Washington, Baltimore Papers to Share Content

This is an excerpt--to read the entire article click here.

Washington Post, Baltimore Sun to share stories, photos, news content starting in 2009

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN , Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Washington Post and The (Baltimore) Sun, facing cost pressures as advertising revenue continues to sink, said Tuesday that they will share some stories, photos and news content starting next year.

The two newspapers said they will exchange some of their daily Maryland news and sports articles and may tap into stories that each company gives to the LAT-WP News Service.

The companies said the agreement will allow them to benefit from each other's areas of expertise, with The Washington Post harnessing the Sun's regional coverage and the Baltimore paper tapping the Post's federal government coverage.

The newspaper sector has been squeezed as readers and advertisers continually move to the Internet, with the economic downturn further worsening its struggles. Content-sharing partnerships represent one approach newspapers across the country have been using to retain or expand coverage while trimming staff.

Shocking Media Bias Exposed!

Weather Channel Accused of Pro-Weather Bias

Journalism Prof. on the Future of Newspapers

Here is a really thought-provoking interview with a very knowledgeable friend who is both an experienced newspaperman and also a journalism professor at a Christian college. This is an excerpt. To read the entire interview, click here.

Prof. Smith on future of papers

Interview with Prof. Michael Ray Smith (pictured), Department of Mass Communication, Campbell University, Buies Creek, N.C.

The San Diego paper is up for sale, the Miami paper is up for sale, the Minneapolis paper has missed an interest payment, the Chicago Tribune empire is in bankruptcy ... on and on we could go ... can you foresee major metro areas in the U.S. suddenly being without the printed word as their primary reliable source of information? If so, is this something terrible and deplorable or just an economic fact of life?

No. Here’s the benefit of a city. As long as we have cities, we will have commuters, who will want to read the news on the bus, train and subway. They tend to read on the way into work and the way home from work. Those commuters represent a strong, repeat audience.


Can adjustments be made to fill the gap and if so what would they be?

Absolutely. Content providers, once called newspapers, are experimenting with on-demand delivery particularly to mobile telephones. Telephones are computers and computers make moving information more convenient than ever. In some cases, information alerts and bursts can be downloaded from a source at work or home or even in transit and then read while on the road. As you know, reading now includes listening and viewing with the added feature that audiences can do their own indexing or searching to add to their interest in an audience.


Are there any metro areas that you think will always have papers, and if so which ones and why?

Two or three come to mind. 1) Washington, D.C., is the political capital of the nation and it is ripe not only for competing voices but as a nexus of political news that may be shared or sold to others as part of their news package. 2) New York City is the financial capital of the nation and the intersection of entertainment, popular culture, wealth and power, which makes it a city that will attract an audience that is restless to be in the know. 3) Los Angeles is the entertainment capital and it is hungry for information that will help audiences sense the direction of its No. 1 export.

WashPost's Use of 'Scare Quotes' Questioned

Over in GetReligion there's an interesting discussion of the Washington Post's use of "scare quotes." Here is an excerpt--to read the original blogpost, click here.

Scare quotes scare me
Posted by Mollie

The Washington Post covered a new Bush administration rule that protects the conscience rights of health care workers. Or, as the Washington Post scare quotes it, “right of conscience.”

We get the scare quotes in the headline and again in the second paragraph:

The Bush administration today issued a sweeping new regulation that protects a broad range of health-care workers — from doctors to janitors — who refuse to participate in providing services that they believe violate their personal, moral or religious beliefs.

The controversial rule empowers federal health officials to cut off federal funding for any state or local government, hospital, clinic, health plan, doctor’s office or other entity if it does not accommodate employees who exercise their “right of conscience.” It would apply to more than 584,000 health-care facilities.

Are the words “they believe” in the first paragraph necessary? Obviously if they didn’t believe these beliefs, they wouldn’t be, well, their beliefs. Right? And the regulation isn’t sweeping, as the story goes on to note in great detail.

Anyway, it’s not like conscience rights are previously unheard of or were just invented by Mike Leavitt, the Health and Human Services Secretary behind the ruling. So I really don’t get the scare quotes. One of my best friend’s parents met because her father served as a conscientious objector during Vietnam at a hospital where her mother was interning. Does the Washington Post refer to such Mennonites as “conscientious objectors” or just conscientious objectors? No scare quotes in this 2006 story. Why the difference? Is it one thing to have a conscientious objection to war and another to have a conscientious objection to abortion?

Could the Post Uncover Watergate Today?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Student Newspaper Shut Down Over Article Review

Very interesting case involving prior restraint. How do you come down on it? This is an excerpt--to read the entire story click here.

Faribault superintendent shuts down student paper

FARIBAULT, Minn. - Faribault School District Superintendent Bob Stepaniak shut down the high school's student newspaper on Monday, after the student editors refused to allow the him review an article before publication.

The article in question was about the investigation into a middle school teacher who had been subject of a complaint about inappropriate communication with a student. The teacher has not been charged, but has been on paid administrative leave since September.

The newspaper's student editor Christen Hildebrandt offered to present the article to the district's attorneys, instead of to the administration, but Stepaniak refused and said in an e-mail: "We are at loggerheads and therefore I am shutting down the Echo (hopefully temporarily) until this issue is resolved."

Both the students and the superintendent claim they are on solid legal ground.

Stepaniak said the issue is about the fundamental question of whether a district's administration has the right to review articles prior to publication.

He pointed to a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, which upheld the right of administrators in a suburban St. Louis, Mo., school district to censor school newspaper articles about teen pregnancy and the effects of divorce on children.

"The issue here is clearly whether district administration can look at an article before publication. That's what it boils down to," Stepaniak said. "I'm very hesitant to give up that right or say we do not control the Echo as a student activity, even through there's a natural hesitation to oversee it."

Bad News for Magazines

From Media Daily News. This is an excerpt--to read entire article, click here.

2008: Magazines Ad Sales Plummet

by Erik Sass, Friday, December 12, 2008, 5:45 PM

As if there isn't enough bad news, 2008 has turned out to be the worst year in decades for magazines, as measured by total ad pages. Through the middle of December, consumer magazines are down 9.4% from last year, according to MIN Online; this compares with a 7.8% drop in 2001. Worse, magazines do not appear to be headed for a quick rebound like the last recession.

At this rate, 2008's losses will almost certainly be compounded in 2009--bringing two straight years of declines, which will result in more magazine closures and layoffs.

A Free E-Newsletter for Writers

W. Terry Whalin has just issued another edition of his right-writing newsletter. Here is the table of contents. If you wish to subscribe:

http://www.right-writing.com/newsletter.html

-------------------------------------------------------

Table Of Contents
-----------------
1) Get Answers For Your Publishing Questions
By W. Terry Whalin

2) Top 10 Ways to Market Your Business in 09
By Nancy Michaels

3) An Exciting New Organization to Join

4) Move Past The Name Twitter
By W. Terry Whalin

5) A Most Lucrative Niche for Books
By Rick Frishman

6) Be A Light in the Darkness
By W. Terry Whalin

7) Boost Your Writing Productivity
By W. Terry Whalin

8) A Crash Course in Submitting a Manuscript
By Laura Backes

Modesto Reporter Chronicles Bush Shoe-Toss

A reporter for the Modesto (CA) Bee was there when the Iraqi journalist threw the shoes at President Bush. Here is an excerpt from his blog--to read the rest, click here.

Iraq Connection: Close up to the shoe toss seen round the world

First I saw President Bush duck to avoid a fast-moving black object – a shoe.

Then I realized one of the reporters behind me was shouting and, in a way, reloading, with a second shoe. Off it went, just as fast as the first.

I couldn't believe he had time to get a second one off.

A dog pile emerged on my left with Iraqis in blue suits wrestling with the shoe-hurler, Iraqi journalist Muntathar al Zaidi. Zaidi was moaning and moaning. He kept fighting and moaning while the Iraqis in the suits hauled him out of the room, and even then we could still hear him.

Bush laughed – or tried to laugh it off.

"That's what happens in free societies when people try to draw attention to themselves," Bush said.

Maybe. I'm sure there are some Americans who'd love to toss a shoe at Bush. Of course you wouldn't expect to see that in a closed press conference with professional journalists in the capital.

That's the snapshot. Let me walk you through what brought me there.

I woke up today on another embed, a little dusty and a little sunburned. My interview with a lieutenant colonel kept getting delayed, so far delayed that I couldn't go out with the soldiers again.

But it turns out that was a good thing.

Ideas Mattered in Great Books Movement

From WorldMagBlog. This is an excerpt--to read the entire article, click here.

Reading minds

Ideas mattered to the Great Books movement

by Janie B. Cheaney; Illustration by Krieg Barrie

Admit it: you always wanted to know what Aristotle said about the body politic, or the gist of Plato's Republic, or Kant's general idea about idealism. OK, enough with the projection—I've wanted to know these things since dropping out of college. My reasons were both base and noble: a desire to appear smart, and a hankering for wisdom.

"Getting wisdom" is a suitable ambition (see Proverbs 4:5), and not just for Christians. It was the stated goal of the "Great Books movement" of the early '50s, begun by a couple of academics who saw the trend to research and specialization in the American university as a thing to be decried. Robert Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago, and Mortimer Adler, educational gadfly and public intellectual, believed that "the aim of higher education is wisdom"—and the surest route to wisdom was studying the classic works of Western literature. Together they established a Great Books curriculum for the University of Chicago, then branched out to the community with a businessman's seminar.

The seminars were so popular that satellite programs popped up across the nation, about 2,500 Great Books discussion groups by 1951. Capitalizing on the hunger (for knowledge, if not wisdom), Hutchins approached his millionaire friend William Benton, who had recently acquired the Encyclopedia Britannica publishing company. The plan was to codify the seminal works of civilization, publish them in a set of volumes (54 was the final count), and offer them to the public at large. Great Books of the Western World (GBWW) was thus conceived, and made its appearance in 1952.

It was "A Great Idea at the Time," according to Alex Beam, author of a book by that title. The time was auspicious for several reasons: The postwar GI bill had produced a crop of college graduates, postwar industry had generated disposable income, and advertising had entered a golden age. A widely reproduced chart that divided American tastes into "highbrow, lowbrow, and middlebrow," though meant as nothing more than social humor, created anxiety in the burgeoning middle class about whether it was classy enough.

Two American traits merged to make the Great Books a hit: a desire for self-improvement plus a weakness for high-pressure salesmanship. "The ability to Discuss and Clarify Basic Ideas is vital to success," ad campaigns not-too-subtly promised. The price was a little steep—$250 for the whole set—but what was that, measured against lifelong success?

Detroit Papers May Cut Back Home Delivery

Here is an excerpt. Read the entire article by clicking here.

UPDATED: More Signs That Detroit Papers (as Rumored) Likely to Cut Back Home Delivery -- 'Anxiety' Grows

By E&P Staff and The Associated Press

Published: December 12, 2008 3:30 PM ET updated 8:00 PM

NEW YORK E&P reported earlier this week that one or both of the Detroit dailies might well announce next Tuesday a halt to home delivery on one or more days of the week. This afternoon, Russell Adams at the Wall Street Journal online wrote that the publisher of the Detroit Free Press, "is expected to announce next week that it will cease home delivery of the print edition of the newspaper on most days of the week, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking (see AP update below).

"The publisher hasn't made a final decision, said this person, but the leading scenario set to be unveiled Tuesday would call for the Free Press and its partner paper, the Detroit News, to end home delivery on all but the most lucrative days—Thursday, Friday and Sunday. On the other days, the publisher would sell single copies of an abbreviated print edition at newsstands and direct readers to the papers' expanded digital editions."

The Free Press, owned by Gannett Co., and the News, owned by MediaNews Group, form the JOA known as the Detroit Media Partnership LP. They have been hard hit by the plunging Michigan economy, and now an auto bailout seems doubtful.

Newspaper Bankruptcies--More to Come?

From Worldmagblog:

A sign of more to come?

by Kristin Chapman

On Monday, the Tribune Co. (which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Sun of Baltimore, as well as the Chicago Cubs) filed for bankruptcy protection, listing $13 billion in debt and $7.6 billion in assets. Tribune Chairman and Chief Executive Sam Zell has called the move a “pre-emptive” act to preserve the company’s assets and allow for reorganization. It marks the first time, however, that a major newspaper publisher has had to take such a step in our downturn economy–and it may not be the last.

For a sense of who might be next, consider publishers that have put individual papers up for sale or have had trouble meeting their debt contracts.

Analysts said Tuesday that most publishers fall into that category. The exceptions often cited: Gannett Co., whose $4 billion in debt is reasonable for its size even though its revenue has shrunk, and McClatchy Co., which in September bought about two years of flexibility on $2 billion in debt by agreeing to higher interest rates.

According to Rick Edmonds, media analyst with the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., the Tribune case is considered “extreme.” But even still, some experts warn that the Tribune’s bankruptcy could have a ripple effect in the industry by making it more difficult or expensive for other publishers to get new financing. “A large-scale bankruptcy like this is evidence,” said Mike Simonton, a bond analyst at Fitch Ratings, “that the default risk across the space could be very high.”

What I Missed Getting News Only Online

From Editor and Publisher:

What I Missed Only Getting News Online

To save money, I recently stopped buying newspapers and got all of my news online. I was satisfied. At least until I took a writing test for a job recently and found I was all too 'news poor.' Now I'm back into print.

By Ted Knutson

(December 05, 2008) -- The rest of the world seems to be gravitating from print newspapers to their online incarnations. Recently, I have found myself going in exactly the opposite direction.

When I lost my last staff position some months ago (I've been writing for various publications for over 30 years), one of the first things I did to save money was to stop buying newspapers and begin getting my news totally online. I was satisfied. At least until I took a writing test for a job recently and found I was all too “news poor.”

Since then, I have dipped into my freelance resources and have begun buying newspapers again. Contrary to the above mentioned “rest of the world,” I found I was missing a lot.

Now that I am devouring print newspapers again, I can honestly say I am much better informed because I am reading more stories and longer stories.

I also am realizing the joy again of running across news I didn’t realize was there by leafing through all the pages of a newspaper instead of just looking at a handful of headlines on the home page of a newspaper’s Web site.

Still another advantage is the techno-phobe in me rests easier because I don’t have to worry about my computer printer jamming any more when I (used to) print out long stories because they were easier to read on paper than on a monitor.

Also, I am happily discovering sales and coupons from my favorite advertisers again, many of whom don’t advertise in the online versions of the newspapers I read.

Speaking about ads, as much as I may have shunned much advertising before with my newsie bias, I am enjoying print advertising more because there are more items listed by the stores, more prices and none of the obnoxious drop-down ads which obliterate the stories I am trying to read.

In addition, when I clicked on an online ad, I often left the newspaper’s Web site I was on, not to return that day. With print, by contrast, it is much easier to go from an ad to a story to another ad to another story.

I became a lover of newspapers when I was a child. When my father came home each day, I always rushed to see him not because I loved him (which I didn’t) but because there would always be one or two newspapers in his briefcase.

Dad is long since gone. But with my return to buying newspapers, I have found I am happily having many reunions with dear old friends.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ted Knutson (dcreporter1@yahoo.com) is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. with over 30 years of experience covering business and government for a wide range of consumer and business publications. He remains available for hire.

Video: Bad News for Newspapers

Here's a very interesting piece of video on how online news is affecting newspapers. To see the video, click here.

Bad news for newspapers 1:33

Fortune's Andy Serwer says that the print media is struggling with increasing Internet competition.

Tribune Co. Files for Bankruptcy

Tribune Co. files for bankruptcy

Chicago-based media conglomerate says it will stay in business throughout its debt restructuring.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Media conglomerate Tribune Co., publisher of the Chicago Tribune, announced Monday it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Chicago-based company said the restructuring focuses on the company's $13 billion debt, not on its operations. The company said its businesses will remain in operation throughout the restructuring of its debt obligations.

"Factors beyond our control have created a perfect storm - a precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy coupled with a credit crisis that makes it extremely difficult to support our debt," said Sam Zell, chief executive of Tribune, in a statement. "We believe that this restructuring will bring the level of our debt in line with current economic realities, and will take pressure off our operations."

Real estate mogul Zell took the company private in December 2007 for close to $13 billion. The company said it has enough cash to continue its operations and listed $7.6 billion in assets under the bankruptcy filing.

Zell and the Tribune Co. have faced wide criticism and legal battles since going private. Employees said the move compromised their stock holdings and the public has complained that Zell's deal has exempted the company from paying corporate income taxes.

The company has suffered since the deal, but mainly because the newspaper advertising market has dried up over the past year.

In a letter to Tribune Co. employees, Zell said the company faces several headwinds but will cut costs when it can during uncertain times.

"Our challenges are consistent with those facing all media companies, and an increasing number of companies across a variety of industries today," said Zell in the letter. "We will continue to operate responsibly in a challenging environment - aggressively managing costs and maximizing revenue opportunities."

Besides the Tribune, Tribune Co. owns such newspapers as the Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun, as well as television and radio stations across the nation.

It said last December that it is looking to sell the Chicago Cubs, the Major League Baseball franchise it owns. The Cubs was not one of the businesses included in the company's bankruptcy filing.

Indy Star Layoffs Less Severe Than First Thought

Indy Star cuts layoff estimate nearly in half

Publisher Michael Kane has just told employees that The Indianapolis Star now expects to lay off fewer than 55 employees by early next month vs. his earlier estimate of up to 95.

In a memo, Kane says: "As we sorted through our options -- which included examining every alternative besides reducing staff -- I now believe we can limit our reductions to fewer than 55 employees in early December.''

Kane's note suggests it's possible to meet Corporate's 10% workforce reduction in ways that aren't limited to cutting payroll. In any case, 55 positions would be 5% of the Star's approximately 1,100 jobs.

Tribune Prepares for Possible Bankruptcy Filing

Tribune prepares for possible bankruptcy filing: WSJ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Publisher and broadcaster Tribune Co. is preparing for a possible bankruptcy-protection filing as soon as this week, The Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Tribune Co., whose newspapers include the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, in recent days has hired Lazard Ltd. as its financial adviser and a legal counsel for a possible trip through bankruptcy court, the paper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Messages left with Tribune and Lazard were not immediately returned.

The Journal, which cited a Tribune spokesman saying the company doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. It said a Lazard spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The paper said Tribune has been on wobbly footing since last December, when real-estate mogul Sam Zell led a debt-backed deal to take the company private.

Tribune so far has stayed ahead of its $12 billion in borrowings with the help of asset sales, but dwindling profits are now tightening the noose, it said. The company's cash flow may not be enough to cover nearly $1 billion in interest payments this year, and Tribune owes a $512 million debt payment in June, the paper said.

(Reporting by Megan Davies; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Strong Local-Interest Feature Story

This is a really good example of a feel-good, take-social-action local feature story. It was written by a professor journalism at a Christian college, who writes this column for his local town paper. Notice the story's structure, and the strong push for involvement at the end.

Face to Faith

S.J. Dahlman
6 Dec 2008
Johnson City (Tenn.) Press


It would be a stretch to say that a bedbug infestation was the best thing that could happen at the John Sevier Center, but the effort to get rid of the pests may have planted a community where one didn't exist before.

The center, which provides reduced-rent housing for about 140 people living on low incomes, was invaded by bedbugs about 18 months ago. Cleanliness or economics have little to do with the problem. Some of New York's finest hotels get them.

Last month every room in the John Sevier Center was fumigated, requiring all residents to pack their belongings, toss infested furniture and move out for a night. The task could have been a logistical and financial nightmare for the residents and the owners of the building, M & M Properties. The job went almost flawlessly, however, thanks to a little help from friends - a couple of them in particular.

Rich and Dori Gorman, who worked in urban ministry in their hometown of Savannah, Ga., moved here two years ago to attend Emmanuel School of Religion. As they asked around where they could serve the community, their minister pointed them to the John Sevier Center, where a lot of lonely people live. Rich and Dori started visiting there three times a week.

"We just wanted the people there to know someone cared about them, spending time with them, listening to their stories," Rich, 35, explained. "These are wonderful people who are incredibly gifted and talented, but they haven't had an opportunity to have that reaffirmed or to be in an environment to have their gifts flourish."

Soon they noticed other needs. Many residents lacked transportation, and so the Gormans started borrowing a church van every Friday to ferry people to Wal-Mart and doctors' offices. Then they realized many residents barely knew their neighbors, and so they started showing movies on Friday nights in a commons area, complete with popcorn.

From that has grown a five-night-a-week schedule of Bible studies, financial counseling and social events. To manage this expanding agenda, the Gormans, with three of their friends, formed a small ministry organization, the Friends at John Sevier.

The benefits, the Gormans insist, don't flow in one direction. It's not a ministry to residents as much as a ministry with residents, Rich said.

"My life has been changed more by the John Sevier Center than I've changed any individual," Dori, 26, said. "It's an opportunity to see what God can do in your life."

It didn't take long for the ministry to talk with M&M about the bedbug problem, but it took a few months of conversation to work out a plan. The owners committed to pay for the extermination (including a one-year follow-up), and the Friends at John Sevier put the word out to local churches, asking for help.

The response was breathtaking. During two weeks in November, more than 700 volunteers from 10 congregations worked floor by floor to help residents pack their belongings, remove their furniture, move to a hotel for an overnight stay paid by Good Samaritan Ministries, and then move back in. At least 10 local companies donated goods and services or sold them at cost. The Friends ministry has also collected more than $16,000 toward a goal of $22,000 to help residents replace their furniture.

"The best thing that's come out of this," Rich said, "is that there's more sense of community. Something profound has happened in the sense of residents taking care of one another. Every day, there's some small thing."

That sense of community, he thinks, is starting to reach beyond the doors of the center.

"This project hasn't just helped the John Sevier Center. It's helped downtown," he said. "It's in the way churches stepped up and got acquainted with downtown in a new way."

He hopes the acquaintance grows, with more churches, groups and individuals "adopting" residents of the center as new friends.

"A lot of residents felt like they were drowning," Rich said. "Then for the churches to come in and say, 'It's going to be OK. We'll walk with you. You're not going to drown' - that's been an amazing thing. I think God wants to care for the people there, to be the hands and feet of Christ at the John Sevier Center."

To find out more about getting involved with the John Sevier Center, phone (423) 926-3161 or e-mail FriendsAtJohnSevier@yahoo.com .

____

S.J. Dahlman is associate professor of communications at Milligan College. You can reach him at sjdahlman@milligan.edu .

-30-

Why Did the Mainstream Press Miss This?

From Religion & Ethics RNS blog:

Jeff Sharlet over at The Revealer notes that the celebrants who say they created a new Anglican province Wednesday blew a shofar (Jewish ritual horn) at the worship service following the announcement. Apparently, only Christianity Today reported this detail.

Sharlet asks "Why did the mainstream press ignore this unusual detail? Did it strike the NYT as too absurd? The Washington Post as simply confusing? I suspect this may be a case of the press neatening up some strange religion for broad public consumption."

I suspect a more mundane rationale: deadlines. The story broke late in the day, (the press conference ended around 7:30 p.m. EST), and most east coast reporters probably were trying to finish their stories and did not attend the worship service. CT, a weekly based in Chicago, had a little more time, and so did attend.

Sharlet's larger point, however, about the popularity of the shofar in evangelical circles, is worth noting.

Read the original LA Times article by clicking here.

Tough Layoffs in Twin Cities Media

From the StarTrib. See the entire article here.

KSTP, Star Tribune announce job cuts

The Star Tribune told its staff that it will eliminate up to 25 newsroom jobs through buyouts or layoffs. KSTP-TV is expected to lay off up to 18 newsroom staffers.

By NEAL JUSTIN , Star Tribune

The local media's holiday season just got a little bluer. The Star Tribune told its staff Thursday that it will eliminate up to 25 newsroom jobs through buyouts or layoffs. KSTP-TV, the Twin Cities' ABC affiliate, is expected to announce major cuts this morning during an all-station meeting. Insiders project at least 18 of those layoffs will come from the newsroom. The casualties confirmed Thursday include producer Dana Benson, who recently filled in as news director, and investigative reporter Kristi Piehl, who has won two Emmys during her three years at the station.

"I was told that my news director and other people went to bat for me, but that this was a decision made by Rob Hubbard," said Piehl, referring to the independently owned station's general manager. "I do owe him and his family a lot. They gave me the opportunity. I'm not angry, just surprised." Piehl will best be remembered for her series on the "Smiley Face Killers," which landed her a guest appearance on "Good Morning, America."

Hubbard and current news director Lindsay Radford did not return phone calls Thursday.

Others that were given their walking papers include photojournalists, producers and technicians.

The news came on the heels of layoffs of at least seven people at WCCO-AM radio, including sports reporter Dan Terhaar and part-time reporter Roshini Rajkumar.

The buyouts at the Star Tribune are part of $30 million in cost cuts by the company, a figure that includes $20 million in labor savings from its unionized workers.

"As you all know, the Star Tribune is under severe pressure to align its costs with its revenue in what is clearly the most challenging economic environment any of us has ever faced," Editor Nancy Barnes said in an e-mail distributed to the news staff. "Those efforts are already under way in every corner of the company."

Thomas Nelson Cuts Ten Percent

From Christianity Today:

Thomas Nelson Cuts 10 Percent
Sales of religious books have declined by 8.9 percent this year.

Sarah Pulliam

Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson cut 10 percent of its workforce today, Michael S. Hyatt, President and CEO of the company wrote on his blog.

The company laid off 54 employees, the second round of layoffs at Thomas Nelson this year.

Wendy Lee writes at The Tennessean that sales of religious books alone have declined by 8.9 percent year to date, according to Subtext, a newsletter published by Open Book Publishing Inc.

In April, the company cut roughly 60 of its 600-plus employees at the time as it trimmed the number of book titles it publishes by half.

The decline in religious book sales follows a robust period for the sector from 2002 to 2006.

Another Christian publishing company, Zondervan, cut 18 positions earlier this year.

Another Religion Journalist Gone

From Ted Olsen at ChristianityTodayLiveBlog:

Another religion journalist gone

Ted Olsen

David Briggs of Cleveland's Plain Dealer laid off after a decade.

David Briggs, the religion reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for the past decade, was among those laid off by the paper this week, the Cleveland Leader reports. His writing also appeared often in Religion News Service, and he had served as president of the Religion Newswriters Association. Before coming to the Plain Dealer, Briggs was a national religion writer for The Associated Press in the 1990s.

We've lost a lot of full-time religion reporter positions lately, as well as a lot of longtime religion journalists. I'm not sure if The Orlando Sentinel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, San Diego Union Tribune, East Valley (Ariz.) Tribune, and other papers have replaced the religion reporters there who have been laid off or bought out, but I don't think so.

In related news, U.S. News & World Report religion reporter/pundit Jay Tolson has left the magazine to become director of central news at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Will There Be Any News in Newspapers?

Here's a stimulating commentary by the ex-editor of the Los Angeles Times. This is a short excerpt--to read the entire article, click here.

Of course we'll have newspapers. But will there be any news in them?

James O’Shea, ex-editor of the LA Times, sees pandering to readers as a current danger and says newspapers aren’t going to solve their problems by lay-offs or closing bureaus. Journalists need to persuade people that we “once again are a public trust,” he writes.

By James O’Shea
With all the reports about huge layoffs and financial troubles in the news business, it’s no wonder that many journalists and caring Americans question whether we will continue to have newspapers.

But those concerned about the fate of these fabled institutions are asking the wrong question. Of course we will have newspapers. Communist China has newspapers; Russia under the Soviets had newspapers. Serbia had newspapers under dictator Slobadan Milosevic.

The real question is what kind of journalism will we have in the newspapers that manage to survive the current wave of circulation and advertising declines plaguing the industry.

Will we have the rich, hard-hitting storytelling that gives the news its infrastructure of shoe-leather journalism from courthouses, police stations, legislatures and war zones, the kind of reporting that gives bloggers, broadcasters and others something to write and talk about?

Or will the surviving newspapers become vessels for “panderism” instead of journalism, flimsy content organized around the age-old principle of luring dog owners to stories in the paper so you can sell them some dog food?

I’ve been wondering about this question ever since I left the newsroom of the Los Angeles Times earlier this year over what has come to be commonly known as “a disagreement over the future direction of the paper.”

Christian Writers Sought

Christian Ministry Seeks to Raise 'Culture Warriors' through Contest

By Kenneth Chan
Christian Post Correspondent

There is a need for more believers to effectively live out their Christian worldview within our culture, says the leader of an apologetics ministry.

"Our media is dominated by people immersed in the secular humanist mindset,” notes Anthony Horvath of Athanatos Christian Ministries.

“The evidence of this is present in books, movies, TV shows, music, as well as in newspapers and cable television,” he says. “The resulting culture perpetuates itself and creates a climate of cynicism - to say the least - regarding the claims of Christianity."

Now, imagine if more Christians were writing movies, books, and the news.

“This alone might not save a single soul, but it would help create a climate where the Christian message is better received," Horvath says.

To encourage writers to represent their Christian beliefs through arts – in particular through fiction – Horvath’s ministry is hosting a contest to identify writers who can write quality fiction that represents the Christian worldview either explicitly or implicitly.

"C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, and G.K. Chesterton are examples of Christian authors whose stories reflected their Christian outlook,” notes Horvath. “The remarkable thing is that secular audiences enjoy their work as much as Christian audiences do.”

Chris Jones, a theater critic for the Chicago Tribune, would likely concur.

“The Christian allegorist C.S. Lewis is to agnostics what the conservative writer David Brooks is to liberals. He’s about the only one they can stand,” Jones wrote in a review of “The Screwtapes Letters,” a Lewis-based theatrical performance that is currently reaping success at the Mercury Theatre in Chicago.

“Even those who abhor most religiously oriented literature – people who wouldn’t be caught dead reading 'Left Behind' or other apocalyptica – are ready to give Lewis some space in their lives,” he added.

And it is works such as Lewis’s that society needs more of, says Horvath.

“Readers let down their defenses when reading stories or watching movies and this provides an opportunity for the author to present ideas and themes that readers might otherwise have dismissed,” he says. “This is true for both Christians and non-Christians, but the secular community is more deliberate in exploiting this reality.”

The problem, however, is that Christians have mostly been unsuccessful in casting the Christian worldview into mainstream media, though Christian music and books have been seeing more success in recent years.

“A lot of Christian entertainment is incubated in a bubble and often the script isn't challenged creatively the way a mainstream Hollywood script is vetted by director and producer and (for better or worse) studio,” says Christian writer, director and producer Dan Merchant.

Furthermore, Christians sometimes push too hard on "shoving" the gospel into stories and forget that people want to be entertained, adds Phil Cooke, president and creative director of Cooke Pictures.

“We need to be far more subtle in our storytelling,” he says. “After all, Jesus didn't tell ‘Christian’ stories. He told stories about people's lives, and they were powerful and compelling.”

And those are the kind of stories that Athanatos Christian Ministries will be looking for as it receive contest entries this month through May 15, 2009.

Though the amount of the awards are not so impressive (top prize is $500), the ministry still hopes to inspire young Christians to take up the pen and promote the Christian worldview through fiction and create a culture of quality writing reflecting that worldview.

Winning entries will be compiled into an anthology and published. The anthology will be distributed to every single author who entered a story, at no additional cost.

"We want every contributor to see what a winning story looks like so they can learn from it and improve their own writing ability," Horvath explains.

Winners of the Athanatos Christian Writing Contest will be announced on Aug. 1, 2009. Anthologies and awards will be disbursed beginning Sept. 1, 2009.

On the Web:

The Athanatos Christian Writing Contest homepage at www.christianwritingcontest.com.

Thomas Nelson Initiates Second-Round Cuts

From the nation's largest Christian publisher. This is an excerpt--read the entire article by clicking here.

The Recession Hits Home

Today, was a very difficult day at Thomas Nelson. We informed fifty-four of our friends and co-workers (about 10% of our workforce) that we have eliminated their jobs, effective this Friday. This will affect nearly every department in our company.

This was the second round of reductions this year. Unfortunately, this one was no less painful. We did the first round after significantly cutting our SKU count. However, this second round was purely a result of the slowdown in the economy.

As a leadership team, we struggled with this decision for several weeks. As recently as September 19, I assured our employees that we were not planning another reduction in our workforce. It was not even a remote consideration. But the final September and October sales reports changed that.

Kindle Celebrates its First Birthday

By Zach Pontz, CNN

(CNN) -- It has the curves of a Lamborghini, looks like something an astronaut might take into space and weighs only 10.3 ounces.

Amazon's Kindle e-reader is wireless and can hold about 200 books, plus newspapers and magazines.

Amazon.com's electronic Kindle reader -- a device meant to remove the paper from the page and make reading both more convenient and eco-friendly -- is celebrating its first birthday.

Released in November 2007, the Kindle has sold more than a quarter million units. Its texts account for 10 percent of Amazon's book sales despite the fact that 200,000 titles -- a tiny fraction of the books offered on the site -- are available in digital form.

While exact sales figures are hard to come by, recent estimates have put the Kindle's sales on par with other high-profile mobile devices in their first year. Amazon.com says that the Kindle is currently sold out due to heavy demand.

So what has spurred its success? After all, electronic books have been around, in small numbers, for about a decade. Even Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, has admitted that the book is "elegantly suited to its purpose. It's hard to improve on."

One thing that's helped the Kindle is marketing. Where other readers failed to connect with consumers, the Kindle has excelled. The media-savvy Bezos has hardly been publicity shy, gaining his electronic toy a level of exposure most CEOs couldn't begin to fathom.

"You can't discount the prominence of having Amazon behind this," says Paul Reynolds, technology editor at Consumer Reports. "Jeff Bezos is respected for what he's done with Amazon, and if he feels this is a future product in media, people are willing to trust him."

Second, the gadget has been heralded by Oprah Winfrey, whose influence in the publishing world is immense. It's also been embraced by some prominent writers, including Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and best-selling thriller author James Patterson.

Third, with more and more consumers accustomed to reading text on their cell phones and BlackBerrys, the world finally may be ready for an electronic version of a book.

"I checked it out on Amazon and thought it was an intriguing idea, a great way to have a lot of books that don't take up a lot of space," says Emily Branch of Florida, who was moved to buy a Kindle after seeing the hosts of "The View" chatting about it.

"I figured if I didn't like it I could return it within 30 days," Branch says. "There wasn't a chance of that happening once I got it in my hands though."

One clutter-killing Kindle can hold about 200 books. And while other e-readers such as Sony's Reader must connect through a USB port to upload content, the Kindle is a wireless device, thanks to Whispernet, which is powered by Sprint's high-speed data network.

"I think the Whispernet is what sets the Kindle apart from all the other e-readers on the market," says Leslie Nicoll of Portland, Maine, who co-authored "The Amazon Kindle F.A.Q." book after her tech-loving teenage daughter urged her to get a Kindle.

Like Branch, Nicoll says she likes the Kindle's low-impact effect on her bookshelves. "I don't have to worry about giving it to someone else, reselling it on Amazon or finding a place to store it in my house," she says. "For the enjoyment and convenience, it has given me in the past seven months, I consider that it has paid for itself already."

Readers can visit Amazon's online store and upload a new book right to their Kindle. Subscribers also can have electronic versions of The New York Times and other newspapers and magazines delivered automatically to their Kindles in time for reading with their morning cup of coffee.

"The large and tightly interacting collection of Kindle features, that go far beyond those of any other previous e-Book attempt, will cause the Kindle to be the first e-Book to succeed," wrote one reviewer on an Amazon discussion board.

But not everything in Kindle world is roses and gumdrops. There's a difference between modest early success and making a centuries-old print format obsolete. The Kindle sells for $359, a steep price for the average reader in the current economic climate.

"I'm not going to pay $360 for that. I can get books for free," says Nikki Johnson, a college student in Atlanta, Georgia, speaking for traditionalists who are wary of giving up their bound paper volumes.

"There's nothing like reading a nice paperback," she says. "There's nothing like holding or carrying a book, having that tangible quality and it being more than just a piece of data."

So in an unforgiving economy and in a stubbornly old-fashioned medium, will the Kindle ever expand from a tech novelty to a mainstream accessory? It might be too soon to tell.

Blockbuster writers such as J.K. Rowling, author of the "Harry Potter" series, have said they'll never allow their books to appear on the market in electronic form. Yet future, better versions of e-readers may seduce younger consumers who grew up on PSPs and iPhones.

A next-generation model of the Kindle is due in 2009. Early reports indicate the new device will be thinner and will have fixed some current design bugs, such as poorly placed buttons that cause readers to turn pages accidentally.

"I think it's certainly a ways away from hitting the mainstream ... because of the price and the experience a reader gets from long-form reading," says Reynolds of Consumer Reports. "Whether these ... are successful, stand-alone devices remains to be seen. From what I've seen and heard, I think the technology is here to stay."

PR Lesson Learned--No Corporate Jets

How Are The Big Three CEO's Getting To DC This Time?
December 02, 2008 11:56 AM

It was a public relations disaster. The CEO's of the Big Three Autos came to Washington aboard corporate jets to ask for a tax payer bail out. Congress was none too happy. Well, the Big 3 are coming back later this week. Most importantly they'll be coming with newly revised plans for how they'll spend federal bail out dollars. But, in terms of symbolism, we're learning they'll also be parking the jets.

ABC's Charlie Herman reports from New York on how the CEOs plan to travel this week:

GM

CEO Rick Wagoner drives to DC in a Malibu Hybrid.

Don't know if he will be behind the wheel.

Ford

CEO Alan Mulally drives to DC in an Escape Hyrbid

Don't know if he will be behind the wheel.

Chrysler

No word yet.

Opinion Writing: A Cancer on the Financial System

Here's an example of extremely effective editorial-style writing. Punchy, direct, well-documented--very lean, no wasted words. Strong call to action that is clear. A very good model of effective persuasive writing.

A Cancer on the Financial System
Radical Surgery Required

By Chuck Colson

For those of you who remember Watergate, John Dean, the President’s counsel, famously warned President Nixon about Watergate, describing it as, quote, “a cancer on the Presidency.” That is a pretty good phrase to describe our economic mess.

If you get the sniffles, you can take an antihistamine. A few antibiotics can cure an ear infection. But cancer requires surgery, and maybe chemo and radiation.

Last week in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman wrote, “Right now there is something deeply dysfunctional, bordering on scandalously irresponsible, in the fractious way our political elite are behaving—with business as usual in the most unusual economic moment of our lifetimes. They don’t seem to understand: Our financial system is imperiled.” And, quoting Yale professor Jeffrey Garten, Friedman argued that it’s better to overestimate the danger and act accordingly than to underestimate.

He’s right. So I have a radical proposal: surgery followed by chemo.

Let us remember that one of the great concepts of the Reformation was the Rule of Law. No office holder is above it. So as for the surgery, I’d start maybe impeaching or indicting some of the officials who pontificate day after day on television about the terrible crisis—but they’re the same ones who helped bring it about. From those who put their pals in charge of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and then forced those agencies to make loans they knew couldn’t be repaid; to those regulators at the Office of Thrift Supervision who ignored the signs of catastrophe while the likes of Countrywide Financial, IndyMac, and Washington Mutual went down.

As one former Republican lawmaker told the Washington Post last week, the “regulatory motif” at OTS “was too accommodating to private-sector interests.” The result was chaos!

As for Wall Street, the surgery would include curbing the excess compensation so many of those officials got, and even indicting some of the irresponsible ones who negligently promoted instruments they knew had to fail. In the old days, we’d have called that fraud.

And don’t continue bail-outs to the irresponsible. Let the bankruptcy courts reorganize mismanaged companies. The reorganization would get rid of the all the labor feather-bedding and corporate excesses, particularly in the three big auto makers.

The chemo and radiation part is harder. It means injecting into the bloodstream of the nation a sense of ethics. It’s not taught in business schools; it’s not taught in high schools. We have lost our understanding of right and wrong. All that matters anymore is the financial bottom line and self satisfaction.

So this is where Christians can truly make a difference, as I have written this month in Christianity Today. The financial meltdown is more a crisis of character than a crisis of finances. Historically, our ethical system has come from Judeo-Christian revelation. We’ve got to start bringing it back into society. There is simply no other way.

Surgery, chemo and radiation are long processes. When my son went through it a while ago, it took a year. But the point is, until the cancer is destroyed, the body cannot be healthy.

To postpone it will only postpone the inevitable and perhaps merely succeed in allowing the patient to die painlessly.

This nation deserves better.