I am certain there will be more than a couple “clarifications” regarding this morning’s announcement on voluntary buyouts.. Among the first: Star Tribune Guild reps say sports writer Steve Aschburner will stay on past Friday until the end of the current Timberwolves season. (As one crank has already posted on this blog’s “comments” section, “Hasn’t … Read more
A total of 24 Stribbers took the voluntary buy-out allowed under the present Guild contract. The names were released this morning. They are: Judy Arginteanu Bill Arthur Steve Aschburner Mike Carroll Bob Franklin Grethchen Gramenz Doug Halliday Jeremy Iggers Jocelina Joiner Tom Jones Jim Lundberg Bob Lutsey Ron Meador Richard Parker Darlene Prois John Reinan … Read more
I spent a good chunk of the day tending various hooks in the water, hoping to catch word of the names of reporters on the voluntary buy-out list at the Star Tribune. But it was dead quiet. Not even a nibble. Even though there was word of a 10 AM meeting of Strib brain wizards … Read more
I caught John Hines at an awkward moment. The local radio and TV vet was just about to step in to give a deposition. “Its a ‘D-I-V-O-R-C-E’ thing,” he said. I told him I was sorry to hear that. Those things are always some degree of gruesome. “Ah, what the hell,” Hines replied, “I’m getting … Read more
Today is Thursday. Star Tribune guild employees who want to take advantage of a voluntary buy-out, triggered by the paper’s handover to Avista Capital Partners this past Monday, have until next Monday, March 12, to notify the powers that be. Most, presumably will wait until the last moment to return their company paper clips and … Read more
Jack Shafer poses a good question over at Slate today. Unfortunately, while the headline, “Our Ann Coulter Problem. Why the Press Won’t Just Ignore Her”, suggests he supplies an answer, he doesn’t. Other than the talk radio crowd who eerily echo the notorious line, “Coulter has some good ideas”, (Like what? Blowing up the New … Read more
After picking their jaws up from the floor, staffs at both the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press began analyzing and contemplating what Par Ridder leaving the latter to publish the former really means. Ridder is the 38 year-old scion of the once renown newspaper family. A family whose dance with Wall St. devils proved fatal, … Read more
Having made a point — an “appointment” — to watch all but one episode of the highly-anticipated and now by all appearances canceled “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” I am not the least bit surprised it got whacked. And I am not engaging in schadenfreude. I was genuinely eager for another Aaron Sorkin series, … Read more
With only five days to go before the McClatchy newspaper corporation flips the keys to its’ once flagship property, the Star Tribune, to the Avista immediate-return-on-investment corporation, a terrible virus has infected the newspaper’s connections to the internet. Something wormed into the Strib system Wednesday cutting off access to the net, and by Thursday it … Read more
My apologies for the paucity of posts. I’ve been out of town since Saturday. But I’ve returned with a head full of savagely deep thoughts. Until one bites me there is this … I am not pretending that many will notice or care, but my alma mater, KTLK, (noted in previous posts for its’ gruesome … Read more