Grumpy Editor

Study finds teenagers lack knowledge of history

American 17-year-olds shockingly don’t score well in history and that finding got very little play in media this week, finds Grumpy Editor.

It indicates that teenagers should spend more time watching the History Channel instead of MTV, E! and VH1 cable channels.

Among the few publications that reported the survey by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research were the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Las Vegas Sun.

“Still at Risk: What Students Don’t Know, Even Now,” by Frederick M. Hess, found “too many young Americans do not possess the kind of basic knowledge they need.  When asked fundamental questions about U.S. history and culture, they score a D and exhibit stunning knowledge gaps.”

Among the findings:

·   Almost 20 percent of 1,200 respondents to a national telephone survey did not know who the enemy was in World War II.

·   Nearly 25 percent of the teens could not identify Adolf Hitler.

·   Fewer than half could place the Civil War in the correct century.

·   Twenty-six percent didn’t know Columbus set sail for the New World before 1750.

·   A third did not know the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech and religion.

But teenagers are not alone in fuzzy history.  Grumpy Editor notes that NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno often puts Leno as “man on the street” asking passing adults questions, such as “who is the U.S. vice president” and getting wrong answers or just plain stares.

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes:

This week was heavy in announced print job cuts with about 100 being lopped at Time Inc.; 68 by Philadelphia Newspapers, which publishes the Philadelphia Inquirer (third oldest surviving U.S. daily newspaper) and Philadelphia Daily News; about 120 throughout Newsday, Long Island, with at least 25 of those reductions in the newsroom on top of 13 vacant positions that have gone unfilled; Boston Globe announced buyouts to 60 employees while sister paper, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, targeted 20; and 22 editorial staffers get the sad word today at the Daily News, Los Angeles, which will see the newsroom payroll drop to an even 100… Editor John Solomon, after one month at the helm of the Washington Times, issues new style terms, including illegal immigrants rather than illegal aliens while quotation marks come off gay marriage…About 75 percent of daily newspapers on average now run one page or less of business news and only one in eight dailies runs a stand-alone section, finds Arizona State University’s National Center for Business Journalism.

Getting hotter or colder? Two new reports differ

Global warming or global cooling?

That is the big question as two reports, out yesterday, tackled the subject that is in the news just about every day.

As with numerous TV debates involving candidates with eyes on the White House, Grumpy Editor feels it’s time for a network (broadcast or cable) to line up pro and con experts with the spotlight on global climate change.  The hot vs. cold debate should grab a huge audience.

Look at the pro and con information that came out yesterday.

On the pro side, air pollution associated with elevated carbon dioxide levels is already responsible for around 22,000 deaths every year, claims Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson in a new study reported in the Feb. 27 issue of New Scientist magazine. When these are added to casualties from extreme weather events, it doubles the number of fatalities that can be linked to global warming, he adds.

Jacobson’s model indicates that for every one degree centigrade (or Celsius) rise in temperature in the U.S. “there are 1,000 additional air pollution-related deaths.”

Taking the other side, DailyTech blogger Michael Asher notes a 12-month long drop in world temperatures has wiped out a century of warming.

Citing four major global temperature tracking outlets, he points out “global temperatures have dropped precipitously” --- with cooling ranges from 0.65 to 0.75 centigrade.   

Then Asher ticks off the happenings:  “China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snow cover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.”

Some readers grumble prior to IndyStar’s new look

The Indianapolis Star today increases the type size in stories, one of several changes being phased in, says editor Dennis Ryerson.

Along with that will be a reduction in page width, “a change so modest that focus groups of readers…didn’t even recognize the change until we told them,” he adds.

Photos and headlines will be proportionately smaller and “we also will edit the newspaper to provide more ‘depth’ stories of national and international importance,” promises the editor.

Changes will be phased in section by section.

While readers with blinking, squinty eyes should welcome the larger type on pages, some already are grumbling over the changes before they appear, notes Grumpy Editor. 

One reader on the IndyStar.com Web site complains that “it was just a few years ago that you downsized the width of the paper, making less space available, and now you are doing it again.”

Another cites “so much space wasted on photographs,” referring to large front-page art.

With the reduction in page size, another reader asks how much the subscription will be reduced to reflect the change.

AP spotlights negative side of economists’ survey

Associated Press continues to emphasize the “R” (for recession) word. Latest effort got much play in print and broadcast outlets yesterday from a lengthy story by Washington-based Martin Crutsinger. 

Crutsinger pulled information from a National Association for Business Economics survey of 49 economists in declaring, “Because of all the bad news, more and more economists foresee the country falling into a recession.” 

But it turns out to be something like --- is the glass about half full or about half empty?

He reported “45 percent of the economists on its forecasting panel expect a recession this year.”  Grumpy Editor’s translation:  that means 22 economists who see the “R” word approaching --- leaving a higher number, 27, who don’t.

To be fair, Crutsinger, in the fifth paragraph of his piece, works in, “55 percent still believe the country will be able to skate by without falling into an actual downturn, typically defined as two consecutive quarters of declines in gross domestic output, the broadest measure of economic health.”

So how did NABE treat its outlook on its Web site?

“U.S. economic growth is expected to slow to a crawl in the first half of 2008,” said Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, NABE president and chief economist at Ford Motor Co. “While a slight majority of our panel of forecasters expects the economy to avoid a recession in 2008, growth is expected to average just three-quarters of a percent before accelerating in the second half in response to fiscal and monetary stimulus.”

People magazine readies checkbook for baby photos

Pssst!  Wanna see some baby pictures?  It’ll cost ya.

That’s the luring pitch to some celebrity magazine editors who are eager to write checks so their readers can see photos of newborns of show business people.

Advertising Age revealed that People magazine, a Time Inc. publication, is poised to pay Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between $4 million and $6 million for exclusive U.S. photo rights of their twins, born Friday.

With no official announcement, People managing editor Larry Hackett was quoted by Ad Age saying, “I have no comment on these particular pictures.”

Grumpy Editor frowns on high-paying checkbook journalism, a bad trend, and recalls --- not too far back --- when Hollywood public relations people had difficult times trying to get newspaper editors excited over celebrities’ offspring in diapers.

Pictures of chimpanzees’ antics received far bigger play.  And that’s when publications had more editorial space to fill.

All this comes at a time when most magazines and newspapers are keeping a close eye on bottom lines.

Time Inc., which includes Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Money and Golf Magazine in its large stable, shuttered its Business 2.0 last fall after citing a decline in advertising revenue.  It had purchased the monthly business magazine six years earlier for about $68 million (or the equivalent of between 11 and 17 times the cost of a single set of baby images in 2008).

Celebrity magazines rely heavily on newsstand sales.  Babies on covers grab attention these days.

People has about 3.6 million circulation.

Forbes publisher describes business journalists

Forbes Magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard’s column in the latest issue provides observations on what influences business journalists in their stories, notes Grumpy Editor.

“The thin talent pool in business journalism combines with two other forces: Journalism is populated by left-of-center people, many of whom are hostile to business; and traditional journalism itself faces threats of disruption from the Internet, leaving business journalists in a fearful mood, which gets projected into their stories,” he writes.

Karlgaard describes what it takes to be a first-rate business journalist.

“One must be facile with numbers and financial statements and have the confidence to talk to CEOs, high-level executives, board members, analysts and so forth,” he relates. “One must delve deeply into the industry one writes about---what is the competitive landscape, what are the technological disruptions on the road ahead? It is also critical that one have a coherent global economic view to be able to put a story into context. And one must be a good storyteller.”

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes

The much talked-about New York Times Thursday front page “hit” piece on Sen. John McCain carried four bylines…A Feb. 10 Associated Press economics story (see Feb. 12 Grumpy Editor) that spotlighted Hilda Sanchez of Waterford, Calif., saying, “Absolutely, we’re in a recession,” was still making the print rounds a week later.  The Las Vegas Review-Journal, for example, gave the story a chunk of space on the opening page of its Sunday business section that was devoted to the “R’ word…“China asked the U.S. to release data on the shootdown of an ailing spy satellite” in an Associated Press lead from Beijing Thursday brought a hearty laugh --- and “are they kidding?” --- from Grumpy Editor…Nothing grumpy here:  Long-running PR effort kicks off today for Julian Myers, veteran publicist to some of the greatest Hollywood stars.  Myers, a spirited 90, starts a 90-mile run from San Diego to Los Angeles where he plans to participate in the Los Angeles Marathon 5K race on March 2.  Myers, co-founder of Amigo Day and member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for 59 years, will be interrupting his run to be on-scene for Sunday’s Oscar presentations in Hollywood…A TV commercial concluding with a soap-on-a-rope “bust” of President Millard Fillmore didn’t score well with Byung Mo Ahn new chairman and group CEO of Kia Motors America, Irvine, Calif. and resulted in the departure of a top marketing executive.  Ahn said he prefers to show cars and trucks as serious contenders with good quality.

Salary, hours, stress cited in leaving print journalism

Things are churning in the newspaper business.

With talent cutbacks mounting in newsrooms around the country, many journalists face a tight market when it comes time to seek employment elsewhere in the profession, notes Grumpy Editor.

But many still on the job have reservations about continuing in the newspaper field, finds a recent survey by Scott Reinardy, a Ball State University professor and former newspaper reporter/editor.

When his online survey of 770 journalists asked if they had intentions to leave newspaper work, 25.7 percent answered yes and 36.2 percent said they don’t know.

Reasons for departing the profession?  When those who said they wanted to leave the field were asked why, 36 percent cited money or salary, 27 percent pointed to hours or schedule, and 19 percent mentioned stress or burnout.

Other findings:

Young copy editors or page designers at small newspapers are most at risk to burnout.

Those with intentions of leaving the profession are eyeing freelance work, public relations, academia or further education in another field.

Most likely to depart are journalists 34 years old and younger.

Amid industry cuts, Ventura County Star releases 7

Newspaper payrolls continue to get clipped, latest being the daily Ventura County (Calif.) Star.

The Star, an E.W. Scripps Co. publication, announced yesterday that it is cutting seven jobs, marking the first time the newspaper has laid off employees “as it struggles with a difficult economy and shrinking ad revenue,” notes Grumpy Editor.

This continues a trend tallied Monday by AdAge Data Center research.  It reported one in four U.S. newspaper jobs has disappeared since employment in that category peaked 18 years ago.  “Newspapers, saddled with heavy costs of printing and distribution, last year accounted for 38 percent of media jobs, down from 50 percent in 1990,” it added after analyzing Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Besides The Star, Scripps publishes newspapers in 18 markets including Rocky Mountain News, Denver; Commercial Appeal, Memphis, and Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel.  Scripps also owns broadcast stations, Scripps Howard News Service, television networks and United Media.

Star editorial staff was not affected by the cuts that involved two positions in operations and production, four in circulation and one in accounting.

Publisher George H. Cogswell III informed readers that Star advertising was down about 15 percent last year compared with 2006.

Looking ahead, Cogswell said the newspaper is creating target market opportunities with niche publications in print and online that will start to launch in the coming months and bring in new revenue.

Radio news clips source of largest recall of beef

On-the-hour one-sentence radio news items yesterday and Sunday announcing a huge recall of meat merely related the tip of the iceberg.

With no name attached, or details, the brief served to alarm listeners when another sentence or two could have shed a bit more light on what turns out to be the largest recall of its type in the U.S., notes Grumpy Editor.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered 143 million pounds of frozen beef recalled.

Among hourly radio news reports, CBS News did it on Sunday, ABC News continued with a brief item early yesterday.  California was mentioned, but Chino, the city where the slaughterhouse company is based, was not pinpointed and Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., the company name --- especially important in a story of such magnitude --- was omitted even though it was in the third paragraph of an Associated Press story out Sunday.

Inserting Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. takes about two seconds of air time.  Even in a two-minute radio news segment, common in many markets, that vital element should have been worked in, even if it meant dropping or reducing popular “person on the scene” quotes relating to other news events.

Another interesting aspect in the recalled beef story is that about 150 school districts used the recalled ground beef in lunch programs.

But the major question mark with the recalled beef is that it affects products dating back to Feb. 1, 2006.  So, in many cases, the beef already has been consumed.

Look for further developments from Congress, the USDA and other federal authorities.

Grumpy Editor observes Presidents’ Day

Since today is a federal holiday with ---

Federal, state, county and city offices closed.

Schools closed.

Banks closed.

Financial markets closed.

Not even The Wall Street Journal published.

Grumpy Editor also is taking the day off to mark Presidents’ Day.