Radio suffering from the same "newspaper" vision

The entire following post was sent to me from a loyal freefromeditors reader:

A must read for radio people... "After the Cuts- An Open Letter"ShareToday at 10:49am

The events of the last few days have made me proud to be an American. Believe me, I'm not one of those real verses fake Americans that was created in the presidential campaign, I just think we are all so fortunate to live in a country as wonderful as this. No matter who you voted for, you had to get a bit misty eyed watching history unfold before us in Chicago, and New York, and on the streets and cities in the US and around the world.

I am also proud to be a broadcaster, and yes, an American Broadcaster. The amazing pictures of the throngs of people truly excited to see the change from the long dark night that defined the last few years got me to thinking, I can't remember a time when the streets were filled with people after an election .. mostly young people ... mostly young people excited and hopeful for the future of the country they want it to be. One can't help but be inspired.

Is it possible that we can exhibit the same leadership and inspiration in the radio business that we saw on TV and heard on the radio from President Elect Obama? Is it possible for us to re-think the entire radio industry and move beyond the cuts? I believe it's fair to suggest that the past few years have not been radio's best. There has been much written about it so I won't go into the past by finger pointing as to the blame.

There is plenty to go around.

Is it possible for us to realize that for radio to succeed in attracting future generations of listeners, we must fundamentally change our whole way of thinking about the way we program, sell, engineer, market, finance, and LEAD the next generation of radio staff, advertisers, and listeners.

In the next 12 months, I believe you will see a continuation of a contraction in the radio business. It WILL get smaller in staff size AND IF WE ARE NOT CAREFUL, listener size.

What will radio look like ... AFTER THE CUTS?

How can we redeploy the limited resources available to make our medium exciting and attractive again? How do you make the cuts, yet leave the creativity and intact? Right now, in the autumn of 2008, we have the opportunity to define the NEXT GENERATION OF RADIO. If we have the leadership and understanding, vision, and the will to win, we can make our business succeed well beyond the current, outdated ... hang on it's going to get bad ... mentality that is the norm today.

I make a living successfully positioning radio stations and other media platforms. I advise company leaders on the right direction by reading the trends that will shape our world over the short to medium term. Radio will not be able to begin redesigning its future until it ends the cutting. The sooner it ends, the better off you will be. There can be no creative process in the atmosphere of fear.

Never before has there been so much opportunity for radio than there is today. We have so much going for us, but in order for radio to succeed in the next decade we are going have to change the way we approach the advertisers, consumers, and potential creative talent that might NEVER CONSIDER RADIO. Why? Because we are not telling the great story we already have!

I don't believe radio has a perception problem ... I believe radio has a reality problem in addition to the perception problem! Lest we forget, there are still a few amazing facts that would be the envy of every Internet start up or large online portal.

Can you imagine a business that is already distributed to 100% of the online computers, cars, and homes throughout America?

Can you imagine a national medium that already has a local sales organization in place in every city and town in this country?

Can you imagine a technology that 100% of the consumers already know how to use? (On, off, tune!)

This is where we have the perception/reality problem.

Even Google does not have the incredible local distribution and reach that we have. So why do we have a perception problem?

Answer - We are NOT doing the basics well.

We are defending the past rather than embracing the future.

In the past few months, I have spoken to many Internet company CEO's about the incredible cume that radio has. Not one CEO ever even thought about considering radio as a means to attract consumers. Why? No one told them! In the past two years, I have had the opportunity to speak to many creative, talented, young people who capture million of hits on everything from Face Book to You Tube about considering radio as a creative outlet. Not one ever considered radio as an option. Why? No one asked them!

The reality is that we have NOT embraced the new technology fast enough to capture the next generation of listeners.

The reality is we are NOT attracting young, creative people to our companies.

The reality is we are NOT embracing new creative ideas in order to attract a new generation of listening.

The reality is we are NOT leading the charge of radio innovation using all of the above.

For those of you that disagree, perhaps you have some individual story of innovation you might point to, ("Well, at my station we bla, bla, bla ...") and I get it! But by and large we are still operating like it was 1998 except we have stopped marketing, researching, innovating, and listening to our employees, advertisers, and listeners.

If we expect to stop the erosion of revenue and time spent listening, we had better start designing our companies for the future instead of the past or present. This will require vision, focus, creativity, and above all, leadership.

As someone who ran a few large radio companies and stations, I understand and accept the financial reality that plagues us all right now. Advertisers are scared and not spending, costs are rising, competition is fierce and the future costs money. Radio operators have to cope with on line expenses not contemplated in 1998.

So perhaps we might take a cue from the millions of people assembled in Bryant Park on election eve that it's time for a radio extreme makeover. It's time to consider changing the way we operate our radio stations and companies by embracing new ideas, fostering innovation, and redesigning the way we operate day to day. And after the cuts, consider the following,
CREATIVE VISION MUST BEGIN AT THE TOP. CREATIVE INNOVATION MUST BEGIN AT THE STAFF LEVEL OF THE LOCAL STATION.

Local, experienced management is the key to successful radio. Top down management may work for nationwide franchises, but the dynamics of local community broadcasting are best left in the local community.

It's time to put control back at the station level where it can really succeed with advertisers and listeners. 80% or our revenue is local, and 80% of the decisions should be too. The next generation of managers will not succeed if all they know how to do is manage expenses and write reports for corporate. They must be encouraged to look for talent in every department, and department heads must make a commitment to look beyond the provincial radio world for talented people.

The Internet is full of young, visionary people as is your city. Make it attractive to work at the station by offering them the creative outlet they crave beyond AM and FM.

Radio is more than AM and FM broadcasting today. Invest in distribution to where the people are by using your station to promote alternative listening and participation. Strong radio brands are money in the bank if you distribute to where the people are.

There simply must be more investment in Internet, and mobile platforms. Radio brands can transcend their own current distribution by putting the emphasis on content, and then push it to every viable platform.

Right now, there are thousands of advertisers looking for an economical way to keep their name in front of consumers, but it's not about selling spots, it's about offering ideas. Ideas require creativity beyond the on air copy. Management must be open to new ideas. The notion that it worked five years ago is totally outdated thinking. No one is doing business the way it was done before.

ADVERTISERS WANT TO HEAR WHAT RADIO IS DOING DIFFERENTLY TODAY THAN FIVE YEARS AGO. What are you doing different today?

Listeners and advertisers are expecting their brands to change with the times. This recession, downturn, or whatever it is WILL RECOVER! When it does, radio has the ability to lead the way if we are in the right position to take advantage of it.

What is our life after the cuts?

Making cuts to reduce the cost of producing and presenting radio is necessary today, but putting the station in a position to succeed must also be considered. Radio can emerge as a more creative, innovative medium if it starts right now with the resources remaining.
The extreme makeover of radio must start at the top, the bottom, and the middle.

Now is the time to set the vision, provide the leadership, and execute the plan.

Best regards,
Bill Figenshu

Election post mortem, media loses

Finally, an end to the ads and phone calls. The house is strangely quiet as the robo calls fade into history. My wife is a school teacher and on the list for every Democrat phone list in existence.

I know that John McCain, a personal hero of mine, lost. I did not vote for him, and in the spirit of full disclosure, I did not vote for Barack Obama either. My honest belief is that the real culprit and problem in our country is the complicity of both major political parties.

Every four years we have this dance where they pretend to be different, but end up with the same old partisanship and the victors spend the next four years rewarding their districts with "bridges to nowhere."

The real loser in this election was the media. Between Fox News on the right and MSNBC on the left we ended up not with real political vetting, but cheerleading for one candidate or the other.

I heard Chris Mathews say he got a "tingle" down his leg when he heard Barack Obama speak. There were stories of other reporters wearing Obama t-shirts to rallies. It was clear from the beginning (don't ask me, ask Hillary Clinton and Saturday Night Live) that the media was in the tank for one guy.

That is over the line. It used to be sacrosanct that newsrooms were supposed to be neutral. Reporters were supposed to be down the line neutral, even if their personal beliefs were for one side or the other.

From my experience, most reporters lean to the left, or at least to the Democrat Party. There are few reporters on the right in most U.S. newsrooms. Not a criticism, just a fact. During my career I never talked politics in the newsroom and rarely out of it. My politics are all over the map anyway, but I always believed as a reporter it was important that no one really know where I stood on political issues.

After Al Gore lost in 2000 we had some in the Flint Journal newsroom who were openly despondent over the loss. They spent endless hours following the court battles and loudly expressing their opinions.

These are the same folks who were covering races involving Democrats and Republicans. But when an outdoor writer was assigned to cover a gun rights issue, many expressed the opinion that he could not be "impartial" because he was a hunter. The hypocrisy is blatant.

One of the editors at the paper routinely visited on the phone with Democrat operatives and sources, sometimes offering advice. Again, totally over the line.

I understand that at some point during the recent campaign the editor had to remind his staff in an e-mail they were to try and remain impartial and avoid campaign pins and yard signs.

It was true again in 2004. So the idea that reporters are somehow neutral, impartial observers is simply bogus. It is also lamentable. Hopefully, the fawning attention of Barack Obama will at least turn back to some honest reflection and introspection on their role in keeping tabs on the new administration.

On Monday, the paper took a hit for an anti-Obama news wrapper sponsored by the NRA. On Wednesday it led the paper with a headline that had Obama's name in red-white and blue. I just don't remember any other President who had his name run in a headline like that.

Readers and viewers have to trust that the information they are getting is even-handed and fair. As an insider for 30 years I can tell you that is bogus.

My hope and prayer is that the news media will take a long hard look at how it covered this campaign and reform itself, but I'm not sure that will happen.

At one point Barack Obama (see this You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws) seemed to indicate he believed there were 57 or 59 states. That was beyond any gaffe uttered by Dan Quayle, even the famous plural potato spelling (a word many reporters have trouble with) and yet, little or nothing came of that on left leaning news organizations or Saturday Night Live.

Look, clearly Sarah Palin was not ready to be President. She was the governor of a small state, something like having a President from Arkansas, but the treatment of her inexperience, compared to that of the relative inexperience of Barack Obama is startling. Joe Biden makes a gaffe a minute and I don't have room here to list all the You Tube versions, but "the three letter word J-O-B-S," comes to mind. We'll see if my favorite programs "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," or Keith Olbermann find the same enthusiasm for making fun of Biden as they did of McCain and Palin.

In the meantime, while the media made sure that Obama got the velvet glove treatment, third party candidates like Ralph Nader, Bob Barr and others were completely ignored. That was deliberate too. In 2000, the press realized that Nader bled off enough votes to ruin Gore's chances and they weren't going to let that happen again.

You can be biased in both what you report and what you don't report.

I know a lot of my former colleagues will not agree with me on this issue, but down deep where their journalism ethics live, they may see my point.

McCain and Palin got a thorough vetting, Barack Obama did not. And the fault lies at the feet of a complicit media. Even with equally tough treatment, Obama may have won, but now we'll never know.

It is my hope that the media will now resume the work it should have been doing all along and get back to being neutral observers and not cheerleaders. The country needs an impartial tough press, no matter where personal allegiances lie.

President Obama deserves everyone's support and he has mine. Is he up for the job? I really don't know, because the media really didn't question any of his "change" statements or his excessive promises. He raised more than a half a billion dollars from who knows? His broken promise to use public financing was very troubling.

Let's hope that in the future third party voices will be heard and included. It's really the only way to break the stranglehold on entitlements and perks that are currently supported by a corrupt two party system.

I'm still glad the calls and ads have stopped. Feel free to tell me where I'm wrong.

A final word on the NRA wrapper

I received this comment from someone inside the Journal: I'm posting it up front to explain a little better what happened with "The" wrapper.

"I totally agree with inky..

I think it's lame that the Flint Journal is blaming their carriers for this. The letter the carriers got on October 15th from the Journal stated: "NRA has provided The Flint Journal with special bags to be used with the delivery of Monday November 3rd. The Journal will pay participating carriers _______ for each newspaper delivered IN the special bag on that day"

Later on they changed their minds and told us to not put the papers in the bag, but to insert or roll them with the paper. This was not mailed out to us, and it seems that not everyone got the updated message.

Whether the bag was in the paper, rolled in the paper, or the paper was in the bag, isn't the problem. The Flint Journal should have just said "This is a paid advertisement, and we are in the business of making money on advertisements. Contact the NRA and complain to them." and been done with it..

The people out there making a big stink about this plastic bag are doing exactly what the NRA had hoped for. Getting the NRA's message out to an even bigger audience."

I could not agree more with anonymous.

"MIstake" Part Deux

For all its apologies on Monday and today, including a front page apology, today's Flint Journal, at least in the part of Lapeer County that I live in just came wrapped in the NRA wrapper again!

Do we get another apology tomorrow? Or will the paper just man up and admit it needs the money?

I take no offense at the wrapper, just the stupid, weak apology of its editor.

Here's an idea for newspapers

A reader of the blog asks, why not newspapers?

See link:

http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=NC&pubid=2091

It's been a mystery to me since the Journal went on the Internet why the paper hasn't found a way to make a buck off the online news.

On occassion, I or other reporters would raise the issue at editorial meetings only to be patted on the head like children and told it was not an issue.

Bay City Times got it right

Here's how the Bay City Times (another Booth paper) handled the NRA wrapper:

About the NRA bag on papers Monday
Posted by The Bay City Times November 04, 2008 08:50AM
Categories: Community News, Election, Front Page and Local
The Bay City Times provided the bags that contained your newspaper Monday. Your carrier was not responsible for the bag's advertising message.
The Times accepts political advertising. The newspaper doesn't necessarily endorse the opinions of our advertisers. The Times publishes its choice for president on the editorial page, and did so there two Sundays ago.

http://blog.mlive.com/bctimes/2008/11/about_the_nra_bag_on_papers_mo.html

Seems to me the Bay City Times handled it properly and effectively. Go to the above link if you want to see it in person and read the one comment.

Trust me, the papers need the money and now that the election is over that lucrative stream will dry up.

Election eve NRA wrapper causes anger, apology

Imagine my surprise when I went to my Flint Journal box this afternoon and found my Monday Journal wrapped in a bag with a Pro-NRA, Anti-Obama message on it. See photo I took above.

My first reaction was the paper obviously received a chunk of money to put the newspaper in the bag, first to protect it from this morning's rainstorm, but lastly to put a little hard cash in the Journal register. (The date on my camera is incorrect and I'm too stupid to know how to fix it, the date should be 11/03/2008, but like the Journal, I apologize).

On my local weekly, there was a sticker promoting a local Republican candidate for the State House race and I didn't think much of it either.

But then I turned to Mlive.com and found that the Flint Journal had apologized to its readers and said the plastic bag wrapper was a "mistake." That really stretches credulity. The exact wording of the apology said the wrapper was supposed to be inside the paper.

Huh? Why would a plastic bag, the perfect size for a small newspaper to be rolled up inside be stuffed inside a newspaper? Doesn't make any sense at all.

Why not just admit you took a boat load of cash to wrap the newspaper in an ad and that your endorsement of Barack Obama trumps the ad anyway. Instead the paper is falling all over itself to claim the stuffing of the newspaper in the bag was a "mistake," wink, wink.

The string of comments are pretty amusing and I commend them to your reading. The link to the apology and the comments is here:

http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/11/mondays_journal_mistakenly_pla.html

I smell another Columbia Journalism Review criticism coming soon.

Actually, with the folks here in Lapeer County, it was probably pretty well received. Judging by the comments on the Journal's website, not so much in Genesee County.

Dream trip over, photos to come

OK, I'm back from Gettysburg and a great weekend of learning and fun. This was a two day event and involved detailed study and visits to follow Lee's retreat following the third day of battle and then a close-up look and walk of Pickett's Charge.

I won't bore you with the details, but call it a Star Wars convention for Civil War buffs. Ed Bearss was as good a communicator and historian that you will ever find.

Now, I'll get back to the newspaper business and its current sadness.

Traveling to Gettysburg for my dream tour

My weekend excursion promises to be a major highlight.

One of my very favorite past times is studying, reading about and traveling to Civil War sites. Thanks to a friend of mine, we are headed Friday for Gettysburg (which I have already toured three times) for a special battlefield walking tour and the guide is Ed Bearss (right).

For those not into Civil War history, Bearss is one of the premier living Civil War historians and is often seen on the History Channel and elsewhere.

The topic for the weekend tour is: "Picketts' Charge & Lee's Retreat."

There are two lectures Friday night, then a full day of touring on Saturday including trips to Fairfield, Monterey Pass, Smithsburg (my kind of town), Hagerstown, Funkstown, Falling Waters and Williamsport.

On Sunday, we will study the cavalry action bet Jeb Stuart and Custer, Culp's Hill and the Pickett, Pettigrew, Trimble assault.

It just doesn't get any better than that. So, I'll be back late (like really late) Sunday night and return to blogging Monday. Prepare yourself for lots of Civil War battle photos and war stories.

Unbelievably, neither of our wives wanted to go with us for this exciting weekend of testosterone filled war discussions.

For more information on Ed Bearss look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Bearss

and here:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/bearss.html?c=y&page=1

Nader understands the news business better than most

Ralph Nader didn't get much coverage this election (deliberate, if you ask me) but he realizes how he could have received a lot more coverage:

http://blogs.courant.com/on_background/2008/10/ralph-nader-and-his-10000horse.html

He is sooooo right!

The future is now, at least for one newspaper

A frequent freefromeditors reader sent along the following link:

http://lifehacker.com/5070302/will-you-miss-print-newspapers-when-theyre-gone

Make sure you follow the link in the above to the New York Times story.

Basking in Spartans win, but no gloating here

The one year my MSU Spartans were able to overcome cross-state rivals Michigan I was out of town and not watching the game. (I may have to do that every year now).

When I heard we had defeated the Wolverines in Ann Arbor it brought back great memories of the 1978 game at "The Big House," as Michigan Stadium is called, when I was in attendance and watched the Spartans beat the Wolverines 24-15.

Kirk Gibson, later of Detroit Tigers and LA Dodger fame, caught a cross pattern pass and ran for a touchdown, which he scored right in front of the few Spartan fans in the south end zone.

So the Spartans are off to a good start, 7-2, and have won the biggest game of the year, but it is only one year and many of my friends root for the Maize and Blue, so I'm not going to pile on because hey, next year will roll around way too quickly.

I'm not even going to mention (except here) the phony gift touchdown the Wolverines received from the replay official.

Both schools are great, but it wouldn't be a rivalry if only one side ever won. So we're not gloating, just basking in the happiness of a rare victory.

More Newhouse bad news

The shoe has dropped in New Jersey. Sounds like a radically different newspaper in the coming months. My favorite pull out quote:

"We've got from now to the end of the year to figure out what adjustments we have to make," Willse said. "We will be able to produce an abundance of good stories. We will still have a good paper but we have to figure out exactly how to accomplish that."

Where have we heard all that before? These editors might as well be political hacks for all the spin they are churning out.

See story:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZNapL_qKwtWcN1sDFSwS-p9YGzgD9415AC00

Food for thought.

The following post has a lot for reporters to think about. Because it criticizes some some senior editors toward the end, I felt it worth posting here. It is both about the election and the condition of journalism today.

http://pajamasmedia.com/edgelings/2008/10/24/editing-their-way-to-oblivion-journalism-sacraficed-for-power-and-pensions/

More travel, less blogging

OK, at the risk of sounding like some kind of jet-setter, if that's possible with a series of car trips to Akron, Ohio; Buffalo, NY; and Boston, MA, I'll be off traveling from Friday through Tuesday.

The trip to Buffalo is one of our frequent and regular trip there to help my wife's parents and the trip to Boston is a quick stop and go to pick up some furniture from our daughter who lives there and no longer needs an heirloom bed she took to college. We only wish we could bring her home too, we miss her.

All this is just a warning (or blessing to some) that blogging will be sporadic, or possibly non-existant, between Friday and Tuesday.

Just consider it a retiree's life-in-the-fastlane. My fast lane, unfortunately, seems to include a highway patrolman about every 10 miles.

Rumor alert

To be honest, this post is based on some informed speculation and just maybe, a dose of rumor. So take it for what it is worth.

There is some rumblings that the proposed drastic buyouts may be held off for awhile as the Booth chain attempts some major consolidations of design and editing desks. Quite disturbing for folks who were told they were on the bubble, should consider the buyouts, but who are now left hanging about the future and the conflicting messages that are being sent.

As always freefromeditors.blogspot.com will keep you up-to-date.

Check out the links

There are some really good, if depressing, new stories on the news buisiness at some of the journalism links to the right.

Specifically, Reflections of a Newsosaur, Fading to Black, Newspaper Death Watch and others.

Too many stories to link in a single post.

Another dose of not good

Thanks to a contributor:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003876875

And this is one of the more successful chains!

Putting the newspaper on Indian cruise control

A couple of freefromeditors contributors offered a couple items for your reading pleasure. The following pullout quote is from the first link and is so incredibly simplistic that the fact it comes from a so-called publisher is staggeringly revealing.

"In today's world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn't matter," Singleton said after his speech. (I guess Singleton believes one could develop a beat relationship with a source over the phone from India. No more "All the President's Men."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003875952

And then there's this bad news for the Associated Press:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003874855

Travel beckons, blogging will resume Thursday

I'm on my way to Akron, Ohio for a church convention. I will be home Thursday and will resume blogging then.

When I get back I'll dissect for you a couple memos on the new medical plan that awaits employees in 2009. I've already written about changes at the end of 2009, but this is in addition to that.

Until then, enjoy fall. By the way, a lot of folks stopped by Monday to look at the consolidation story. Hope you keep coming back, lots of news yet to come.

Hint: Possible consolidation of all copy editing functions for Booth in Grand Rapids and when this plan may have actually been hatched.

Advance puts a "whoa" to the stampede

More than double the number of employees the company hoped would take the buy-out in New Jersey did. You can read the story here:

http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2008/10/newark.html

So a lot of folks who wanted a parole, won't get it now.

More news on Flint, Bay City or Saginaw consolidation

(I've moved this back to the top of the blog, but there are a couple new items below)

Some internal communications indicate where Booth may be headed with the consolidation of newsroom operations between the Bay City Times, Saginaw News and eventually the Flint Journal.

Specifically, reporters are being put into three categories: Buyout candidates, protect candidates and a third category, that seems to indicate that an employee should be coached to stay or be reassigned. This is apparently in advance of a Booth wide buyout offer yet to be announced.

Not surprisingly, the buy-out candidates are mostly full-time folks. Also a couple employees currently on sick or maternity leave may not have work to come back to when they are well. That seems unduly harsh, but maybe part of the new economic reality.

More interesting are the plans to combine the newsroom operations, or "optimization," as the company refers to it. While these plans appear to be solely for Bay City and Saginaw, it's hard to imagine that a similar fate is not in store for Flint.

These consolidations will gut the individual papers' sports, photography and entertainment sections. The operations of each of those departments would be in one location. Plans are to seek content that would be produced once, but shared with the Bay City and Saginaw markets.

In sports, Booth management believes there is enough of overlap in leagues that will allow coverage to be centralized.

What is proposed is a sports department that would go from 2 sports editors, 1 assistant sports editor, five full-time and eight, part-time reporters to:

One sports editor, 1 assistant sports editor, three full-time and eight, part-time reporters among the papers. The model also assumes that the sports editor and assistant sports editor will write stories and columns in addition to their management role.

Part-time workers are among the safe employees because they are considered key to this model because they are cheaper than full-timers.

The new photo department would have one photo manager who would manage the remaining photographers who would work out of the two separate newsrooms. Editing of photos and assignments would be centralized although newsrooms would retain some authority to direct local photographers for breaking news. (Gees, I hope so).

Currently there are two photo editors, four full-time photographers and one part-time photographer. Under the new plan there would be one photo editor, two full-time photographers and one part-time photographer. About three or four interns and freelancers would be used to fill holes in coverage.

These are breathtaking changes that will certainly compromise the editorial contents of the newspapers. While I understand the horrible economics of the day, I just don't see how this works, even as a stop gap measure.

Entertainment is also a target. Currently entertainment staffing includes two features editors and seven full-time reporters and clerks. Under the new staffing proposed there would be one entertainment editor and one full-time reporter. Additional coverage would be aided by freelance writers and an intern.

For web coordination there would actually be a slight increase. Currently the two papers have 1 Web content producer. With the new plan there would be one manager and the current web content producer. Hopes are that as the web content area grows, that the staffing for this would grow.

If your plans are that web is your future, why wouldn't you invest in it now, make it great and roll the dice with that. Other than the obvious of saving money, the web commitment (or lack thereof) is the most startling of this plan.

In Flint, there is word that some of the specialty sections, particularly the Religion page and Features page, are on the way out. This all part of some additional downsizing apparently. It is hard to imagine how the Flint Journal coverage could be consolidated with any of the other Booth papers, simply by geography, but these are desperate times and so, who knows?

Soon, I'll give you a look at the new Journal health plan and the reductions in coverage for medical and prescriptions.

Read all about it, your job is gone

A local weekly newspaper chain - View Newspapers - had an unusual ad in Thursday's newspaper. Basically they were advertising for positions at all four newspapers, jobs that are still held by a number of people.

"View Newspapers, 4 Community Weeklies, 88,124 circulation is accepting resumes for all editorial positions." Sounds like a clean sweep.

I don't know if the folks who work there now were told that such an ad would be running, but it would certainly chill your enthusiasm for work if you saw that your newspaper was openly seeking folks to replace you.

Over the years I have come to know many of the folks who work at the Lapeer newspaper and they are fine people and very professional journalists. They work for peanuts, but put in the long hours needed to produce a weekly newspaper.

They do a fine job of covering local events and I can't imagine the reason for the need to replace them, except that the paper wants to pay even less for writers than they do now.

In my first professional job I worked as a weekly newspaper editor in Mason, Michigan. It was a 70-hour a week job for $280 a week in 1980. Even in 1980 it was a paltry sum of money. I would never, ever do it again.

In recent months I was even asked to work for a weekly and said absolutely not. It is a thankless, stress filled existence for McDonald's wages. So I was stunned to see that ad.

The resumes for writers are not even being solicited by the editor, but a business management person.

So as far as sports, this weekend was so-so

We're not even going to talk about the Michigan State Spartans letdown and 45-7 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Michigan had a good start against Penn State and then had a second half meltdown.

The Buffalo Bills, my new adopted team, look great against the San Diego Chargers today. But the best news of the weekend was the Detroit Red Wings overtime victory over the New York Rangers.

A friend of mine, Greg, who is also know as "Gordo 1," (I am Gordo 2 - and you would have to be a Detroit Red Wings fan to even understand why that's a good nickname) bought a small series of season tickets.

Our first regular season game was last night against the New York Rangers. The Red Wings came out blazing. They had a 2-0 lead after just about 3 minutes. But by the third quarter they went to sleep for awhile and the Rangers went ahead 4-3 with just a few minutes left.

The Wings tied the game up with just three minutes to play and it was into overtime. This is when things got great for the Red Wings, but kind of ugly for me and Greg.

In hockey overtime, the first goal wins. So the puck was dropped and some guy (who had already made 3 trips to the bathroom from overconsumption of beer) decided to come back to his seat just as the overtime period was beginning.

The row in front of us stood up to let the guy back to his seat blocking our view of the ice, and the winning goal. Marian Hossa scored his first goal as a Red Wing to win the game, but what I saw was the back of the guy in front of me letting the drunk back to his seat.

Of course, the drunk saw the goal and was celebrating with his friends the exciting moment. I yelled at him that his rudeness was why the rest of us didn't see it. He was too drunk to hear me. Anyway, we guess it was exciting because the crowd went wild. We did get to watch the replay on the big screen.

I don't understand why people go to a sporting event and then spend half their time there going back and forth to the concession stand and bathrooms while the game is going on.

I feel much better now. We'll have more on the newspaper business later tonight.

Still waiting to hear

Nothing new on the Flint Journal front, except some rumblings that big changes are in the works.

Some of my usual sources are a little scarce right now and how can you blame them with the uncertainty of the changes. As soon as I know, you'll know.

If you have good information feel free to contact me at the e-mail address in my profile.


(Note: This item was corrected from an earlier version because of a missing word)

I love this item, I've got to get one

Hope you weren't eating lunch.

It's tough to be a Lions fan

A friend at work told me this story that he claims is true.

A guy who worked with my friend's brother was really upset that he left two Detroit Lions tickets in his car and someone broke into the vehicle ..... and left two more tickets to the Lions game.

OK, so maybe it's not true.

Spartans roll, Bills idle, Lions jobbed

Not a bad sports weekend here. Spartans rolled over Northwestern and are now 6-1 and bowl eligible already. My new team, the Buffalo Bills, had a bye week so we watched the Lions play Minnesota today.

Actually, the Lions defense looked pretty good. A couple horrible calls by the referees likely stole any chance the Lions had of pulling off a miracle victory, but give them credit for not just rolling up and dying.

Next week the MSU Spartans face a real test, the Ohio State University Buckeyes, so we'll get a better idea of how good, or not good, they really are.

Rumor true, Addisen visits fall party

When we plan our fall party we hope and pray for the perfect night. Cool, but not cold; no rain; no bugs; and no wind. It's a lot to ask in a climate where one or both of those negative conditions are really present.

Last night everything was perfect for a traditional fall party. Even better, little Addisen showed up and wowed the guests and, as always, grandma and grandpa. She is the light of our lives and we see God in her face (sometimes a little of the other in her actions, but we don't dwell on that). This is her first appearance at our fall party, but certainly not her last.

The colors are starting to change (a little late so we're hoping that means a milder winter) but we had fun making smores by the fire, but mostly fun laughing, talking and enjoying our company.

Most of the folks were Anglican, but the kids are from a non-denominational church and our best friends, both Roman Catholics, were on had to make it an ecumenical evening. And my wife served some really good food.

I've attached a couple photos. Next year, come and join us.

Bon fire, fall and friends

Tonight is our annual fall party. We invite all our church members, neighbors, friends and family to come join us for dinner and then for the most hardy, outside for a bon fire. It's going to be clear (as it always has been), not too crisp (about 59 at bon fire time) and wonderful.

We sing, we talk, we laugh and mostly just enjoy the various connections we have. We pray for new people to come and join us (everyone is invited to bring a friend) and we hope with anticipation to meet new folks.

I know my friends in California won't quite get the bon fire (they are pretty much banned in California for obvious fire concerns), but sitting around a nice warm fire, roasting marshmallows and making smores is something that takes us all back a few years.

Colors are not quite in full spew, but they are pretty stunning nonetheless. There's also a wonderful rumor that our little granddaughter, Miss Addisen, may be making an appearance. That is always reason for celebration.

It's a time to forget about Presidential campaigns, conflict, stock markets, housing prices and all the other useless distractions of life.

So if you are a friend, know our address, please feel free to stop by and join us tonight, starting at 6 p.m.

Tomorrow, I will post some photos for all to enjoy.

The only thing better would have been clogging goats

As promised, I want to write a little about the cursed Saturday assignments at the Flint Journal.

Some of the most favored editors at the Journal simply had a problem with allowing weekend reporters the latitude to look for and find news on their own. Many of my colleagues were effective reporters who enjoyed the challenge of finding a good news story.

But as I've talked about before, certain editors at the paper always thought they knew best, even though they had little breaking news reporting experience of their own.

Before the current crop of top editors took over, there was a management strategy that simply turned reporters loose to find news on a beat. Sometime in the late 1990s that began to erode and assignments, some so ridiculous as to defy description.

Left to my own devices, I could often come up with three or four good news stories on my own. I had several Christmas days where I worked and rustled up a murder or two, a touching feature just in time for the holiday and maybe a fire or three. Many reporters at the paper were equally able to do that.

But then came the geniuses. Saturday shifts became a dreaded chore, filled with some of the dumbest story ideas ever conjured up by an editor.

None were dumber than the Saturday shift that was drawn by Ken Palmer about nine years ago. Now Ken, who had great cops and court contacts, could have easily found a story or two on his own on a Saturday, but that didn't work for the new bosses.

So on this particular Saturday, Ken was sent first thing in the morning to cover a "goat milking exhibition" somewhere in rural Genesee County. This also became known as the "goats are people too" story. Unfortunately, you will not be able to hear for yourself, Ken's hilarious description of this assignment, but I'll try.

Being a good soldier, Ken grabbed his notebook and pen and headed to the farm where the "goat milking exhibition" was to take place. When he arrived he found himself alone with a woman, who was not milking a goat.

When Ken showed up and told the woman he was there to cover the exhibition her reply was an incredulous: "You are?" Followed quickly by, "the goat is not giving any milk today." But a photographer already had a picture of a goat, and an assignment is an assignment. So thinking quickly, Ken told the woman to simply start talking about goats and when he had heard enough to make up a story he would stop her and leave.

Somewhere along the line, the woman opined that "goats are like people," which the alert Ken knew would become his lead. And so with a notebook filled with goat facts and a woman's startling impression that goats are like people, Ken closed his notebook and wrote his story. The lead of the story: Goats are people too.

Now that one assignment would have been bad enough, but the Saturday editor had also spied a calendar item about a clogging exhibition (yes, people dancing in wooden shoes) in Shiawassee County and assigned Ken to spend his afternoon covering that.

Again, listening to Ken tell this story usually brings tears to my eyes with laughter as he describes the young dancers "klippity-klopping" back and forth across the dance floor for a endless hour. But, again, an assignment is an assignment and once an editor has slotted a page for a picture and a wooden shoe, well you better come up with some hefty prose on klippity klopping, or else.

So that is the Saturday stupidity by which all Saturdays are gauged. Many of us can recount many examples of stupid Saturday assignments. One of mine involved hiking ten miles in two-feet of freshly fallen snow with the Sierra Club hikers in January, even though I was neither in shape to do it, didn't have the proper equipment to do it and the fact it took me nearly two hours into the woods where I couldn't have responded to a real news event if I wanted to, which I did. The Sierra Club hikers had snow shoes, I had moon boots.

It would have served the Journal right if I'd had a heart attack, but then who would have covered it. I did end up with ankles worn raw from the boots.

Another Saturday, I was sent to the south side of Fenton to cover the Pinewood Derby even though there had been a double homicide the night before. (Actually, I ended up covering both the Pinewood Derby and the homicides, but not nearly with the concentration I should have.)

Another time I was sent to cover a Daddy daughter hike (do you see a trend here?) on a trail in Elba Township in Lapeer County. Only one Dad and daughter showed up, which was two more people that ended up coming from the photo department, but I still had to do a story based on one pair of hikers.

I'm going to entertain more Saturday story travesties as they come in.

Back, blogging to resume

Well, I just returned from Traverse City (wow, were the colors even more stunning than usual) and so blogging will resume - tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

In the waiting mode

Blogging will be a little erratic in the next few days as I am traveling. Whether I get on here or not depends on whether I find a wireless signal, or not.

In the meantime, I'm still waiting, along with folks at the Journal, as to whether the editor's prediction of a buyout becomes reality this month, or whether it's just more wait and see.

One of my next blog projects is a rather extensive look at one of the "favorite" things to Journal reporters: Saturday assignments. I have compiled a list of some of the more memorable Saturday assignments, stories that the managing editor believed were so compelling that they came before actually finding real news, and will publish them soon.

Here's a tease: One reporter had two memorable assignments on the same Saturday. The first assignment was to cover a goat milking exhibition and the second, his afternoon job, was to report on a klogging (yes, wooden shoes) exhibition in the afternoon.

That Saturday is the story stupidity Saturday by which all Saturday story ideas are measured. I had my share, heck, we all had our share and I'll share some of those with you this week. So keep checking back.

MSU rolls on

Michigan State University is now 5-1 on the season with the nail biting defeat of Iowa today in a defensive struggle.

I didn't watch the game, I had to harvest my grass field around my house. With all the rain this year, the grass has never stopped growing. So with my earphones in place I mowed while I listened to the Spartans take on Iowa.

The victory is all the sweeter because my brother-in-law Philip is a University of Iowa graduate. One year my sister, Philip, Joan and I traveled to Iowa City to watch MSU take on Iowa there and it was a disaster.

Philip bought tickets in the center of the rabid Iowa alumni section and the Hawkeyes dismantled the Spartans. So, of course, I called him this afternoon and told him how sorry I was he couldn't make it to East Lansing this year to see the game with me.

An MSU victory also brings a frown to one of my friend's faces, so I'm sorry about that. Now we'll see how Michigan does against Illinois. Should be a cake walk for Michigan at home.

We're all saved, Congress approves bail out

OK, Congress now owns many of the worst loans in the country. Good for us. We're going to purchase $600 billion in bad paper. What a great idea!

Our kids will someday shake their heads in disbelief that we have done this. It may be sooner than later.

So I guess now, in America, you can start a business, take a loan, give a loan and there are no consequences. Default, go into bankruptcy and good old Congress will step up and bail you out. Makes me wonder why I've paid all my bills all these years.

We may have the most dysfunctional government in our history and there are not many signs it will get any better.

May God and our founding fathers forgive us for what we have done to their great invention.

What happened today after Congress caved and gave Wall Street what they wanted? The market dropped another 157 points. Serves us right.

Let 'em sink

One of the biggest disagreements I have with many of my friends right now is on this Congressional "bail-out."

I am convinced that a $600 billion bail out will do nothing but postpone the pain. The country has been on a 20-year unrealistic monetary binge. The house my parents bought for $24,000 in 1964 and sold for more than $300,000 only 20 years later eventually appreciated to $1 million.

That was nuts.

Now, the market is in the process of collapsing because we were simply living in Fantasyland. As scary as it is to think about, a complete correction is needed. For the government to step in now and reward corrupt lenders and greedy buyers only sets in motion the same thing in the future.

Many of my cop friends and cop reporters will know what a Ponzi scheme is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme). They will also know what a pigeon drop is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_drop) and what we have seen for the past 16 years is a high stakes combination of both. People who do this on the street are arrested, tried and sent to prison. Instead of arresting these folks, Congress wants to hand them more money.

One thing any cop will tell you is that giving more money to a confidence man is the wrong way to stop the scam.

This is a manufactured crisis. Remember it was almost three weeks ago they said if we didn't fix it in four days we would face financial Armaggedon. Well, the day after the House of Representatives voted down the measure the market went up 469 points coming back from a 777 loss while the bill was still on the table.

If it's such a big crisis, one that threatens our future, why are our federal legislators loading this crisis bill up with frivilous pork. One of the items is a tax break for the production of wooden toy arrows. So don't buy this "sky is falling" stuff.

Should the House turn down the bail out bill again, the market is probably in for a rough ride. Right now the private sector is holding off loans, etc., waiting to see how much free money they will get from us. But eventually they will have to go back to making good loans (in fact, they are making good loans now) and the economy will slowly recover.

Our parents lived through the depression. Not a great time, but it taught them a lesson of thrift and responsibility that has been lost on subsequent generations.

My 401k has lost more in the past three weeks than I paid for my first house in 1970, but I still don't think it's right to rescue the market for investors' immediate futures and leaving a huge debt for our kids in the future.

We keep hearing that actually the government will make money on this bail out. If you believe that, you haven't been paying attention to our government for the past few decades. Nothing they do makes money. Everything they do costs money and it's our money.

Some companies, especially the ones who feasted on the bad loans and high CEO pay, need to fail. They need to be bought up at a bargain rate, reconstituted and then effectively managed by new private companies, not the government.

Home loans should be renegotiated where possible, but frankly, people who purchased homes well above their means should lose them. That's how the system works. A lot of us bought and paid for homes we could afford. It should not fall to us to bail out those who got in over their heads.

That's not to say there isn't a role for government in this crisis. They could start (including at the State level here in Michigan) to give us back more of our money to spend. Instead of giving Wall Street $600 billion so it can continue on its merry way, how about splitting up that $600 billion in tax relief and see what many of us would do with that money.

My wife and I were on the verge of buying a big GMC truck and an RV. Those plans are on hold until we see what is going to shake out. Send me part of my $600 billion tax relief program and I'll buy that truck and RV and probably some other stuff.

Multiply that by millions of taxpayers and you have renewed economic activity. It makes more sense than pouring more millions down the Wall Street rat hole.

If not that, start building stuff again like they did during the Depression. What is needed is commerce and work. The Wall Street casino should be closed and the only way to do that is to not rescue them and make them going back to being the engine of economy and not the slot machine.

But I know one thing, I don't trust McCain-Obama-Biden and the Congress to fix a problem they helped create.

New story, no explanation, but more Lakisha

I'm a twice-a-day (or more) reader of the Flint Journal website. Not that I think it's a good website, but it's the only game in town.

So early yesterday I read on line about a man who died in Lake Fenton on Saturday. My first reaction was a guy died in Lake Fenton on Saturday and we're just finding out on Wednesday. So I didn't pay much attention to much of the rest of the story, except I think it said he drowned.

This morning, I'm catching up on the local news and the story is again there. This time with an identification of the victim and the fact he died of a heart condition and not from drowning. So I opened up the comments and find a couple folks who are thankful that the Journal has finally "revised" the article.

Now usually when the Journal runs a story and later updates it, you'll find a little link taking you back to the original story. Not there, not anywhere. The original story is gone. So I have no idea what happened in the original story, but it must have upset someone. Not a big deal, but I'm curious.

As to why a guy is found dead in a lake on Saturday and is not reported on until Wednesday I can only guess. Perhaps the fact that only one reporter (it used to be two) work on Saturday and that an intern (other than a full-time reporter) now works on Sunday, may contribute to that.

By the time anyone gets in on Monday to look into news, it's probably too late for the Monday paper, so the earliest you get a Saturday story in the paper is Tuesday, if you're lucky.

On another topic, you'll be glad to know - I know I was - that Lakisha Jones, the American Idol candidate from Texas, but with roots in Flint, is planning to get married soon in California. There's news you can use, and it was right on the front page. I mean no offense to Carol the wonderful feature writer who wrote the story. And just two days after I mentioned the managing editor's obsession with the story too.

What's in a name

OK, now I get it. It's a "rescue" plan, not a "bail out."

And the manure I spread in my garden is really ground up rose petals. The Washington elite - of both parties - believe we are simply country bumpkins who are easily manipulated.

How dumb they must think we are. In recent days I have disagreed with some of my friends over this, but the country is being pushed into an obscenely expensive bail out plan that benefits only the most irresponsible buyers and lenders in our country.

The move to make well the people who put us in this position and then put back in charge the people who were supposed to be watching to make sure it didn't happen may just be the dumbest thing I've ever seen in government. And that says a lot.

So now that the Senate has added $100 billion in pork to make the sleaze of this deal go down better, people are predicting a majority in the House will now approve it. Shame on them.

This doomsday scenario and the rush to solution is just one more reason to hold off and look for solutions that don't involve public money.

But make no mistake this is a bail out. A rescue would be the replacement of every incumbent politician in Washington and a new start.

My two cents about $700 billion

Does it bother anyone else that Democrats and liberal and moderate Republicans are so eager to hand over $700 billion of our money to a bunch of fat cat, Wall Street types to bail them out of a problem entirely of the fat cats' own creation?

All of a sudden the same people who can't stand "W" or anything he does, are lapping at his feet to quickly approve a $700 billion bail out, that on its face eclipses the cost of the entire Iraq War to date. Count me a little (make that a lot) suspicious.

At the other end are those cruel, big business conservatives who seem to be in favor of letting the fat cats lick out of an empty bowl. So who really is in the pocket of big business, those who would let system take its natural course, you loaned it, you eat it. Or those in Congress who want to hand $700 billion to the people who made the mess and put the government who failed to oversee the mess in charge of watching over it now.

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and many Republicans seem hell-bent on having all of us pick up the tab for a bunch of banks who somehow didn't realize you can't loan out more money than you have and you should certainly make sure the people who borrow the money can pay it back.

My 401K stands to take a huge hit, but that doesn't mean out of my own self interest I believe my children or grandchildren should be on the hook to bail out a bunch of, at best, incompetent bankers, or at worst (and much more likely) a bunch of criminals who instead of robbing a bank with a gun cleaned it out by simply sticking the money in their pocket.

Someone needs to be heading to prison, and soon.

A few have wondered about my sudden affection for Ralph Nader. Of the Presidential candidates he is the one who was not up to his eyeballs in the run-up to this financial collapse.

So kudos to the Congressmen on both sides who said "no" today and let's hope the rest of this campaign includes a few more voices who may have an actual solution, one that puts the pain and solution where it belongs, with the people who caused it.

If Congress is for the "little guy," let's see them not stick the "little guy" with the bill.

A short answer for the managing editor

On Sunday, the Flint Journal managing editor told his readers that he is fascinated with pop culture, something all the writers at the paper have known for years.

The problem is not with his fascination with pop culture, but the paper's obsession with pushing it up front.

When a Texas woman, with Flint roots, became a finalist for the American Idol show, the newspaper literally turned over the front page to her coverage for months. It was an embarrassing display of non-journalistic sound excess that people outside the paper still talk about.

The reason given for the obsession with the Idol candidate was that it would draw in younger readers. OK, how many of them bought subscriptions? How many are still reading? More importantly, how did it translate to higher advertising revenues?

The answer: Not a twit.

But, in retrospect, knowing what I know now about the fascination with pop culture, I might have been smarter to pitch my mortgage fraud story of July 2007 differently (http://freefromeditors.blogspot.com/2008/06/mortgage-fraud-story-sees-light-of.html).

Instead of trying to show the editor the startling facts that I discovered in government records that Great Lakes Mortgage Brokers was handing out money at a rate three times the value of homes in a Davison Township subdivision, I should have made up a story that Madonna was involved.

Or maybe that Brittany Spears was planning to move to the subdivision secretly. That would have driven my story onto page one and would have at least exposed the public to the real story of what was going on there.

There were several times over the years that some anonymous person would call the paper and say they heard Pamela Anderson (insert name of other current popular celebrities here) was looking at houses in Fenton, etc. That would set in motion a flurry of intense activity that often involved two, three or more reporters trying to track down the rumor.

Even when the rumor was found to be false, which was always, there was still the push for a story to cover the rumor. It was awful journalism and many of us lament that we were pulled into it.

But the managing editor asked what his readers thought of his fascination with pop culture as page one. Well, there's my thoughts.

Michigan comes back big

Wow! Two great Michigan games today. First MSU and then a real stunner with U-M coming back from a 19-0 third quarter deficit to win at the end.

Fans were booing the Wolverines at the end of the first half, but, not surprisingly, were cheering wildly as the team pulled it out at the end.

I think it's great that Michigan could have two great contenders in the Big 10 this year. Of course, I'm rooting for the Spartans to win the cross-state rivalry game Oct. 25. Looks like I'll have to watch it from Buffalo, NY, this year.

The Lions are on a bye week, so nothing to wreck the great mood either. A friend and I are going to the Detroit Red Wings exhibition game against the Atlanta Thrashers. One of the Thrashers, Jimmy Slater, is a local Lapeer guy and we both know his Dad, so wouldn't mind seeing Jimmy have a good game tomorrow night.

Go MSU!

Great job today by the MSU Spartans. This is a game they would have lost in the past. MSU over the Indiana Hoosiers by a 42-29 score.

Javon Ringer looks like a legit Heisman Trophy candidate too! This kid gets stronger as the game goes on. He only ran for 198 yards today, first time in three weeks he didn't go over 200 yards.

Brass Spittoon is ours again!

We need more voices

The lack of clarity by two Presidential candidates on the current economic crisis or what they would do about it was the most startling aspect of last night's debate.

As one who believes that more voices, not less, should be involved in the election debates I would just call your attention to the specific actions that Ralph Nader would take in the current crisis. Of course, his voice was not allowed in the debate.

http://www.votenader.org/media/2008/09/25/whithousemeeting/

It is my belief that the two-party system has resulted in one-bureaucracy rule in Washington, D.C. As futile as it seems there needs to be more independent voices in our country. Bot the main parties are addicted to pork barrel projects and narrow self-interest.

Whoever wins this election nothing will really change (even though both say they are running for just that). The big money will continue to control who does what in Washington. Two-party rule, in my humble opinion, is slowly eroding this country.

What would it hurt to invite a couple third, and fourth party candidates, to the debates.

Adios, Matt MIllen

Detroit Lions fans are celebrating the firing (finally) of general manager Matt Millen.

I asked a few days ago the famous question of a former Lions' coach: "What does a guy have to do to get fired around here?"

Millen got the answer, when the team's owner is publicly called out by his son in the media, I guess that's what'll get you fired.

The problem is that Matt has left the tool box pretty empty. We have Roy Williams, Calvin Johnson, Jason Hanson and, well, we have those three.

All we need now is an offensive line, defensive players who can tackle and a quarterback who can throw. That's about it. For those of us who have tried to stick with this team (I'm off the band wagon now) we have watched individually great players - Barry Sanders, to name one - play their entire careers here without ever making the playoffs, or making it one time.

Firing coaches, general managers and players hasn't really translated into a better team in the past so I'm not holding my breath now.

If a dummy like me.....

With all the talk of financial disaster in the news, I just have to get this off my chest.

Starting about six years ago, my wife and I used to listen to David Hall on WJR-AM radio here in Detroit on our way to church.

Mr. Hall operated and ran a company called Rock Financial and his radio show was simply one big, long advertisement for his company.

People would call in with questions about mortgages and David Hall would provide some amazing advice.

Mr. Hall would encourage people who made $40,000 to $50,000 a year to call him so he could show them how he could put them in a $400,000 luxury home (for my California readers that's a really nice house here), with no down payment and an interest only payment of $600-$700 a month.

You'll have to take my word on this, but six years ago my wife and I used to shake our heads and wonder how this could work. On one Sunday, I even offered my uneducated opinion that this whole thing "would end badly for a lot of people."

The fact that people were buying houses they couldn't afford, for mortgages they temporarily could seemed like a recipe for disaster. But what did I know, I'm just a guy who can barely balance a checkbook.

So my question is this. If a dummy like me can see this coming six years before it happened, how come all these political and financial geniuses who make a living at this apparently didn't see this coming until Monday and now they have to fix it by Friday.

And how are they going to fix it? They're going to make me pay for it. Even though I bought and paid for a house I could afford, didn't refinance my house to make a quick buck and already pay outrageous taxes, I have to help bail out companies and people who conspired to get a deal that was too good to be true. People without a dollar in the bank were allowed to buy nice homes for little money. Yeah, that's a good idea.

It makes me very mad. And I blame Republicans and I blame Democrats. They both have dirty hands in this and that's why they are eager to fashion a quick, bipartisan solution so we don't ask too many questions about how we got here. Obama and McCain are leaning on advisers who are waist deep in this sewage.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought and paid for a lot of legislators, on both sides, and now they're scrambling to cover their tracks. If one of those crooked executives get an extra buck out of this, count me out of the deal.

Ralph Nader is looking better by the moment.

Flint Journal flap over flip flop

You can't blame Flint Journal staffers for being a little confused this week.

Two weeks ago they were told that a new round of buyouts are coming in October and some have even been called in and told it was probably time for them to take the buyouts and seek new employment. That sounds pretty definitive to me.

But then late last week, the Publisher in a couple of stand-up meetings, said no decisions have been made on any new buyouts or downsizing. The Publisher also denied any pending plans to shut down the press or to consolidate editing or reporting activities.

It's hard to imagine that the editor made up the buyouts or other information out of thin air and if he was honest enough to answer staff questions with what he knew, good for him.

If the Publisher is trying to limit damage from the early release with his "no decisions" comments when the reality is otherwise. Shame on him.

We know one thing. It can't be both ways. Either there is a new buyout plan coming or there is not one. Someone is not being honest.

A good football weekend!

My new team, the Buffalo Bills, pulled one out with a field goal at the end of the game. 3-0 on the season.

The Spartans did a pretty effective number on Notre Dame yesterday.

It's all good!

Just tuned into the Lions and they are down 21-3 in the first half. You know, I could make a pretty good comparison between the effectiveness of Matt Millen and some editors I know, but I won't.

Marinelli has to be asking him the question another Detroit Lions coach asked about a dozen years ago: "What does a guy have to do to get fired around here."

(Update Monday morning: In the Millen era the Lions are now 8-50 in road games. It would take more than five years of 8-0 road victories to erase that deficit. Come on Mr. Ford, time for Millen to go!)

Flint's hope in biogas

Just read the FJ business reporter Melissa Burden's report on biogas. It was good to see the Journal commit to sending a reporter to Sweden to cover the issue and, as always, Melissa has done a good job.

One major change in her coverage from past (way in the past) Journal excursions is that she is also doing the photographic work that would have normally been done by a photographer. Clearly, this had to be a sacrifice to the current financial situation, but it's sad that a photographer didn't have a chance to go along and record the trip.

The one question I was left with is the man they (and it looks like he was wired for a television interview) talked to at a gas station said he has used biogas in his "three" vehicles since 1997.

Because I am driving the same car I purchased in 2000 and will likely drive it for several more years I am curious if he has had to recycle cars because the biogas is hard on them, or if he is just a guy who likes a new car every three years.

The story says the biogas conversion costs $4,000 to $5,000 per car and it takes two years to recoop the savings from using biogas to pay for the conversions. If you trade a car in every two or three years, it would not seem worth the money.

Biogas is made from municipal waste, which is converted to an odorless (hopefully) biomethane which can replace gasoline and diesel.

In the story, the man Anders Folkessom, said the range is less than traditional gasoline and diesel engines. What the story doesn't say is how much shorter? If I have to stop every 200 miles to refuel, I'm probably not interested either.

I was also stunned to read that this high tech technology coming to Flint is expected to bring 25 new jobs. Now any new job is great, but all this State and local investment for a company expected to bring 25 jobs seems a bit over the top.

If they're looking down the road at other businesses (the story mentions that some company will need to make conversion kits for vehicles) then maybe it's worth it.

But a 25-job crap conversion plant will hardly replace the thousands of GM jobs that have left for other parts of America or the world.

Doonesbury takes the buyout

Even Doonesbury is in the act. If you haven't been following the recent newspaper angst subject line at Doonesbury, you can at Slate.com.

Here's a link to my favorite cartoon panel, so far.

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080918

To see the whole series click on previous until you get to the beginning. It has also continued on a couple days past the above link.

Newspaper fads that came and went

Hey, it's the weekend, let's have a little fun. Readership in freefromeditors.blogspot. com continues to increase.

I just wish my 401k had the same upward graph as the daily readership of this blog. Since March 31 we've had more than 7,000 visits. (By the way, the reader in Estonia keeps checking back). The time people spend on the site is also increasing, so thanks for your loyalty.

On Thursday, I talked to an old friend (actually the person is much younger than I am) but someone I have known in the business for a long, long time. As a frequent reader of this blog the person reminded me of some of the wonderful, if short-lived, fads that reporters and copy editors had to live with at the Journal.

These were the fads of the moments. These were the things that were going to save the newspaper and make us more relevant to the readers. These were the things that were, frankly, one big pain in the behind.

I'm going to throw out a couple and invite you to offer your own. (Remember, when you click on comments you can leave your information safely as anonymous. Not even I know who is responding, although I really wish "inky" would let him/herself be known to me.)

Anyone who has been at the Journal five years or more will remember the metro editor's brainchild to have an "info box" with every story. These little boxes were going to be short, pithy

little factoids that readers could not live without.

They were supposed to be important information that would explain an important part of the story, pull out facts that, if written in text, would be clumsy. In some cases, they actually worked.

There were a number of times that the metro editor caught my wrath after the copy desk would cut the info boxes for space. So a story about, say police salaries, would not include the actual salaries because they had been formatted in the "info box" and then cut for space. That left the reader thinking I was an idiot, which might not be that far off, but for the wrong reason.

Or the phone number to respond to a story about an event that was included in the info box was axed. The metro editor would tell me that he was doing all he could to explain to the copy desk how vital the "info boxes" were in the scheme of things, but what he didn't provide was the actual room in the paper to include them.

I came to really dislike info boxes, not because they were a bad idea. In some cases I actually thought they were a good idea, but because in practice it never really worked or ended up causing more than a few corrections or clarifications.

Then there was another fad about a half dozen years ago, in which the same editor or one like him came up with the genius idea that every name in the paper had to be a person's full given name. That meant Jim Jones, whether that was what Jim preferred or not, had to be written as James E. Jones in the paper.

Reporters often spent long periods of time trying to call government officials or other sources to determine the formal names of people. If Pete Frankenstein spoke up at a city council meeting and you couldn't catch him before he left, you were left scrambling phone books, city clerks records or anything else to make sure you ended up with Peter J. Frankenstein in the paper.

There were no exceptions. If an unidentified body was found it had to be written as John B. Doe in the police blotter item. OK, I made that part up, but it was almost that silly. Actually, I think cop stories were pretty much the only exemptions to the edict.

It went on for a frustratingly long time until even to the geniuses that control these important things, it was allowed to vaporize into Journal history.

Now, it's your turn. There are many more examples of this stupidity and I'm inviting you to submit them to me now. If you prefer not to leave a comment but send them to my e-mail send them to: jlsmediaservices (at) gmail (dot) com. Use the actual symbols for the words in parenthesis, but I don't need the spam by printing the actual address here.

I'm really liking Ralph Nader

At least this is a funny ad. I'm thinking that Ralph Nader is getting the short end of the stick from the media. We've heard everything there is to hear (good and bad) about McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden. It would be refreshing to maybe, just maybe, get a new perspective from a guy who has really been fighting for consumers for a long, long time.

If our system continues to lock up everything for the two major parties nothing will ever change. There's that word again.

For a little humor, follow this link to Ralph Nader talking to a parrot.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/09/ralph_nader_and_cardozo_the_pa.html?nav=rss_blog

A high, hard-one pitched by Newhouse

This memor was sent to employees of the New Jersey-based Star-Ledger newspaper, which is otherwise known in Newhouse circles (the chain that owns the Booth newspaper group and the Flint Journal) as the "Mother Ship." This one is going to leave a mark.

From: ARWADY, GEORGE
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 1:01 PM
To: ~ MAINTENANCE
Subject: Update from Arwady

To: All Star-Ledger Employees
From: George Arwady
Date: September 16, 2008

Re: Update

As I have previously told you, there are three conditions that must be met in order for The Star-Ledger to remain in business under its current ownership. Although we are making progress toward meeting two of our three conditions (the Mailers have a ratification vote scheduled for September 22), we still are far from an agreement with the Drivers? union.

Accordingly, since it is doubtful that the Drivers will ratify an agreement by October 8, 2008, we will be sending formal notices to all employees this week, as required by both federal and New Jersey law, advising you that the Company will be sold, or, failing that, that it will close operations on January 5, 2009.

It is most unfortunate that we have to send out this notice, but the Drivers have left us with no choice.

George Arwady, Publisher

Let Nader debate

Look, the two-party system is a mess. It's clear that big money controls both parties and it doesn't help that other voices are kept out.

What does it hurt to let third party candidates into the fray? So I'm on board the "Let Ralph Debate" bandwagon.

You can get on the bandwagon as well at: Constitutionpledge.com

What are the two major parties afraid of when they lock out dissident voices from the debate?

A year ago today (or yesterday)

It was a year ago today, or yesterday if you go by days of the week rather than dates, that the publisher offered the generous buyouts that started the clean out of the "characters" from the Flint Journal.

The Journal loves anniversary stories so here is mine.

Late last week, we learned that a second round of buyouts may be offered as soon as next month. From what I understand these will require folks to be gone by the end of the year, but that could change.

And now I'm hearing reports that the New Jersey newspaper (George Arwady) Star Ledger is talking about closing or a sale in the near future. (More on that later).

For some of us, the buyout was a copper parachute, for others a brief life ring to the next job, and for others they are still waiting on that "next thing." Some of them, I know, miss the rough and tumble of daily reporting, but fully understand that under the current leadership those days were behind them whether they were at the Flint Journal or out.

I grew up in a home where my stepfather's job at Lockheed Aircraft Corp. in Burbank, California, was always at risk for layoff. I know the toll that took on my stepdad always wondering if Friday was his last day (he ended up retiring at 70 after nearly 40 years on the job).

So my heart goes out to the folks living through this again at the Journal this year. Many of them are young folks who have the same love of journalism that brought many of us into the profession when we were their age.

Knowing how bright they are I can only assure them that whatever happens, they will succeed.

Currently they are limited by what, in my humble opinion, is poor management and weak leadership. Someday they will discover what their real potential is under effective and strong leadership. But for now, I know it must, well, suck.

Talking about football, for a minute

Joan and I are still drying out from sitting at the MSU vs. Florida Atlantic game at Spartan Stadium Saturday.

Even before we left Lapeer, Joan was urging me to reconsider and stay home and watch the game on television.

"But I already bought the tickets and besides, it can't rain all day," I told her.

Wrong. It not only rained all day, it got harder as the day went on. But she was a good sport and didn't whine and sat in the upper deck shrouded in a poncho for three hours. Finally, when the score was 17-0 in with five minutes left in the fourth quarter, I looked at her and offered an escape. She gladly took it.

The score didn't change and we didn't dry out until late Saturday night. On Sunday, the rain continued, but we didn't stay home to watch the hapless Detroit Lions.

Instead we went to an RV show (yes, we may be the only people in the country looking at buying a gas guzzling truck and Fifth Wheel recreational vehicle) to look at the new models. So the fundamentals of our economy are strong.

As far as the Lions, I'm not even concerned about them. I have adopted the Buffalo Bills (it's my second home after all) and really have better things to do with my time than be concerned with the semi-pro team that occupies Ford Field.

I am going to purchase a short series of tickets for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team (Gordy Howe series - 9 games) for the coming season.