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Duluth paper announces layoffs
The Duluth News-Tribune announced staff cuts months ago, but today finally announced the official layoffs. 8 jobs, including 4 full and 4 part time. As usual, they got the managing editor. Managing editors are like second lieutenants in a war movie. All glory, usually posthumous. Related posts: No related posts.
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Ferguson unites common sense and patriotism in election rant
This has been going around a lot today. I even saw it on “Good Morning America.” Comedian Craig Ferguson expresses in an eight minute, entirely nonpartisan monologue how I feel about the state of American politics today. It’s funny, it’s angry, it’s inspiring and it’s spot on. Why do we rely on comedians to say…
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Heffernan is back, with book and blog
Last June I wrote about the unfortunate separation between the Duluth News Tribune and its longtime columnist Jim Heffernan, who had previously worked for decades in the DNT’s newsroom. We have not heard the end of Mr. Heffernan. In fact, he’ll be joining me in the northern Minnesota blogsphere and writing a monthly column for…
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Beware the dark hearted bloviators
Frank Rich is among the best in the New York Times stable of columnists. Sure, I tend to agree with him more often than others, but I also think he makes the most reasoned appeals. In his column today, (“Obama outwits the bloviators“) Rich tears apart the big media “bloviators” that I and most political…
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My cathartic media rant (for those who find the thrill is gone)
For this being one of the most important, telling, and historic elections of our generation, you would think it was a wrestling match if you watch much broadcast news coverage. I’m referring specifically to the Democratic Convention coverage going on now, but I’ll further apply it to the primaries before and the Republican convention and…
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Newspaper industry’s problems run deep
I found a great column via DailyKos (I know, I know; it’s so not cool to link to Kos diaries, but this one isn’t partisan) that explains the state of today’s newspaper industry. What Walter Brasch describes is the EXACT problem facing small dailies across northern Minnesota and bigger regional papers like Duluth and Fargo.…
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U.S. reporters couldn’t do this
This Georgian reporter is giving a standup during the ongoing war with Russia, gets shot and keeps reporting. And not in a weepy, Emmy-clip kind of way, but ALL BUSINESS. Hardcore. Related posts: No related posts.
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Range journalism club to meet
Passing this along: Hey, Iron Rangers! Are you a writer (active or in your heart)?Get together with like-minded people forming a Community Journalism Club. Monday, August 25, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.Room C156Mesabi Range Community & Technical College1001 W. Chestnut StreetVirginia, MN 55792 The Community Journalism Club is designed for anyone interested in using the Internet…
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Smackdowns aplenty: Business North brings the news
If you aren’t getting Business North’s weekly e-alerts, you should. On Thursday, Wayne Nelson and the staff at BN put out some great stories. Cleveland-Cliffs merger with that Appalachian coal company is being held up by Wall Street dealmakers. Apparently Cliffs has played the opening chords of the banjo music from “Deliverance” and are waiting…
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Finally, a voice of clarity
Matthew Yglesias nails the latest bout of conventional campaign criticism that we should all be worked up because Barack Obama isn’t “breaking it open.” Yglesias correctly points out that the winning candidate this year was probably never going to get more than about 53 percent in the general election and that our country’s political make…
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Oh, I’ve been to this meeting …
This is a little “inside baseball” but if you are interested in the future of journalism, read this tongue-in-cheek post from Ken Doctor, a former big time newspaper executive now blogging about the problems of the modern media industry. It’s called “Frankly, Candidly, Truthfully: Newspapers CEOs Talk About 2Q.” It’s a funny read, if you’ve…
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Moped Madness
Check out this online petri dish over at the Mesabi Daily News. Here’s the premise: A man injured his ankle in a moped accident in downtown Virginia, Minn. For some reason, this was reported as major news. The first commenter implied that the MDN was exhibiting some kind of anti-moped bias and within a half…
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Twin Ports daily chopped down to twice weekly
According to the Duluth News-Tribune and others, the Superior (Wis.) Daily Telegram will drop from publishing six days a week to just twice. The paper’s management insists that the Telegram will focus on online content to continue serving its readers. Let me translate that: “Hey, Little Billy. Spot had to go away, but don’t worry.…
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Minnesota Power to run on anchor power
Hey, remember Channel 3? We used to have this channel (3) here in northern Minnesota that was like a real channel. It had news and people worked there and back in the 1960s there were clown shows and whatnot, the whole deal. There is still a Channel 3 (CBS) in Duluth, but it’s operated by…
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Columnist Heffernan cut loose by DNT
Yesterday I finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” a novel about a man and his son searching for food and shelter in a post-apocalyptic America. They survive through sheer will, try to maintain hope despite absolutely no evidence that hope exists. Roving gangs of cannibals rule the landscape. And, with no intent to cheapen McCarthy’s…