Grumpy Editor

Capital Times to end daily hard copy, focus on Web

It’s becoming more difficult for afternoon dailies to compete with information aired on cable news networks or viewed on the Internet around the clock, reminds Grumpy Editor.

Feeling the pinch, Capital Times, a 17,072-circulation afternoon daily in Madison, Wis., plans to halt most of its print version and focus output on an enhanced Web site starting April 30.

Print frequency will go to two days a week from six.

The newspaper, which competes with the morning Wisconsin State Journal, started 90 years ago.

With the new routine, Capital Times’ news and opinion edition will be published on Wednesdays and distributed with home-delivered Wisconsin State Journal subscriptions.  It also will produce a weekly arts, entertainment and culture section to be distributed on Thursdays with the Wisconsin State Journal.  Both Wednesday and Thursday issues also will be offered free in Madison area newspaper racks.

The move to more Web and less print is expected to see the trimming of 15 to 20 editorial staffers from the current 60.

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

Newspaper editorial ranks continue to dwindle.  Topping the list of upcoming newsroom cuts announced this week:  40 to 50 (out of 100 to 150 jobs) at the Los Angeles Times, part of the Tribune Co. that plans to eliminate 400 to 500 people companywide, while the New York Times plans to reduce editorial positions by 100 this year…In a maneuver that skirts actual staff cuts, BusinessWeek is reassigning 20 contract editorial and production workers to Kelly Services, best noted for temporary staffing services and outsourcing…Very little airtime and print space Tuesday was devoted to marking Abraham Lincoln’s birthday…International Falls, Minn., won a federal trademark Monday making it officially the “Icebox of the Nation” --- on a day the temperature sank to 40 degrees below zero.  The International Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Web site’s illustrations, incidentally, show no ice or snow, just lots of greenery and white daisies, apparently in anticipation of  global warming.

Buzzing Russian aircraft doesn’t alarm Washington

Russian airplanes last weekend were busy, including buzzing a U.S. carrier battle group in international waters near Japan, it was revealed yesterday --- and apparently Washington was not too alarmed about the unexpected activity, notices Grumpy Editor.

When a Russian Tupolev 95 bomber buzzed within 2,000 feet of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, the Navy scrambled four    F-18 fighter jets to intercept and turn away the propeller-driven aircraft.

Also last weekend, other Russian aircraft were testing Japan’s air defenses.

Japan, concerned about violation of its airspace near the Izu island chain about 200 miles south of Tokyo, also scrambled fighter jets and later issued a protest to Moscow.

With Russia again flexing its military muscles after rebuilding its military posture under President Vladimir Putin, media turned up no hard-hitting quotes from Washington, including the White House and Congress, following the weekend incidents.  And there were no reports of scolding messages sent to Moscow.

(Putin, today --- Valentine's Day --- gives his last annual Kremlin news conference before stepping down from office in May.)

U.S. Navy Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of Naval Operations, said he did not consider the aircraft carrier incident “provocative.”

Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, Joint Chiefs of Staff vice chairman, said the Pentagon was weighing “implications of this return to a Cold War mind-set.”

Media snub Coast Guard update on nabbing smugglers

An interesting speech by Coast Guard commandant Admiral Thad W. Allen that included information on drugs’ transport by sea and how the bad guys are being nailed received scant print/broadcast coverage, notes Grumpy Editor.

Were there no media on hand with pens and pads?

Not at all.  The event took place Friday at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

Commandant since May, 2006, Allen’s remarks covered “Honoring our past, not operating in it:  modernizing America’s Coast Guard to meet growing demands.”

The interesting part in the presentation was the admiral’s mention of strengthened anti-smuggling efforts in coping with the unusual tactics smugglers are employing these days in moving drugs from South America and other points.

Rather than using fast boats or mixing in drugs with other products on vessels, the smugglers are taking to self-propelled, semi-submersibles --- some remotely controlled --- in efforts to evade detection and interdiction at sea.  But the Coast Guard is spotting these efforts.

Last August, for example, the Coast Guard, with assist from other agencies, interdicted and boarded a self-propelled, semi-submersible loaded with an estimated $352 million worth of cocaine.

Cocaine seizures last year reached a record 355,755 pounds worth almost $5 billion.

AP dials Waterford, Calif., for ‘recession,’ other input

In an Associated Press story released Sunday with a lead touching on empty homes and for-sale signs, lost jobs and nest eggs taking a hit, a Washington-based economics writer’s second paragraph asked:  Could the country be in a recession?

Three paragraphs down, came the answer via the first person quoted:  “Absolutely, we’re in a recession.”

Was that conclusion reached by (select one):

A --- An economics professor from Harvard.

B --- An executive with a Wall Street investment firm.

C --- A hedge fund manager.

D --- A spokesman for Fed chairman Ben Bernanke.

E --- None of the above.

Answer:  E.

The definitive word came from Hilda Sanchez of Waterford, Calif., population 9,000, in California’s central valley, 2,283 miles from Washington, D.C.  There was no further identification of the woman other than her age, 44.

Sanchez’s name popped out of an AP-Ipsos poll that found 61 percent of the public believes the economy is “suffering through its first recession since 2001.”

The Waterford resident is popular.

Sanchez’s name was in another AP story two days earlier.  That piece, also based on the AP-Ipsos poll last week following Congress’s passage of the stimulus bill, found pulling out of the war in Iraq ranked first among proposed remedies “to get the country out of recession.”

And guess who had a comment on that?

Hilda Sanchez, 44, of Waterford, Calif.

“Let’s stop paying for this war,” Sanchez told the survey.  “There are a lot of people who are struggling.  We can use the money to pay for medical care and help people who were put out of their homes.”

AP-Ipsos said the poll was conducted Feb. 4 to 6 through telephone interviews with 1,006 adults.

McCain goes west after shelving planned London visit

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain was supposed to be in London to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last Friday.  But he never left the U.S.

What happened?  Did someone miss a story here?

The hubbub started five days ago when word out of London mentioned Brown, at his Downing Street residence, would be holding informal talks with the Arizona senator --- at McCain’s request.

The prime minister’s spokesman said the planned talks did not imply Brown’s backing for the senator but “McCain is a senior American politician and it’s not unusual when such people are in London that they request meetings and the prime minister and other ministers meet them.”

Less than two hours after word of the McCain-Brown meeting made the wires, a follow-up story reported the senator’s office said McCain would not be traveling overseas and thus his meeting with Brown was canceled.

Pressure of the presidential campaign was cited as the reason for the scrubbed journey.

That “pressure” pointed to fundraising and Saturday’s presidential caucus in Washington state.

Grumpy Editor determined rather than meeting folks in London, McCain decided to go in the opposite direction, flying to Seattle on Friday where he greeted more than 400 supporters following a $2,300 per person fundraising reception prior to the next day’s caucus.  The Saturday caucus was a close one for McCain, edging out Mike Huckabee by a slim margin.

Asked if the British prime minister was disappointed not to meet McCain, Brown’s office diplomatically replied, “The prime minister looks forward to their next opportunity to speak.”

McCain’s prepared text eases reporters’ work

The difference in covering political presentations of Mitt Romney, who suspended his White House bid yesterday, vs. John McCain in the GOP presidential race:  notes had to be taken with off-the-cuff Romney remarks, making news persons work harder with pens and pads, while McCain spoke from prepared texts, in many cases, which simplifies reporting, observes Grumpy Editor.

This was evident yesterday when both Romney and McCain spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.  Their afternoon speeches were telecast “live” on cable channels MSNBC, Fox News Network, CNN, CNN Headline News and C-Span.

Romney gave an eloquent presentation without notes or text in front of him to recap his conservative principles, while emphasizing “culture makes all the difference” along with “standing up to family values” and “we love opportunity.”  In bowing out of the race, Romney said, "This isn't an easy decision, I hate to lose…but I entered this race because I love America."

Two hours later McCain faced the same audience, which he snubbed last year, and did a lot of reading.  Teleprompters were set up for his main text while quick updates, following word of Romney’s unexpected suspension, were read from fresh pages on the podium.  Much of the main material was lifted from previous campaign speeches but new emphasis was inserted, such as “I am a mainstream conservative” and “I’m proud to be a conservative,” plus a number of “I intend” pledges.

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

With hopes of revving up more interest in science and engineering, too bad the broadcast networks didn’t cover four minutes worth of yesterday’s daytime launch of space shuttle Atlantis which achieved a speed of 5,000 miles an hour in that time span.  Cable news networks, however, did follow the live action…Despite all the cries over belt tightening in Washington, there wasn’t much coverage of the Department of Energy’s proposed almost half billion dollar budget, about the same as last year, for Yucca Mountain, a stalled proposed nuclear waste dump northwest of Las Vegas…With deep freezes this week ranging from China, which issued a “red alert” for the most snow in a decade in many places, to a blizzard watch in Minnesota and North Dakota, and a frigid 67 degrees below zero recorded at O'Brien Creek, Alaska, the “global warming” phrase was conspicuously missing in print and on airwaves.

Wall Street Journal adds column to front page

The Wall Street Journal this week quietly expanded its front page to six columns from five, observes Grumpy Editor who thinks it’s a smart move that allows more flexibility in layouts.

The maneuver was accomplished by narrowing the width of each column.  That includes a slimmer “What’s News” feature that gives a daily rundown of top news with capsule items that now require a bit of tighter writing with references, in most cases, to other pages.

More three-column headlines, grabbing more attention, are showing up on the front page, giving it more spark.

The five-column format, following a redesign, had been in use for about a year.

It’s still far from earlier days when eight columns filled front pages of most U.S. dailies.  That allowed 13 to 15 stories to start on the opening page --- when the width was larger --- compared to four or five these days.

The narrower page width was designed in recent years to consume less newsprint that has become increasingly costly.

Other sections of The Journal continue with four or five columns on opening pages.

CNN’s electronic 'Wall' gets Super Tuesday attention

Getting lots of attention during last night’s CNN election coverage was “The Wall,” an extra wide-touch screen that brings up colorful displays of vote totals in key areas.

Manipulated by a touch of a finger, it’s the latest electronic gadget that provides snappy visuals of what formerly were dull data.

Visually showing election results have come a long way since the days of writing chalk tabulations on a blackboard, notes Grumpy Editor.

The mammoth monitor allows zooming in and out and displays attention-getting pie charts and maps, among electronic tricks.   It made its CNN debut a month ago.

Technically known as the Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall, it was developed by Jeff Han at his startup company, Perceptive Pixel, New York.

A basic “wall” sells for about $100,000, in case you want to order one for your media room.

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Answer to Monday's question

As promised in Monday’s posting, "Weird questions seek voters’ take on candidates" ---

Here’s the answer to Which candidate is the person you’d most like to bring on your family vacation?

Among all presidential candidates in the Associated Press-Yahoo News survey of 2,016 adults, Hillary Clinton grabbed top spot with 20 percent, four percentage points above Barack Obama.

But before making plans to set up the picnic table, the next poll question --- Which is the person you’d least like to bring on your family vacation? --- listed Clinton No. 1 with 31 percent.

Some newspaper standalone business sections fade

Already doing a disservice to readers in condensing or dumping stock market and mutual fund listings, some daily newspaper publishers and editors now are eliminating standalone business sections altogether.

That’s a sure way to see already-ebbing circulation dwindle even more, visions Grumpy Editor.

Latest to join the more than half dozen newspapers that have jettisoned standalone business sections is the Denver Post, reports Chris Roush in his Talking Biz News blog.  Post business items, starting yesterday, are inserted in news sections Monday through Friday, he points out, adding that a full-color standalone business section will continue on Sunday. (The paper does not publish on Saturday.)

Other papers that have cut their standalone business sections are the Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal, Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, Monterey (Calif.) Herald, Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal and Orange County (Calif.) Register, tallies Roush, a veteran on the reporting side, who teaches “Newswriting,” “Business Reporting,” “Economics Reporting” and “Business and the Media” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

With the trend toward scattering business news bits in other sections, readers will have to hunt for latest developments in areas that contain city council coverage, obituaries, crossword puzzles and weather.

Will standalone sports sections be next?

Imagine the uproar from readers if sports material --- including football, baseball and hockey scores --- is found alongside bank robbery and lost cat stories on the bottom of page A13.

Weird questions seek voters’ take on candidates

Some polls, leading up to tomorrow’s Super Tuesday, ask some strange questions, observes Grumpy Editor.

In an Associated Press-Yahoo News survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks, Menlo Park, Calif., and based on interviews, Jan. 18 to 28, one of the questions directed at 2,016 adults, was:

Which candidate is the person you’d most like to have on your bowling team?

Leading the list of both Republican and Democrat candidates was Barack Obama.  Those interviewed (including 943 Democrats and 740 Republicans), put him at the top of the list with 18 percent, closely followed by Hillary Clinton with 17 percent.  John McCain captured 8 percent and Mitt Romney took 5 percent.

Then the opposite was asked:

Which candidate is the person you’d least like to have on your bowling team?

Topping the list by far was Clinton with 35 percent, followed by Rudy Giuliani (who has dropped out of the race) with 13 percent, and Obama and Fred Thompson (also a drop-out) both with 11 percent.  Romney and Mike Huckabee topped McCain here with 7 percent vs. 5 percent.

The poll asked other odd questions, such as:

Which candidate is the person you’d most like to bring on your family vacation?

Care to guess which candidate grabbed top spot?

Send that name to GrumpyEditor@cox.net

Then on Wednesday, the name will be posted on this site.