Grumpy Editor

L.A. Times aims for shorter, more local stories

Two ways to boost newspaper readership, contends Grumpy Editor, are to run shorter stories and hypo local coverage.

So it’s with great interest to note that the Los Angeles Times, which has been long-winded and ignoring many local happenings in recent years, is going that route.

It stems from recommendations from a group of Times employees, representing a cross-section of the daily, spurred by editor James O’Shea who soon will mark one year at the editorial helm.

The so-called “Reinvent Committee” went into action three months ago.

Like many major newspapers, the Times, founded in 1881, has been losing circulation over the past decade.

In the debate of long vs. short stories, “short is better,” O’Shea mentioned in a memo to staffers this week.  While long pieces still will run, “in too many other stories, we are not as disciplined as we should be,” he pointed out.  “If we focus on becoming better writers and editors, our stories will be better, shorter and more inviting to readers.”

In revitalizing Southern California coverage, Shea revealed, “We will do that starting immediately.”

Wine review phrases feature unusual descriptions

Imagine sipping from a glass of white wine described as “with subtle melon, peach and chalk dust aromas.”

Chalk dust aromas?

Chalk dust conveys something that can clog the nostrils, especially from fresh scribblings off a blackboard.

Grumpy Editor, known to have a glass of white zinfandel on occasion, is always fascinated with wine reviews that come close to, well, fantasy.

Or maybe wine reviewers are taking a page from former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan who enjoyed inserting phrases into speeches that Wall Street and financial writers took hours, sometimes days, to decipher.  Best example: “Irrational exuberance,” used in a speech to describe the state of the stock market.

With many folks these days ultra conscious as to what goes into their stomachs, another review in the Oct. 1 issue of BusinessWeek describes a French white wine with, “This offering is scented with fresh lime, fennel, tangerine zest and flowers.  It finishes with fascinating hints of iodine, oyster shell and citrus zest.”

That iodine and oyster shell combination makes one want to settle for a nice root beer.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal last Friday ran a taster’s comment on a wine from Spain:  “Gets better and better, richer and richer, as the night wears on.”

Just think of the happy result if one continues sipping into the wee hours of the morning.

Media split over usage of Burma or Myanmar

Is it Burma or Myanmar?  There’s plenty of confusion on what to call the southeast Asia country, scene of heavy protests in recent days.

Media are split on the name, too.  Grumpy Editor finds the country is identified as Burma by the Washington Post, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, even the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, among others, while branding it Myanmar are the New York Times, San Antonio Express-News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Oregonian, among others.

Wire services Associated Press, United Press International and Reuters call it Myanmar.  Some TV and radio news outlets work in Myanmar and Burma into the same report.

The Wall Street Journal solves the identification problem by referring to the country as “Myanmar, formerly Burma.”

USA Today editors are busy.  They change wire service datelines to Burma from Myanmar and switch Yangon, the largest city, to Rangoon, the earlier name.  They point out Russian media dispatch stories from Yangon, Myanmar.

The U.S. government and President Bush use Burma.

The country was a province of British India, 1886 to 1937, then a separate crown colony from 1937 to 1948.  After a military coup, the ruling regime renamed the country Myanmar in 1989.  Opposition groups in the country continue to refer to Burma.

U.S. old timers, war veterans and historians remember the China-Burma-India theater of operations during World War II.  The famous Burma Road was constructed to supply Chinese forces in the fight against Japan during WW II.

Now that wouldn’t sound right as the Myanmar Road.