Wow, how low can Advance go?

This CJR story is truly an example of how little the Advance folks get about what real journalism is about. Truly sad. I'll have more to say about this later.


Thanks to a loyal reader for forwarding the link.

One student's print journalism "dream" turns to dust

A Michigan Radio reporter writes about the future of print journalism. Anyone going into the profession now is dooming themselves to a life to low pay and bad benefits.

More "job pledge" news from CJR

A lengthy article on the lawsuits filed by former New Orleans employees.

A newspaper Christmas story

My "old" journalism friends will appreciate this story about a time when editors were, well, editors. May you all get your "peaches" this year. Merry Christmas from Free From Editors.

"Job pledge" suit filed by former Times-Picayune staffers

Most of us lived by the pledge, but in reality, knew that it probably wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, but apparently several former Times-Picayune staffers are suing to see if it was worth something.

What happened to AnnArbor.com (Lost in my Spam filter)

Lost in my spam filter was this link to an insightful report by Mark Maynard about the shutting down of AnnArbor.com last September. Putting it up here now just to let folks know I wasn't ignoring my job.

The death of beat reporting

A nice piece on what we all already know.

Al MacLeese: A throwback to the way newspapers used to be. Buy this book!

My 30-year journalism career spanned 1977-2007, it was a transitional time filled with great joy, excitement and frustration. It was also the time that saw the end of newspaper characters like Al MacLeese, who became strangers in a strange land as newspapers went from being tough, hard scrabble denizens of characters to polite, orderly and antiseptic warehouses of young, healthy news gatherers.

During my time I had the great fortune to meet a few of the old school folks like MacLeese. I actually did meet MacLeese a couple times, but I didn’t know him like Roger Van Noord and others at the Journal, and frankly dozens of newspapers knew him over his long and turbulent career.

Using years of MacLeese’s own recollections, through e-mails – during the times he could afford Internet access – or through snail mail Roger Van Noord has used his own great story telling skills to weave a biography into a pseudo autobiography about  a man who truly represents what was great and bad about journalism in the old days.

Unlike Ed Snowden, the American who took all our nasty secrets to Russia without permission, Roger had MacLeese’s consent for his e-mail and data collection. None of MacLeese’s secrets will endanger our national security or result in the death of any spies.

MacLeese didn't worry about 401ks or savings accounts and it later showed in his life, but you get the feeling that MacLeese worried more about living than dying so he worried about the important things, where to get his next drink or blunt. I'm a Christian so he would not have cared much for me, but through his writings he did as much to help people as many Christians will ever do.

“Unleashed” is a glimpse into the “good old days” of journalism, not that all will see it that way. You can find it on Amazon and for me it was a quick read. Roger can turn a phrase with the best of them, including MacLeese.  If you remember the good old days, buy the book. If you are young and missed the good old days, buy the book. It’s cheap enough even for the wages they pay today's news gatherers or "content professionals" or whatever they call what it today.

You can read it while you head to Yoga class or while you watch the kids at soccer practice, both of which were unheard of activities for reporters in MacLeese’s days.

Unfortunately for my own good health, I started thinking about the book at 4 a.m. this morning when my aging prostate forced me up early to the bathroom and then my brain kicked in and thoughts turned to Roger’s book and all the characters I had met over the years. Finally a two-hour mental tour of my own newsrooms  kept awake until I was forced to abandon wife and bed to write this review/reflection for my blog.

Journalism, or to be more precise and accurate, newspaper work has always attracted engaged Type A personalities. It used to attract talented folks, many who came with baggage like alcoholism and gasp, cigarette smoke. It still attracts talent folks, but with pre-employment drug tests they have to travel with lighter personal luggage today.

During my insomnia this morning I was thinking of the late, great reporter I worked with at the Oakland Press – Jean Saile. I loved her, she, like MacLeese, was right out of “Front Page.” Jean could be affectionately and not politically correctly referred to as a “newspaper broad.”

I used to watch Jean type a story on the old Atex system, a cigarette, with a curved long ash, hanging dangerously over her keyboard as she pecked away at her story. She was probably in her late 60s or 70s when the Press banned newsroom smoking in the early 1980s. On the day the ban went into effect, she quit the newspaper forever. We thought she was joking when she told us she would quit if she couldn’t smoke in the newsroom. She proved us wrong. Some people thought she smelled of smoke, I always thought she smelled of news.

She had a screechy voice, not unlike Edith Bunker (for you younger folks simply Google "All In the Family" and watch a few You Tube clips). The voice would escalate and get louder as the story got more important and closer to deadline. I miss that voice. To me it was the song of the newsroom.

When my good friend and editor, Larry Laurain died of cancer in 1985, Jean bought me a new bottle of Jack Daniels (I was still drinking in those days) so I could continue to spike my morning rewrite coffee with a little inspiration each day. Eventually, and not too long after, I had to take the 12 steps to rid myself of  the demon rum.  I'm clean and sober now, but probably not as much fun.

We had a female food editor who was another character at the Press. She had the nasty habit of printing recipes in the Sunday features section that sometimes did not include all the ingredients. That meant for me, the hapless Sunday reporter, that I had to track her down on a Sunday afternoon so I could find out just how much Pineapple you were supposed to add to the “Pineapple Upside Down” cake recipe she had published that morning for some woman in Orchard Park. Little things, but Sybil was a character. You would not find her in a newsroom today. Maybe some folks are happy about that, but I’m not.

There were many more characters that I came across, I remember a Detroit TV anchor – Bill Bonds – who was a hard drinking a-hole who once called me a “turkey” on the air for a column I wrote about him that was none too flattering. We exchanged unpleasantries on the phone, but later he offered me his left over French fries at the Detroit Press Club. I just looked at him quizzingly when he handed me his plate. For the record, I didn't eat the fries, although I was tempted.

The newsrooms I lived in had tension, arguments, heck sometimes editors and reporters would nearly come to blows, but it was because we had passion about what we were doing.

I can only imagine if a reporter threatened to rearrange an editor’s face in today’s world, they would likely be sent to some “anger management” clinic for an extended stay to heal them from the problem. In MacLeese’s days editors and reporters “made up” by going to a nearby gin mill and soaking their disagreements in gin, vodka, bourbon, but hardly ever scotch.

Now before you think I’m advocating a return to those boozy, fun-filled days of the past, I’m not. They had their place, but they were very destructive to the people involved. Roger’s book will give you all the evidence you need of that as it relates to just one man.

Al alienated friends and family alike with his self-centered and destructive behavior. But he was a genius at a typewriter/keyboard and he did what we were told to do in that day, “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

Hopefully, today’s “new” journalists will work to continue the tradition of affliction, even if they’ll have to find a way to do it at clean and orderly desks that don’t include a bottle of Jack Daniels in the drawer.

For those who knew the “old” newspaper office, it was harder and harder to live in the “new” newspaper office. Probably because it felt more like an “office” than a news room.

As I recall more stories and personalities from the old days, I’ll start posting them here, probably for no other reason that I need my sleep and I don’t want to think about these folks at 4 a.m.

Next up, ” election nights when they were really election nights.”

(Eds note: I have no idea why the font size shrunk, I'm calling together a meeting of the computer squirrels I work with to see if I can fix this, until then I'm sorry)

Lessenberry: Editor's column "Journalistic understatement of the century"

In his own bare fisted style, Jack Lessenberry, political analyst for Michigan Radio, checks in about the "the election coverage."

Flint Journal editor responds to the missed election coverage

The Flint Journal editor stepped up and took the blame for the lack of competent election coverage. It was the right thing to do, but the comments are pretty brutal nonetheless.

Update: Poynter has an article about this as well.

Update: Jim Romenesko has chimed in as well.

Media drops the ball on Flint City Council race

Let's expand a little on the previous post that talks about a convicted murderer getting elected to City Council in Flint. I went back to see what kind of coverage the Flint Journal did on the run up to the election on the candidates. A name search of Wantwaz Davis, the convicted murderer who was elected shows several previous stories. Here was a story on his second place finish in the primary, which includes no mention of his criminal background.

Here's the story done in the run up to the election that appears to be a Q & A that was likely filled out by the candidate and submitted. In the past a reporter would have been at least required to do a background check of the Journal files and perhaps a Nexus check of a person just to see if there was something to flag in their background. It also appears there was little or no editing of the comments provided by the candidates. Flint is in lower case and the sentences are not well crafted. So either they were cut and paste from what the candidate submitted or the editing is worse than I thought at the new MLive.com.

By the way, the story is headlined "Everything you need to know about the Fifth Ward City Council Race."  It appears that everything didn't include the fact that one of the candidates was a convicted murderer. As a voter, I might like to know that. Maybe not, but I think that's key information.

Then the first story after the election (Wouldn't a headline "Flint elects convicted murderer" been a juicy headline) buried in this story is an brief accounting of the Flint Council race.

And there is just so much irony in this  MLive video of Wantwaz Davis talking about people with felony convictions not being able to get jobs. Wouldn't it have been fun to hear the reporter behind the camera ask him about his own felony conviction in this video staged in front of a crime scene?

Certainly you can blame voters, but most voters still count on the media - print and broadcast - to provide them the basic information they need about elections. The failure of media, both locally and nationally is epic, and part of the blame goes directly to the downsizing and "youth movement" in the media. Too few reporters and excessive demands coupled with fast food pay is not a recipe for journalistic success.

It wouldn't have been hard to find out either. A simple Google name search turned up a legal settlement for prisoner Wantwaz Davis from his time in prison.

It's just a matter of hours or days that this will be a national story and a national embarrassment for the local media

When the media allows the people they cover to basically determine what you write about them, this is what you get.

Sad.

Election coverage ain't what it used to be

Despite glowing reports on how coverage of news has gotten better even with all the cuts somehow the recent election coverage somehow missed that a convicted murderer was running for office. And, he got elected!

A bit of a black eye for the election reporting team I would say.

The New Media - See No, Speak No, Hear No Evil

This article from Jim Romenesko highlights a lot that is wrong with the emerging new media.

A belated post on MLive's awards

In response to a comment on a previous item (you can see my response to the response here) I am posting a link to the editorial awards won by MLive.com here.  (Scroll down to the last three comments to view the exchange)

Honestly, I was not aware until the comment that they had won the awards (although it appears there are more than one "Newspaper of the Year.". I'm not a daily, or even weekly reader anymore of the print or online product so I just missed the honors, it was not a deliberate slight.

Congratulations to all the fine people at MLive for the achievement.

Want to be a journalist? Skip journalism school

Here's just one of many examples of why you should not go to journalism school.

A Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper trying to buck the trend

A good read on a newspaper that still values great investigative reporting.

My favorite part of the piece:

"Stanley says giving reporters freedom — and a feeling of being engaged with quality work — is one of the most important steps to keeping staffers happy. “People like to have a lot of say in how they do their job, and they like to have a degree of independence in what they do,” Stanley told me. “People also want to be master craftsmen, they want to be master journalists, they want to be master mechanics. But the most important thing is a sense of purpose larger than ourselves. You want to work for something that matters.

“If you provide those three things, you have a happy and engaged workforce and the sky’s the limit on what you can accomplish.”

 

 

CJR: A report on the Ann Arbor News changes

Not surprisingly the company itself refused to comment to the Columbia Journalism Review, but the take on the whole enterprise is not too positive.

Make sure you follow this link as well for more coverage.

Well that AnnArbor.com experiment didn't last long

MLive.com announced some major changes to the AnnArbor.com experiment that began with such promise just four years ago. The major changes is that after Sept. 11 it will no longer exist. It is being folded into the MLive.com group of companies and that the former news print version is reverting to the former Ann Arbor News masthead.

Good luck with that.

And don't miss the growing list of comments under the story, at least the ones that haven't been deleted because of how negative they are. Here's just one sample of the 91 posted so far:

"Next to AnnArbor.com, the software that drives MLive and the presentation is the worst. Also, using the name "Ann Arbor News" is a giveaway that you think WAY too much of yourselves.You don't deserve to use that moniker, especially since you killed it in the first place."

A blogger chimes in about the "new" Cleveland.com

An interesting read on the effects of layoffs at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Reminder about posts and comments

It's been awhile since I've had to delete a comment, but as a reminder I try not to allow personal attacks on people by name. Part of that has to do with the anonymous nature of most of the comments.

It is fair game to comment on specific things people have done  and perhaps using a title. But again when I deem (it is my blog after all) an anonymous comment is simply a personal attack on an individual without any facts or support behind it I will not post it.

From time to time I get e-mail from folks who give me information to check out and I will try and do that and will protect your anonymity.

In the more than five years of Free From Editors I have deleted less than 10 comments, but today I had to again. That does not count the posts I delete because they are computer generated spam.

Thanks for playing nice.

A little late, but a CJR post worth reading

Not sure how I missed this excellent piece by the Columbia Journalism Review on the history of the "job pledge" at Advance, but worth a read for former employees. I must say that most of us knew the pledge wasn't really a "lifetime" guarantee, more of a union busting clause.

Well, here's a new way to make money if you are in newspapers

As the person who sent this to me said "A true 'man bites dog' story.

We've come a long way baby (in newspapers)

Well, at least this proves that some newspapers were thinking about the impacts of the computer and Internet about the time Al Gore invented it. This 1981 news report about the Internet and newspapers is a fun listen.

It shows that some newspaper execs could see there would be an impact, but even in these early days they discounted what it might mean.

Oregonian employees join the march to the door

The Advance newsroom strategy has moved to Portland. Welcome to the brave new world. It's a long, but familiar read. Some of the links are worth following as well.

MLive.com on MLive.com: "We're doing great"

A self-serving, self assessment was posted by MLive.com. While I wish them well, if the comments are any indication they may want to do a story on what the readers think.

Hopefully when the boss visited the various MLive offices he brought with him a living wage and bonuses for those "professionals" who are toiling in the vineyard.

As the comments have mounted as the day goes on I'm struck that sometime since I posted this today and now a pretty significant statement has been edited out of the article. A commenter pointed out:


"below about 30 comments there is a statement that mlive has more "aggregate" journalists than were employed by the 8 papers 16 months ago. this is highly misleading in that most of the local cutbacks occurred more than 60 months ago.
that being said, as one of the former employees, i have no grievance with mlive. it just seems that the current execs maybe could just own up and say, "the economy and changing market conditions forced us to cut back," rather than trying to assert that today's product is superior. most remaining readers would appreciate the frankness and the reasons.
p.s.: when i make nostalgic visits to my old reporting clippings, which were compiled monthly in the newspaper library, i admit a number of them are too long and wordy, instead of criticizing today's citizens for having short attention spans. lol on that. !!! "

(Note from me: I thought that statement seemed suspicious when I read it, but I took it at face value, but the above commenter pointed out the obvious and now that statement seems to be missing from the article).

The comments have continued through the day and are 99 percent negative.

New book by a former FJ staffer

Jerry Wright has written a book about his wife's valiant struggle. Those of us who worked with Jerry know what a faithful husband he was. I haven't read the book - yet - but wanted folks to know it is available.

Kim Crawford: Star of stage, screen and radar

For all you old Flint Journal folks, former reporter Kim Crawford will be featured tonight as an "expert" on the Travel Channel's production "Dead Files."  As they say, 10 p.m. Eastern and 9 Central time.

Just a heads up.

Here's a link to the trailer for the show:

http://www.travelchannel.com/video/filled-with-tragedy

Someone is trying to look out for unpaid/low paid interns

Hopefully, these interns will win this suit and prevent newspapers from basically using them as unpaid news servants.

The anatomy of a story and how it went wrong under the "new" journalism

This is an interesting story on how the Washington Post quietly edited and corrected a major story without any correction.

Back to the future: A daily newspaper returns to New Orleans

I thought this might have been an April Fool's joke, but then I checked the date and source and it appears that Advance has decided being a daily newspaper company in New Orleans is not such a bad idea after all.

Here's the Poynter take on the AP phone records seizure

The news that the Department of Justice seized phone records from the Associated Press is disturbing to the extreme. Here is what Poynter says about it today.

Scott Pelley on today's Journalism

This link will take you to a series of recent quotes about the state of journalism by CBS anchorman Scott Pelley. (I think the obvious spelling mistakes may be the fault of the website and not Pelley, but who knows?

Sloppy journalism at the Miami Herald

What I enjoyed about this article was the Miami Herald editor's excuse for why the mistake happened. Now the "new" journalism is blaming its mistakes on the realities of the  "new" journalism.

When something is as easily checked as a person's criminal record simply by going online, is there really any excuse?

And then there is this from Poynter on the Internet sensation of Cleveland hero/woman rescuer Charles Ramsey.

The newspaper bleeding continues

I know a former book page editor who won't be surprised at this news.

More newspaper circulation gobbly dee gook

Not sure what this article is even saying, but I put it up here in case you can interpret it.

A couple items for your breakfast reading

An interesting Pew Research study on the current state of the news media is pretty good reading.

And a few pictures to drive the sadness home.

A young former journalist skillfully sums up the biz

Well, I was waiting for a nod from the writer before posting this, but others are already sending me links to this and Inky has already commented with the link so if you want a concise wrap up of what is happening to journalism today read this young woman's blog post. The comments are good too.

Just in case you were wondering if cutbacks had an effect on journalism quality

According to this survey, the cutbacks are not helping with the quality of journalism.

A good, investigative piece on Advance's New Orleans newspaper strategy

This Columbia Journalism Review article on the head scratching Advance strategy in New Orleans is long, but really good read for anyone interested in the whirlpool that is today's newspaper business.

As the person who sent this to me said, brew up a good pot of coffee, curl up on the sofa and enjoy!

Yikes, it's getting ugly at JRC

Feeling badly today for my friends who work at JRC properties.

More bad news for my friends at the Oakland Press

Looks like more bad news is coming for the Journal-Register Co. employees.

Flint police exec holds two jobs - Free Press

I knew Mr. Jones when he worked at the Oakland County Sheriff's Department. The Detroit Free Press broke this story about his dual jobs.

Newspaper expert responds to Advance, 60 Minutes segment

Kevin Slimp, a newspaper "guru" had this to say recently about the 60 Minutes segment on the Times-Picayune cutting publishing days. He has talked about Newhouse before like this article from August.

He was critical of 60 Minutes, but his bigger beef may be with the Advance folks who so poorly represented newspapers on the program.

And this about the supposed surge in online circulation.

More reporters, more print, what an idea!

Here's a story about a newspaper that is bucking the trend. (This is a link to a California paper, although the Flint Journal ran the same story. I just choose not to try and negotiate the MLive.com website to find it.

60 Minutes looks at Advance newspaper decisions

In case you missed 60 Minutes segment on Advance's decision to neuter its newspaper presence in New Orleans.

I'm OK, you're OK

With posting being quiet for the last couple months a loyal reader sent an inquiry as to whether all was well in the Smith household.

We have had some family challenges that have kept us busy, but we are fine and preparing for our trip south to Tucson starting next Wednesday. You can follow our adventures there at grandmasrecess.blogspot.com starting Thursday.

I do have some pending Advance related posts for Free From Editors and I promise to put them up shortly. One has been pending since the election and deals with some apparent confusion over the endorsements for each of the MLive properties. A loyal reader sent me that tip and I will get to it shortly.

Thanks for your concern.

Falling for Internet rumors

In follow up to a comment on my previous post it amazes me that in these times of fake storm photos and news items that you can still catch large news organizations re-reporting these Internet troll items without making a simple phone call or other verification before trotting out the news.

Anatomy of a plagiarist

A nice piece from CBS on plagiarism.

So much for the death of newspapers

I guess there may be more of a demand for a daily newspaper in New Orleans than people may have thought.

On vacation: If that's possible for a retiree

I'm headed out with my son Tim for a great West Virginia - Virginia adventure on the Appalachian Trail and some back packing. So Free From Editors will be unmanned until next weekend (Oct. 12).

Go hug a tree, we will be.

A couple items worth reading

Thanks to a loyal FFE reader for the links, I post for your reading the following two links:

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2012/09/baseball_and_news_online_life.html

By the way, I was one of those kids who snuck a transistor radio into school during the World Series, especially when my favorite team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, were there. I miss the daytime World Series games.

And this from the newspaper war that is about to commence in Louisiana:


http://theadvocate.com/home/4012182-125/advocate-picayune-wage-rare-fight

Advance joins Louisiana newspaper battle

When a Baton Rouge paper stepped into the newspaper void in New Orleans I guess the Newhouse family decided that they would join the battle and open a bureau in Baton Rouge.

What's that old saying about throwing good money after bad?

An interesting article about newspaper brain drain

The subject of experienced newspaper vets departing at the same time is something we have been pondering for awhile.

Dave Poniers obit and funeral info

The Flint Journal (MLive.com) has another obit on Dave Poniers and the funeral arrangements are at the end.

Dave Poniers: Rest in Peace

Earlier this week I learned that Dave Poniers was gravely ill in hospice. I knew Dave through my years as a reporter at the Flint Journal. I would often get the good-natured Poniers needle when I wandered into sports during my afternoon shifts at the paper. "Good to know there's no crime tonight," he would bark at me when I would stop to visit. But I couldn't write anything better today that former sports reporter Bill Khan wrote on his Facebook account this morning:

Dave Poniers

"I didn't just lose a former boss tonight to cancer. Dave Poniers, the sports editor at The Flint Journal for most of my 30 years there, was a friend and was also one of the two people most responsible for any success I had as a sports writer. (The other was former Mott journalism instructor Cy Leder, who sadly also died from cancer a few years back.) I will be forever grateful for how Dave went to bat for me to get me a full-time job back in 1988. Even back then, full-time jobs weren't just created out of thin air on newspaper staffs. He had enough faith in me to stick his neck out for me. Who knows what would have happened had he not persuaded editor Al Peloquin to hire me full-time once I completed college? Jobs aren't easy to come by in this industry. Thanks to Dave, I had a fun job that sufficiently paid the bills. I had some great experiences, met some great people. The last time I communicated with him via e-mail back in the spring, he agre

ed to be a reference on my resume and told me he had lobbied on my behalf when he heard I was being laid off at the end of December. Dave proved you could be a good guy and still have the respect of your employees. As a member of his sports staff, one of my motivations was wanting to do a good job for him to reward him for everything he did for me - hey, even he had bosses who were judging him based on the productivity of his staff. We had a great staff, a great work environment and put out a heck of a sports section! For most of my 30 years at The Journal, I could honestly say I had the greatest job in the world. Working for Dave had a lot to do with it. I was sickened to hear earlier Wednesday that he was dying of cancer. Then, just 12 hours later, I got the sad news that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. He wasn't that old - maybe his late 60s. I just wish I would've had a chance to tell him what he meant to me. A lesson learned, the hard way ...

Here's Brendan Savage's take on MLive.

Are political foundations "buying" the news

A link to a story about large grants from foundations with political influence and leanings to newspapers are causing concern. This article is pointing to left-wing groups, but the same could be said if the money was coming from the Heritage Foundation or a right leaning organization. Is this good for journalism? Or is this just a glimpse into the future?

Remember that newspapers grew out of a tradition of publications with strong political views that rose almost immediately after the invention of the printing press. Maybe this is just back to the future.

Thanks to a loyal FFE reader for the link.

A lesson for an intern

This young reporter learned a valuable lesson, and learned it early enough to make changes.

Never joke in an obituary

One thing most of us learned early in our career is that while there is a First Amendment Right to say just about anything, joking in an obituary is never a good idea.

The story of newspapers told through the buildings

A sad, but true, tale of what has become of both newspapers and the grand buildings that once housed them.

New Orleans dumps Advance template in response to complaints

The New Orleans news site has listened to its consumers and redesigned its website.

Sad news: Former publisher Dave Sharp dies

Dave Sharp's brief battle with pancreatic cancer ended today. Among the leaders at the Journal during the latter years, I always thought Mr. Sharp was a pretty straight shooter. It's sad he didn't have more time to enjoy his retirement.

Your chance to help one of the "new" journalists

In the new world of journalism resourceful reporters are on their own to  try and gather the funds to do what a newspaper company once paid them well to do.

I am somewhat familiar with Chris Killian, he has written for the Kalamazoo Gazette, among others, and has that passion and desire to do the work that reminds me just a little of some of the fire I used to have for the work.

So I found this article on Jim Romenesko as well as Kickstarter and if you feel like helping this young man, please do so. I'm debating how much I can afford to kick in myself. He is already about 1/2-way to the $2,500 he is looking for to do his election year project.

Former Publisher ailing: Notes of encouragement requested

A friend sent me a link to a support site for a former Flint Journal publisher.  A lot of folks will want to encourage Dave Sharp and his family so I'm including the link here with best wishes to the family.

Follow the prompts and you can leave a message for Mr. Sharp and his family.

Three approaches to saving the newspaper business

Reflections of a Newsosaur has given us an outline to the current three approaches to "saving" the newspaper business. Advance's approach is one of the three. There are a couple links included in the Advance part of the story you may want to follow.

One of the links is to a June 3 NY Times story that has some interesting reflections about the success, or lack of success, of AnnArbor.com. Advance protects its business information so some of the speculations is just that. However the loss of 20,000 newspaper subscribers in just three years is hard to hide.

Advance is sued over "job pledge" and buyout promises

This will sound familiar to a lot of folks that I know.

A city pleads (unsuccessfully) for its daily newspaper

A group of prominent New Orleans citizens sent a diplomatic, but pointed letter to the Newhouse family pleading for the survival of its daily newspaper. It's an interesting read.

The entire letter is at the end of the post and includes some pretty recognizable names.

And just as a refresher go back and read the give and take over the original announcement for the move.

TP staffer rants about the changes

This letter to NOLA.com executives from a fired employee is about as good - and accurate - as it gets. She'll probably pay for her honesty, Advance hates honesty, but the rest of us can certainly appreciate it.

A view of newspapers from the inside: Not good

Thanks to a loyal FFE reader who sent along this link to a good New York Times column about our favorite industry.

In case you don't have time to read the whole thing, here is a section that refers to the Advance efforts, particularly the recent ones in New Orleans:

"Given that context, it's not hard to see why Advance Publications is making huge moves in some of the 25 cities where it publishes newspapers, most notably in New Orleans, where it is spending the summer reducing the staff.

Advance's regional Web sites have generated traffic and have active forums, but they are a miserable place to consume news. Balky and ugly, with a digital revenue base below much of the rest of the industry, they seem like a shaky platform on which to build a business. Some recent traffic trends are not encouraging. According to Nielsen, The Times-Picayune's site, Nola.com, had 639,000 unique visitors in May, compared with over a million in that month a year ago.

Once upon a time, the Newhouse family kept unions at bay by promising lifetime employment, but now the company wants to shed people, and legacy costs, as quickly as it can. The plan is built on accounting, not strategy, which is why some of the newspaper's heavy hitters have declined offers from the newly reconfigured enterprise.

David Hammer, who played a large role in The Times-Picayune's coverage of the rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, took a job with the New Orleans CBS affiliate, WWL-TV, doing investigative work; he will be joined by Brendan McCarthy, one of the newspaper's young stars.

Stephanie Grace, a former statewide columnist, declined a job as a reporter, and Bill Barrow, a longtime reporter who covered health care, is going to work for The Associated Press. Bob Marshall, a Pulitzer Prize winner and the newspaper's outdoors editor, took a pass as well."

Reporter sues over "press release" firing

There is little in this reporter's defense of his firing that makes sense to me. On the other hand, I think it would have been ethical (but lazy) to use chunks of a press release as long as you were clear to the reader that you had done that.

Things are shaking at the Detroit Free Press

Had a couple of calls and e-mails urging me to report that the Detroit Free Press was on its last legs. As always I held off until I got better info. Not sure this is great info, but it at least confirms why the rumor mill was griding out grist.

More on the copy "farms"

A FFE reader sent along a link with more information about the pathetic use of copy "farms" to fill out local content in some newspapers.

Advance touts its Online market

These numbers sound good for Advance. What I don't know, and what is not explained, is how this is translating into dollars for the company. I do notice that they have hired back some pretty decent writers (at least on a free lance basis) who I used to work with. So that is good.

The new journalism: It's worse than I thought

If you wondered where "journalism" is headed in the new age, just read this story.

And a little more on this from the Chicago Tribune.

Confession: Good for the soul, but not for the boss

A Monroe reporter is dealing with the aftermath of a confessional column he recently wrote. Follow the links to get the whole picture.

At least one Advance site pays attention to comments

Apparently the MLive "yellow" was not so popular down south either. Difference, they changed.

More on the recent Advance moves

Poynter has a little more (with additional links at the bottom) on the changes at AnnArbor.com and NJ.com.

More Advance musical chairs

The deck chairs are being moved around again down at AnnArbor.com. Also out west Oregon is using the basic MLive format for its coverage.

Another journalist falls to the temptation of faux sources

By now you'd think even the greenest reporters would realize in today's world it would be impossible, or nearly impossible, to get away with making up sources out of thin air. But here's yet another example.

It was always unethical and wrong to fabricate sources, but with sources so easily checked, you'd think that would be the biggest deterrent.

Poynter: Advance is re-inventing journalism

Here's another view on what Advance is trying to do. I do wish them well, but obviously disagree that they are going about it the right way.

New venture from some old Boothies

A few "departed" sports folks from the western papers have started up a new sports site to cover the local sports that MLive Media Group now leaves to inexperienced writers to cover. Best wishes to them in this venture.

The other Advance shoe drops down south

More bad news for newspaper employees.

From the New York Times.

My favorite line from the NY Times story:

"Mr. Amoss did not deny a concern raised by returning reporters that they would be compensated based on page views or other gauges of online popularity, emphasizing only that their base salaries would be comparable to what they earn now and “they’ll be operating in a digital world, and how they do will be evaluated.”  "     

Hat tip to two loyal readers for the links.

Today there is too much of one and not enough of the other

More bad news for the Detroit Free Press

Crain's is reporting that more bad news is on the way for the Detroit Free Press.

Clueless ewspaper CEOS are the problem

If there was any doubt that newspaper managers were out of touch, this article certainly makes it abundantly clear.

And here's an update on the recent MLive.com news.

New Orleans Newhouse property prepares for heavy cuts

Thanks to a couple FFE readers for the link to a story about looming cuts at the New Orleans daily, or should I say, former daily newspaper.

And this from yahoo.com.

And from Forbes.com.http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2012/05/24/what-new-orleans-can-expect-when-its-newspaper-goes-away/

Print drops, online improves for MLive.com

MLive.com is reporting mixed, but expected numbers in the first stage of their new business. I'll leave it to others to analyze the numbers. But give credit where it is due, they did report the numbers for folks to read and that's a positive thing.

New posting platform coming to MLive.com

I'm just betting the "flag" will be the most used part of this new forum. Judging by the comments they get now with moderation, it will be really interesting to see what happens when they completely open the forum.

Kim Crawford's book gets front page coverage (in Pontiac but not in Flint)

(Update 7 p.m. May 14 - My friend Kim, who was never as upset about the non-invite to the book signing as several of his friends, called me to let me know he had heard from the Flint Journal and assured that any slight was unintentional. When the next Art Walk comes to town, he was told that he would certainly be invited to that event. Like Kim, I'll take them at their word that they didn't intentionally leave him out of the book signing event. So we'll move on to other things, for now).

Kim Crawford is a friend of mine, let's just get that out of the way at the beginning, I hired him for arguably his first job in journalism at The State News in Michigan State back in the late 1970s. What I saw in him was a fire that is necessary in any good reporter.

At the time I was Editor of the The State News. As an editor, I immediately fell under the heading of "goat brain" as far as Crawford was concerned after he was hired. Later we would work together as colleagues at the Flint Journal.

What some editors, especially young ones, don't understand is that with passion and fire for writing and reporting comes combativeness over the process. What a good editor learns is not to take it personally. Good editors learn how to use that fire and passion rather than trying to subdue it.

Unfortunately in the latter years that I was with the Flint Journal that fire and passion was not appreciated, but rather they unsuccessfully tried to subdue it. It seemed there was more concern over the neatness of a reporter's desk than the end product of their efforts.

Anyway, last week the Flint Journal hosted a book signing party at an open house. Invited were current and former reporters with books to sell. Those invited are good writers and have reason to be proud of their achievements.

Not invited was Kim Crawford, who has recently published a book, "The Daring Trader: Jacob Smith in the Michigan Territory, 1802-1825"  through Michigan State University Press that deals with the founding of Flint. It is much more than that, it is a history of early Michigan and a great tale of the role of a controversial fur trader named Jacob Smith.

It is well researched and written and I highly recommend it if you are at all interested in the history of our country.

Why would the Flint Journal not invite Crawford to such a party? After all, the heart of the book involves "Flint."

There is speculation that he was not invited because the current editor is not really a fan of Kim's. I simply don't know, but because she is not a fan of mine either, so I'm not going to ask.

As someone said on Facebook, it might say something about the coverage or bias of the current management of the paper that they use how they personally feel about someone when they make news judgements.

On the other hand, the Oakland Press, Macomb Daily and Royal Oak Tribune did a large piece on the book just today.

One former staffer at the Flint Journal suggested a big story on the book a couple months ago (they did do a short piece on Kim's appearance at the Sloan Museum) but was told "We don't write about former staffers."

That's true, except when they do write about them or invite them to book signings.

AP apologizes to reporter - 50 years after he died

The Associated Press apologized to a reporter it fired in 1945, but it came a little late.

"No comment" on comments

Jim Romenesko posted a big "No Comment" on this item from MLive.com

Some posts from around MLive Media Group land

A few notes on MLive Media Group that have come my way in recent weeks.

Talk about good luck, the Victorian home near the Michigan Capitol housing the ‘new’ Lansing offices of MLive Media Group was supposed to be sold when the old Lansing bureau was eviscerated a couple years ago. The housing slump resulted in the house not being sold and for some time only one person was working out of that office.

The company, of course, continued to pay the heat, electric bills for the large house that was really home to just one person. Now with the new bureau occupants the office space may now justify its expense. Sometimes it pays not to sell.

Also in MMG news:

A former GR Press blogger whose 21^st century job at the new MMG was to scan for topics pricking the computer keys of readers and then turning those into “hits” on the website has apparently decided the grass is greener at the Detroit Free Press. The blogger was a longtime Grand Rapids Press employee and was part of the new team that was to help transition the news group from dead tree to Internet.

Don’t know if that is a good or bad sign for the new venture that folks are already leaving.

Reportedly, six advertising folks in Grand Rapids have been parted from the company since the restructuring in February. That’s two a month, if my math is good. I’m told that three or four of those were new hires and others were legacy employees, which is what they call folks who made the transition from the newspaper to the new group. Some were long time employees.

It seems to be another dubious sign of a difficult transition for the new company. Wonder what the costs are to hire and fire that many employees in so short a time?

Then there was the comment when the old managers in discussing the new company said: “You’ll be happy to know we’re streamlining  management” as they canned a number of middle managers in the restructuring. Well, I’m told they have added a couple more management levels. Maybe it took more time for self-promotion and the promotion of the new company then they first realized.

There’s also some word that a couple folks, one or perhaps two from the centralized copy desk, are currently on medical leave due to stress. More veteran copy folks, people who were asked to stay on during the transition, have been let go which has put more pressure on those who remain.

Some folks are being pushed to do 20 or more pages for the dead tree editions in one night. The attitude is one of “just get it done” without too much concern about what is going into the print product.

From more than one source I’ve been told that the new attitude is that the newspaper product is no longer the central focus. In fact, managers have been told not to “think newspaper” anymore. What is being manufactured into the print product is just whatever the centralized copy desk finds that has already been published on the website.

From my personal observation the delivered papers are very thin and if I go back I can find that all the stories were published online the week before they appeared in my home delivered version.

When the readers eventually discover how little attention is being paid to the product that they actually have to pay for, and the one that is bringing in the lion’s share of the revenue it may leave a bad taste.

The numbers for home delivery, at least on a couple routes that have been reported to me continue to fall in numbers.

To be fair, on the rare occasion that I visit MLive.com I do find things that are worthwhile to read and I do check in for sports, but at home I can read the delivered paper in about 10 minutes. If I wasn’t a former employee and feel a sense of loyalty to the folks still working there I would be inclined to cancel.

Actually, we’ve tried to do several vacation stops in the past few months while we traveled only to come home to piles of newspapers in and around our Journal box. Whatever system they are using for calling in vacation stops, it’s not working. My wife says on one occasion she talked to a human and the other times it told her to leave a message and that they would call back, which they never did.

Congratulations to Liz Shaw on her new book

Although I haven't read it yet, I know Liz Shaw from years of working with her and I am looking forward to reading her new book, which she wrote with another author. It is exciting to watch former colleagues succeed in new writing arenas. The link will take you to an Amazon page where you can buy the book. Enjoy!

I did just finish Kim Crawford's latest book (his third) and it is really good. If you are a fan of history this is a book that should be a textbook simply because it doesn't read like one and yet tells a fascinating story that Americans should know about our dealings with Native Americans.

If all textbooks read like Crawford's books we'd have a lot more young people interested in history.

Paul Keep chimes in on 'new' Lansing bureau

Nothing like reinventing yourself. There was a time that the old Booth Newspaper Group had a pretty effective Lansing bureau. Many local reporters were rotated through and cut their teeth on statewide coverage.

Then hard times hit and the same folks who are now touting the 'establishment' of a Lansing bureau disbanded and neutered it and sent many good reporters packing.

Obviously that was a mistake as shown by the realization that there was, and is, a need for such a bureau.Fortunately for those who made the mistake there seems to be little penalty for living in the rarified air of upper management levels.

That said, I know some of the folks who will be involved in the coverage and they are good.

Enjoy the comments, as long as they remain, at the bottom of Paul's column.

And just in case it gets pulled here's a brief segment from one of those comments:

"Isn't it just a little tasteless Mr. Keep seems to have this penchant for self promotion? How about just doing a great job and letting us be the judge? Does he have to judge it for us? Does Paul Keep really think he gets to judge it for me?
I don't agree with Fenster the paper is Liberal, that would be a step up, it is just more about incompetence and arrogance more than anything else. Heck, as I point out in the first comment, I emailed one of the reporters about a story they started and dropped. The reporter could have picked it up and covered it, even late. Instead, I got no answer, at all. No story. Nothing."

Alex Trebek

Who was the famous celebrity that my father recently guided around the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center?

I'm pretty proud of my father. He is a World War II Army Air Corps veteran, he was a great father and now in his "golden years" he is a first class docent at the Air and Space Museum based at Dulles International Airport.

My Dad and Alex Trebek

In my humble opinion he is the best docent they have, but I'm obviously biased and have only had tours given by him so it is probably not fair for me to judge.

Recently he drew the enviable assignment to conduct a museum tour for Alex Trebek.  At the end of the tour my Dad had his picture taken with the Jeopardy host, but I'm almost 100 percent sure he never asked for an autograph.

He has also done VIP tours for an ambassador and some other notable dignitaries. He is as comfortable with those folks as he is with the third graders from a Virginia elementary school.

My Dad, who is a very humble man was involved in an advertising agency during his real life work and I recall times when he had contact with celebrities. Although my memory is dim I recall asking him once after learning that he had met a celebrity if he had gotten an autograph.

"He didn't ask for mine and I didn't ask for his," my father answered. In his own way, my father was not impressed with celebrity and frankly that trait was passed on to me. During my career I have met a number of famous people and except for Chris Chelios, who signed my Red Wings jersey, I have never felt compelled to ask for an autograph.

Mr. Trebek offered my Dad two tickets to a Jeopardy taping, which my father declined.

It reminded me of another lesson my father taught me that served me well in life. One time he came home from work and told my stepmother, brother and I that he had been offered a free trip to the Caribbean for the whole family by a client.

"When do we leave?," was my immediate thought.

My father told me he didn't take the trip because if he did, despite the client's protests to the contrary, he felt that would put him in a position of 'owing' the client something and he didn't want to be in that position.

Maybe the best gift and lesson my father taught me was integrity. Anyway, enjoy the photo of my father and Alex Trebek.

New reporter fired for having a little fun

This whole thing seems a little over the top.

Here's what the reporter wrote about the incident. Probably better off not working for such jerks.

Newsosaur: Why newspapers are failing at digital

Interesting article on the failure of newspaper companies to adapt to digital.

Kim Crawford's new book is really, really good

OK, I'm biased, but I'm nearly finished reading Kim Crawford's latest book "The Daring Trader: Jacob Smith in the Michigan Territory 1802-1825" and I'm calling it a hit.

For those of us who know Kim, he is a great story teller and an even better writer, so this is not a surprise.

Further, for those of us who heard bits and pieces of his research over lunches during our time at the Flint Journal, this puts it all together and without the interuptions caused by all Kim's and David Graham's friends who stopped by during lunch hours to chit chat.

The story is more than that of a fur trader in Flint, but of government influence over the planned settlement of the west and the treatment and dealings with Indians at that time. It is also a tale of early U.S. espionage and intrigue.

Some of the key events take place during the War of 1812 and so if your are a fan of that war this book is also a great read. Kim is a meticulous researcher and the book reveals that.

This is Kim's third book and the other two, which are also in my collection, are Civil War regimental histories that although are completely factual, read like a novel.

To buy the book go here.

For his 16th Michigan Regimental History you can purchase that here.

And for the 4th Michigan (which I saw for sale at the Gettysburg park library) the book can be purchased here.

Newspaper reporting was once a great job

A study puts newspaper reporter near the very bottom of the list of jobs.

Two views on the same problem

Gannett and MLive have differing views on the future of how to save media outlets.

Newspaper April Fool's jokes are always a mistake

Why real newspapers should never play with April Fool's jokes.