Grumpy Editor

U.S. jumps into action after North Korea threatens; First Lady again on Vogue cover; Vegas shooter remains in L.A.

War talk spurs U.S. to bolster defenses, but...

After more North Korea missile testing over the weekend, a Feb. 12 nuclear test plus mounting saber-rattling and elevated tensions spurred by its young leader Kim Jong Eun, the Pentagon decided to strengthen U.S. defenses against a possible attack by the communist country by adding missile systems to protect the West Coast and Alaska, notes Grumpy Editor.

North Korea a few days earlier surprised the U.N., South Korea and U.S. by declaring the armistice that suspended Korean War hostilities 60 years ago was now invalid.

At the same time, it tossed in bolder rhetoric by threatening a nuclear strike on Washington.

With Washington’s sudden growing concern on North Korea’s long-range missile advances, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday said the U.S. will deploy 14 more ground-based missile interceptors.

These will be added to the current 30 long-range missile interceptors already in place in Alaska and California.

While news that the U.S. was moving ahead on additional defense measures grabbed headlines, overlooked by most broadcast and print media:  the new interceptors won’t be in position until 2017.

For example, in missile defense story coverage, The Washington Post didn't mention 2017 until the 10th paragraph. On the other hand, The Wall Street Journal noted the year at the start of the second paragraph.

 

Meanwhile, focusing on the other side of the world and reflecting U.S. military and intelligence assessments, President Barack Obama said it would take Iran a year or more to produce a nuclear weapon.

Vogue cover again spotlights First Lady

Shortly after the election, buzz around New York and Washington was that First Lady Michelle Obama was behind a push to award top Obama campaign fundraiser and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour with a European ambassadorship, perhaps to Great Britain (Wintour was born in the U.K.) or France.

But the diplomatic post assignment idea faded.  

However, Vogue’s April issue features Michelle Obama on the cover, in a “cobalt blue dress, with the line:  How the First Lady and the President Are Inspiring America.

It marks the second Vogue cover appearance for the First Lady.  She last appeared wearing a pink dress on the magazine’s March 2009 cover.

Wintour got a boost last week, though.

Condé Nast announced the Vogue editor in chief is taking on the newly-created additional position of artistic director of Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications.

 

Las Vegas Strip shooter remains in L.A.

Remember that widely-covered shooting spree on the Las Vegas Strip back on Feb. 21 that resulted in three people killed and five injured?

Through sharp police work, suspect Ammar Harris, 26, was nabbed in Los Angeles one week later.

Today, he's still there.

The delay, in part, was because the defense attorney (despite fingerprints and widely-circulated photos) requested an "iddentification hearing" calling on prosecutors to prove the person arrested in the case "is who they say it is." That Los Angeles Superior Court action occurred March 14.

But wait.

Judge Shelly Torrealba formally identified the Las Vegas Strip shooting suspect on March 14.

Did that move things along for Las Vegas authorities to take over?

Not yet.

Harris refused to waive extradition and his public defender asked authorities to produce a governor's warrant.

With that, the judge scheduled an April 12 hearing.

Stay tuned.

 

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New Pope Francis didn’t waste any time meeting the press. On Saturday, at the media center flanking Rome’s St. Peter's Basilica at what some called “The Pope Francis Show,” he met and chatted with some of the 5,000 reporters from 81 countries --- then gave them a blessing… One America News Network, a 24-hour conservative-leaning cable news operation that partners San Diego's WealthTV with the Washington Times, is slated to start on July 1…Also with a July launch, Al Jazeera America, following its purchase of Current TV, reports more than 18,000 candidates applied for an initial 170 job openings…Britain’s Daily Mail presence is growing.  It’s online audience in the United States swells to become larger than in the United Kingdom…Moving right along:  U.S. intelligence officials warn of the rising threat of cyberattacks to national  and economic security.  It follows President Barack Obama’s concern in January’s State of the Union address, noting the “rapidly growing threat from cyberattacks"...Wrong site for an exciting typo.  An ad on copyediting.com Friday: "Want an Exiting Career?" headlined a pitch for training as a trucker...Sale of Maxim, a male-oriented magazine, is being explored by Alpha Media. 

Media not stirred by Obama’s 70,000 bridges to repair

Absent from most print/broadcast coverage of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech last week:  those 70,000 “structurally deficient” bridges popping up again, this time with a repair price tag of $50 billion, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Initial mentions of the 70,000 bridges started five and a half years ago. 

Repairing bridges comes as Congress debates a jobs bill. 

Media’s focus last week was on Obama’s agenda of upping the minimum wage, climate change and gun control legislation. 

 

Broadcast newsrooms need larger maps 

One of the lead items on broadcast news last week was “a moderate earthquake has struck in rural Nevada near the California state line.” 

That doesn’t quite pinpoint the shaky area. 

For eastern news writers, the Nevada-California state line runs 650 miles.  That’s the distance between New York City and Chicago. 

Actual center of the 4.9 magnitude shaker was 45 miles west of Tonopah, Nev.  Closest California city: Bishop.

 

Rubio gulps water about 155 times on MSNBC

Television media put the focus on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s Republican response to the State of the Union address on his water sipping rather than content. 

In the forefront was MSNBC which replayed Rubio’s swig about 155 times --- with 101 of them played on loop at the bottom left of the screen Wednesday during the Rachel Maddow Show. 

CNN replayed the water action 34 times. 

In a fair-and-balanced mode, Fox News, meanwhile, showed a clip of President Barack Obama also sipping water from a plastic bottle during an earlier speech.

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Editors overlook event marking last U.S. bayonet battle

Overlooked by U.S. media was an anniversary ceremony at South Korea’s Osan Air Base last Thursday marking the U.S. Army’s last known bayonet charge, known as the Battle of Bayonet Hill on Feb. 7, 1951, during the “forgotten” Korean War --- which remains open ended, notes Grumpy Editor.

The battle --- involving the Army’s 27^th Infantry Regiment’s Easy Company --- pitted Americans against North Korean and communist Chinese soldiers.

Nine U.S. infantrymen died in capturing so-called Hill 180 while 47 enemy troops were left dead on the slope.

 

Revised Condé Nast contract irks writers

Freelance writers are grumbling over a revised Condé Nast master contract that includes a line declaring the publisher owns television and movie rights to all stories that appear in its magazines.

It could mean a financial loss into six figures for contributors.

Condé Nast’s two dozen titles include Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, Self, Golf Digest and Brides. Advance Publications is Condé Nast’s parent.

No Saturday mail affects some publications 

The Postal Service’s planned termination of Saturday deliveries starting Aug. 3 will affect distribution of some publications.

The National Newspaper Association notes about 30 percent of its member papers rely on Saturday mail deliveries.

Time magazine subscribers receive the mailed weekly on Fridays or Saturdays.  Bloomberg Businessweek, which already is using alternate means to get its weekly issues to some subscribers, figures a quarter of its subscribers will see mail deliveries extended to Mondays.

The Postal Service figures ending Saturday deliveries would help save the agency about $2 billion a year.

 

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‘Skeet shooting’ Obama aims rifle low at clay target

A photo of President Barack Obama skeet shooting, released by the White House over the weekend, has some participants of the sport  raising eyebrows, notes Grumpy Editor.

Most editors who ran the photo, shot last Aug. 4 at Camp David, failed to notice the “skeet shooting” president’s rifle barrel is almost parallel to the ground.

That’s not the way to shoot at an up-in-the air clay disk.

It looks more like trying to bag a crow on a low fence.

Nevertheless, the left-handed president, wearing goggles and ear protectors, peers down the barrel of the shotgun while his left index finger pulls the trigger, resulting in a puff of smoke emitting from the rifle.

The aim did catch the eyes of Rick Davenport, of the Erie County Sportsmen’s Federation.  As reported by Carl Campanile in the New York Post, the photo shows “Obama is shooting straight ahead.”

Davenport explains, “In skeet shooting, you’re either shooting high or you’re shooting low. This is nothing but pandering to the sportsmen and hunters.”

 

Is this the way to treat new owner Buffett?

A bit of blushing by editors at the Greensboro, N.C. News & Record in announcing its acquisition by Warren Buffett's Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The top front-page story on Friday misspelled Buffett, putting only one t on the name in a headline. 

On the same Friday page, Executive Editor Jeff Gauget announced the introduction of a new crossword puzzle to readers of the News & Record, with a daily circulation of 58,000 and Sunday circulation of 86,000.

Since many readers dislike changes in crossword puzzles, Gauget admits it is “the scariest move for any editor” and adds, “I welcome your feedback.”

Chances are he’ll be busy today going over many emails and phone messages.

 

In case you missed these…

Time Inc., the magazine group unit of Time Warner Inc., is cutting its global staff by about 480 jobs or six percent, as newsstand sales and ad revenue continue to fall…The New York Times, via buyouts and layoffs, trimmed its newsroom by about 30 staffers…President Barack Obama spent nine hours round-trip on trusty Air Force One to fly to Las Vegas last Tuesday for a 25-minute speech on immigration…Also in Las Vegas, a local radio station, which normally runs a live news feed from Washington D.C. in morning hours, somehow on Jan. 30 aired a tape covering the news heard Jan. 22…More vintage material:  To illustrate the Washington Post Co. exploring the sale of its D.C. headquarters, The Wall Street Journal on Saturday ran a photo of the Post’s entrance --- showing reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward leaving the building in April 1974…Geraldo Rivera, with a daily syndicated radio program and a weekly Fox News TV show, is mulling running for U.S. senator from New Jersey.

Newsweek cuts editorial staff as last print issue nears

Some Newsweek editorial staffers will start clearing out desks today following word of eliminated positions as the weekly ceases print publication and moves to an all-digital format in the new year, observes Grumpy Editor. 

The magazine, originally labeled News-Week, first rolled off presses in 1933.  The plan to go all-digital was announced two months ago. 

Final print edition will be dated Dec. 31.

In announcing the staff cuts, Editor Tina Brown yesterday said, “This is a very difficult day, and one that we approach with enormous regret." 

Brown, earlier in the day, announced three promotions: 

Newsweek executive editor Justine Rosenthal will become editorial director of Newsweek Daily Beast Co.; Tunku Varadarajan, executive editor of Newsweek International, will become editor of Newsweek Global, while Newsweek.com editor Deidre Depke also will be editor of companion website The Daily Beast.

Bush daughter adds Southern Living to media doings

Southern Living magazine’s staff box is adding a familiar name --- former presidential daughter Jenna Bush Hager, notes Grumpy Editor. 

While continuing as a correspondent for NBC’s “Today” show, the daughter of former President George W. Bush joins the magazine as an editor at large. 

In a monthly column, Paper Napkin Interview, she will cover influential Southerners and noteworthy places in the region. 

The addition of Bush Hager, 30, a Texan living in New York, is considered a move to attract some younger readers. 

With almost 3 million in circulation, median age of the magazine’s  readers is 51.2 years. 

She mentions that she grew up reading Southern Living and that her mother had a subscription. 

Grumpy Editor hastens to point out that one of the features in the monthly is the Grumpy Gardener (no relation) who, in his latest column, covers “Give a Grow Box This Christmas.”

 

Pew: Reading print papers ebbs; digital platforms grow

Print editors saw the material, but few ran the findings:  only about one fourth of Americans now read print newspapers, notes Grumpy Editor.

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, in its 2012 news consumption survey, finds “just 23 percent” read a print newspaper as “many readers are now shifting to digital platforms to read the papers.”

That compares with 38 percent in 2006 and 41 percent a decade ago.

Obviously, print editors are reluctant to run screaming headlines about dwindling print readership.

“Figures for newspaper readership may not include some people who read newspaper content on sites that aggregate news content, such as Google News or Yahoo News," Pew points out.

“Substantial percentages of the regular readers of leading newspapers now read them digitally,” mentions Pew.

“Currently, 55 percent of regular New York Times readers say they read the paper mostly on a computer or mobile device, as do 48 percent of regular USA Today and 44 percent of Wall Street Journal readers, adds Pew.

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Newsweek departs print version with Dec. 31 issue

Print versions are fading on the magazine front, too.

Newsweek, after undergoing internal and external contractions over the past five years, today announced it will abandon its print edition. 

The Dec. 31 issue will be its last print version. 

The weekly news magazine’s first issue hit newsstands on Feb. 17, 1933.

Plans call for it to go to an all-digital format “in early 2013” as Newsweek Global.

 

 

Kiplinger: Skip latte, put cost toward print subscription

With business and finance publications running into choppy waters, as advertisers and subscribers abandon ship, Knight A. Kiplinger, editor in chief, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, wonders why some people who “gladly pay $4 for a latte at Starbucks --- sometimes every day --- balk at paying even $1 for an issue of a useful magazine,” notes Grumpy Editor. 

Under his “The Power of Print” message to readers in the October issue, he points out “falling advertising and subscription revenues are plaguing many excellent magazines these days, including this one,” and cites  SmartMoney, “a worthy competitor,” that is ceasing its print edition with the September issue. 

Founded in 1947, Kiplinger’s was the first magazine to offer money management advice. 

In his message, Kiplinger mentions, “our readers are among the most highly educated and affluent of all magazine readers.  They tell market researchers that they really trust this magazine, and they spend a lot of time with each issue.” 

He adds that advertisers “don’t seem to acknowledge the print audience” and “they are abandoning magazines at a steady pace, apparently believing that they can reach you more effectively on Web sites, including ours.” 

Kiplinger observes that out of a half dozen personal finance publications competing in the 1990s, only Money and Kiplinger’s continue to roll off presses. 

“We’re gratified that our Web audience continues to grow, but we love the business of print publishing, and we’re committed to it,” he concludes.

WSJ calls Romney 'tough,' Newsweek cites ‘wimp factor’

People walking past newsstands yesterday saw contrasting cover headlines with Newsweek magazine --- dominated by a large photo of smiling, tieless presidential hopeful Mitt Romney --- proclaiming “The Wimp Factor” with the subhead, “Is he just too insecure to be president?” while The Wall Street Journal’s main above-the-fold front-page headline, was “Romney Talks Tough,” observes Grumpy Editor.

So it goes in an election year --- which could be the last for a print version of Newsweek.

(Barry Diller, chairman of Newsweek owner IAC/InterActiveCorp., says the 79-year-old weekly eventually will transition to an online publication.  More on that could come as early as September.)

As Newsweek pitches this week’s cover story:  “Dodging reporters, fearing his base, hiding his taxes --- is Mitt Romney just too insecure to be president? In Newsweek, Michael Tomasky surveys a history of presidential manliness and asks just where Mitt would fit amid the studly swagger of Dubya and Reagan.”

And who is Michael Tomasky?

Tomasky is Newsweek/Daily Beast special correspondent and editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. 

The quarterly describes its mission “is to build a vibrant and vital progressivism for the twenty-first century that builds on the movement’s proud history, is true to its central values, and is relevant to present times.”

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal’s story on Romney pointed out his tougher approach to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and keeping that nation from obtaining nuclear weapons should be America’s “highest national security priority.”

 

Bloomberg jazzes up Businessweek with quirky layouts

There have been some interesting changes since Bloomberg bought BusinessWeek (then with an upper-case W) in October, 2009 from McGraw–Hill Cos. and rechristened the magazine Bloomberg Businessweek, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Most noteworthy was getting the fatherly 80-year-old business weekly to appeal to a much younger readership via content and layouts. 

In the July 16-22 issue, for example, Bloomberg Businessweek splashed an inordinate 47 snapshots of Andrew Mason into a six-page spread on the Groupon CEO. 

Actually, with another image on the contents page, make that 48 shots of the “merry prankster,” as the magazine labeled its subject.  One page alone featured 14 Mason photos of assorted sizes. 

Also interesting in the current issue was the sole art plunked in a two-page Olympics story:  a dog with an inverted bucket reading “The Olympics” placed over its head. 

Another space chewer were drawings of 200-plus tiny cars crawling up two pages to illustrate “China Applies the Brakes on Car Sales.” 

Other quirky things included much text with little to break up columns of gray matter, some photos without captions, abundance of cartoons (one featured colorful sketches of 18 pieces of attire linked to a Nordstrom makeover piece, while flipping the page showed two more) and a large, unusual graphic of President Barack Obama that put him in different shades of green via tiny dots, associated in earlier days when zinc engravings were used for illustrations in magazines and newspapers.

The issue also included one of the biggest bylines seen --- the bold-face half-inch writer’s name matched the size of the opposite-page headline, “How the Mormon Church Makes Its Millions.” 

For those who like to keep up with personal care, a report on “the condom war” with a British maker seeking to boost U.S. market share, used art of…well, you know.

The magazine came with a wrapper that showcased quotes on “what the press is saying about the new Bloomberg Businessweek.” 

Among them, a quote attributed to mediabistro.com:  “We like the new, more streamlined look and, of course, the smart coverage the magazine has always been known for.  Only in a more subtle, slightly more elegant way.”