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Updated: 3 hours 6 sec ago
Schmidt named top editor at International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
William Schmidt, an assistant managing editor at the New York Times, will move to Paris and become International Herald Tribune editor. He takes over from interim editor Martin Gottlieb, who will return to New York to continue the work of integrating the Times and IHT. Lenders who financed Strib acquisition now want out of the deal
Finance and Commerce
The lenders who financed Avista Capital Partners' 2007 acquisition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune are seeking a buyer for their debt package, originally worth more than $400 million. Two Twin Cities execs say local business leaders have been approached with offers to purchase the debt. Reporter didn't deserve a public scolding for Netroots story
Romenesko Letters
Political moderate Nancy Nall Derringer says she wasn't offended by Patrick Beach's Netroots Nation piece in the Austin American-Statesman. "It looked like a pretty valiant attempt to cover a gathering with a little verve and style. It certainly didn't seem deserving of a public shaming by his editor in chief. And to think the Kossacks were egged on by Greg Mitchell, a fellow journalist! Comrades, everything old really is new again -- can we paint Beach out of a few May Day photographs, too?" New York Times newsstand price goes from $1.25 to $1.50
Associated Press
The increase takes effect Aug. 18. The Times' last increase, from $1 to $1.25, came a year ago. The move comes a week after the Wall Street Journal said it would boost its newsstand price by 50 cents to $2 starting July 28. Kass: You can't deny that reporters generally favor Obama
Chicago Tribune
"When reporters weren't arguing about getting access to [Barack Obama's] fact-finding-tour-campaign-commercial this week, they were tossing rose petals before him, so that his feet wouldn't touch the ground," writes John Kass. || Washington Post: John McCain's "gaffes" are starting to ricochet from liberal blogs to the mainstream media. Dickerson: Twitter doesn't threaten the traditions of our craft
Nieman Reports
To some, the idea that any journalist would willingly embrace a smaller space is horrifying and dumb, says John Dickerson. But Twitter adds, rather than subtracts, from what we do. "As I spend nearly all of my time on the road these days reporting on the presidential campaigns, Twitter is the perfect place for all of those asides I've scribbled in the hundreds of notebooks I have in my garage from the campaigns and stories I've covered over the years." || NYO's Politicker: Hillary's micro-debt leaks out on Twitter. || Amy Gahran: I use Twitter to turn my notetaking process into live coverage for interested people. > Read more stories from the Summer 2008 Nieman Reports (NR) New York Times Co.'s Q2 results miss Wall Street's estimates
Associated Press | New York Times release
Revenue fell 6% to $741.9 million and missed the Wall Street projection of $754 million. Ad revenue dropped 11%, hurt mostly by a continuing decline in classified advertising. Higher newsstand and subscription prices for the Times boosted circulation revenue 2.5%. || Read the release. Denver newsman feels like an exile a year after being sacked
Columbia Journalism Review
"I still want journalism," writes former Denver Post columnist Jim Spencer. "Journalism just doesn't seem to want me -- at least not enough to pay me a livable wage with benefits and job security. That pretty much sums up the state of the industry." New role models for journalism will come from lovers of journalism
SensibleTalk.com
"Not lovers of profit, real estate or market share," writes Robert Niles. "If a manager's commitment is to profit, then that manager will gut journalism ... to save the bottom line. But if the commitment is to journalism first, then the manager will chuck the business model to protect the reporting." Zell: Cuts were made "so we can survive to live another day"
Baltimore Sun
Sam Zell said in a conference call with Tribune reporters Tuesday that "I have a responsibility to keep this business alive when cash flow has eroded at a prodigious level." He added: "The role of the newspaper is changing and we need to size our organization and our newspaper to reflect the realities of the marketplace ...We're doing everything we can to make this downsizing happen as quickly and as painlessly as possible." More stories about the call: > "We're not going to guarantee you there will never be another cut" (HC) > Zell: Cablevision's deal to buy Newsday could close next week (Newsday) > Reporter has "no faith that these people know how to turn the corner" (MC) Nobody seems to be paying attention to Gregory's new show
New York Observer
Numbers for David Gregory's "Race for the White House" have been relatively flat from month to month, suggesting that the NBC newsman has already attracted the audience that will recognize and follow his name, says Felix Gillette. "While his colleagues at MSNBC have been stirring up controversy and grabbing attention from viewers inside the Beltway at every turn, Mr. Gregory has yet to make much noise." Boston Phoenix music critic's deal with orchestra questioned
Boston Globe
Phoenix music critic Lloyd Schwartz is letting the Boston Symphony Orchestra set his poems to music and pay his expenses. The Pulitzer-winning critic covers BSO, but Phoenix executive editor Peter Kadzis doesn't see a problem with the arrangement. Poynter's Al Tompkins does, though. "It presents, if not a conflict, the appearance of conflict of interest," he says. Austin paper says Netroots story "compromised our standards"
Austin American-Statesman | Editor & Publisher
American-Statesman editor Fred Zipp says the front-page feature "included doses of irony and exaggeration [and] made assertions (that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might find herself at home politically in Beijing, for example) and characterizations ('marauding liberals' was one) meant to amuse. For many readers, we failed." || E&P's Greg Mitchell: "I thought I would perform a public service and let some of the convention attendees know about [the article]." > "DailyKos thugs bully paper into pulling Netroots Nation article" (STACLU) Feisty tech bloggers rip into each other at conference
Fortune.com
Robert Scoble of Scobleizer.com said that the difference between bloggers and traditional media like Fortune is that the audience participation helps keep his blog honest. "This is written by the audience. People participate in fact-checking" Fortune senior writer Adam Lashinsky fired back: "In the old school, we like to get it right the first time." It's a good time for papers to acquire local shoppers, mags
Content Bridges
"In every market there are local shoppers, magazines and websites that combined slurp up a good amount of market share," writes Ken Doctor. "The prices for those assets are likely at their historical lows. If newspapers want to diversify their revenue base, this a great time to buy up the local competition." WP reporter blasts his paper for running 12-part Levy series
Washington City Paper
Post Metro reporter Robert Pierre (left) says it's "unconscionable" that the paper would devote a year and 12 chapters to the murder of a white woman -- Chandra Levy -- when around 200 people per year are murdered in the District -- most of them black males. "I personally hope that people march on the paper and throw the papers back," he says. "It is absolutely absurd and dare I say, racist, at its core." Dorroh returns to AJR to succeed Smolkin as managing editor
American Journalism Review
AJR editor Rem Rieder writes: "Jennifer Dorroh, known as J-Do to her legion of adoring fans, was a star intern at AJR in the fall of 2000 and the summer of 2001 while she was in the master's program at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland." Dorroh succeeds Rachel Smolkin as managing editor. ProPublica teams with WNYC for second investigative story
Albany Times Union | WNYC
Their piece on upstate New York's "looming natural gas nightmare" is published in today's Albany Times Union. WNYC has a story and slideshow. |
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