I am not a fan of rotball and other fantasy sports games. But this looks interesting: Fantasy Congress.

Gee, if only I could influence the way Medicare Part D is administered. To start, I would make sure that each company that puts approved drugs on the their list HAVE to keep the drugs on the list all year.


Wonder if they have a California game. Imagine the time I could save each year with some changes in the Medicaid program there. I would no longer have to prove:

• He still has Alzehimers
• His military discharge hasn't changed,
  
• He still is an American citizen and
• Yes, he is still broke.

Want to play? You have until Jan. 4.

Exhibit celebrates centuries of Michigan newspapers as industry swept up in change

This is just a piece of the cartoon done by David Horsey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Please visit the original.

The failure of newspapers comes up in the most unlikely places - a breast cancer support group, a celebration of a 93rd birthday, the doctor's exam room. Yet, the possibility of hope also creeps into unexpected moments.

A non-journalism project has involved a fair amount of historical research. Still, I didn't expect to find a Michigan library celebrating two centuries of newspapers.

Week of change in Michigan
In Michigan, we've just finished the first week of Michigan's leading newspapers delivering only three print copies a week. It's the same week that the Ann Arbor community had public meetings to help shape the hybrid news organization that is coming there. And it's a week, where announcements on management changes for the Flint Journal, Bay City Times and Saginaw News coupled with daily print promotions on planned print products unveil just a hint of the new media for Michigan.

It's also the week that several granting organizations had deadlines for those seeking funding for new journalism products and a pair of bloggers release their predictions of how paying for online news might be a profitable venture.

So much to think about as the search for income in Michigan seems hopeless.

Press always in trouble
Perhaps the Clarke Historical Library was optimistic in sharing this quote in its celebration two centuries of newspapers in Michigan.

"I have never known the press to be out of trouble. The newspapers once were going to hell because of billboards, once because of magazines, once because of the automobile, once because of radio, once because of NRA, once because of social security . . . always going to pot because of something or other. . . . but once again the newspapers are developing a fighting mood. We are going to see changes; in management methods, in advertising approach and appeal, in circulation work, and [in] many other ways.- Anonymous newspaper publisher, 1942

But that quote, and the rest of a look at Michigan newspapers, reminds me that newspapers as we know them today haven't always been that way.

Indeed, a quick trip through the collection brought together for Celebrating 200 Years of Newspapers in Michigan uncovers enough to encourage the most depressed journalist to keep looking for solutions.

Only in America; only in Ann Arbor
When the exhibit was put together, the curator and writer had no idea that Ann Arbor would lose one newspaper and birth another news organization in 2009. That makes this piece in the chapter on early newspaper priceless:

"In 1836 Harriett Martineau, A British traveler who visited the United States and whose published account of her journey was generally critical of America, wrote specifically of Michigan newspapers:

At Ypsilanti, I picked up an Ann Arbor newspaper. It was badly printed; but its content were pretty good; and it could happen nowhere out of America, that so raw a settlement as Ann Arbor, where there is difficulty in procuring decent accommodations, should have a newspaper.^[3]"

Editors once were businessmen, seeking extra income
Then, there's the role of editors, with Clarke Historical Library reminding us that prior to the Civil War most newspaper editors were trained as printers. A newspaper was, for them, often simply a way to keep the press busy between printing jobs. With no journalistic training, the editors published whatever was at hand, including items taken from other newspapers and partisan political material.

The editor was therefore, the embodiment of every requirement from the editor down and the devil up. He was type setter, job printer, foreman, business manager and pressman, as well as editor, and did not shrink for the duties of roller boy upon occasion.

- S. B. McCracken, writing in 1891,

Advertising changes content
A chapter on "the people's paper made profitable by advertisers dollar" reminds us that newspapers have changed before in response to the market as did the role of journalists. Adding ads meant a newspaper no longer needed to be so opinionated on every page; new journalists were trained to be "objective."

"These new reporters also brought a new sensibility to their job. They were generally schooled in the belief that reporters should approach their work, particularly anything involving politics, with neutrality. They should report the facts and let the public, or at least the editorial page writers, draw the conclusions. As one pioneering journalism textbook had it, the reporter’s job was to gather, “facts, facts, and more facts.”^[86]"

There's much more in the online exhibit, including a look at why Booth Newspapers succeeded and the growth of the suburban newspapers.

It's the timing of the piece - the exhibit opened in February and remains through August - that encourages me to believe that the right product will be developed at the right time by the right people. Whether it is David McCoy meeting a brave man starting a newspaper or proving Howard Owens wrong about journalists and business plans, I'm optimistic tonight.

How is it going at the Flint newspaper? Who is going and who is returning?

Michigan
newsrooms
The Flint Journal

Those affected by the changing of The Flint Journal from a daily newspaper to a three-times a week newspaper can talk by phone to some of the editors this week.

John Hiner, the executive editor of the Flint newspaper, announced the call-in on page one Sunday. (As of 2:01 a.m. Monday, it's not online so I can't link to it and my paper copy recycled.)

Taking the calls is one of the last things editor John Foren will do before leaving July 31. Also heading out after an employee-only cake reception Thursday is Adrienne Wells, most recently director of employee relations.

Why Foren stayed

Foren planned to leave May 31 but stayed when the woman who now has the top role in the newsroom found out May 12 she would be a mother. Ten days later, Marjory Raymer and her husband brought their son home.

She's been gradually returning to work, with her official full-time start Aug. 3. She'll answer calls Wednesday night with Hiner, Foren and others, including the Bay City-based features editor.

Raymer likes how the news is being covered.

"I must say it has been so rewarding to watch how the dedicated and talented crew in the newsroom has adapted to our new model. There is a real hunger in the newsroom to continue to find new and better ways to hone our craft on the Web."

Raymer ready to return

She's anxious to get back - it's the longest she's been away from a newsroom since college.

"This is an exciting time for us all. Reporters have been empowered like never before. And, we are all encouraged to be innovators -- question the way things always have been done and to try things differently. This feels like the new frontier in journalism and The Flint Journal is blazing the trail."

Foren praised Raymer, who he said "is not only a colleague but a friend. I'm not sure I would have basically canceled my summer plans for anyone else."

GM blog praised

Raymer praised Ron Fonger's beat blog on GM and said plans are to continue increasing the number of videos posted.

"There is also a renewed dedication to finding other content of interest to our readers. By aggregating content, our Web site will be the best and most complete source for news and information in Genesee County.

Along with our dedication to developing our Web presence, you will find the same hard news and investigative journalism that makes The Flint Journal great."

Foren, 48, was named The Journal's interim editor in December when Tony Dearing was tapped for an Advance Internet project (AnnAbor.com). Foren got the permanent job in January.

Advance changed Michigan newspapers

Then, this spring Advance Publications announcd changes that affected nearly every newspaper in the family-owned chain. In Michigan, besides pay cuts and pension changes, the changes included the July 24 shuttering of the Ann Arbor News, reducing three mid-Michigan newspapers to three tmes a week while changing their personnel and news structures and creating the AnnArbor.com.

Changes include one publisher and executive editor now over sees the Flint Journal, Saginaw News and Bay City Times. Each news organization also has a female Community Editor (Raymer's new title). The three newspapers, which also became morning newspapers on June 1, share some services and printing through what has become known as Booth MidMichigan. A joint weather package is offered to the Great Lakes Bay Region. A joint business package is labeled Mid-Michigan Business News.

"It was my decision to leave and, while it was a tough one, it feels like the right time to do it.," John said.

Foren ready for new pace

The married father of two teenagers says he looks forward to being around Lansing and his family more.

"My daughter has a year left before college; my son will be a high school sophomore in the fall and has football, basketball and baseball on the schedule. I really want to be around them as much as I can in the next few years. "

Nothing is lined up

"Given the hectic pace of the past few months, I'm also just looking forward to a break. I'm in a position to do that and for that I'm grateful. - Ultimately, I'm guessing I'll steer toward something political in Lansing; I like policy stuff but I know whatever I do will probably also involve writing in some form.

Foren says 'bye in print, online

Speaking of politics, it was his appearance recently as a moderator in the Flint mayoral debate that got some folks asking why he was still in Flint after announcing he'd be gone June 1.

He had a farewell column - Flint's spirit will see it through to its possibilities for the future - in Sunday's newspaper and online. Much of it focused on Sybyl Atwood, before he ended it with two pleas to the community:

"Keep up the good fight. It will yield results, maybe incrementally and in small doses, but progress will come.

And keep reading The Journal, both in print and online. It's part of Flint's fabric and, like the community, is full of spirit and possibilities."

Foren agreed to stay on through July to help with the transition, praising John Hiner and publisher Matt Sharp for being "very good to me" while the three worked on Flint Journal coverage "in our new journalist world."

Foren's career path

Foren was the newspaper's local news editor, overseeing the newsroom and Flint-area coverage, 1999-2009. He joined The Journal in 1985, reporting on some suburban communities before covering Flint government and politics. From 1990-1992, he covered Congress at the newspaper's Washington D.C. Bureau. He then spent three years based in Lansing, covering the Michigan Legislature and the 1994 gubernatorial election. He returned to Flint as a local editor in 1995.

Raymer's career path

Raymer was named Local News editor in January and promoted to the new position of Community Editor in April. She became the newspaper's business editor in January 2008.

Raymer began as a reporter at The Journal in 2000, covering the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. She also covered Flint City Hall, social services and environmental issues. She previously worked as a reporter and copy editor at the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

Her husband worked as a copy editor for the Saginaw News before leaving the news business. The last news article on Raymer said her husband, Eric Wisniewski, is an analyst in the Michigan Department of Treasury.

---

Leaving or coming into a Michigan newsroom? Send me an email with contact information so we can all keep in touch. I've recently wrote about changes in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo and Muskegon and even Livingston County.

Why May for Advance pension changes and other musings online about Monday's talks

I'm rushed so just some of the things I've picked up about Advance Publications changes out on the web and in my RSS feeds.

Pensions are not easy to understand, so this blog post on NJ Voices helps explain some of the technical parts. Read Trust the Ledger, not New Jersey, on pension changes.

For instance, why mid-May for benefit changes?

"They froze benefit accruals so the funding hole wouldn't get deeper. In general, any amendment that reduces the rate of future accruals requires a 45-day advance notice to participants [ERISA §204(h)]. That's why they told people today so nobody would accrue past mid-May. That May date is also important since most benefit accruals for the year require 1,000 hours of service. If benefits are frozen prior to achieving 1,000 hours in 2009, there is no 2009 benefit accrual."

Blogger John Bury is an Enrolled Actuary with his own pension consulting firm in Montclair, New Jersey. He shares a link to other pension plans here.

And while we're cruising in New Jersey I discovered TV watching was tough for Allan Sepinwall, the TV critic of The Star-Ledger. He writes the blog What's Alan Watching and said this about How I Met Your Mother:

"Now, admittedly, today's news at the paper may well have made it impossible for me to enjoy a storyline about fake jobs, Ted being on the verge of getting fired, a room designed for firing people, etc., but I don't think so. The biggest laugh I had at the episode was the security cam montage of Barney firing people"

Some of the Newhouse newspapers published letters from the publishers online, including the Oregonian. A letter from the Oregonian publishers Fred and Patrick Stickel details changes within that newspaper and told employees how to calculate their pension benefits.

There was a blog post and an article posted on OregonLive about the changes that include the Stickels and editor Sandy Rowe taking 15 percent pay cuts while other staff will see salaries reduced 5-10 percent; pensions will be frozen in May with company contributions to 401ks increasing. Also some circulation changes coming and some part-timers will lose their jobs.

A slightly different take is offered in this article Oregonian issues furloughs, pension freeze after losing millions.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer announced its cuts and warned more changes may come.

"President Terrance C. Z. Egger announced that full-time, non-union employees must take 10 days of unpaid leave between April 20 and Oct. 4.Full-time and part-time non-union employees will see their first $50,000 of pay cut by 8 percent and any additional pay reduced by 10 percent as of June 1. The furloughs involve 370 employees. Pay cuts will affect about 450 of the Plain Dealer's 1,055 workers. The newspaper also is evaluating its employee benefits packages and could make changes this summer."

An Oregon blogger wrote that a 10 percent pay cut is 90 percent better than laid off but starts off:

"I felt like I was at a funeral today and that is so incredibly sad to me.

Then, the blogger shares the better attitude:

"At the same time, I feel incredibly blessed and fortunate to work for Advance - most other papers have layed off much of their staff, cut benefits, frozen 401K matches and reduced salaries. I am still employed, I still have great benefits for myself and my husband (we certainly need those right now) and I still get to say that I work for one of the best papers in the country. I just wish I was confident that I would have that long-term. But as someone I know said recently, "nothing lasts forever."

Meanwhile, the demise of the Ann Arbor News brings out support for newspapers from Ann Arbor blogger Mark Maynard:

"Newspapers, when they function well, invest time and money in cultivating leads, checking facts and really digging into stories. They demand accountability. The bottom line is, I don’t know that I’d want to live in a community that isn’t served by real journalists."

The changes brought some reminiscing. In Old newspapers don't just die, they .... Mark Silvia says

"As someone who spent some of his most memorable early years in the business in Michigan, at the Muskegon Chronicle - it took me four hours to get there from Saginaw - and who once traveled to corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor for some management screening which included a couch-session with a psychiatrist - which could be considered essential to continuing work in journalism today - we could not help but wince at today's news of the Ann Arbor News ceasing publication."

Tom Wickham, who has worked at a number of the Michigan Advance newspapers, remembers what happened during his years as a Newhouse employee in No celebrating here before moving onto the issue of newspapers.

"Frankly, I agree that the newspapers need to adapt to survive. But it does nothing to assuage the melancholy feeling that came over me today when I read the news, online, of course. I immediately tweeted the story to others in my network and I placed a link on my Facebook page."

Wickham also replied in another post to a former friend celebrating the demise of newspapers.

"It is sad that you see the death of newspapers as something to celebrate. While you are entitled to your opinion, your comments cut deep. The people impacted by the changes are my dear friends. Many will lose their jobs. Some, I am sure, even share the political views as you do, but seem to be justifiable collateral damage in your eyes."

Fitz and Jen talk about the "three forces that killed Ann Arbor News" on the E&P site.

But let's end on a more positive note with a thoughtful post assuring all that journalism is not ending comes from Jane Briggs-Bunting, who is director of the J-School at Michigan State University. She starts by noting the effects of the economy and changes born because of technology.

“ The times have changed. The news and information delivery models will be different. And news organizations like newspapers, TV and radio are scrambling to catch up (and frankly, somehow must have missed that press release when Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web, or Craigslist started running free classified and…the list goes on and on.”

Make no mistake, these are not easy times.

"This is shake up, break up and then we will make it up. The founding fathers didn’t protect a free press in the 1st Amendment to be nice guys. They did it because they got it that someone had to watchdog government and the press was the one entity to do that—fearlessly.....
....So hang on. This makes the worst roller coaster in the world look like a kiddie ride. This is scary, challenging, thrilling, fun and most of us will live through it and even benefit.

Is any sabbatical ever long enough? Can we overstudy this journalism thing?

How long do you think I can stretch a buyout-funded sabbatical?

At times, I am sure that I am back in high school, overwhelmed by the possibilities of the real world and ashamed of the he said/she said blame games that can fill hours. (Or is that Facebook?)

Another journalist admits defeat while publishers in New York make their case for paid content. The founders of Journalism Online predict 10 percent of all web readers will pay for news. Can 10 percent be enough?

At times, I'm in college, pleased that I've found professors who inspire, encourage and demand the best. I've found those who left newsrooms and survived and people who still carry the optimism of power to the people.

Seeing more clearly

The Newsosaur tells American Journalism Review that ViewPass, which aims to increase revenue via an advertising solution, could be as common as Visa one day. It's a vision worth exploring while over on his own blog, folks jump in on why the Gannett blog failed and why it is or is not an example of why citizen journalism will fail.

A Knight Foundation-funded venture, Printcasting, takes on its first media partner and says it ready to expand just one week after another set of projects gets Knight funding.

1. 
   printcasting And best of all, we're doing final testing of ad payment and revshare, so you can make $ from your content & magazines. Stay tuned. 23 Jun 2009 from TweetDeck
2. 
   pachecod After this week we'll be able to target @printcasting to ANY city in the U.S. We seek local marketing partners who also share our passion. 24 Jun 2009 from Tweetie

-- this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

I had to drop (beta-testing) Printcasting, just as it was getting interesting. Still, its success feels like I earned an A.


A computer in my pocket

Schools require computers these days. We have seven in the house of four at the moment.

I depend on what the Apple bar geniuses call an antique, a first-generation iPhone. Email, texting, web access, and even the ability to make a phone call keep (kept?) me in touch on the road, at the hospital, in home and, did I mention, the road?

I get Ray Richmond, an entertainment writer since 1984, most recently for Hollywood Reporter, and why he says a 99-cent iPhone application killed print.

"I can actually gauge the precise moment when I knew it was all over for print journalism, when all the speculation and escalating dread crystallized into an inescapable, wrenching reality."

Read his post to learn which application eliminated his need for paid print descriptions and why he now says this:

"The pined-for print rebound that journalistic professionals and purists continue to screech about ain't going to be coming around the bend anytime soon. Not in this economy. Not with the cost of paper and distribution. Not when everyone is increasingly accustomed to free information the same way Young America sees free music not as a systemic flaw but a birthright. Not when you can get whatever you want, whenever you want, for 99 cents."

Right tool+right content=future

Sometimes, I feel like I'm living the nightmare explored in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day. This is not new, right?

The Hollywood Reporter reports that the argument that the right tools and right content will attract paying customers came up at the PricewaterhouseCoopers event for the "Media and Entertainment Outlook 2009-2013" report.

Google's lust for newspaper's blood gets highlighted in many reports on the event as well as the Dow Jones' work on a product to foster the sale of digital sales for its own offerings and other parties.

For Steven Brill, it is no longer a question of "'whether' but 'how.'" At least that's the quote in Editor and Publisher's report on Brill's Journalism Online.


The publisher's Swiss Army knife

The trade magazine says Journalism Online will offer tools that allow:

• micropayments,
• sampling,
• turning off the system at will,
• converting users from micropayments to a subscription model,
• bundling print and online subscriptions,
• commissions for referrals to other content
• the ability to return a micropayment,
• access to all entry points whether the content is read online, on a smart phone or a digital reader, and
  
• one account with one password for multiple places.

You can follow how the business is developing with its online collection of news articles. No class fee, yet.


Make advertising work

Allan Mutter of Reflections of a Newosaur shares more on how OneView works, a discussion started in Chicago, on a targeted advertising venture.

I fell behind on that Chicago meeting, where OneView came up as publishers and others met in a not-so-secret meeting. Cliff Notes of the must-read list are provoided by the Neiman Journalism Lab.


Did college kill our newspapers?

David Sullivan, who once worked at The Flint Journal and now at a Philadelphia newspaper, goes all out to prove the title of his blog, "That's the Press, Baby." in a series of posts that takes us through the changes of journalists and the contrasting definitions of "the little guy" as attempts to explain the downfall of newspapers.

It was Mario (Garcia) looks at the world that got Sullivan started proving newspapers lost by trading crusaders for missionaries.

The three-post series explains why and when ads and political party designations such as Republican dropped off front pages. The series is faster then any college survey class of journalism through the years. I kept nodding my head and it wasn't for a lack of sleep.

Too big for our britches?

My first newspaper job was writing about my neighbors on my street for my newspaper. Even as a fourth grader, I knew that folks would pay for quality content. I wanted the right to ask what was new.

In Sullivan's Missionary Position, there's a jab at the disappearing neighborhood news because what college graduate sees that as something to cover when bigger stories await.

I'd add that equally bad is the idea that it is OK to convert the news of the people to ads. Charging people to share information about weddings, engagements, and graduations only blurs the lines of what is news and what is not.

Choosing to be small

The rockiness of a year as top editor of the (Michigan) State News - think walkouts, a presidential election, budgets woes, my first readership sudy and change - made getting my first job after graduation easy. Enough of administrating - I wanted back in the newsroom, talking to people and uncovering their news, taking pictures. Big city options were available. I chose a struggling weekly in search of a "professionally trained journalist."

It was here that I first thought about formula writing, a fill-in-the-blanks form for engagements, weddings and other everyday stories that fill pages of a weekly. It was here, though, that I learned how asking the right question reveals stories neither the subject or reporter expect to uncover.

Us vs them

In The Missionary's Dilemma. Sullivan explains the conflict of what people want and what journalists want to do. Journalists

"had a heroic vision of journalism, particularly of newspapers and their role -- not just as the tribune of the people, but as helping guide people, and the nation, to a better place. The truth shall set us all free, and we are trained to see the truth."

But, the folks who came to be known as audience did not, do not see journalists as knights in shining armor or professional gentlemen to be trusted.

"Newspapermen were still seen in the popular mind as layabouts, oddballs, idlers, drunks, malcontents who couldn't quite fit into society."

Journalists try on branding campaign

That's why the rush to professionalism started, Sullivan says.

"Through ethics codes, training, awards, journalism would make clearer than ever before what it stood for."

So out with the bottles of Scotch in the desk drawers and screaming headlines best reserved for tabloids. Bring in the rule books that demand how to clearly separate the ads from articles and issue a memo on what groups a journalist can join.

Sucking you in

The attraction of working with other professional journalists, the promise of a bigger budget and time to investigate got me out of the weekly and into daily newspaper in my town.

A plan to stay one year, five at the most, dissolved one promotion, one special project at a time.

Kicking you out

Nearly 30 years later, an unbelievable buyout yanked me out of the safety of news nest.

It was a scary move, but the right move. The buyout rescued me from living in the midst of dismantling daily newspapers into three times a week products. (What AP contest category will reporters compete in now?)

A year with time to chase the non-news experts about blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Drupal and more reveals only how much more there is to learn.

Being outside the audience of journalists reveals more distinctly that the competitor for each newspaper is not another newspaper, not the TV station or even radio. It's the Mp3s, the late-night TV host, the Mafia wars, and the 25 Things You Don't Know About Me that steal time once used to study a paper filled with news.

I'm in search of a new hat. I need more time on the sabbatical.