-
Acronyms? Environmentalists? Developers? Politicians? Run the story!
The Mesabi Daily News has not one, not two, but THREE stories about environmental laws as they relate to mining. Hot damn. Buy a copy early because the kids like to buy these up and sell them on the eBay. If you DO follow such stories, enjoy these links: Environmental group hits PolyMetCommittee members tour…
-
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.…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
The future of small town media in 1,000 words
A really interesting comment about local newspaper websites crossed the blog yesterday morning. As you may know, the ACM family of newspapers on the Iron Range now require readers to sign up for a free account to use its newspapers’ websites. A MinnesotaBrown blog reader responded to the change in this way: What the hell…
-
The "Coleman Letters" controversy
By now, you may have read the news about Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign distributing mass letters to the editor for supporters to submit to papers around Minnesota. (MPR, MNPublius, AP). The letters were criticizing Coleman opponent Al Franken, the leading Democrat. While encouraging supporters to write letters to the editor is common practice, the concept…
-
Gen. Butt Naked to face justice
Check out this AP headline from the Star Tribune: Gen. Butt Naked, Liberian ex-rebel leader, confesses to killing thousands I thought maybe it was a deal where an after-hours copy editor slipped a goof into the paper, but this is actually real. By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH, Associated Press AMMONROVIA, Liberia – One of Liberia’s most notorious…
-
Those punks
During college, when other people were “hooking up” and “having fun,” I was editing my college newspaper. I like to tell myself this was a personal choice. Anyway, I just saw last week that my alma mater’s newspaper, the UW-Superior “Promethean” has changed its name to “The Stinger” this year. The Promethean drew its name…