Grumpy Editor

Dual job: Turn in Money copy, then book boss’s flight

Money magazine has a job opening that should keep an aggressive multi-tasking reporter busy without too much time to check an iPad, notes Grumpy Editor who spotted the “help wanted” call in a TalkingBizNews.com Friday item.

The personal finance publication, in the Time Inc. family, is seeking a full-time contract reporter (with previous financial journalism experience a plus) who can handle various tasks --- including a chunk of time required for non-writing undertakings that, in prior days, were assigned to several staffers who never attended journalism school. 

Multi-tasks on the editorial side include writing beat stories and front-of-book articles, finding real people anecdotes for features, creating data visualizations, helping senior writers and fact checking.

But the position requires 20 percent of the job --- that’s equivalent to one day a week --- assisting Money’s managing editor with administrative tasks, such as answering phones, making travel arrangements, coordinating the M.E.’s schedule, submitting expense reports and helping with presentations.

The only things missing:  fetching coffee and fresh doughnuts.

 

L.A. Times defies military with GIs, dead bombers photos

Grumpy Editor notes after the Defense Department asked the Los Angeles Times NOT to run the images, the newspaper goes ahead and publishes two photos showing American troops, members of the 82^nd Airborne Division, posing with the remains of suicide bombers in Afghanistan in February, 2010.

Then in a follow-up story last Wednesday, the L.A. Times --- without blushing --- explains: “The Pentagon, the White House and top commanders and diplomats in Afghanistan have condemned the action by the soldiers and have launched investigations.”

Condemning action by the soldiers?

Some folks say publishing the pictures is another anti-military step by major media to trash U.S. troops --- even to incite violence against U.S. military personnel.

One can imagine how the L.A. Times, with some current staffers, would have handled advance hush-hush preparations, including activities of the same 82^nd Airborne Division --- with absolutely no leaks by media to warn the enemy --- for D-Day in World War II.

The L.A. Times says it “acquired 18 gruesome images” showing Army soldiers with dead suicide bombers and decided to run two shots.

L.A. Times reporter David Zucchino declares he “verified the authenticity of the photos through interviews with the soldier who provided the photos, with Pentagon officials and with commanders from the unit.”

That was followed by L.A. Times editor Davan Maharaj stating: “After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering U.S. troops.”

Some subscribers may raise eyebrows with the phrase “our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially.” 

 

Publicist’s nightmare: Ex-Sen. Specter barks at KTCN host

What makes a day rough for a book publicist is for a book-plugging author to get nasty during a live radio interview in which the host is called “absolutely insulting,” as was the case Monday when former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter appeared on a Twin Cities station, finds Grumpy Editor.

Specter, making the rounds promoting “Life Among the Cannibals” published by Thomas Dunne Books at St. Martin’s Press, made it to Jason Lewis, a conservative talk show host at KTCN (a Clear Channel Communications station in Minneapolis that prefers to be identified as News/Talk 1130), when he let loose with an outburst near the close of an interview.

“I have one final comment,” said Specter who turned Democrat from Republican in April 2009. “I gave you 10 minutes. You’ve been over every subject except for my book. I’ve listened to two rounds of your commercials. I think it’s insulting. I’ve been in a lot of interviews in the course of the past 30 years and you are absolutely insulting.”

Lewis fired back with:  “Good God. This is not public radio. I don’t have a government grant. We’ve got to pay the bills.  They’re called commercials. Capitalism.”

Replied Specter:  “I’m talking about someone who’s civilized. I told you the last time around I wasn’t going to sit around and listen to your commercials, and I didn’t want to hang up on you. This is no way for anybody to run an interview. I’m as experienced as you are, if not more so.”

The call wrapped up with Specter saying, “That’s all I have to tell you, so goodbye.”

Lewis countered, “Good Lord, senator, no wonder you got beat.” 

 

Century-old Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call stops presses

With the final press run yesterday of the century-old Laurel Leader-Call, Laurel, Miss., another small-town is left without a newspaper, observes Grumpy Editor.

The publication covered Laurel, population about 20,000, and Jones County.

Founded in August, 1911, as the Laurel Daily Argus, the Laurel Leader-Call was owned by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., publisher of about 90 daily newspapers and more than 200 non-daily newspapers in 22 states, mainly in the eastern part of the country. 

The Laurel Leader-Call, which operated with a slim staff of 18, saw tough publishing times ahead last September when the daily went to a four-day schedule:  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. 

It bowed out with a front page “Special Commemorative Final Edition” with a headline reading:  “Thank you for welcoming us into your lives and sharing your memories.” 

The farewell opening page reproduced 30 front pages from its century of providing news to the community.

 

Tribune Co. continues editorial cuts --- with L.A. Times

Shakiness of editorial staffers these days was underscored this week with another in a series of Tribune Co. “workforce reductions” that this time hit the Los Angeles Times newsroom, following last week’s release of 15 Chicago Tribune workers, notes Grumpy Editor. 

In the latest round, about a dozen Times employees from news operations, copy desk and design were affected. 

Among them, accepting a buyout:  Craig Turner, arts and entertainment editor, with the newspaper for almost 41 years, including the position of metropolitan editor. 

As Grumpy Editor mentioned on March 16, editorial employees at some Tribune Co. newspapers may be getting edgy following the prior day’s downsizing at the Chicago Tribune. 

Besides the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, the Tribune Co. family includes the Baltimore Sun, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and The Hartford Courant. 

Ironically, as Los Angeles Times staffers were departing, the business section posted an opening for “an ambitious reporter to cover the food and farm beat.”

 

Other Tribune Co. workers fidgety after Chicago staff cut

Editorial employees at some Tribune Co. newspapers may be a bit edgy today (after all, it is Friday), following yesterday’s release of 15 Chicago Tribune staffers, including reporters, editors and managers, figures Grumpy Editor. 

The downsizing action in the newsroom continues at the Chicago Tribune, where a buyout last month reduced the payroll by about 10.

That follows about 20 editorial positions cut at the Tribune Co.’s flagship newspaper last July. 

Other newspapers in the Tribune family include the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and The Hartford Courant, among several others. 

The Chicago Tribune, founded in 1847, is aiming for a leaner staff in efforts to slice costs and revive profits as the operation gears up to exit bankruptcy later this year. 

 

Stars and Stripes move from Washington raises questions

Military budget cuts have now spread to Stars and Stripes, the 150-year-old U.S. military newspaper that is slated to be kicked out of Washington, D.C. headquarters, finds Grumpy Editor. 

Distributed worldwide, the newspaper started by 10 Union soldiers during the Civil War, has been ordered to move 30 miles from D.C. to the Fort Meade military base.

The cost-cutting effort was directed by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta who figures the move, affecting 80 newsroom and business staffers, will save $1 million a year in rent by leaving the National Press Building.

Moving operations to an Army base, staffers feel the location will cause loss of journalistic independence.

The distance from Maryland also will make it a bit difficult to cover Capitol Hill.

Over many years, the daily newspaper, now with an estimated 350,000 readers, has angered Pentagon and military leadership by printing beefs from military personnel. 

Douglas B. Wilson, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said the decision to relocate the newspaper to Fort Meade “is not a matter of reducing independence for Stars and Stripes. It is a matter of reducing rent costs to the taxpayer.” 

But raising his eyebrows, Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Panetta.  He said questions of editorial independence for Stars and Stripes were “well-placed, and should lead to a review of possible alternatives to this decision.” 

Levin asked, “If this move is based on cost savings, were other alternatives considered, including other government spaces and other leased locations? 

“If Stars and Stripes is moved to Fort Meade, what will the department do to ensure that the actual and perceived independence of the important service provided by Stars and Stripes is preserved?”

 

Ladies' Home Journal cuts pro writers, greets amateurs

What could be the start of something --- frowned on by veteran professional writers --- is a major content change among women’s magazines when readers start writing most of the material, debuting with the March issue of the 129-year-old Ladies’ Home Journal, notes Grumpy Editor.

LHJ will be the first major mass-market magazine to utilize reader-generated content.

Seasoned past contributors to LHJ are wondering if the trend toward using amateur writers will spread to other Meredith Corp. magazines.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed company also produces Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Family Circle, Fitness, More, American Baby, Every Day with Rachael Ray and FamilyFun.

Veteran writers compare summoning amateurs to fill editorial pages of a well-known magazine with switching a backyard barbecuer to chef at a swank New York restaurant (with entree cost unchanged on the menu) or calling on a junior high school nurse to perform a tricky gall bladder operation.

Seasoned LHJ contributors, who have provided quality articles over the years, see editors straining to obtain publishable material.

Editors’ eyes may be strained, too, in editing copy.

Readers also may notice the difference.

Eyes also will be on LHJ’s future circulation figures --- and advertising revenue.