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.