GM now in the hands of Uncle Sam

Most of you who visit here frequently know that I have little confidence in the two major political parties. Frankly, to me it's tweedle-dee, tweedle dum, with the emphasis on dum.

On the way home from the Red Wings game last night we heard that the President of the United States "asked" GM head Rick Waggoner to step down. That would mean that now the government is in charge of most large banks, insurance companies and now the nation's largest automaker.

The only thing spookier than the current auto company leadership is the thought that the next leadership of the company would be the federal government. But that's where we are.

My biggest question is why the government hands over hundreds of billions and potentially trillions of dollars to the financial sector without a whisper of a plan or controls and yet when GM needs a "loan" to get them over a difficult time they are required to jump through months of hoops and still aren't there.

I'm not one to throw around the "socialist" label too freely, but as we head to a situation where banks, insurance companies, some of our largest manufacturing companies and potentially medical coverage are under government control, you'll have to tell me what that is called, if not socialist.

Since September when President Bush started this mess I have been on record as totally opposing these continued "bail-outs" and I think the results, so far, have proven me right. The money has disappeared down a very large rat hole and no recovery is yet in sight.

At least they should apply the same standards to GM as they did to AIG, which is basically, none.

I more suspect that the current grab for control of GM may be a larger attempt to force the car company to build cars that look like shoe boxes, top out at a speed of 45 mph and run on grass clippings and landfill waste, In other words, cars no one wants or will buy.

Ford is probably thanking its lucky stars that it never started down the federal gift plan.

Even though I didn't vote for Obama (remember I 'wasted' my vote on Nader) I had high hopes. Those hopes have gotten much lower.

A too true cartoon

A Facebook friend noted the above. Click on the cartoon to see the whole panel.

The little people score again with better ideas

There are very clever and creative people working in newsrooms. Plenty who understand the Internet universe far better than their much higher paid bosses and managers.

Here's a great example over at Gannett.

It's ideas like these, that if applied in the newspaper online sites would draw more readers and advertisers, but alas, the conversations about how to save the papers are only occurring behind closed doors in corporate high offices.

Free and reduced classifieds at Syracuse paper

The publisher at the Syracuse paper has chimed in today with his paper's actions.

A copy editor must not have noticed (wink, wink) that the lead was slightly buried (about 10-inches down) when the publisher announced 10-day furloughs and an end to the company sponsored retirement system for all the employees.

It never ceases to amaze me that the same news standards that would apply to any other news story (bad or big news up front) is missing from the bad news stories about the newspapers themselves.

The secrecy surrounding newspaper news does not set a good example for the public and private organizations that the newspaper covers.

A good-bye from a Gannet television desk editor

I "borrowed" this off Gannetblog. It says so well what many of us have been saying.

Assignment desk editor Alan Henney of broadcasting division flagship WUSA-TV told colleagues in an e-mail on Wednesday that consultants and "out-of-touch corporate management have ruined the newscasts with repetitive Web clutter, endless sidebar packages, and their preoccupation with the Internet."

Then he hit the send key at 12:47 p.m. ET.

Here's what he wrote:

Subject: Goodbye from Alan

This message will come as a surprise. I worked on the assignment desk and I enjoyed the work I did with all of you. You are some great co-workers. But I am not receiving the support I feel is needed to continue to attempt a quality news product on the weekends.

After receiving my master’s from GWU, I spent my life pursuing a career in journalism. Paul Irvin brought me on as a paid tipster in March of 2000. Then Tony Castrilli offered me the part-time weekend desk position in 2005. In addition to weekends, for the past three years I volunteered to work unfilled weekday shifts and major holidays, often neglecting my ailing mother.

But I treasured every shift, and never once called out sick or missed a day of work.

As we discussed in ethics class yesterday, the top-down decision-making approach is a flawed model.

WUSA frequently lacks the discussion that is vital to the success of a vibrant news operation and falls into this model. Many of us are reluctant to say anything, and the suggestion box on the first floor is not enough.

The consultants and out-of-touch corporate management have ruined the newscasts with repetitive Web clutter, endless sidebar packages, and their preoccupation with the Internet. You won’t find a blog anywhere that will generate enough revenue to support a news operation of this size, there are simply too many.

We’ve heard regular speak of “Web Winners,” but what ever happened to the “News Winners?” A dying breed? IT IS TIME EVERYBODY WORK A DAY ON THE ASSIGNMENT DESK TO FIND OUT WHAT IT IS LIKE.

The next time you holler at one of my colleagues on the assignment desk, put yourself in their position. The WUSA assignment editors are conscientious, diehard news people who work extended shifts without union benefits, never had a meal buyout or OT, and hardly get a chance to eat lunch.

The assignment desk is the WUSA switchboard, the help desk for all of WUSA and the rest of humanity. The assignment desk does pretty much everything nobody else does. TOO MUCH.

How many of you call just to ask for another employee’s phone number you should have already gotten from Renee’s list? Please be thoughtful of assignment desk workers, and volunteer to work a shift to see what it is like.

We are doing less news gathering these days and more information posting. Somebody needs to be driving the news machine at all times, actively pursuing news leads.

We’ve lost our focus. Any corporation that allows employees to blog as an excuse for not reporting to work on time is not an organization with which I want to be associated. Effective immediately, I am placing myself on permanent furlough from the Gannett Corp.

I will be mailing back my card later today. I am frustrated, as many of you are. Please don’t let that discourage you from staying in touch. As I said, you have been great, and I’ll miss working with you.

Thanks for the great times.

My favorite part:

"As we discussed in ethics class yesterday, the top-down decision-making approach is a flawed model.

WUSA frequently lacks the discussion that is vital to the success of a vibrant news operation and falls into this model. Many of us are reluctant to say anything, and the suggestion box on the first floor is not enough.

The consultants and out-of-touch corporate management have ruined the newscasts with repetitive Web clutter, endless sidebar packages, and their preoccupation with the Internet. You won’t find a blog anywhere that will generate enough revenue to support a news operation of this size, there are simply too many."

Detroit News experiment ready to go

At least the News - Free Press model pretty much left the newsroom s of the newspapers intact, realizing that it was unwise to further erode the news product in the name of saving money.

Detroit News has its own story today.

Today's house cleaning movie: Huckleberry Finn

On the menu for today's House cleaning: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Mickey Rooney. After that, San Antonio with Errol Flynn.

The time should go very quickly.

A tale of two websites: State News defeats MLive

Up front I will admit my bias for The State News, the daily newspaper from Michigan State. I was editor there from 1978-79, but the student web coverage of the NCAA Tournament as compared to MLive speaks volumes about what is wrong with the MLive site.

This morning I woke up not knowing whether my beloved Spartans won their game last night. A guy has to get his beauty sleep you know and the Red Wings lost so I didn't think I could bear another disappointment.

First I went to MLive, the Flint Journal edition. I found the score in a box score after I scrolled down the home page. I couldn't find a game story, so I took a chance and clicked on the Michigan State link in the box score. What did I get, an Associated Press account of the game. Not even a Booth reporter's account. No video, no audio, just the hidden story.

After searching the MLive site again, I found a small blurb from a Booth writer tucked into the sports news roll. By clicking on that I got the Booth writer's version. Why one link takes you to an AP story and the other to the Booth writer is anyone's guess.

So I took a chance and went to The State News site. What a difference. I got a locally produced story, a photo album, a video of post game comments of a player and two audio files from the winning and losing coach.

You might argue that sure, The State News, would have a bigger presence at the NCAA finals and that would be true. But it is M (for Michigan) Live after all. The results of that game (or for the Maize and Blue) you would think would be a major news point for MLive.

I'm sure game video is protected under some licensing agreement, but I'll turn on Sportscenter and see what I can see there.

The student journalists at Michigan State got it right. MLive, well, lame.

And in case I hadn't already said it: GO STATE!

Here's the video from the State News site:

What are your ideas?

An anonymous poster left this:

"Jim,
I would like to hear other peoples suggestions on how they could actually improve or at least sell more papers.I just don't believe enough is being done to improve the product to compete.These papers have always been penny wise and dollar foolish. It takes money to make money: they are taking money to make money."

Before Booth announced its recent slashes I suggested to them (and I also said I would see pigs fly first) that they seek the ideas of ALL their employees before making such draconian cuts. Well, they didn't do that, but we can still offer the ideas that we would have made to help the paper.

So, I'm offering this space for serious reflections on what could be done to save newspapers. Many of you have offered bits and pieces in previous comments. We all know the management is lacking, but let's go a little deeper. The comment refers specifically to content and let's assume the poster means all content, online and dead tree.

"If I was publisher I would...."

Have at it.

Dad has some good news

My father, a frequent reader of this blog and a lifelong lover and consumer of newspapers and magazines, has been following the sad events of the past week with interest.

If Washington, D.C. is the country's stomach, my father lives in the upper colon in the suburb of Herndon, Virginia and is a daily reader of the Washington Post. A former advertising executive he follows and knows trends better than anyone I have ever met in my life. He also believes that to get a real flavor of how stupid Washington works (or doesn't) he thinks it should be a requirement for every American to live in an around Washington for at least two years. (He equally despises Republicans and Democrats - like father, like son).

So he sent along this opinion after reading today's sports section. Finally some good news about the economy.

Dad:

"I have a sure fire accurate gauge to measure the country's economic situation, well it's as accurate as any of the other systems; the Washington Post sports section today featured eight small massage parlor ads, up from four last week. A solid indication of an upswing in the economy!"

Now why my 80-plus year old father is looking at massage parlor ads, you can guess. No, actually my father reads every ad (with a very critical eye) and newspaper articles with the same detailed copy editor's view.

My father's name was once used as the cardholder's name on a national "Bankamericard" ad (remember the little cartoon orchestra conductor back in the 1960s).

He is typical of so many of the "Greatest Generation," he does not like reading his news online. My blog is the only one he reads and that is probably out of some family obligation, so he will likely not make the transition with newspapers into cyberspace.

But at least he sees a silver lining for the economy.

p.s. If you are ever in the Washington, D.C. area and want the best tour you can receive at the Dulles branch of the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, just ask for "Lee" the docent before you head there and you won't be disappointed. A former general aviation pilot and member of the Army Air Corps in World War II his head is crammed full of facts and information about airplanes and flight. It's a free tour, by the way.

Jim Carty's reflections on AnnArbor.com

After a three-part interview with the new "content super czar" of the new AnnArbor.com Jim Carty is online today with his own reflections about the future of the Newhouse "inspired" and Newhouse led new venture.

You already know mine.

The election of 1864

One way to get out of a blue funk, at least for me, is to go to a great lecture on the Civil War.

As a member of the James Turrill Civil War Roundtable in Lapeer I always look forward to our monthly programs. Tonight was a really good one.

Bob, a history teacher in Flint, gave a fascinating talk about the politics leading up to the 1864 re-election of Abraham Lincoln. I wish I had the memory to recreate the entire talk, but for those of us who are history buffs, the intricate details of the political machinations were very interesting.

One fact I do remember is that Lincoln, by consensus one of, if not the, greatest President in our country's history only won re-election, during an unpopular war, by a relatively narrow 2.2 million to 1.8 million vote.

So that means that in his time, Lincoln was pretty much opposed by half the people he represented. History has been good to him, even if fate wasn't.

Although he was often viewed in his day as a country bumpkin, he had a shrewd political mind and navigated the political waters with great skill. Attempts to get him to declare an armistice in the months leading up to the election failed.

Bob wondered aloud that if an armistice was declared so a peace could be negotiated leading up to the election whether the Civil War could ever have actually been won by the north. Would anyone in the north be willing to start up the war again after it had stopped for awhile? Would Lincoln have been re-elected, or would Gen. George McClellan, a peace candidate, beaten Lincoln?

Of course, the questions are completely unanswerable, but still fun to discuss.

So as you can see, I'm pretty much a history nerd. Everything was going pretty well until after the end of the lecture and then everyone at the lecture turned to me and wanted to know what I thought of the events at the Flint Journal this week.

I told them I pretty much felt like General Lee must have felt after Gettysburg. They could relate to that.

On life after journalism

A faithful reader, RZ, sent this along and it's a pretty good read.

On backward hat wearing and fool's gold

Jim Carty has posted Part III of his interview with the "content director" or "chief content director" whatever his goofy title is at the new AnnArbor.com.

Some of the "characters" from my Journal era will appreciate the humor of the following excerpt:

"We'll turn a lot over to them, and just let them go after that audience and make it their own. A lot of that is just going to be what they do. They live there, and I can't do that, and I won't try to. My job is more immediate and a little more traditional - to get that existing audience that we've got to start with and bring them with us to a new company that has to succeed. But there will be a lot of kids wearing baseball caps backwards and tennis shoes, to reach an audience that I am not tuned into or capable of reaching."

Sounds like what they are inventing is Drudge with a YouTube addition. Done and done.

I still contend if you were going to roll out a "new and exciting product, one like nothing anyone has ever seen before" you wouldn't have done the roll out with a podcast so boring and predictable that it could be used in place of Ambien for sleep inducement. You have to wonder if anyone at Newhouse has even seen this video?

Carty does a good job of confronting him about the folly of three (four if you count the "man behind the curtain" revealed in the story) Advance/Booth retreads leading this "new" venture.

What he doesn't explain (and frankly what Advance and Booth have never explained or found an answer to) is "how is this going to make money?"

Carty is certainly ruining any pretense at my blogging sabbatical. What they should do to make this thing work is simply hire Carty and Mary Morgan, a former Ann Arbor News writer who now produces the online newspaper, AnnArborChronicle and let them run the thing.

The bottom line is that this is still about the upper management at Booth protecting their own "phony, baloney" jobs. (Just couldn't resist another "Blazing Saddles" reference).

Crain's: More on the cuts at Booth

Here's some information on the Booth cuts as reported by Bill Shea in Crains. It appears that the pay cuts are all over the place. Some were cut 10-15 percent, others 25 percent and a few unlucky souls were hacked by 50 percent. Wonder how that's going over in Booth newsrooms?

Also it's being reported that 85 layoffs from the FJ alone were reported to the State.

Just a short break from the blogging sabbatical.

AnnArbor.com: A train wreck in the making

OK, I couldn't stay away from the newspaper news that long. Jim Carty has put up Part II of the "content director" of AnnArbor.com's interview.

Except for the obviously biased headline, I'm going to withhold any comment and just let you read it for yourself here.

You should put Paper Tiger No More and Inside Out on your favorites list if you are hungry for Booth news. For example here's a good analysis on Inside Out.

I'll be back in a couple of weeks. (Or sooner, if something important pops up.)

Gone fishin'

Unless something else major comes up, I'm taking a short sabbatical from newspaper blogging. I am working on one large think piece about "What went wrong?" but it will be a couple weeks before that's done.

Too many hurting friends, too many stupid management decisions and too many restless nights. I noticed this morning that Jim Carty has the first of three parts of an interview with the former editor of the Flint Journal and the new "content director" of AnnArbor.com.

Those who remember our former editor will be stunned by some of his comments about what he encouraged and wanted in Flint. But it's a good job by Jim Carty to at least try and flesh out what this new product is trying to be.

You can read the first installment here. But you'll have to go back and find the rest for yourself, I'm not sure I can stand anymore.

I'll still be writing here (it's hard for me not to write and the wonderful writers I have worked with will certainly understand) but it will not be about newspapers for awhile, except for the "What Went Wrong?" piece that I'll post in a couple of weeks. Hint: December 2000.

Feel free to continue to post on the stories already here, but unless you want to read about what movie I'm watching or an occasional anti-Republican or anti-Democrat rant you can spend your time somewhere else more productively for at least a couple weeks.

Some of you are upset with me, and I apologize for any unintended offense. Many people have encouraged and thanked me, and for that you're welcome. I have always believed that information is power, that's why I got into the news business to begin with.

But the reality is what it is and Booth has lost its ears. There's simply no point, at least right now, in further outlining the corporate deafness.

For those of you on my wife's employment search list, she is still actively looking for related jobs and I'll be in touch with you off line.

Best of luck to everyone. If you need to get a hold of me, my e-mail address is in my profile. But, as always, don't do it from work.

Booth news from Crain's Business Detroit

Crain's has a story on the changes here.

And they had an interview with Steve Newhouse as well.

Circulation and distribution likely hardest hit

A couple folks have called and written to tell me that the mood is grim at the PDC where the drivers and others have learned they will be making much less, very soon.

All the drivers will be laid off and then could be hired back on new contracts with much less lucrative terms. The union drivers are apparently history.

More as it comes in.

More Booth news from Inside Out

The Inside Out blog has done a good job of pulling together all of today's offerings from the Booth chain of newspapers. She has a lot of information on pay cuts, benefit cuts, etc. that I haven't had time to pull together.

The benefit and pay cuts are Booth wide. Although I don't know if the managers and editors are sharing in the pain. Maybe someone has information on that.

Here's the exciting new AnnArbor.com editor

If you want the first impression of the new AnnArbor.com, go there and listen to the boring speech and delivery of the Flint Journal's former editor and the new "content director" of the new website.

Good gosh, the guy is introducing this exciting new venture with the most boring, self-absorbed, smirking introduction that anyone could produce. You'd have to work at making something this bad.

Couldn't they find a videographer to take some videos or other views of Ann Arbor to fill this two minute video?

If this is the best they could do for the all-important launch, heaven help what comes next.

Next time hire an actor who isn't as boring as watching a tree grow.

From Channel 5

Local coverage of the Booth actions.

Story on Channel 12 at noon

Here's the local television coverage.

Editor and Publisher on Booth changes

From Editor and Publisher today.

A bigger round-up

Jim Carty has a lot over on his blog about Ann Arbor, but Grand Rapids has put up the following information about chain wide changes.

Flint Journal scoops its workers with Mlive announcement

Here's the scoop from Mlive on the Flint Journal.

I'll have more later.

Here's more info and a letter from the publisher.

Sometimes it sucks being right.

I'm as mad, frustrated, sad and indignant as I have ever been so I will resist striking out and saying what I really feel right now.

Ann Arbor News gets the bad news

Don't know yet what this means for Flint, Bay City and Saginaw but here's the news as MLive has it this morning:

Ann Arbor News to close in July.

More from Jim Carty

It was great to have Elin home for the weekend. It's been unusually quiet on the Booth front on this end, but Jim Carty has some thoughts this morning.

A couple more industry posts that are worth reading

From Washington State.

And from Tennessee.

Thanks to the anonymous reader who supplied the links.

Some job help and advice

A former colleague of mine has her own blog Inside Out and she has been very faithful about posting job tips and ideas for folks in the journalism business.

Here's her latest with plenty of back links to her previous posts.

Go read Jim Carty's blog

My stepdaughter is home from Boston for the weekend, so not much time to blog today or the weekend, but Jim Carty at "Paper Tiger No More" has some interesting Newhouse/Booth information over there.

Another newspaper "what-went-wrong" analysis

From Editor and Publisher.

Gannett CEO salary cut to a meager $3.1 million

Here's the story.

I'm boiling the tar and plucking the feathers

So today we went to our tax guy. By the time we left I was steaming inside, not because of the tax guy, but because of the stupidity of our government again.

Last year, he asked us if we had purchased an energy efficient furnace in 2007, because we could have received a nice "green" tax break if we did. So last summer we replaced our 50 percent efficient 30-year-old furnace with a new 95 percent "green" furnace.

So we arrived in the tax guy's office with our receipts ready for our tax break. Wrong. Congress did not renew the "green" tax break for 2008, but now has renewed it for 2009. So our "green" purchase in 2008 does not qualify for the tax break because Congress decided 2008 didn't need to be "green."

What are these idiots smoking in D.C.?

On top of that, I made a little extra money with a part-time job last year and learned today that because I didn't pay quarterly FICA payments and tax payments, on top of the $2,300 I owe in taxes, Uncle Sam wants me to pay a $40 penalty for not filing quarterly, something I knew nothing about.

So, being the smart fellow that I always am, I asked the tax guy if I could plead the Tim Geitner defense that I didn't know. Wrong again. I guess unless you are being considered for a high government or cabinet position, you have no immunity from penalties even for something as ridiculous as not making quarterly payments on a little part-time job.

I just wish there was a big hole they would all fall in and stay in. So I'm wondering tonight how much President Obama's trip on Air Force One to appear on Jay Leno is going to cost the taxpayers and how little they really needed my extra $40.

Someone, please tell President Obama that he WON the election and therefore does not have to continue his election campaign. I want the guy to succeed, but please send a message of thrift and conservation by staying in that nice little White House the American taxpayers give you.

Rant officially over.

Last day at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Newspaper Death Watch has a story on the last day of print publication for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer today. Included in the story is a link to a series of photos of the last day, which includes pictures of Photo Editor John Dickson, who was at one time the photo editor at the Flint Journal. It's all here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here's a St. Paddy's Facebook gift sent to me by Jay Clothier, a great attorney with an even greater sense of humor (I have many of his t-shirts). So enjoy the day and the song.

How talented were you at 13?

The voice of an angel. Faryl Smith and she's only 13.

NPR: FJ publisher says production cuts may be coming

A frequent reader sent me a link to NPR's coverage today of the pending Booth actions. In it, the publisher comes closer (assuming he was quoted correctly) to admitting that production day cuts could be in the offing. The link is here.

This is why I love "The Daily Show"

Jon Stewart does the job that many folks are afraid to do. If you haven't seen this interview (and you'll have to get through a 30-second Hulu ad to see it) with Mad Money's Jim Cramer, watch this segment and then see the whole thing at www.thedailyshow.com.

Federal bureaucrats and the death of common sense

Last April I built a wheelchair ramp for my father-in-law. With the strength of his legs failing it became necessary to quickly construct it because he was no longer able to negotiate the steps from the house to the garage.

While it was a labor of love, one that cost my in-laws nearly $800 in lumber and supplies, in the end the same thing could have been done for much less and with much less urgency.

Ditto for my brother, who died on New Year's Day, but I'll get to that story after I finish my father-in-law's tale.

My father-in-law is a World War II veteran, a member of the 75th Division that saw extensive action during the Battle of Bulge. In my mind, he and all the members of his generation are heroes for what they gave and sacrificed during that time.

About five years ago, I noticed that a neighbor two doors down had a metal wheelchair ramp installed. When I asked "Red" about it he mentioned that the Veteran's Administration installed it for his neighbor.

Two years ago, the neighbor died and the reason for the wheelchair ramp with it. Family members of the deceased veteran moved in.

So when the sudden need for a wheelchair ramp arose for my father-in-law we turned to the Veteran's Administration for help last year. But under the VA's red tape we discovered that my father-in-law's neighbor was a former Prisoner of War during World War II, which qualified him for the free ramp.

Because my father-in-law was neither on a military disability or a POW, he didn't qualify for the ramp, even though it was sitting two doors down being used by completely able non-veterans who moved into the deceased POW's home.

Every time we go back to Buffalo, it grates me that that "temporary" wheelchair ramp that was erected for a disabled World War II POW remains at a house two doors down from my father-in-law who was denied the ramp because he didn't qualify.

When we suggested (a year ago) that I could simply go down and move the ramp, we were told no, that they were coming to get it. Well, this is March 15, 2009 and the ramp is still there being used by people who don't need it, and certainly don't qualify for it.

Next, my brother, a Vietnam veteran, had a preliminary diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of his service last year. At the time he died, he had a doctor's appointment in February to make the final approval for his military disability benefits.

He had been through a lot and his wife could certainly use the money, so she called to see if he qualified for any retroactive benefits. What she was told was that because he didn't make his February doctor's appointment he would now and forever be ineligible for the benefits.

Do you get the stupidity of that? Because my 57-year-old brother was so sick that he died before he could make his final doctor's appointment he was now forever unable to prove that he was really sick enough to get his benefits. Guess dying isn't enough proof.

I think even the bureaucrats who make these decisions must know in their heart, and minds, how stupid what they say, sounds to intelligent people.

Back home from Buffalo

Back from Buffalo, all is quiet and the weather is great. A robin is digging worms in the backyard. A good sign.

Links to posts on pending Booth actions

Some folks told me they are having trouble finding links or articles on the current topic of interest.

Here is Crain's article.

Here is the ABC-TV, Channel 12 story.

Editor and Publisher is here.

An idea from inside Booth

A Booth employee wrote me off line expressing frustration with the tone and lack of response to the news of the pending plans for the newspaper.

The plea from the employee is that the time-honored secrecy and closely held management of the Booth chain might benefit at this crucial time from first, a little honesty, and second, and more importantly, a little more collaboration and idea sharing throughout the chain, from top to bottom.

"If people could simply get their egos out of the way and admit that perhaps someone lower on the ladder than them might have a better idea of how to save the newspapers, the online product and help us in the future, we might have a chance."

I'm only really familiar with the Flint Journal, but what the person said is true. I've written previously about the abrupt and arbitrary way that management moved around reporters and beats. You're probably tired (and I know they are) of me explaining how promotions are handed out without any competitive process or postings.

So it's not really in the DNA of Booth management to really reach out to its employees and say: "Here's the problem, here's the solution as we see it, but we are open to other ideas on how to move forward."

That would involved hundreds of minds, many of them new and young minds, with perhaps forward thinking ideas that staid old reporters (like me), editors and managers haven't yet considered.

I mean what would it hurt to open this process up to everyone? With the nuclear option on the table, as the reader said, put some high-priced egos aside and see what other ideas might be out there.

What have you got to lose that you don't already plan to lose?

Now, I'm going to the window of my in-laws Buffalo home and watch as the pigs fly by.

Off to Buffalo

Buffalo, NY beckons, but blogging should continue if the usually reliable wireless signal penetrates the in-laws walls again.

I am still in contact with folks in and around the Journal and if anything new develops, I'll let you know.

On Wednesday, I received a call from a Channel 12 reporter who just asked me to confirm that the blog was mine, which I did. Someone called me and said the station did a short news bit on the blog information.

The response from the three papers was predictably vague, but far from a denial, I'm told.

Feel free to post what you hear anonymously on the original post or here. Have the best weekend you can.

Fight for the thing!

Last night I went back and read the various business documents from Booth that were shared with me about the impending plan to scale back operations at least at the Flint Journal, Bay City Times and Saginaw News.

For my own peace of mind, I also shared them with a couple of trusted friends, former employees, for their assessment of what the internal documents said. All agreed that my interpretation of them was accurate, if not unnecessarily muted.

So here we are two days later and the only response from the newspapers so far publicly (and internally, I am told) is that "everything is on the table." No denials, no repudiation of what has been written here and, by the way, no request for a retraction or correction.

I'm told the editor told his staff yesterday morning that "my office is open, but my mouth is closed." Any good reporter knows that when someone ducks a "yes or no" question with a vague answer, they are usually confirming the information they won't comment on.

I've read the passionate comments from readers and employees alike. I hope management is reading along as well. But maybe they can't.

A person who works at the Journal, not in the editorial department, told me that this site is electronically blocked at the paper. If true, that's a terrible example from a so-called defender of the First Amendment.

The other night as I contemplated posting the original information my wife was surprised when my voice broke as I read her from the document. She wondered why. "This is like a death," I told her. A death of something very near and dear to me. And, of course, near and dear to people I care about very much.

But what really troubles me is that this so-called business plan to save the papers, is nothing more than a several page death wish. This isn't saving the papers, it is ritual suicide. It is what Japanese admirals did when their plans failed in World War II.

Not to get too dramatic, but this plan, the very one they are considering right now, and that I published here on Tuesday, is France in World War II. It's the Iraqi Army in Desert Storm. It quite simply is surrender. And I think they know it.

Carve the paper back to three days a week and the readers and advertisers will flee in greater numbers than they already have. I'm a simple-minded retired reporter and if I can see it, why can't some expensive suit see this as well.

Dismember more of the creative and hardworking folks that produce, sell and deliver the papers and your future is gone. Forever.

Dr. Kevorkian (and remember I knew Dr. Kevorkian well) could not have designed a better suicide machine than the one being proposed for the newspapers here.

This is a child about to put a fork in a light socket, "don't do it."

Dismantle your daily operation and you will do Humpty Dumpty and it will be impossible to put back together again.

Do you need more metaphors?

Not that the company will ever listen to me, but they should listen to the voices of the people who want the papers to survive and step back from the brink. When you are faced with a danger you have two choices, "flight or fight."

Choose to go down fighting. It's worth it for the paper, it's important to the community and you could make some history. Turn loose those reporters and advertising sales people to do what they were trained and are passionate to do without the current lame management that is holding them back.

Look more toward the front page, than the bottom line. You're a newspaper stupid, your survival is tied to the product more than ever. Gutting it only leaves you less to sell.

If you can't do that, try and sell the paper to someone who will. Although that will be nearly impossible in the current market, it will be impossible once the human infrastructure is gone. It's not too late to turn back from the brink.

After a fall, how to pick back up

Reflections of a Newsosaur had some thoughts for survivors of the Seattle newspaper collapse.

For some reason you have to scroll up from the comments to read the article. But it's there. Follow the links with the story about how to make people pay for your online content.

Flint Journal to cut publication days, staff, benefits

Of all the journalism related posts I have put up, this is the one I least wanted to do. But the information is solid and it doesn't seem right to have the information and not pass it along to the folks most impacted by it.

Reportedly, some time next week, publishers at the Flint Journal, Bay City Times and Saginaw News are expected to call together their staffs to announce the following:

1.) The three papers will reduce publication to three days a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. The date of the change I don't know. (No one mentioned my terrible verb tense, I've fixed it today)

2.) The reduction in publication days will void the long held "lifetime" employment pledge of Newhouse and Booth.

3.) An unspecified number of employees will be laid off and will receive some type of severance, which they must "voluntarily" accept. The company will recommend the State give the severed employees unemployment compensation.

4.) Those employees who stay will face reduced pay and benefits, which will be adjusted to conform to the pay and benefits currently paid at weekly newspapers.

5.) The printing of the Flint Journal will cease at the Flint PDC and will be transferred to the printing plant that is currently printing the Bay City Times and the Saginaw News.

6.) There will be a central copy desk for the three newspapers, but newspapers will retain separate newsrooms.

7.) Some sections of the three-times a week paper will be identical among the three papers.

All this is a result of the continuing economic collapse of Michigan and Flint, Bay City and Saginaw specifically. Ad revenues and newspaper losses have not been covered by the already draconian cuts suffered by the papers.

It will be interesting to see if the salaries of the editors and upper management will also be cut to match those of folks in similar positions at weekly newspapers. I heard at least one publisher may get a $430,000 severance.

No one will be happier than I if this information turns out to be some kind of plant in an effort to trip me up. But my reading of the information that I have shows otherwise. I held off nearly 24 hours to give the company a chance to announce these things before I did. Hopefully, because I'm posting this for a 1 p.m. release, maybe they have already released this information.

What big city papers will fail or go digital next?

Found this article on a Facebook friend's posting:

What papers will fail go digital?

More ideas on how to save newspapers

Another frequent FFE reader sent along this item from the New York Times.

Big changes coming to Flint, Bay City and Saginaw papers

Some information has come to me that indicates that as early as next week, huge changes will be announced at the Flint Journal, Bay City Times and Saginaw News. Not sure if similar announcements are planned at other Booth properties.

Before I publish the information that has come to me, I want to double check a couple things because the changes are significant enough that a number of very good people will be affected.

Maybe the management, realizing that I have the information now, will do the right thing and make the announcements sooner, rather than later. But stay tuned as I will likely put up some information as early as tomorrow.

NHL Hockey is today's vacuuming and dusting distraction

We had to postpone cleaning day until today, so instead of a movie I watched the NHL Game of the Week, Boston Bruins versus New York Rangers.

Sean Avery is back. Yuck!

Stuck in my head: A mutated "Billy Bass"

There is a new commercial that features a singing fish. The annoying jingle has been stuck in my head for several hours and in addition to promising never to visit the fast food restaurant that sponsored the ad it brought to mind another annoying "fish."

A few years ago, the Big Mouth Billy Bass fad swept through the country and many people I know, smart people by the way, bought them and actually hung them on the walls of their homes and cabins.

By now I'm sure they are all gone, but to where. Apparently e-bay, because they have 26 of them for sale right now. And in case you have forgotten them, here is a short sample of one version (there were several).

Shalom aleichem!

Someone from Israel stopped by, the first visitor to Free From Editors from that country.

Mazal tov!

We also pray for peace for your country and region.

A new visitor from Santa Lucia

A blogger from Castries in Saint Lucia stopped by here this week, making it 57 countries who have sent visitors here. An Eastern Caribbean country it looks like a great place to visit.

Still no one from North Dakota, however.

You never write, you never call, a Facebook divorce

OK, I'm too old to be on Facebook (or so my stepdaughter says) I spend too much time blogging, surfing the web and learning new technological tricks.

No longer is breaking up, "so hard to do."

But one thing I wasn't prepared for was the subtle way you can be dumped on Facebook. When someone no longer wants to be your "friend" they don't have to call, they don't have to write, they simply move the mouse to an "x" and you're cut off.

No more long, emotional phone calls: "I just need some space."

No more writing a "Dear John" letter: "It's not you, it's me."

No more driving by the house in the middle of then night to see who is parked in the driveway. Just kidding, I never did that. Wanted to, but didn't go.

Breaking up on Facebook is simply as easy as clicking an "x."

Recently my "Friends" list shrunk by a couple (it could be more, but I really haven't taken an exhaustive look) people. I know because suddenly I went from 105 friends to 103 friends. Could be someone upset by the blog, I don't know. Or maybe someone died, may they rest in peace.

But how impersonal will it be in the future, or now, that people who call you "friend" can just eliminate you with the click of a mouse. But that's what we're all becoming, faceless friends at the electronic end of the Internet.

So whoever you were, those mysterious departed friends. I think I miss you, but I'm not sure.

Zora's Zoo slides into history, Krystal Jo's takes over

For my former Flint Journal colleagues who used to visit Zora's Zoo, an eclectic and fun old style neighborhood diner I've got a little news. And for those who don't want to hear about what or where I eat, now would be a good time to read something else.

Zora's is gone.

Replacing Zora's is a remodeled and refreshed restaurant called Krystal Jo's, but before I tell you about that, a little history.

Zora's was always an interesting stop on our Flint-area lunch forays. It was small, maybe five little tables squeezed into an 10-foot wide business. There was a long dining counter with maybe 15-20 stools.

But the center of attention was always Zora. A tall, not bad looking woman, who was tough, nail tough. But she was also a great cook. If you could get past the insults and the abruptness of her demeanor you actually got a really good meal at a pretty good price.

What happened behind that counter was street theater. Every day, starting about 5 a.m., Zora held court behind the counter and in front of her large gas range. The decor was decidedly anti-male with photocopied papers of male hated.

The bread was homemade, just like the epithets, and you never wondered who was the owner of the place. Her mother often hung around and helped, but Zora was the main attraction. Once in awhile Zora hired a street walker trying to go straight as a waitress, and if you could get by the tattoos and needle marks they were always pretty nice people.

Ask for rye toast and you might get slapped in the head, like I did, with the single page laminated menu.

"I have wheat and white and that's all I make," Zora said. Actually, there were more offerings on various days.

Want a refill? "Get up and get it yourself, can't you see I'm busy," Zora would yell across the razor thin restaurant.

In a bizarre lapse of judgement I once took our friends, a couple we dine with weekly, to Zora's for breakfast. The four of us sat at the counter and my friend, Diane, likes her food cooked a certain way.

As Zora cooked up the eggs, Diane (who had been warned about Zora's temperament) told the cook to make sure her yolks weren't running. Worried that she might get slapped by a menu, I was pleasantly surprised that Zora merely turned around, looked at Diane, and said: "I knew you were going to be trouble."

We used to walk into the restaurant through the back door and the kitchen and we always marveled at how this one woman kept this place going. The other problem was the while Zora cooked breakfast and lunch, she often closed the grill down at 11:45 a.m. A couple times, including the last we were thrown out of the restaurant without eating when we showed up at 11:50 a.m. for lunch.

We always tried to get there early, but sometimes work got in the way.

So today, Thursday, I was meeting a friend for breakfast and thought it would be cool to see Zora and the Zoo again. I hadn't been there in awhile and I nearly drove by it this morning without seeing it.

Instead of the sandwich board sidewalk sign there was a 6-foot tall "Restaurant" Flag and a new sign "Krystal Jo's Diner." Well, we were already there, so I persisted, wanting to see what remained of Zora's.

"What happened to Zora?," I asked.

"She retired last April," the new owner said.

But what really caught my eye were the walls, the clean, painted walls. The owner said they took a full day to strip all of the insulting copy paper off the walls. Many of those items were given to old customers who wanted them as souvenirs.

Instead of the old copy paper on the walls, the new owner has family photos, including a photo of himself in a Kearsley High School football uniform. The white tile behind the stove was bright and clean. The place looked great.

And it's not only open past noon for lunch, it's open for dinner too. The menu is simple, but includes a variety of lunch sandwiches and a Spicy Chicken wrap. There are salads, soup and chili and dinner offerings of pot roast, Country Fried Chicken, Battered Fish 'n Chips, Chicken Parmesan and Cajun Chicken Alfredo.

They also offer a Flint favorite - a coney dog - and of course a variety of hamburgers. Dinner prices range from about $5.99 to $8.99. The owner said his coleslaw is very popular.

But we were there for breakfast and it was a good one. I had a meat omelet and Dustin had the breakfast special. The eggs and potatoes were very tasty and the bread, while not homemade was very good too.

I had rye toast and I didn't get slapped in the head with a menu for asking.

So if you want to see the old place, stop by Krystal Jo's at 3616 Fenton Road in Flint. You won't be disappointed in the food or prices. But if you liked getting bossed around or hit in the head with a menu by Zora you might leave a little nostalgic.

Where were the auditors?

So today I went to my local credit union for a routine bank business trip. While I was there I noticed a group of people huddled over piles of papers in an office near the front lobby.

I asked a manager what all the commotion was about and she said it was simply a routine audit, one they undergo at least twice every 18 months. OK, that's a good idea, but it got me to thinking.

Who the heck were the auditors for AIG and Lehman Brothers and, well you name the big named banks and insurance companies who suddenly have no money and need our help?

Are auditors accountable for what they observe and sign off on? Certainly some auditor noticed something amiss well before last September when Treasury Secretary "Chicken Little" Paulson told us the sky was falling.

So Congress and Bush scrambled to throw a pile of newly printed billions at the problem, and Voila!, it again disappeared. So where are the auditors anyway?

Here's my little credit union, still solvent and loaning money by the way, undergoing massive audits twice a year and no doubt having to make corrections or modifications, while the massive financial institutions in this country operate like a high plains rancher in the mid-1800s.

Sort of like watching (and counting the peanuts) while the elephants walk by.

What's the point of auditors if they don't really audit.

How many subscribers does the Journal currently have?

That was the question from one of the people participating in this mornings online give-and-take between readers of the Flint Journal and the new Editor. Unfortunately I was busy this morning and unable to monitor the whole exchange which is available here.

Following is the brief exchange (and the time it occurred):

10:44
[Comment From FlintRiverMan]How many subscribers does the Journal currently have?
10:45
To be honest, I'm not positive. But I'd say it's around 100,000 on Sunday and less than that daily.

Here is the answer (as of 9/30/2008) from the Audit Bureau of Circulaton: (This is a copy of what is on the website):


US NEWSPAPER - SEARCH RESULTS
Search Type: United States
Circulation averages for the six months ended:9/30/2008
State: Michigan
Selection: Flint (Contains)
Sort By: Daily ASC
Results Found: 3
Preliminary figures subject to audit as filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.* Total Circulation = Total Average Paid Circulation
Publication Name
Frequency
Circulation Type
Total Circulation*
Filing Status
JOURNAL, FLINT (GENESEE CO.)
AVG E (M-F)
DLY
73,013
JOURNAL, FLINT (GENESEE CO.)
SAT M
DLY
74,876
JOURNAL, FLINT (GENESEE CO.)
SUN
DLY
88,897

I guess 88,897 is "around 100,000" if you give or take ten percent. And you certainly can't argue that 73,013 and 74,876 is less than 100,000. That's not going to look good on the daily chart of reporter and editor errors. It's kind of hard to believe that the editor of a newspaper wouldn't have those figures pretty well memorized.

How to get rid of teenagers at the mall

Some of you know of my long feud with my sister over Barry Manilow and his trite music. Well, someone has found a good use for it in New Zealand.

A mall in Christchurch, New Zealand is going to pipe in only Barry Manilow music to drive out the teens that have taken it over. You can read it all here.

New York Times: Getting local

The New York Times has a good new idea (actually it's a very old). Refocus its efforts on the local news from the communities it serves.

Thanks to a frequent and loyal FFE reader for the tip.

Reuters: It can always get worse

Some economists are borrowing the motto that we at the Flint Journal used to use when considering the impact of yet another new editor: "It can always get worse, and usually does."

The difference is Reuters is talking about the effect of all the government interference: Bush's and Obama's effort to fix the problem is likely to just make it worse.

Cartoonists find reason to laugh about newspapers

If you are interested in all the dire newspaper news, do yourself a favor and head over to Inside Out and check out this post about how cartoonists are dealing with the demise of newspapers.

Also do yourself a favor and follow the links in the story to the Washington Post comics page.

Talk to the Editor

Hey, if you're off tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. (Wednesday, March 4) the Flint Journal editor will be taking your comments and suggestions on mlive.com/flintjournal.

Just a heads up for all the current and former FJers here.

Oops!

Some of you may have found a blank - or partially blank - screen when you visited here earlier today. That probably made some folks happy, but I have bad news for them.

I changed an archive setting and it seems OK now.

Frontline: Inside the Meltdown

If you have high-speed Internet and an hour to spare, this is a very good outline of how our financial system melted down in such a very short time. This ran on PBS on February 17.

Our new toy

Well, we did it. With Joan's retirement coming in June we went out and put a down payment on a travel trailer. It is a 2008 Laredo. It is about 30-feet long and includes many of the bells and whistles.

First trip is scheduled for April and the destination is Kentucky and Arkansas. Just a short test run to learn the ropes. Longer trips are planned for next year.

At least we are doing our part to stimulate the economy. And, by the way, the banks and credit unions were eager to lend us money.

I've attached a photo of the trailer in the RV center's garage where it is undergoing some conversions before we take possession of it. We are looking forward to having granddaughters, family and friends join us on our new adventures.

We're planning on a new blog to keep track of our travels, so stay tuned.

D.C. - a laugh a minute

No wonder we're in such bad shape. I had no idea that 500 million Americans were in peril of losing their jobs. Last I checked there were only 325 million Americans total. So I guess we're not going to have jobs for Americans into the next decade or two.

Is there any life in Congress? On either side.



And then we have our gaff prone V.P. Who knew a website address was a number?

Today's Vacuuming and dusting movie: The Far Country

The Far Country, starring James Stewart, Ruth Roman and Walter Brennan is today's movie to listen and watch while I vacuum and dust.

Thought about watching Titanic, but it was too long.

Besides it takes place in and around Skagway, Alaska and we were just there last June.

Something to think about - the death of any newspaper

I "borrowed" this from the Flint Journal's website from this article.


Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

It brought a tear to my eye, and I suspect it will to anyone who loves newspapering and journalism.

Trickle down incompetence

On Thursday, a poster added one of the most insightful comments I've had in a long time to this post. They were responding to this article.

It got me thinking in the middle of the night about why I was, and continue to be, frustrated by the way Booth newspapers in particular, and newspapers in general are operated. To be clear, I love newspapers, I want them to succeed and I feel for my friends left behind and the uncertainty of their futures.

Then it hit me, "trickle down incompetence." Inspired by the blog comment I began to piece together the frustration in my mind.

While we at the bottom of the food chain were carrying out the mandates and goals of those above us, no matter how stupid or off target, they always knew that no matter how badly it all turned out they would not be harmed.

Kind of like being in a war foxhole with a leader that you know is never going to make the charge with you. In my humble opinion, this is not only what is wrong with Booth, but wrong with corporate America today.

It's why I trust pilots when I'm flying. The way I figure it, my life is directly tied to theirs. I know they are always going to do their best to get the plane up and down, not because I'm on it, but because they are.

In the new business model, the "pilots" are on the ground flying the "planes" by remote control. When they make a mistake, it's the passengers who crash and not them.

It's the decisions and mistakes by the people at the top that end up impacting, negatively as of late, the folks at the bottom. But while those mistakes result in jobs losses and hardship on those at the bottom, the folks at the top reap rewards well beyond their achievements.

That was not the case in days gone by. People who risked capital and investment paid the price for mistakes. Today, the CEOS travel from company to company raking in millions of dollars whether they are successful or not.

In fact, they are rewarded in spite of their abject failure. We have seen that at Booth, we have seen it at banks and we see it everyday in other businesses.

Capitalism works only when success is rewarded and failure is not. Today, especially for those at the top, it doesn't matter whether you succeed or fail, you get a big, big check and/or you keep - as Mel Brooks would say in "Blazing Saddles" - your "phony, baloney jobs."

That would explain how people are promoted higher on the corporate ladder even though it was their mistakes, their misjudgements and their lack of vision that created the problem.

During the bank hearings for the first TARP, I heard Secretary Paulson say, "if we don't let these people (speaking of CEOs) keep their bonuses they will leave the companies."

That's a bad thing? After all, these are companies seeking massive bail outs for their financial failures. It wasn't the bank clerk or lower level loan officers who were making the bad decisions to move forward with policies that provided bad loans to millions of people. But guess who paid the biggest price?

The "buck" President Harry Truman used to talk about no longer stops at the top, it simply flows down and stops at the bottom with massive layoffs. That's what I call "Trickle Down Incompetence."

Their "incompetence" trickles down on those who work at the bottom.

Grounded for life

Channel 2 in Detroit had a story tonight that left my wife and I shaking our heads.

A Monroe father was arrested - yes, arrested - because he grabbed his daughter's cell phone away from her and grounded her because she was drunk. The daughter, upset at being grounded ran next door and called police.

Police officers arrived - and for reasons only known to them - they arrested the father on a charge of "interfering with a communications device." Forget that Dad owned and paid for the "communciations device" he was interfering with.

This story is wrong on so many counts, but my parents (and my father is a regular reader of this blog) would likely have told the police that they were now my parents if I had done such an outrageous thing to them. Call the police on your parents for taking away your cell phone and grounding you. Yeah, right, that would have worked in my house.

Who teaches children that they can call the police if they are disciplined by their parents. And secondly, who trains police officers that they can arrest a parent for performing normal - and needed - discipline on a child?

The girl didn't show up in court to testify and the charges were dismissed, which may be the only smart thing she did in this whole deal.

Detroit Lions: A season of misery

I don't usually look at forwards in my e-mail box, but here was a good one. After last year's 0-16 season by the Detroit Lions at least one fan had the imagination to immortalize the accomplishment in a Jersey. This is your smile for the day (or hopefully, just your first smile today).

Hey if the Lions were smart (oxymoron, I know) they would market this shirt. I'll bet it would be a big seller for next season.

Washington Post on the Washington Post Co.

Give the Washington Post credit for covering its own bad news, something you will never, ever see happen in the Booth newspaper world.

That is one of my continuing beefs with Booth and a number of other news organizations. They are the first to demand and hound businesses and governments for information on the internal workings, but are pretty shy about covering their own.

Internally, it is just as bad. In a company that makes its living, even if a poor one at present, on requiring transparency by others it is hypocritical to be so private and circumspect about their own failings and problems.

After all, if readers are going to continue to be asked to pay more for the paper, or pay the same for less, then don't they have a right to know where that money is going?

What the Washington Post did in covering its own news was apply a similar standard to its own business as it does to others. That's a good thing.

A great blog exchange at 'Paper Tiger'

In case you missed it here's a great back-and-forth between Jim Carty and another newsman.

And here's the original post that prompted the debate.


Also in case you wondered who was to blame for the financial condition of newspapers Ad Age has an idea.

And again, thanks to JT, who really should start a blog with all the information that they find.

Mark Cuban has an idea for newspapers

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has an idea for newspapers.

S.F. Chronicle in trouble

Because I lived in the San Francisco Bay area for many years the news tonight about the significant troubles with the San Francisco Chronicle is not really a surprise, but sad nonetheless.

One of the proud Hearst papers is on the rocks.

A thoughtful essay on journalists

Another thoughtful essay sent along by JT:

LA Observed

And don't miss the many great links inside the article.

Check out these

Check out today's Fading to Black.

If you're a newspaper junkie stop by, there are a number of great, recent posts.

Going to mornings?

OK, I'm starting to get dueling information on the immediate future of the Flint Journal. After my post about the reduced publication days discussion that went on at the going away party for an editor I received some counter information from a source in another newspaper department.

What the folks in the non-editorial departments are hearing is that while ad $$ are down, things have leveled off financially at the Flint Journal and the next change will be a switch to a morning paper, instead of the current afternoon delivery. At least that's what the bosses are saying.

The Flint Journal has long resisted the trend to mornings because reader surveys have always shown a preference for the afternoon paper. Now, this source from the non-editorial department tells me, a recent Journal reader survey shows a reversal of that trend and now people are more interested in a morning paper.

It would make sense as the paper's early deadlines make it a morning paper in reality. Pages close for editorial updates about 8 a.m. anyway so it would be a natural switch to mornings. It will cause some shift changes for people in editorial, but if the purpose is to retain as many readers as possible, maybe a good thing.

They are also hearing that the current FJ publisher may be on his way out or off to a new assignment as well.

Speaking of papers going to mornings, here's a story about another such move:

Going to mornings

JRC stock price: 1/3-cent per share

Not a surprise, but Friday (hat tip to Reflections of a Newsosaur) JRC, owner of the Oakland Press in Pontiac and a number of weekly and daily newspapers around Michigan and the country, filed bankruptcy.

Journal Register Company

And more here on JRC

They have hacked and slashed their staffs and newspapers to the bone and this was the final result. Sad.

I guess that unpaid Citizen Journalist idea hasn't caught on yet.

Oscars, one more thing to grouch about

This will be heresy to some, but there is nothing I would less rather watch than the Oscars. In fact, it has been probably 20 years since I have watched the program.

The first problem is that I rarely go to movies in the theater. So I haven't seen 95 percent of the movies they are talking about. Probably won't see them until they come out on DVD and then only if they eventually make it to the top of my Netflix queue.

Secondly, I find celebrities in general, and movie stars in particular, a major annoyance. I've never been one to collect or want autographs and pretty much don't understand why anyone would. Movie stars are people who put their pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us.

Too many celebrities spend their days telling me why I should conserve energy, protect animals, help the poor and vote for so-and-so, while they jet off in a private aircraft to their villa in France stamping their size 16 carbon footprint on the planet.

It annoys me that in a time of great national economic suffering, many of these folks will drive up in a big limo wearing all their borrowed bling, stroll down the red carpet to the fawning cheers of adoring fans. So instead of feeling like throwing up, I'll watch NBC's Dateline and a new report on the crash of the Concorde.

Besides, they won't announce the big winners (actor, picture, etc.) until long after I have gone to sleep. Who wins best graphic design is not what I call exciting TV. Besides, all the newspapers will have this crud all over the front page tomorrow.

I can wait until then.

Blazing Saddles coming to the small screen

Just as a follow-up to my Tuesday post, I just saw that the AMC Channel will be featuring the 35th Anniversary showing of "Blazing Saddles," the classic Mel Brooks movie next Saturday (February 28) at 8 p.m.

It's a wonderful thing.

Never doubt the technological competence of a 3-year-old

Last night, for the second weekend in a row, we were allowed to babysit, Little Miss Addisen, our 3-year-old (or soon to be) granddaughter.

This time we made the drive to her house so her parents could attend a church couples' party.

At some point in the evening, Addisen tired of the news program we had on the television and asked me to find "her show" which was called "Dragon Tales."

I searched the cable television guide and could find no such program. Addisen then looked me straight in the eye and said: "Grandpa Jim it is "On Demand." Well, I've heard of "On Demand" but we don't have it in our house.

In my appeal to Addisen I told her that I simply didn't know how to find the program and that's when things turned very wierd.

The little 3-year-old grabbed my hand and the remote and led me through a series of remote control buttons that, Voila!, suddenly turned up a listing for "On Demand" and eventually for "Dragon Tales."

"Push that button, Grandpa Jim, push the arrow button, Grandpa Jim, Push that (select) button Grandpa Jim."

My wife and I look at each other in amazement as the selection for "Dragon Tales" came up on the television screen.

"I am not as smart as a 3-year-old," I had to admit.

When we buy our new computers I know who we are inviting over to program them.

The Magnificent Movie for Magnificent Cleaning

It's house cleaning day (I get to do the dusting and vacuuming - Yeah!) and I just found a great movie to watch while I do it.

"The Magnificent Seven" with Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn and an actor named Brad Dexter playing the "Seven." That's enough testosterone to spontaneously start a war anywhere.

James Coburn just killed a guy and won a gun duel by throwing a knife into the heart of his opponent in what was supposed to be a gun fight. That's how he got noticed by Yul Brynner and enlisted into the Magnificent Seven. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Don't worry, my wife had her time this morning on the television watching AM Style on QVC. I think they were selling bras, matching shirt, jacket and pant outfits. So she's had her estrogen fix for today.

Besides she's working on the other parts of the house.

As long as you have to be cooped up in the house dusting and vacuuming while it is heavily snowing outside, watching a good cowboy movie is a pretty good consolation prize.

It can always get worse

At one Indiana paper things have gotten worse.

And here's someone who has 10 ways they think they can make newspapers better.

And the JRC continues to tumble.

Plain Dealer Editor: "We're making money"

Jim Carty's blog, "Paper Tiger No More," has an interesting article about a recent speech by the Editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

"We're making money."

Another view of cutting publication days

From Editor and Publisher (with a hat tip to JT, again):

To print or not to print

If the annoying ad pops up, just click "continue" at the upper right hand corner.

Flint Journal staff bracing for more changes

Nothing like an old retirees' lunch to pick up some new odds and ends about the Flint Journal.

Apparently there was a going away party recently for one of the assistant editors who has taken a job with a business publication (good for him) and a lot of discussion revolved around some looming changes at the Flint Journal.

Some are a little fuzzy, but it sounds like, perhaps in April, the FJ will cut its home "dead tree" version to three or four days a week. This is similar to a recent move by the Detroit papers to cut publication dates in favor of the online version.

Daily reporters will soon be required to take many of their own photos (not unique to the Flint Journal) but quite a change for the daily reporters there nonetheless.

There's some other rumored changes afoot, but the discussions of those at the party were not as clear. As soon as I know, so will you.

A welcome rant on CNBC

What Rick Santelli said:

Stop paying for your house now

Man, I wish my wife and I hadn't paid off our house. Just think, if we had defaulted on our payments, the government would now be stepping in to tap my neighbors to help us pay for our home.

Only in the bizarro world of politics would this seem like a good idea. Those of us who were responsible enough to live and pay for houses we could afford (while making car payments and college loan payments) are now on the hook for those who didn't.

The government now wants to get involved in the mortgage business again, through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Isn't this how we got in this mess in the first place?

It would be better if banks and savings and loans (the other devils in this fight) would see it in their self interest to renegotiate loans and help keep people in their homes(some of that, I understand, is going on). Banks would then be receiving something on these devalued homes instead of the nothing it gets now, but now big government has stepped in and what is the incentive now for anyone to pay their bills.

Buy outs for everyone. That's what I say. The more the government tries to help, the more the stock market doesn't like it. My 401k is now my 201k thanks to all the doom and gloom and government interference.

But have no fear, you Congress folks are flying all over the globe with their families on holidays and we're paying for it.

More reporter/editor sayings

Who knew there would be more than one blog collecting newsroom verbal gems.

Heres another one:

Newsroom quotes

Journalists say the darndest things

A former Flint Journal editor used to keep a file of the stupid, sexually suggestive and outright funny sayings that occur on a daily basis in the newsroom.

Aside: Someday, I'll write a column about "Bounce the Chicken" Day celebrations each September. Actually, I need a former copy editor who organized the annual event to write it for me. (Please, please, please). End aside.

At one point this editor's quote file was extensive and covered years of overheard conversations in the newsroom. Today I stumbled across a blog that has made a daily habit of collecting these conversations.

So, dear BR, if you still have that list here is a place to put all those gems, or better yet, start your own.

Overheard in the Newsroom

Rent-A-Journalist a new Advance idea

Thanks to the blog Inside Out for finding this little gem (and the headline) about the future of Advance and Newhouse journalism:

Rent-A-Journalist

Just in case my old boss at the Journal was wondering: I'm not available. I don't think I'm on the editor's short list anyway (not on the long list either).

A few of us who took the buyout briefly toyed with an idea of setting up an online mid-Michigan crime blog and continuing our reporting days, but like the Journal has found out it might be fun to do, but there is very little money it.

Got to love the name of the news service that has been providing high school sports for the New Jersey paper: Dorf News Service. Really.

Spaceballs: A wedge movie for my marriage

At the risk of changing forever how some of you feel about me, I am going to admit something I should probably keep to myself: One of my favorite movies of all time was Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles."

To be honest, I could watch this movie every month and still laugh out loud at parts of it. That's a problem in my house because my wife hates the movie. Not just a mild hate, but a "don't-ever-bring-that-movie-into-our-house-kind-of-hate." So it has been a long time since I have watched "Blazing Saddles."

A year ago, our son and daughter-in-law gave us a subscription to Netflix and we have gotten a lot of use out of it, but I probably stepped over the line this month when I somehow moved the movie "Spaceballs" up to the top of our movie queue and it ended up in our mailbox.

Actually, it has been sitting on top of our entertainment center for a month and I finally got up the courage to suggest that we watch the movie on Sunday night. When my wife asked me what the movie was about, all I got out was "Mel Brooks" when she rolled her eyes and picked up some school papers to grade.

An hour and 36 minutes later, she was rethinking her decision to marry me. Every time I laughed at something in the movie, she would glance up from her students' papers, look over and give me that look that all married men dread. You know that, "what was I thinking when I married this guy" look.

When I clicked on the "Special Features" after the movie was done, she just looked at me and said "No."

"Spaceballs" was no "Blazing Saddles" but I did get a few laughs out of it. But now I'm probably going to have to watch "The Devil Wears Prada," "27 Dresses," and "Sleepless in Seattle," and any number of chick flicks before I get to order another one of my movies again.

Former Advance Internet guy weighs in on free content with a for-pay book

Reflections of a Newsosaur has a great tongue-in-cheek column about Jeff Jarvis, the guy who helped set up Advance Internet, the Newhouse introduction into the Internet that we all know and despise as MLive.com here in Michigan.

Here is some more on Mr. Jarvis.

Do make sure to read the comments on the Newsosaur article because Jeff Jarvis chimes in to defend himself.

More talk about finally making the news web pay

Newspaper Death Watch pulls together some more discussions on the pay-to-read models. Interesting stuff.

The Search for Solutions

Hypocrisy = Congress

Remember how Congress berated the auto execs for flying in private airplanes. Well, here's tonight's ABC News report on the little junkets taken by Congress at our expense. Only they take the family with them.

Congressional hypocrites

Thepmonggon: Thai food to stop for

Sometimes it pays to be adventuresome, especially when it comes to food.

During my trip to California, my sister, Pam, and cousin, Cynthia, were on a day trip to Pt. Reyes, a beautiful jut of land north of San Francisco. We had ventured from Windsor, California through the back roads with a stop at the beautiful Armstrong Redwood Grove.

As we got closer to Pt. Reyes we started to think about eating lunch. Because we were close to the ocean we wanted to find a dining place on the water. So we traveled through Tomales Bay (a major oyster harvesting area) and then through Pt. Reyes Station. I remembered that there were a number of eating places along the road to Pt. Reyes.

We passed a couple, but still held out for a place on the water, not just near the water.

We came to a motel next to a Thai restaurant on the water, and at the urging of my companions I stopped to seek human directions to a place to eat. My GPS, which I never travel far without, had indicated that there was a place called "Barnaby's" near where we were.

A man doing repairs to the motel told me that I was actually standing next to "Barnaby's" except that it was now "Thepmonggon" and it served Thai food. He also told us it was the last eating establishment on the peninsula before we got to Pt. Reyes. So I went back to the car, not excited about a Thai food lunch, but my cousin argued that they must have a fish and chips or other American dish for travelers not into the exotic.

Reluctantly, we entered the completely empty restaurant and asked to see the menu. Not one non-Thai dish on the menu. The owner talked a good game and so, instead of back tracking for some American food we sat down and decided to try the Thai offerings.

The owner suggested a few dishes we could share and started bringing them. I can't tell you when I've had a better meal. We had Netted Prawns (deep fried prawns wrapped with egg noodles), Chicken Corn cake, Taro Egg Rolls and Chicken Sate (a marinated chicken breast with Thai herb, served with peanut sauce and cucumber salad. (Total $15.95).

Next he brought a large bowl of Thepmonggon Tom Kha Coconut Soup (enough for three people - $9.95) that was so good we only stopped eating it when we realized we had ordered two other dishes to share.

Our next dish was Asparagus Prawn sauteed in red curry sauce with Thai herbs and bell peppers. ($15.95)

Finally, we ended with Pad See Eww, a pan fried egg noodle sauteed with oyster sauce, broccoli, garlic, carrot, egg with beef. ($15.95)

We took home cartons of the leftovers of last two offerings because we were too full of soup and everything else. The man's wife, who was Thai was the main chef and her niece was her assistant and obviously had great skill in the kitchen.

In our conversations with the owner he admitted that many folks stop, look at his menu and move on without staying so soon he is going to add those American comfort items that might keep them in his place, but it will be too bad because they will miss a true taste adventure.

Much of our conversation that afternoon revolved around our decision to stay at that restaurant and try something new and how glad we were that we did.

So if you ever find yourself on the peninsula heading out to Pt. Reyes and hungry at the same time, do yourself a favor and stop at Thepmonggon, 12938 Sir Frances Drake Blvd. (Inverness, Ca.) you will not be sorry.

"Thepmonggon" Thai on the Bay: Where East meets West Marin. As in Marin County.

More on the pay as you read model

Faithful reader and contributor JT has forwarded another interesting item. This one is a podcast from Fitz and Jen at Editor and Publisher about the move to paid or micro payment models for newspaper websites.

When you go to the Arkansas paper's online webpage, you get a small tease of a story but must be a monthly subscriber ($4.95) to read the entire story.

Go to Arkansa Democrat-Gazette to see what I'm talking about.