Brian Lambert It’s a bit like motherhood. You can’t be against “localization”—the revolution in reporting that every second- and third-tier newspaper in the country is embracing as vital to its salvation. Like motherhood, “localization” is something you can dress up in pretty sentiment, fake, and do badly, or you can do it well by applying tenderness and … Read more
I’ve never been able to pull off the infallibility thing. I’m genetically inclined to screwing up. In his comment on my non-news news post on the absence of WCCO radio reporter, Eric Eskola, Britt Robson cuts me a new one: “I’m late to the party here, but the big problem with this post is in … Read more
An essential part of my posts on “StribTV” is that the disintegration of the basic business model for newspapers is a harbinger of a similar breakdown of TV news. Once any source of news is available on the same screen via the same clicker as KARE and WCCO whatever “exclusiveness” those business can claim starts … Read more
In what may have been a first for a Minnesota public official soliciting media attendance at a press conference in a public building, US Attorney Rachel Paulose’s staff announced prior to the start of her Monday press conference that Ms. Paulose would NOT be taking questions off the topic of her indictment of 25 people … Read more
By now the question, “What’s going on with Eric Eskola?” has been pretty well answered among media insiders. The question remaining is, “How do we explain it to the general public, if we do at all?” The position taken by WCCO-AM is to say simply that Eskola, the station’s heretofore indefatigable government and politics reporter, … Read more
It says something about the quality and value of TV news, local TV news in particular, when a guy suggests a big city newspaper like the Star Tribune demonstrate a hipness to the coming convergence of internet and television and smart people react like he’s suggesting polluting Perrier with dioxin. In the previous post I … Read more
As foul as the air is over the Star Tribune these days, (and it isn’t any better across the river), the soon-to-be-“right-sized” staff might feel the slightest bit better if they were being given any reason — ANY REASON — to believe the end result of all the slashing, cutting, out-sourcing, etc. was going to … Read more
The sight of Roger Parkinson, the sharp-edged former publisher of the Star Tribune, strolling through the newsroom yesterday inspired dozens of tongues to cluck the same two words, “interim publisher.” The innocent explanation for Parkinson’s appearance is that he was in town from Toronto as part of his duties with the local Humphrey Institute and … Read more
While I wait for McClatchy muckety-mucks to respond to my questions I’ll slide along these interesting numbers from the company’s “10Q” report — breaking out the first quarter performance of the Star Tribune this year compared to 2006. It ain’t pretty. God help you if you ever rely on me for advice on your investments, … Read more
I don’t envy Strib writer, Matt McKinney, who has the job of walking the razor’s edge describing the convulsions at the Strib to the satisfaction of both his employers and the general public. But in his May 8 story on the latest round of cuts, there were these graphs … . . . “The Star … Read more