Brian Lambert I feel like the guy sweeping up after the elephants. Only I’m also the elephant. My lovely bride and I are enjoying a little beach time with family in sweltering, blustery Florida this week: Captiva Island — where, before you start building, a quarter acre of limestone gravel with no view of either the Gulf … Read more
An earthquake rattled Twin Cities radio this past month. It cracked open the notoriously unstable Clear Channel fault line and took down a legendary monolith, Mick Anselmo, previously thought to be impervious to corporate shock waves. Until his firing, Anselmo ran the seven stations Clear Channel owns here in the Twin Cities—Cities 97, KFAN, K102, … Read more
Among the 14 Pioneer Press employees who took the latest buy-out and departed last Friday was Matt Peiken. Perhaps not a household name like Joe Soucheray or Bob Sansevere, Peiken, 44, is the sort of character who shouldn’t be completely out of step with modern newspapers, but is. I first met him in 2000, not … Read more
OK. Here’s a pop quiz. Which of the following headlines strikes you as the most routine, to the point of no longer even being newsworthy? “Mideast in Turmoil” “Bush Says Surge is Working” “Gonzales Can Not Recall His Own Name” “Rumors of Firings and Low Morale Wrack Ch. 5” I know. I know. The trivia … Read more
Those of us with any interest at all in the immediate future of radio are highly skeptical — to the point of fatally suspicious — of the proposed merger of the two satellite radio companies, XM and Sirius, AND the regular promises by terrestrial radio giants, like Clear Channel, that High Definition radio will … … Read more
Several times in recent weeks I have mentioned that as bad as this moment is for newspapers, local TV stations, by some key measurements, are even worse off. Ratings for Twin Cities late news shows are down 15 percent from May ’06 to May ’07, a greater decline than circulation at either of our benighted … Read more
Do I put all the full disclosures in the lede? I admit: I have in years past been approached to write “the definitive CJ piece.” CJ, Strib gossip columnist (although I gather she objects to that description), was for a time a competitor, in that we both feasted the flame-outs of Twin Cities media “celebrities” … Read more
Having fallen far out of the habit of watching primetime network TV, I can’t add much to any discussion of who got hosed when the Emmy nominations were announced today. I was pleased with the final season of The Sopranos, which by all the nods looks to clean-up big time at the Emmy Awards Show … Read more
A couple thoughts on yesterday’s announcements that, (A) The Star Tribune’s Guild employees voted 110-2 — a plurality that would have embarrassed Saddam Hussein — to demand the resignation of publisher Par Ridder, and, (B) the almost simultaneous “NEED” of the Pioneer Press to buy-out another 15 newsroom employees before July 27. On the Strib: … Read more
To the surprise of no one, membership of the Star Tribune Newspaper Guild voted to demand the resignation of publisher Par Ridder, who, in addition to facing other accusations, has conceded booting proprietary information from his St. Paul Pioneer Press laptop into the Star Tribune system. The Star Tribune Guild released the following statement early … Read more