Editor & Publisher was good to me

Editor & Publisher magazine bills itself as “the bible of the newspaper industry” in an on-line article today announcing its own demise. For 125 years the magazine has been a tool of the trade and I’ve been a reader for about 40 of those years.

Even now I check the on-line edition almost daily for news of the industry. Back in the day, I was a subscriber and I checked the classifieds each week for job leads because it was the best - virtually the only - national newspaper jobs list.

E&P has been good to me. In the late 60’s and early 70’s it ran my articles on Advocate innovations, including one on the design and construction of the Advocate’s unique and expansive photo labs and studio in the old building on West Main Street. It also featured articles I wrote on the Advocate’s universal desk system. This was before newsroom computerization when “universal desk” was some kind of a murky goal held by lots of editors who seemed unable to make it work.

The Advocate’s system for handling the flow of editorial content received broad recognition, thanks to E&P. Later, I wrote and self-published (by using a Memeograph machine) a booklet on this subject and E&P added to the list of books it sold. Sales were surprisingly good.

The magazine also featured some of my studies in certain kinds of newspaper photos and at various times showcased the Advocate’s pictures as illustrations of what was happening in photojournalism.

Ironic, though, that in the end E&P was snared by the same kind of economic trap that is killing off newspapers. It’s all about profits; not service, not pride.

But then E&P editors themselves on many occasions flunked as technicians and as thinkers, in my opinion. Among the most glaring example of this was the series of columns by Steve Outing, who calls himself a media “thought leader.” Steve never uses two words where three paragraphs will fit, a true annoyance in a trade mag that should know how to use language. Among Outing’s leadership essays was the announcement that he had cancelled his printed newspaper and was sucking up free on-line news. He used this to illustrate his theory (with which I disagree) that printed newspapers are unnecessary and will all die off.

Maybe such “leadership” on the pages of E&P has influenced the overall health of newspapers, many of them struggling for life. I suspect it is the overall health of newspapers that came back to bite “the bible of the newspaper industry.” I hope E&P editors will see the irony if, as seems probable, whatever replaces E&P turns out to be an on-line version.

Is this the death spiral of newspapers?

Gannett’s second round of furloughs is the lead story in today’s on-line Editor & Publisher (also reported in today’s Advocate). E&P’s home page listed serious financial woes of Advance Newspapers, Newhouse Papers, Charlotte Observer, San Antonio Express, Lexington Herald-Leader, Star Ledger, Tucson Citizen, Memphis Commercial Appeal, and the Champaign News-Gazette. All that reported today.

When the apparent death spiral bottoms out, what will be left? Among those who say nothing will be left of newspapers except their on-line mortuaries is one of the E&P columnists who stopped his newspaper subscription months ago.

I disagree. Printed news will survive, perhaps in a way I suggested 12/30/08 (Newspapers, dump the herd mentality and save thyselves).

It may be too late now, but had newspapers changed their “business model” a few years ago to accommodate the obvious differences between on-line offerings and that which is sold on newsprint, I believe they’d be much better off.

I feel sorry for Gannett’s local employees, particularly news staffers who seem to be working at local news reportage in what must be a very difficult, anti-productive environment. Nobody told me that, but I’ve weathered similar newsroom situations and I think they are recognizable from afar.

But I don’t feel sorry for Gannett, the giant that sucked the blood out of truly successful newspapers like the Advocate so that it might use the money to buy up what remained of its competitors - and expand the empire at what appears to have been reckless speed.

I wrote 2/19/07 (A level field is bad for newspapers) “... the local Gannett-owned newspaper has been doing the exact opposite of what is normally preached to advertisers: if business is down, spend more to get it back. Instead, Gannett in Newark has killed off its daily television schedule and TV column. It has all but dismantled entirely its weekly "Booster," a once-beloved paper whose history goes way back before Gannett bought its way into Central Ohio. The Advocate is skinnied down, some days, to newsletter size.

“Gannett is getting beat. Gannett is getting beat because it is a corporation headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. In spite of its 46% gross margin in 2005, it can't afford pretense at full news coverage.

“Gannett is getting beat because its real interests are in a far-off corporation and not this or any other particular community. It gets no allegiance because it gives none.”

One might hope for the day when all the media-holding companies will go under, opening the way for lots of little guys with ambition and guts to open little newspapers which have to compete for customers of news and advertising. But no. If it ever got to that point, big government will bail out big media with taxpayer dollars, just has it has for banks, automakers, insurers and others.

Death spiral or not, newspaper readers are - and will remain - patsies of the system.

Media attacked (again) for role in war reports

Anyone interested in the media role in spreading Bush's lies about our need to go to war should read the commentary in today's on-line edition of Editor & Publisher by Greg Mitchell. His take-off point is the news about the Scott McClellan book.

How big media hid as Bush invaded

That the media hid from their duty as "Fourth Estate" regarding Bush's wars is a continuing subject for Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher Magazine.

Today he writes about Bush's press conference five years ago (3/6/03) which was a few days before he invaded Iraq. In an essay entitled 5 years Ago: That Fateful Press Conference, Mr. Mitchell lists "questions we wish they'd asked."

Here's his observation about the tone and behavior of that conference: "Bush smiled and made his usual quips, and many of the reporters played the game and did not press him hard. This was how these press gatherings had gone throughout the run-up to war. But this meeting was heavily scripted with Bush looking at a slip of paper and calling on reporters in a pre-arranged order. No one challenged him on this."

He lists 11 "questions we wish they'd asked," questions that if asked and pursued on editorial pages would have throttled this arrogant president and turned him back, in my opinion.

Anyone interested how the media failed to expose Bush's war lies should read Mr. Mitchell's new book "So Wrong for So Long: How The Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq," available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Bill Moyers said the book is a "razor-sharp critique of how the media and the government connived in one of the great blunders of American foreign policy. Every aspiring journalist, every veteran, every pundit — and every citizen who cares about the difference between illusion and reality, propaganda and the truth, and looks to the press to help keep them separate — should read this book. Twice."

E&P reports on New York Times/McCain article

If anyone is interested in the follow-up by media on the New York Times article about McCain, mentioned here yesterday, Editor & Publisher published a short summary of it today.

Water-boarding is torture; stop with the denial

It's much easier not to think about America water-boarding its captives. When we can't help thinking about it, it's comfortable to to assume that whatever they're talking about with "water-boarding" or other methods of interrogation is not really torture because Bush would never do that; he is, after all, that same person who once convinced us that his morals and Christianity are genuine.

Editor & Publisher has published a column by Joseph L. Galloway about water-boarding that describes the process as he once witnessed it. He tells a bit of the history, including the fact that ...

"When George W. Bush was the governor of Texas, the state investigated, indicted, convicted and sentenced to prison for 10 years a county sheriff who, with his deputies, had waterboarded a criminal suspect. That sheriff got no pardon from Gov. Bush."

Galloway also says:

"Waterboarding is torture in the eyes of all civilized peoples, no matter how desperately President George W. Bush tries to rewrite the English language, with which he has only a passing familiarity, anyway. No matter how desperately his entire administration tries to redefine the word 'torture' to cover the fact that not only have they acquiesced in its use, but they also have ordered its use.

"The president, Vice President Dick Cheney, and their cronies ... are doing all they can to avoid one day facing the bar of justice, at home or in The Hague, and being called to account for crimes against humanity.

...

"As they squirm and wriggle and lie and quibble and cut deals with senators, they claim that 'harsh interrogation methods' are necessary to prevent another 9/11. But as terrified as they are by terrorists, they also fear that one day they may be treated no better than some fallen South American dictator or Cambodian despot or hapless Texas sheriff..."

I've archived Galloway's column on this web site because it's a very important, very strong indictment against President Bush and everyone in government who's not trying to do anything about him, and citizens like you and me who sit on the sidelines and never do anything about any of it and in fact won't even admit the reality of it.

Read Galloway's column, stop the denial, and do what you can to make changes.

The lawlessness of President Bush is like Nazi Germany

What nobody - particularly the mass media - is doing about a our criminal in the White House is the theme of a column 10/6/07 by Greg Mitchell in Editor & Publisher.

It occurs to me that America is replicating Nazi Germany in which it allows horrible things to proceed, unchecked by the majority, nor the political process, nor the nation's media, nor commentators.

The E&P column is pointed more toward media than citizenry, but it's worth your time. In it, the author quotes Glen Greenwald, former constitutional lawyer, writing at Salon.com:

“One does not expect an administration to imprison U.S. citizens with no process, or to proclaim explicitly the right to break the law, or to systematically adopt policies of torture. For that reason, it is not surprising that it would take some time for the reaction to catch up to the full extent of the wrongdoing.”

“But we are now way past the point where that excuse is plausible. Anyone paying even minimal attention is well aware of exactly how radical and corrupt and lawless this administration is. We all know what has happened to our standing in the world, to our national character and our core political values, as a result of the previously unthinkable policies the Bush administration has relentlessly pursued. Ignorance or incredulity can no longer explain our acquiescence. Accommodating and protecting the lawbreaking of high Bush officials is widely seen by our Beltway elite as a duty of bipartisanship, a hallmark of Seriousness.

“It isn't surprising or particularly revealing that there were not immediate consequences for these revelations. Our political system, by design, works slowly and methodically. The Founders purposely imposed significant hurdles to undertaking the most significant steps (such as criminal investigations of high Executive officials or impeachment) precisely to ensure that such actions were taken deliberatively, not impetuously. It took two-and-a-half years for the much simpler Watergate scandal to lead to what would have been the impeachment of Richard Nixon. The failure to impose immediate or even rapid consequences, while frustrating to many, would not really be a cause for legitimate complaint.

“But when it comes to Bush's extremism and lawbreaking, we're not imposing consequences slowly. We're not imposing consequences at all. Quite the contrary, we're moving in the opposite direction -- when we're not affirmatively endorsing and providing protection for that conduct, we're choosing not to know about it, or simply allowing it to fester. And the more that happens, the less that behavior becomes the exclusive province of the Bush administration and the more it becomes our country's defining behavior."

Gannett continues to think small

Gannett, the corporate owner of your Newark Advocate, has small plans for the future. After having cut the size of the web from 52 inches to 48 inches, (for a 24-inch wide page), it is now "conducting a national review for a possible second size cut to 44-inch web," says Editor & Publisher on its web site. Here's the link.

This is an 8 percent reduction and, according to the article, will make each page 11 inches by 22 inches.

The Newark paper is already sometimes referred to as a newsletter because of it's lack of heft and content. So, shocked and dismayed at the size of The Advocate's try for a product on 7/23/07, I took this photo, believing I had captured an image of a record-setting small paper. Having read the E&P report, it looks like more records for small are yet to come.

Because The Decider says so

Our commitment in blood and dollars to the people and politicians of Iraq is open-ended because The Decider says so. This is how I heard President Bush.

Not that exposing his BS is new or fun, but it continues to be informative to read how little this man stands by what he says - ever. Last night's spin on the war seems simply to ignore what he said when he introduced his surge factor last January. The staff at Editor & Publisher has wrote about that yesterday and published it on-line. Here's an excerpt:

The president said then, "I've made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq's other leaders that America's commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people -- and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people. Now is the time to act. The Prime Minister understands this....

"To establish its authority, the Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November. To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country's economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis. To show that it is committed to delivering a better life, the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion of its own money on reconstruction and infrastructure projects that will create new jobs. To empower local leaders, Iraqis plan to hold provincial elections later this year. And to allow more Iraqis to re-enter their nation's political life, the government will reform de-Baathification laws, and establish a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq's constitution."

None of this happened.

America bought the war because ...

If you're interested in media performance as the U.S. was being led to war by its government, you'll find interesting reading at the Editor & Publisher report today on an upcoming PBS broadcast.

The show, entitled "Buying the War," is described as "The most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq ..." Here's the link.

Newspaper editors, you've been sold out

Editor & Publisher recently reported on a meeting of newspaper editors who attempted to explain why the so-called "freedom of the press" has evaporated and so-called "reporter rights" have all but disappeared.

Among the comments were: "We have lost all three branches of government for the first time in history."

"There is not fraternity among us anymore."

“There are stories that are not being told because people are afraid of going to jail.”

“You’d be hard-pressed to find a time when the cloak [of government secrecy] was more tightly wound.”

Yeah. But worse than all that was the message of "Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center (who) quoted recent surveys that said 42% of the public believes the press has too much freedom, and that 83% believe media bias exists in some way. 'It is a disturbing fact,' he said. 'It seems that the public has moved from criticism and through skepticism to cynicism. So free to distrust the press.'"

I wonder why the American Society of Newspaper Editors sits around and wonders aloud where their "rights" have gone, as though they, like welfare recipients, have some grand entitlement.

That newspapers have stopped fighting for truth and open government is an easy observation for anyone who's watching. There was a time when reporters didn't have to back down, when publishers were as concerned about responsible reportage - and all the aggravation and money required by responsible reportage - as they were about high profits. That was when the publishers were the owners and lived in the cities and states where their reporters worked.

Today's newspaper owners are a bunch of investors. They are not newspaper people. They don't give a damn about news, about skilled reportage, about hiring lawyers to break down closed government doors. They give a damn about one thing and that is more money - as much profit as it is possible to squeeze, no matter what has to be sacrificed.

These investors are businessmen and they own government and that completes the circle: business/media/government. That is precisely why there is no freedom of the press, no reporter rights, no fraternity, and no attack on government secrecy or power, and as a practical matter, no First Amendment.

AP credibility takes a hit

When an Associated Press mini-editor played a recent power game with Paris Hilton it proved only that reportage isn't taken seriously.

Editor & Publisher on February 28, 2007 reported the incident this way:

"AP Entertainment Editor Institutes Ban on Paris Hilton Coverage

"The Associated Press decided to give up a major vice last week: its addiction to stories about Paris Hilton. In the past year, Hilton has appeared on the wire an average of twice a week.

"The wire service's entertainment editor Jesse Washington sent a memo to staffers on Feb. 13 that said, barring any major events, the AP would not run any mention of Paris Hilton on the wire, according to the memo, which was obtained by the New York Observer.

"In the Observer article Washington was quoted as saying, 'There was a surprising amount of hand-wringing. A lot of people in the newsroom were saying this was tampering with the news.' Washington added that one editor's response was: 'This is a great idea -- can we add North Korea?'

"The AP was largely successful in the experiment, but Washington said that, unfortunately, her name did pop up in a couple of stories."

If Mini-Editor Washington can get away with whimsical gate-keeping, while peers such as the Observer and E&P wink at each other about it, imagine what's going on at AP with the big stuff - like what's causing the gasoline rip-off, for instance.

If one little "entertainment editor" can simply send out a memo and put a certain category of news off-limits, then try to conjure memos at the AP offices when the really big wigs send out memos about their limits to news reports.

Now, imagine the ignore-this-type memos moving through offices of other, even less-respected mainstream media. Meanwhile they're wondering why readership/viewership/advertising is sinking

Editor & Publisher nails faulty reportage

Big-time media are at it again. This time it's Iran, not Iraq, being victimized by anonymous sources.
Tired of being led by government and its media lap dogs into one crazy war after another? Read this, then write a letter.