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.