How much wasted, how much lost?

In reading this story about the triumph of law enforcement over marijuana smugglers, two questions occur to me. How much money was spent on breaking this ring which was smuggling a drug used by a huge, non-addicted, swath of the population? And how much was lost in not being able to tax a billion dollars in pot sales?

With the wolf at the door, the Fox is only concerned with the foxes

Thanks to a friend at the Hartford Courant for pointing this out.

Why they began calling it the boob tube long ago

I'm guessing it's intentional. Some smart, pissed-off layout artist knew that the best spot for a full-page Fox 61 ad promoting the beauty and bosom of a Fox 61 "news reporter" was on the page following the story in which Shelly Sindland's complaints against the station were aired.

The lucious, pouting lips, the red form-fitting dress, and the perky, though modest, mammaries of undoubtably-brilliant reporter, Erica Arias, is printed on the backside of a news sheet in which a story about discarded-cutie Sindland, is given the gutter, and placement below the important "cheetah import" story.

Sinland has accused the management of Fox 61 of age and sex discrimination, and if the recent set of newspaper ads is evidence, she likely has a case.

It seems that Fox 61 has given up on promoting the frumpy news writers of the Courant as new TV stars, and has settled on the age-old ploy of selling beauty and breasts as they parade their young and handsome hi-def fodder in large, full-color newspaper ads that look like Hollywood ads for the latest light summertime comedy.

These insulting news pin-ups are only the latest insult to anyone with half a brain. The newly designed front page, from which real stories have been banished for mini-headlines, teasers and news-ish crudités, is yet another laughable attempt by the new management to recruit young readers. Instead they are driving the core readers, guys like me, away. When was the last time you caught someone under 30 with a newpaper in their fist and they weren't chasing a housefly?

BTW, if the Courant were not owned by the Trib, and joined at the hip with Fox 61, do you think the Shelley Sindland story would have been buried in the business section? Exactly. It's the kind of front-page gossip story that sells papers, except if the paper in question is run by the manager, Richard Graziano, who is the focus of the complaints.

Also, BTW, I'd have tuned in if I'd have known is was "Big Boob Friday." Personally, I think every newscast on WTIC-TV Fox 61 is anchored by big boobs.

Hello I Must Be Going

The Hartford Courant arrived on my doorstep this morning (though they have called and threatened that it won't be much longer if I don't pay my bill), and the vertical has become horizontal once again.

With the logotype at the top of the page once again, there won't be mistaking the front page for a section header anymore.

But the blue highlights and subheads are horrible (as if a single color was somehow going to hike The Hartford Courant's circulation). And, if it is possible, there seems to be fewer words than ever on the front page.

It's nice to see Roger Catlin's byline on the front page, but really, is a major headline and photo about a TV show filmed in the state really the most important news of the day?

Finally, that ridiculous, and insincere "thank-you" for participating in the selection of a new look for the paper is galling. Do the editors and publishers really expect us to believe that they made a decision about how the paper was going to look only after a week's reflection in which they actually considered what readers thought about the shift?

In my mind, it's more important for the editors to rededicate themselves to the pursuit of the truth at whatever depth it might be found (and find a design which reflects that), and not print some bogus "thank-you" which only reflects a public relations effort to make readers feel like they are somehow involved.

The future looks shallow

What we can expect more of, god help us. From here in Maine, I don't recognize my home state.

You don't really want to know, do you

I just want a lead weight attached to my Monday Courant so it doesn't blow off my doorstep with the slightest breeze.

The apotheosis of the columnist

There they are, in all their four-color glory, in the gutter of the daily, and then in a double-truck in Friday's edition.

"Your Favorite Hartford Courant Columnists!"

Well, not mine, but that's another story. Give me Rick, Susan, Roger and Colin.

My first reaction was a resounding, "oh, for god's sake, no." Good writers have no place on television.

I figured it was the sound bite sizification of the weekly column. After all, new Courant publisher Richard Graziano comes from the TV side. He was manager of Fox 61, and a top ad salesman. And he bought in Jeff Levine, a veteran of some Florida Tribune daily/TV station operations. And already, the Courant website seems to have taken a new focus on celebrity, nude beauty models and Connecticut's favorite animals.

So, I asked myself, will success spoil Eric Danton?

Will the TV shows really let these wonderful writers, who, while not faceless, have been 2D thumbnails to us for so long?

And then I thought, well, maybe the writers will have a positive effect on the superficial TV news shows. Maybe they will bring some gravitas to newscasts which threaten to float away with their own fluff factor. Maybe the everyday, everyshape, common appeal of writers who never intended to be talking heads will tear us away from the hairdos, high cheekbones, designer suits and ever-thickening pancake of the anchors.

Maybe TV audiences will be exposed to some real thinking.

After all, we know TV news shows have stolen headlines and copy from dailies for years, and now it's time the faceless writers of those headlines and stories got the credit they deserve.

Or maybe, and sadly, the news shows will only allow these interesting columnists to say half of what's on their minds.

A big "thank-you" for failing to do the impossible

Barbara Roessner is out at the Courant for taking on the thankless and impossible task of plugging a leak in the Titanic. She couldn't fix the thing that the owners and publishers had ruined, so she's off the plank without a snorkel. Let's hope, for her sake, that when she took on a job that had "failure" printed all over it in banner 200 point type, that she made a deal for a financial lifeboat. It's no consolation that the entire enterprise seems to be taking on water faster than anyone can bail.

I was among the early dissenters who felt that by rejiggering the layout, printing more and bigger pictures, and re-focusing the stories so that they all took on the soft blur of TV news that the Courant would be alienating their base - people like me who still like to read a daily - and not gaining any new readers because those readers aren't interested in a newspaper.

It didn't take a genius to see that the goal was Quixotic and that Roessner's was tilting at windmills. The owners and publishers had already stripped all that was good and attractive about the paper (good reporters, town coverage, columnists), and expected readers to shout "hurrah" because the logo slid into the gutter, and we could read advertisements for Foxwoods on page 1.

In short, corporate leveraging of healthy papers has driven them to the brink of extinction. Some notable dailies have already stepped into the abyss.

And now, a new knight in shining armor, former top salesman Richard Graziano, rides over the hill, from, of all places, a Fox New affiliate. Of course, Fox 61 is not Fox News, but there is an affiliation with the network which brings us Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck and Cavuto. Be prepared for a dose of "fair and balanced," along with celebs stories, and cute baby animal photos.

While publisher Graziano's background is sales, he recently appointed Jeff Levine, who ran two news dot coms in Florida, as combined managing editor of Fox 61 and the Courant. You can see a sample of his work here.

And so Roessner, and Cliff Teutsch are out the door and we are about to see a formerly great daily take the backseat to a superficial local news broadcast, and a website that promises fabulous party recipes.

Dodd rips a page from Bush's playbook

I guess when Chris Dodd conducts those hometown open forums between now and the election, he's going to make sure that no one asks him anything embarrassing.

Here's a report from Cornwall.

Video killed the oldest continuing published, etc.

If you were worried about the Hartford Courant, today's news will cause hives. The geniuses at The Trib think that the manager of a local Fox affiliate is better suited to running the paper than someone who actually understands writing.

The typical news report at Fox 61 is reported by a camera operator wielding mic, camera and deadline. What happens when the news editor at Fox 61 opens the Courant in the morning and finds the only news is what they reported, in brief, at 11. Oops.

Kind of like turning the mirror to face the mirror. In depth becomes a puddle dive.

Journalism is expensive, talk is cheap, part 3

Susan Campbell invites us all to something called: Death or Metamorphosis of the Fourth Estate: The Impact of Declining Media Coverage on Democracy and Government.

Surely, no headline writer worth his/her salt would ever create a hed so long. Headless Body In Topless Bar it's not.

But the event seems worthwhile if only for the fact that Rich Hanley is not on the panel. I'm not sure what a tired hack and current flack like Dean Pagani contributes, nor what Kevin Sullivan has to offer, but I hope Pat Sheehan makes sure Jon Lender, Christine Stuart, and C. Edwin Baker are able to get a word in.

Old State House
Courtroom
Tuesday March 8
9:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Sponsored by Connecticut Foundation For Open Government

Journalism is expensive, talk is cheap, part 2

Colin McEnroe has been coming up with some good thoughts on the state of journalism.

First there was this thought provoking blogpost (be sure to read the comments.)

And then there was FOX61.

Journalism is expensive, talk is cheap

On the way into work I was listening to a very interesting Where We Live, this morning on WNPR, during which two experienced, now under-employed journalists Mark Pazniokas (formerly of the Hartford Courant) and Greg Hladky (formerly of the New Haven Journal Register), talked about the fate of state news coverage.

I decided to call in when both reporters continued to say, "journalism is expensive," and while I got on the air at the tail end of the show, the entreaty from host John Dankowsky to ask my question quickly left me spurting out a comment, not a question, that wasn't completely cohesive and complete.

So, here are my concerns, and the questions I would have raised.

Both Pazniokas and Hladky said at some point during the hour that good, investigative journalism is "expensive."

I would argue that "expensive" is a relative term, and now a meme being repeated by laid-off reporters who have heard that very justification from the newspapers which have laid them off.

There's no doubt that the cost of a staff of experienced, capable journalists is significant. Still, I don't believe that the cost of journalist salaries are what's bringing dailies down.

The Courant began trimming news and editorial staff two years ago. A source inside the paper told me that the publisher confirmed that the Courant would have netted $41 million in 2007, if it did not have to pay down the debt incurred by Sam Zell's purchase of the paper.

That's a lot of profit. And to be fair, that was a year ago when the economy was still humming along. Since then, the economy has tanked, advertising revenue is down, and the cost of running a paper has increased. But the debt hasn't disappeared.

So, without the corporate debt, the Courant might have had to trim staff. But the huge, debilitating cuts that the parent company is now demanding would be unlikely.

The truth is that the papers that are failing in this country are largely the victims of upside down mortgages. Large corporations bought the papers at inflated prices when the economy was good, and the papers (and associated TV and radio stations) were cash cows. But the economy went in the shitter just as other factors like news on the web, and particularly free classifieds on the web, began to erode the influence and reach of the papers. Corporate debt has killed more newspapers than the cost of maintaining a solid staff of good writers.

Writers report news. News makes newspapers. Without news you lose readers. Without readers you lose newspapers.

The extension of the belief that "good journalism is expensive," leads one to conclude that eventually all legacy print newspapers are bound to fail, and that there is no way to create an in-depth news organization on the web, or elsewhere, that can feature local source reporting, and make a profit.

I think that's a fallacy, and it's one that ex-reporters ought to stop spreading. That meme allows the legacy press publishers to discourage those they lay off from rising up as competitors.

Will print newspapers disappear? The answer, unfortunately is "yes." Inevitably the cost of print, the lack of demand for print, the ease of acquiring news stories on the web and elsewhere, is bound to hasten the demise of ink and paper. But will these factors destroy the organizations publishing healthy newspapers today? The answer is likely "no." I suggest that locally-run, privately-held, commercially and publically-funded, agile newspapers will figure out how to move from ink and paper to another medium, and in the meantime, they'll continue to publish successful ink and paper until the paradigm shifts completely.

And new "newspapers" will spring up to compete with the legacy press who can't get their act together.

Hladky and Pazniokas talked about the search for a new model for news, and that it's unlikely that "blogs" will be able to do what a paper like the Courant has done. The truth is that the Courant is at the point where it isn't doing what the Courant once did, and some blogs are filling in the blanks.

What if Hladky and Pazniokas and their laid-off colleagues banded together and created a state-wide web paper (or joined forces with someone like Christine Stuart at CT New Junkie) that capitalized (no pun intended), on their vast experience, but also featured free online classifieds, obituaries, weather, traffic, movie and tv listings, sports and virtual coupons. They might find that they have something that they could sell to advertisers. They might find that they could create an income stream that would pay local reporters, editors, photogs and graphic artists, and have enough money left over to declare a profit at the end of the year.

Of course, not many journalists wants to run a newspaper. Not many news writers are entrepreneurs. Not many columnists want to balance a spreadsheet. Not many editors want to track payroll. Mostly writers want to write, and they want to work for someone who will pay them to write.

So, as I blurted on Where We Live, I don't think the discovery of the model that will work is that far off. I only think it takes an enterprising publisher to discover a way to truly compete with The Courant.

People want what the Courant and the New Haven Register once offered. They may not want it in the same way, but they want it all the same. They may not appreciate capitol reporting in the abstract, but when it comes wrapped with weather and traffic and obits and movie previews, they may come to understand how much they need and want it.

And the state, and the country needs and wants it too.

It's our duty to discover a way to keep an eye on government, and to bring well-crafted news to the governed. It's our duty to demand in-depth reporting and not to cede that duty to well-coiffed talking heads, and camera operators with a mic and a deadline. It's our duty to stop talking about the way in which newspapers have failed, and discover a way to make news work again. It's our duty to have an informed citizenry, a wary governing class, a knowledgeable set of voters and legislators and public officials who won't operate in a vacuum.

Okay, journalism is expensive. What will it cost us if it disappears?

And the politicians are gleeful

I never purchased a GE light bulb because Jack Welch had reputation as such a brilliant CEO (though the truth of his brilliance is exaggerated). Nor did I buy a Tyson chicken because Don Tyson ran such a good company. Or use a Citi card because Sandy Weill was supposed to be such a financial genius.

It's rare that anyone would buy a product because of a CEO. The rare exceptions might be food products like Newman's Own or Ben and Jerry's, or new technology products like Apple, or Facebook. And even in those cases, the product needs to be superior or it isn't purchased. It's just that in those cases, the CEO is founder, inventor, chef and is still intimately involved with the products which are produced in their companies.

So, when layoffs come. Why doesn't anyone consider lopping off the CEO, and all his or her useless minions first?

Same goes for newspapers. The Hartford Courant is bleeding cash. So the CEO and the publisher fire reporters, photographers, editors and staff. The people producing the product. In the case of the Courant, the most expendable individuals are the CEO, the publisher and the layers of useless administration, who will eventually disappear when there aren't enough writers left to provide copy to surround the advertising.

The Rocky Mountain News is publishing it's last issue today after being in business for 159 years.

Bad writing? (Doubt it.) Loss of readers? (Probably.) Loss of advertisers? (Likely.) Inept corporate management and a burden of debt (Bingo!)

The paper had a daily circulation of 210,000 and a Sunday circulation of about 450,000. By my figures the paper grosses abaout a million dollars a week on subscriptions alone. That's $50 million a year gross on subscriptions. With advertising your telling me that some smart editor couldn't make this paper fly?


Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

And the only ones happy about newspapers disappearing are the politicians. Think of what the legislators in the state will get away with without Mark Pazniokas looking over their shoulders. Think of what Dodd and Lieberman will do to the state, and for themselves without Jesse Hamilton keeping an eye out. And don't count on TV reporters to do any of the heavy lifting.

It's a triumph for political power and corruption while it's an indictment of corporate ownership, and failed business practices.

We all lose.

More layoffs at the Courant, but who wrote the story?

The Hartford laid off 100 employees on Tuesday, thirty of who are on the editorial staff, including prominent writers who cover Washington, and the state legislture. All of this, of course, following the absurd logic that you can have a newspaper without news gatherers.

And you know how light the Courant is now, well, with a far lighter staff, the Courant will likely float above your doorstep.

This is not good for Connecticut, the Courant and certainly not for the experienced writers who are now on the street.

Denis Horgan has dubbed it the Mardi Gras Massacre - beads to hang yourself, delivered by phone.

Go Huskies.

Much has been said and written in the past two days about the unfortunate press conference performance of Jim Calhoun after Saturday's game. Colin McEnroe's analysis is particularly insightful.

If you haven't heard, Calhoun's hair trigger temper was set off by law student, and freelance journalist Ken Krayeske's (you might remember his last brush with fame) question about Calhoun's salary. Watch.



You can form your own opinion about Calhoun, or Krayeske. As Jeff Jacobs reports in the Hartford Courant this morning, Calhoun had his numbers wrong. Jacobs also admitted that the UCONN press corps, in fear or fealty, has failed to ask Calhoun the same question, which Jacobs describes as a legitimate question. Still, he questions Krayeske's timing.

I'd say Krayeske had perfect timing. He asked his question. He got his response. And today it's a national story.

While Jacobs, over the years, has been one of the reporters who has fearlessly defied Calhoun's intimidation of the press, the Courant on Sunday reported that "The press conference continued without further incident." This tells you everything you need to know about how important the press conference is and how important the news from such a press conference typically is.

And for all those sports fans who feel that a basketball press conference is somehow sacrosanct, it's time for a review of the Constitution. Calhoun did not have to answer the question. He certainly didn't have to call the journalist "stupid" or tell him to "shut up." He lost his temper, and I'd guess he's regretting it now. Think what you like about Krayeske. He showed more courage than any other reporter in the room.

Another case of the blogs beating the legacy press to the punch.

Red ink headlines

Another bad week for newspapers.

The Journal-Register Company, corporate owner of The New Haven Register and the Middletown Press, has filed for Chaper 11 bankruptcy, filing a reorganization plan that calls for protection from creditors, closing more newspapers, the cancellation of stock and becoming a closely-held company.

It remains to be seen, of course, which newspapers will close.

The other news comes from inside the Hartford Courant where falling circulation and advertising is being blamed on the need to make more personnel cuts. Of course, the real reason for the huge financial mess is the leveraged financing used to purchase the chain's newspapers. Reports are that staff may be cut by 20%. One wonders who will be left to write the stories.

The state gravy train

As content in the Hartford Courant gets lighter and lighter, it's with pleasure that I look forward to Sunday and the newest revelation of state malfeasance from Jon Lender, Kevin Rennie and now our old Middletown reporter Josh Kovner, who's showing his skills as an investigative reporter.

I started my career, post Hartford Times stringer, in the State of Connecticut Labor Department (Unemployment Compensation Division). During the mid-seventies recession is was a place of refuge for recent grads who couldn't find a "real" job. If I knew then, what I know now, I might have considered a career as a state employee. In those days, the lack of competitive compensation was ameliorated by a generous benefits package.

Unfortunately, most state employees labor their entire careers in modest-paying bureaucratic jobs, but apparently there are a chosen few, like some at the UCONN Medical School, who are allowed to double-dip, or who win contracts, as Kevin Rennie points out, that seem fit for royalty.

And as Josh Kovner demonstrates, our worst instincts are true. Our state legislators, by and large, have no idea how to work in the real world, so even when their stints as legislators, and legislative employees are through, they're given per diem contracts so they can hang around the Capitol and bask in the reflected glory.

I'm beginning to think that the idea of a part-time legislature, with amateur legislators who eventually return to real-world jobs, is a pipe dream which we will never wake from. After all, how can we expect the chickens to come home to roost when the foxes are guarding the henhouse.

There's a USA Today growing inside my Hartford Courant

If you still read the print edition of the Hartford Courant, you've undoubtedly noticed something strange occurring six or eight pages into your A section.

As you flip past the half-page ads for Thermo-tite Windows, and the Hunting and Fishing Show (Are they printing these ads for free? Look at the size of them!) And as you browse past the vestigial remains of the Business Section, reporting on the vestigial remains of business and the economy, you suddenly find yourself in a through-the-looking glass world where the Beyond CT section brings you to a typographical wonderland, an offset funhouse, a bizarro-world version of what used to be as familiar as old newsprint.

WTF is happening?

Do our local editors really think this tawdry double-truck is easier to read because the pictures are bigger, the headlines bolder, the graphics more numerous and the kerning more dense? Do the corporate publishers really think that layout like a webpage, and stories shorter than a summer night in Murmansk will really attract younger readers who wouldn't know what to do with a newspaper if they were told to roll one up to kill a housefly.

These pages are ugly, and once again, insulting to the only people left reading this wisp that lands on the doorstep each morning, people like me.

What next? The newspaper delivery person waking me up to slap me every morning when the paper arrives?

Life without newspapers

David Folkenflik's two part series on NPR's Morning Edition is well worth listening to.

Part one namechecks The Oldest Continually Published Newpaper in America, the Hartford Courant.

Part two namechecks The New Haven Independent.