Grumpy Editor

Editors find panda coverage hard to turn down

One animal, dear to the hearts of editors, that easily makes print and broadcast stories is the panda, observes Grumpy Editor.

Of all wild animals, any type of report on the panda, especially the prized giant panda, effortlessly finds its way into news columns or air time --- with ample image support.

If one of the black-and-white scene stealers is in jeopardy for some reason, or is shipped to a zoo or merely is munching on bamboo, somehow it’s newsworthy.

Other wildlife members --- whether giraffe, rhinoceros, monkey, right down to alligator and ostrich --- don’t get that much attention.

Maybe it’s because those menagerie members are not cuddly.

A panda simply has a great image that appeals to many.  Some editors may have children who take stuffed pandas to bed.

When China last week sent two of its prized giant pandas to Taiwan, it grabbed headlines in China, Taiwan --- and the U.S.  Millions watched the televised arrival of the male and the female.

Earlier, there was heavy coverage of the same panda pair eating breakfast before the flight to Taiwan.

When an earthquake strikes a mountainous area of China, home of endangered pandas, calls are made to see how the animals are doing. And that triggers a story.

When China loans pandas to zoos around the world, including the U.S., Australia, Spain and Russia, the arrivals are greeted by flocks of lens-clicking and note-taking news folks.

Public relations people wish they had human clients that wooed the press as easily as pandas.

RMDs are suspended for 2009 --- not for 2008

Overlooked by most major print and broadcast media in the pre-Christmas rush to report a stack of negative news ranging from lower retail sales to severe weather, was a bit of positive news affecting millions of retirees: Suspension of annual required minimum distributions (RMDs) from individual retirement accounts (IRAs), 401(k)s and other tax-deferred plans, observes Grumpy Editor.

President Bush signed legislation last Tuesday that suspends the rule --- for 2009, not 2008. 

As Grumpy Editor asked in a Nov. 14 posting that focused on retirees being socked by RMDs based on 2007 stock values:  But will Congress act?  And in time?

The good news is that Congress did act.  The bad news is lawmakers, late in the year, were looking at the 2009 calendar.  It had been hoped for a RMD suspension for 2008.

This year’s unusual problem is that RMD amounts are based on the total dollar value in accounts on Dec. 31 of the prior year.  Thus, calculations for 2008 stem from a much higher stock market at year-end 2007, well before this year’s collapse.  That means retirees, already squeezed on many fronts, are getting stiffed.

RMDs are an annual ritual that require holders, after reaching 70.5 years old, to withdraw a percentage of funds from their accounts.  The action usually occurs in November or December.  Distribution requirements are based on age and life expectancy of account holders.

Thus, seniors are still required to take 2008 withdrawals from beaten-down retirement accounts by tomorrow or face a stiff penalty.

Pontiac daily starts course for ‘citizen journalists’

A new breed of newshound candidates takes pens and notepads tonight to The Oakland Press building in Pontiac, Mich., where they will attend a two-hour class to learn more about being citizen journalists, notes Grumpy Editor.

The idea behind the event is to get readers, without professional journalism training, involved in providing additional information.

“The face of journalism is changing dramatically and newspapers are in the vanguard of this trend,” relates Glenn Gilbert, executive editor at The Oakland Press.

Seven Press staffers will instruct at what Gilbert calls The Oakland Press Institute for Citizen Journalism.

In the digital age, he relates, everyday citizens’ “reports can be prepared and shared with the public in mere minutes.”

Gilbert explains, “We are trying to tap into this movement as a means of improving our bread-and-butter franchise of local news and sports coverage."  He points out his newspaper’s Web site “can provide not only words and still photography, but we can and do supply video coverage of events.”

There are ways for readers to help tell stories better, quicker and more completely, he adds.   “That is why we will be offering anyone who is interested — from high school students to retirees — instruction in news writing, videography, basics of reporting for news and sports, and still photography.”

For those who complete the instruction, continues Gilbert, “we offer the opportunity to get your work published online or in the print edition. This experience would be especially helpful for high school and college students viewing careers in the communications field. In addition, others can work toward becoming members of our freelance stable of journalists.”

No mention is made of pay or how regular staffers on the daily feel about the upcoming band of eager citizen reporters.

As one reader, identifying himself as a journalism school-degreed, long-time professional, comments:  “Who will be the ultimate copy editor to ensure that what is posted or printed is fair and accurate information?”

Meanwhile, Grumpy Editor, a stickler for journalism school training before one applies for a newspaper job, wonders if this will lead to other citizen endeavors, such as:

· Citizen orthodontists

· Citizen aircraft pilots

· Citizen chefs

· Citizen TV anchors

· Citizen proctologists  

 

Gulp!

 

Grumpy Editor gets into holiday mood, returns Monday

Grumpy Editor, taking time off to celebrate Christmas and enjoy holiday goodies, will return on Monday, Dec. 29.

Citing tough times, some ‘dailies’ ditch Mondays

Some daily newspapers are fudging on the word “daily,” notes Grumpy Editor.  They are becoming six days-or-less-per-week publications.

Out of the seven days, Monday is fast becoming a “no news” day.

Some publications now print only five days a week.

Week-end happenings are being put on ice.  That means no Saturday night-Sunday stories on weather, shootings, sports scores or celebrity gossip for Monday editions.

The Monday-less newspapers, with slight variations, cite it’s a way to save money during tough economic times.

Latest to scratch Monday press runs is the Statesboro (Ga.) Herald.  The paper plans to combine its Monday and Tuesday editions starting Jan. 6, going to six days a week.

Among others that recently announced dumping Mondays:

·  The Examiner, in Independence, Mo., goes to a Tuesday through Saturday week starting Jan. 12.

·  The Daily Tribune, Royal Oak, Mich. already has become a four-days-a-week newspaper from six.  It now publishes on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

·  The Klamath Falls (Ore.) Herald and News cuts its Monday edition Jan. 5.  Its publisher cites a “Monday on Sunday” section when “we move most of the Monday content into the Sunday paper.”

That’s a neat trick, reporting news before it happens.

'Bailout' gets play in 2008 as it did in WWII

Turns out the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary’s word of the year --- bailout --- leading the top 10 list, has its roots going back more than 60 years ago, reminds Grumpy Editor.

The re-emerged word, used heavily in print and broadcast reports in recent weeks, is dressed up with a new meaning:  A rescue from financial distress.

That moved it to the forefront in lookups.

Bailout was an often-repeated word during World War II when military personnel parachuted from distressed aircraft.  You'll hear the word often in the many motion pictures depicting WWII air action.

The No. 2 popular word this year is vet.  It’s a word, or a contraction of a word, that has multiple meanings.

This year’s usage refers to vetting, as in evaluating candidates for a position for possible approval or acceptance.  And, of course, the shortened vet can also refer to a veterinarian or a person who served in the military.

Other words in the top 10 list:

3 --- socialism
4 --- maverick
5 --- bipartisan
6 --- trepidation
7 --- precipice
8 --- rogue
9 --- misogyny
10 --- turmoil

Somehow, while widely used this year, “recession” didn’t make the list.

Not as exciting as the above words, but getting much play in print and broadcast reporting is the lowly “but,” as Grumpy Editor points out in the Dec. 1 posting (see below).

Check the front page of your newspaper today.  Notice how “but” is worked into sentences. 

But (whoops! sorry about that) that’s the way it goes --- as 2008 fades.

GM gets bailout, adds another overseas plant

Escaping most news reports on the $9.4 billion government bailout of General Motors Corp. last week was what’s going on overseas with the “hard-hit” Detroit-based member of the Big Three automakers, notes Grumpy Editor.

While GM is shuttering plants and cutting jobs in North America, it’s merrily rolling along overseas.

Just last Wednesday, GM formally unveiled a passenger vehicle plant in Shenyang, in northeast China.  The factory is producing the Chevrolet Cruze, a compact sedan.  (The Cruze eventually will make its appearance in the U.S.)

The Shenyang facility is the fifth plant GM operates in a joint venture with a Chinese company.

What’s more, GM plans to grow its operations in China, where it already has invested $5 billion.

Elsewhere, the company last month announced it plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil.

Also last month, GM opened a $300 million factory in Russia.

Meanwhile, GM's investment in India now exceeds $1 billion.

Back on the home front, GM may qualify for an additional $4 billion in bailout money in February from the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program --- via taxpayer funds.

Time magazine’s D.C. bureau chief moves to Biden staff

With Time magazine this week naming President-elect Barack Obama as “person of the year for 2008,” Jay Carney, Time’s bureau chief in Washington, announced he is joining incoming Vice President Joe Biden’s staff, notes Grumpy Editor.

Was it a coincidence?
 
After 20 years with Time, Carney joins the Obama-Biden team as assistant to the vice president and director of communications.  He’ll oversee press operations.

Before that announcement, three staffers at Time’s Washington bureau contributed to this week’s lengthy cover feature, “Why History Can’t Wait.”

The essay mentions that Obama “hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order.”

Time also heralds:  “In one of the craziest elections in American history, he overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th President of the United States.”

Runners up for “person of the year” are Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, second on the list, followed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

For Time, some consideration probably was given to making a few extra dollars on the selected person of the year.

The magazine, in the Time Warner Inc. family, is selling a print of the current cover portrait starting at $15.95.  For those who seek a more elaborate version, Time’s Web site pitches “Barack Obama special framed double-cover print.  Buy it now for $150.”
 

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes

Boston-based GlobalPost, a foreign-news-only service designed to compete with Associated Press and CNN, plans to start Jan. 12 with 70 correspondents in 53 countries…Toronto-based Kubas Consultants, which also performs market research, surveyed more than 400 daily newspapers in finding one in five newspapers is considering outsourcing its printing…"Shoe-venir" from Iraq.  Not much has been mentioned about it, but White House press secretary Dana Perino received a bruise under her right eye in the Iraqi journalist shoe-tossing at President Bush incident last weekend.  She hit a microphone while the shoes were flying…More editing consolidations:  Copy desks of Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley Tribune, San Bernardino Sun and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin will combine in West Covina (home of the Tribune) in January…Making the rounds again.  In what has become an annual ritual, look for more bird flu stories following outbreaks in Hong Kong and India…News Corp., parent company of The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and other media operations, plans to switch its market listing to the NASDAQ Stock Market from the New York Stock Exchange starting Dec. 29…Partial week home deliveries of the Detroit Free Press, owned by Gannett Co., and the Detroit News, a MediaNews Group Inc. property (covered here on Dec. 16), starts next spring…Walt Disney Co., teams with a Russian broadcaster in launching a Disney television channel on 30 stations next year…Wanna usher in the New Year with this potion?  A Wall Street Journal story last Saturday describes aromas and flavors of a selected champagne (at $45.99 a bottle) as “toasted nuts, yeast, minerals, a hint of zingy lemon and even some honeysuckle.”

Most readers yawn when bylines are withheld

Associated Press writers are putting their bylines back on stories after withholding their names earlier this week as a protest of management’s stance in contract talks, notes Grumpy Editor.

The news agency’s photographers also withheld credit in the quiet protest.

The withholding bylines (or photo credits) idea isn’t new.  Other news outlets also have employed the tactic in recent years.

What participants don’t seem to realize is that most readers --- other than family members, friends and fellow staffers --- don’t care about omitted bylines.

In earlier days of heavy competition with three, four, five or more daily newspapers in a marketing area, bylines were seldom placed on typewritten copy (which gives a clue as to the era) from reporters.

Most stories that moved through newspaper city desks ran without bylines.

However, editors sometimes scribbled names on copy in recognition of superb work or a “scoop” --- even if it beat the competition by one edition.  (Metropolitan dailies at that time had up to six or seven editions a day.)

Bylines and photo credit lines are very common now.

Small stories, down to two and three paragraphs, now usually contain writers’ names.  Credit lines also appear with easy-to-snap photos such as head shots, ribbon cuttings, press conferences and people walking past buildings.

About 1,400 AP editorial, technology and support workers are represented by the News Media Guild.  Current contract expired on Nov. 30 and the Guild has been bargaining with management since late October.

Brrr! ‘Global warming’ phrase goes into the freezer

While most of the nation shivers from a pre-winter cold spell, guess what overused phrase has been missing from newspapers and radio/TV news reports, asks Grumpy Editor.

Answer:  global warming (also known as climate change).

Freezing air is blanketing most of the U.S. as wintry weather just keeps on coming.  And winter doesn’t start officially until Sunday.

One reason for the focus on global warming may lie in Weather Service thermometers.  Example:  Newspapers and broadcast outlets mentioned rare snow in Las Vegas on Monday.  Up to several inches of the white stuff on the ground in some sections of “Sin City” provided a photo op showing youngsters rolling giant snowballs amid huge flakes falling.  Yet, the Weather Service’s official low reading, which goes into the records, was 36 degrees --- four degrees above freezing.

That’s instant global (or city) warming.

Meanwhile, across the northern Plains, temperatures dipped to 20 degrees below zero --- and lower.  In Minnesota, the thermometer at Hibbing dropped to 32 degrees below, International Falls registered 28 below and St. Cloud reached 24 below, a record for the date.

At Goodland, Kan., the temperature fell to a record 10 below zero.  Glasgow, Mont., beat that, with 31 degrees below.

Many New England residents still were struggling to regain power that was knocked out from a weekend storm that turned the region into an “ice age" look.  Adding to that is today’s prediction of several inches of snow for northern New England and northern New York state.

The Pacific Northwest today was expecting another round of snow blasting in from British Columbia while a separate snowstorm was expected to hit northern Arizona.

Southern California, home of palm trees and orange groves, was expecting temperatures to sink into the mid-30s by late today, with heavy snow in mountain areas above 3,000 feet.

Thus, it’s not exactly an ideal time to write or broadcast a story on global warming.  Best to schedule that for early July.