The tense line of truth in the race of truth. This is the line that is the starting point for the local cycling club runs their Tuesday evening time trials:
We walked over and watched them race a few weeks ago. I tried the route soon after. After a second attempt I realized my first try was going to be the early standard. I dropped more than a minute the second time. Did it again today, a little anxious at the beginning and then working hard on the first half. I turned and struggled on the back portion of the out-and-back. With heavy legs and empty lungs and squinted eyes I made it back across that line again, happy to be able to breathe again after six miles of complete effort.
The local club posts the officially recorded trial times on their website. My time is slower than everyone they’ve ever listed.
To make this sound a little more impressive for myself than I should: the heat index was something like 103 degrees when I did it this evening. Have you heard it has been hot?
I did 20 miles this evening, would have aimed for a few more, but the sun outran me.
We had our weekly breakfast at Barbecue House this morning. There was an offensive lineman and a cornerback from the university team there. The one looked like he was 320 pounds, but the other did not look like he was 6-foot-2, as he is listed in the official roster. Nice to know, though, that we’re eating with top-flight athletes. We’ve had breakfast there over the years with lots of football players, including more than a few national champions, swimmers, World Series champion baseball players and so on.
The secret is Mr. Price’s biscuits. I’m sure of it.
That was the only other thing that was worth enduring the heat wave, honestly. We’re sweating inside the house with the air on. We live in the South, perhaps you’ve heard of it:
I contend that purple on a weather map is never a good thing.
So there was reading and writing today. Here are some things you might find interesting, as I did:
The Chicago Tribune has a new web design. It is an interesting design philosophy, though they could do without the autoplay.
On Nov. 11, 1918, as my dad used to tell me, a reporter named George Flournoy, who went by Gummy, stood in the window of the local daily paper, The Mobile Register, shouting the news of the armistice that ended World War I.
In 1929, after The Register announced it would accelerate updates on the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Athletics to ensure that “followers of the national game in this city shall not be many seconds behind each bit of action recorded,” Gummy relayed each play “by megaphone as rapidly as it is received over direct wires of The Associated Press.”
Gummy, I am sure, would have been impressed by the ease, access and greater reach he’d have today. And he’d be able to go home with his voice intact after the story.
These are the concerns of a man who admits farther down in the column that he likes to compose in pen. He’s pretty cynical about the changes coming to journalism in Alabama but that is also part of the reason he’s one of those scribes who have, unfortunately, been downsized. We agree, wholeheartedly, on this:
Of this I’m sure, though: Whether it’s through a commitment to public Wi-Fi service in every town, or giving tax deductions for family computers and online services, or offering free classes on how to operate what for many are still newfangled gadgets, attention must be paid.
Thirty months ago 62 percent of Alabamians had Internet access. That number is low, but growing. If this is the right Census report, “respondents were not asked any questions about computer access or ownership” since 2007. So the number could be higher. And I don’t see whether libraries were included in connectivity. Either way, the point being, a significant portion of the state’s population, 2.9 million of us, according to the 2010 data, are online. The number is growing.
The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and the Press-Register, the three Alabama papers being radically reshaped this fall, have a combined daily circulation of 320,521 papers. (The top dozen papers in the state, combined, have just under 500,000 in daily circulation.)
At the beginning of the year comScore reported that al.com — those papers’ collective website (Disclosure: where I worked for four-plus years) — averaged more 3.4 million unique monthly visitors. In 2008, they were collecting more than 55 million page views a month. (Not sure why that number is so dated on their media kit.)
The future is right there. There’s a lot of work to be done, but you have to point in the right direction first. The dead tree newspaper edition will play a big role in their future, but that’s no longer their first step, nor should it be.
Through incidents like the plane landing in the Hudson, the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, the “Arab Spring” revolutions in Egypt and others, it has gradually become obvious that the iPhone hasn’t just changed the way a lot of people consume the news — it has also fundamentally altered the way that the news and journalism itself is created, now that everyone has the tools to create and publish text, photos and video wherever they are.
I’ve been talking about that in my journalism classes that for … four years now?
Journalism schools across the country are embroiled in important but lengthy discussions about reforming curricula, updating courses and funding technology. Meanwhile, new forms of journalism roll on, and our students can get left behind.
While I stay involved in the larger structural debates, I look for small and immediate ways to incorporate digital reporting tools and publishing into my classes. Breaking news events like the Colorado wildfires provide an ideal moment to stick with notebook reporting and text stories and also round out coverage with multimedia.
So, naturally, we need analytics for mobile. Oh wait, that’s here now.
Still, social media’s permanence is up for debate among media professionals — IJNet‘s readers included–despite the growing population of news consumers who rely on Twitter’s aggregating capabilities for information.
[…]
It needs to be used with caution, (Rem Rieder, editor and senior vice president of American Journalism Review) said, given that it comes with new challenges in accuracy and verification. But when it’s used properly, it’s “truly potent.” And the same can be said for Facebook, which is used less for breaking news but is still a valuable tool for journalists. “Growth rates may well slow down, but both seem to be embedding themselves deeply into the culture.”
Greg Linch, special projects and news application producer at the Washington Post, said social networking sites will continue to serve as dominant news sources as long as they remain part of the public’s daily routine. “As they become more ingrained in how we lead our lives, the distinction between social and other media will growingly fade,” he said.
There’s a lot to think about in there for a weekend, no?
Spent a couple of hours on my bike today. (Sounds so nice I want to do it again.) I waited until the afternoon sun was dying out and the heat and the ultraviolet weren’t so oppressive and then I set out for a three stage ride. I cruised over to Opelika, intent on picking up a few more pictures for the Historic Marker Series.
As you may know — or if you don’t know or if you’ve just come back from that link and would like your assumptions confirmed — I’m hitting all of the markers in the county on my bike. I found the locations on the historical society’s website. I made a map, which heads up that page. But I’ve learned that between the descriptions and my best guesses there’s sometime a bit of discrepancy. So I’m fixing the map as I go, but I’m also spending a lot of time just cruising around looking for the signs.
So the second stage of today’s ride was riding around the downtown area of Opelika. This was little more than soft pedaling between red lights and looking confused. There were eight markers downtown. I found that I’d placed four or five accurately on my map.
I found them all. And the biggest inaccuracy was no more than a mile or two off. (That one was purely a guess anyway, so it wasn’t a mistake so much as having no real idea to begin with.) But I found them all. I dat on a bench in the shade in Opelika and had a little snack. I took all of my pictures and then pointed toward home, catching that last one on the way. Turns out I go by it every so often, but I’d never noticed it.
I also found two more signs. The ones I’m photographing are by either the state or the Chattahoochee Commission. The extras were put up by a tourism board and a church. But I was there. I had the chance to read them. Why not?
So I’ll add those to that section of the site eventually too, as always, one a week, on Thursdays.
The third stage of my ride was the return trip home. The sun was falling and the route I’d planned involved a lot of tree cover — meaning darker even a bit earlier — and I had no blinkies on my bike. In cycling the expression is to “put the hammer down.” That doesn’t apply to me, but I put it down anyway.
I average 24 miles per hour over the last eight miles, making it home just before the sky grayed.
And then we worked on paper ideas. Now we just have to write the paper. Meantime, we’re enjoying homemade muffins with fresh picked, locally grown blueberries. I think even the cinnamon was fair trade. It sounds far more ostentatious than it really is. But it is also more delicious than it sounds.
Leftfielder Nick Clark hustled in, trying to catch a sinking line drive.
“I ran up and at the very end I said, ‘OK, we’ll sacrifice my body,'” Clark said.
Clark went into a diving slide. He caught the ball.
He lost his leg.
The rest of us? We’ve lost the privilege of complaining about aches and pains for the rest of the day.
And, with the death this morning of Rodney King, the Associated Press published their Where Are They Now feature on some of the key players of his beating and the later riots. Some of these aren’t surprising at all.
Years ago I dropped my subscription to Newsweek because of a stupid cover story. And now you can see the latest cover that wasn’t. It was to be an image of President Obama in a hoodie. Here’s why they didn’t publish it:
In the old days, a cover is a cover, and that was it. Today, she says, there’s an “aftermath of imagery” one must take into consideration. Will this cover be used by white supremacists? Will it take a bad turn in its meme lifecycle?
This was to be one of their new artistic covers, because a news photograph is no longer desirable. But Diana of Wales, were she alive today, now that, they think, will move magazines! They get people to talk about the magazine occasionally, but they do nothing for news, or to buttress the once proud reputation of the old magazine. Issue sales are stagnant or barely moving. Advertising is sadly way down. Putting the president in a hoodie isn’t going to help those things.
We’re watching the Clemson-Auburn 2010 game tonight. (I hope Auburn wins!) I’m not sure how they pulled this game off. Clearly the purple and orange set clearly played better in the first half of the game and, if memory serves, for the better part of the third quarter as well. But they never quit, and there was a big hit (there were a lot of those in this game) that limited Clemson’s quarterback. And then that heartbreaking, for them, overtime experience.
Clemson came to play that Saturday night, and they gave the eventual national champions one of the three biggest scares of the year. I talked to some of their fans after the game. That was exactly how they expected the game to play out: a strong start before they found a way to give the game to Auburn.
I took pictures of that game. Had a few good ones, too. You can see some of them here. Watching it tonight, the 2011 beatdown that Clemson gave Auburn is a lot less surprising.
The two teams start the season against one another this fall in Atlanta.
I love this road. Good quality asphalt, a bike lane basically the entire way from beginning to end. It is quiet because the business of this road is down near the other end. Up here, for the time being at least, it is still undeveloped. It is the victory lap of some of my routes. A fair amount of it is downhill.
I did an easy 20-miler this evening. I’m looking forward to longer rides, which will start back next week.
And if you need a bit of inspiration for, well, just about anything, here’s a video destined to go big. Only 250,000 views so far, but that will change. Tune out the music, and wade through the first two-and-a-half minutes. The reward comes soon after that:
Things to read: Local boy is a good speller. Samford and UAB baseball both make the NCAA regionals. Auburn and Alabama did not.
New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity.
The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.
That’s a sticky slope, friends.
Two years after the oil spill, the fishing is bad down on the Gulf:
The long-term prognosis for the Gulf’s health remains uncertain.
Recent studies have found higher numbers of sick fish close to where BP’s well blew out and genome studies of bait fish in Barataria have identified abnormalities. Meanwhile, vast areas of the cold and dark Gulf seafloor are oiled, scientists say.
And many fishermen are convinced something’s amiss.
[…]
“We was there to work, but couldn’t,” said Lawrence Salvato, 49, as he stopped for lunch on a dock where he moors a shrimp skiff he runs his wife, Lisa. “Usually people are excited and they can’t wait to get out there. This year, there’s no real incentive.”
He said he made about $10,000 in seafood sales last year compared to $75,000 in 2009. He said his family made do with a $40,000 interim payment they got from BP. Fishermen who haven’t settled legally yet with BP over damages continue to survive on periodic payments from a $20 billion trust fund set up by BP.
“We’re afraid,” Salvato said. “A lot of people are getting out of fishing. They’re afraid.”
“We are no longer a newspaper company,” Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC Editor-in-chief Jim Kirk said in a memo to staff. “We are a technology company that happens to publish a newspaper. We deliver content. And we will deliver content on many platforms and in ways that we haven’t yet fully considered.”
Last night David Carr ran a piece on his Media Decoder blog pointing to big changes coming to the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.
The T-P management found themselves behind the curve. Many of their employees heard the news elsewhere. It was a morning of scramble in New Orleans. In Alabama the next domino tipped. Sister papers in Huntsville, Birmingham and Mobile all announced their similar changes. Starting this fall their dailies will be gone. There will be a greater emphasis on the online news content. They’ll publish a dead tree version three times a week. A new company, Alabama Media Group, is being formed:
The change is designed to reshape how Alabama’s leading media companies deliver award-winning local news, sports and entertainment coverage in an increasingly digital age. The Alabama Media Group will dramatically expand its news-gathering efforts around the clock, seven days a week, while offering enhanced printed newspapers on a schedule of three days a week. The newspapers will be home-delivered and sold in stores on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays only.
A second company, Advance Central Services Alabama, will handle production, distribution, technology, finance and human resources, and will be led by current Birmingham News President and Publisher Pam Siddall. Both companies are owned by Advance Publications, Inc.
Driving these changes are rapid advances in how readers engage with news content across all platforms, print and digital.
Carr likely tipped their hand, forcing this announcement before Newhouse and Advance had hoped. But there is also a sense of inevitability here. The writing has been on that particular wall. These are market trends, economic realities and publishers moving with their audiences.
Now, before anything else: Clearly there are tough, uncertain days ahead for many employees, and that’s more than a little regrettable.
There will also be a lot of opportunities in store, as well.
The reaction I’ve read (see below) from the community has generally been one critical of the paper reduction. Interestingly, few have discussed the news outlets’ online growth. Perhaps people feel too deeply about the newspapers, despite their shrinking circulation. Perhaps they don’t have faith in the ability of the company — with many of the same staffers, mind you — to do the job online. One person’s interpretation of the reaction is as good as the next. Alabama Media Group needs to get out in front of that, and I’m sure they will. But, between today’s news and the new site rollout, they’ve had a busy week.
Some readers will initially be marginalized. That will be unfortunate. (Someone might have suggested that that number is declining for a variety of reasons, that subscriptions for the papers here and elsewhere have been in decline for years. Also, the numbers for the website have soared. They probably then suggested they are taking the long view. Wouldn’t that be refreshing for a news outlet?)
How many people who take the paper will feel they’re getting less of a service when this goes into effect? Think quality over quantity. I’m hoping it is a really great three-day paper which buttresses an incredible online effort. If that happens it will be driven by the strength of great reporting on the site.
The question we must really and seriously consider is “How will these developments serve the community?”
If it puts more people in coverage areas and reaches under-served communities, great. If it means more watchdog journalism, marvelous. There will need to be more than mullet tossing pictures from the beach and A-Day coverage from the quad — but I’m a traditionalist. If the coverage is there, and the coverage is good, good things will come.
This is a sea change rather than a sinking outlet desperately signaling they’re drowning. Hopefully the staff (there are plenty of hardworking, talented people at each paper and at al.com) that stay on and the readers/viewers they work for will give it a good chance.
The idea is that The Huntsville Times, Birmingham News and the Press-Register will continue on, expanding their coverage with more reporters on the ground. Those outlets, which have long been sister publications, will become much more collaborative. There will be growing pains. There will also be streamlining. The key, as always, will be in the quality of the content. If the quality goes up, the communities win.
The Montgomery Advertiser will this fall become the state’s largest daily. Gannett recently announced they’ll soon be putting that publication behind an online paywall.
Here is a collection of the reactions found on Twitter in the hours immediately after the announcement. These are representative rather than exhaustive. I gathered these through Twitterfall, using key word searches relative to the cities, publication names and parent company ownership. They are arranged here chronologically.
Alabama Media Group announced
This is a collection of initial Twitter reactions to the news of the upcoming reshaping of the local media landscape. Inserted chronologically and curated for redundancy, this list is representative, not exhaustive. These were all found via Twitterfall, using relative title keywords.
Storified by kennysmith · Thu, May 24 2012 17:17:20
http://pic.twitter.com/d1I7C4Enkennysmith
“A new digitally focused media company — the Alabama Media Group, which will include The Birmingham News, the Press-Register of Mobile, The Huntsville Times and al.com — will launch this fall to serve readers and advertisers across the state, according to Cindy Martin, who will become president of the new organization.
“The change is designed to reshape how Alabama’s leading media companies deliver award-winning local news, sports and entertainment coverage in an increasingly digital age. The Alabama Media Group will dramatically expand its news-gathering efforts around the clock, seven days a week, while offering enhanced printed newspapers on a schedule of three days a week. The newspapers will be home-delivered and sold in stores on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays only.”
General discourse and the political landscape will be damaged in #alpolitics if @aldotcom, @HsvTimes and others stop publishing daily.Dale Jackson
"Digitally focused company launches this fall … Times-Picayune will move to three printed papers/week" http://is.gd/ccG86lkennysmith
Romenesko reports Newhouse will be going the same direction with their Alabama properties, as well. http://is.gd/u06aCg #fbkennysmith
@romenesko could’ve avoided that by not overpaying for that terrible redesign of the websiteJoseph Blake
It’s official…this fall the Birmingham News will switch to only publishing print editions 3 days a week: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.Marty Swant
Alabama Media Group will launch this fall with expanded online coverage and 3-day-a-week newspapers | http://bit.ly/JGk13sPress-Register
Mark it down, this new http://al.com/Advance Digital News crap will be out of business in 2 yearsJoseph Blake
Cindy Martin, prez of new Alabama Media Group, said change in org structures will lead to a reduction in size of workforce.Wade Kwon
Siddall: If the Bham News and http://al.com want to be digitally focused, moving to 3 days a week in print is the right thing to do.Marty Swant
Very sad day for Alabama journalism: The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and the Press Register (Mobile) will print three days/week.Alan Blinder
RT @MAJ_Chicken: @PamSiddall : At the end of the day, each employee has to decide if they believe in the new direction.”Marty Swant
As alum, speechless at what Newhouse is doing with @Birmingham_News, T-P, other pubs. Not confident, but hope they know path to success.Brett Blackledge
Announced today the formation of Alabama Media Group. Read the story here: http://blog.al.com/al/2012/05/alabama_media_group_a_new_digi.html#incart_river_defaultkwendt
Alabama Media Group to launch this fall with expanded online coverage and enhanced 3-day-a-week newspapers: http://htim.es/JfCi80The Huntsville Times
How Alabama Media Group Affect Deal Hunters, Couponers & Black Friday: Coupons will still be in your Sunday paper… http://bit.ly/Ld99yjChristie Dedman
@gulflive Since PressRegister is going to Wed, Fri and Sun print only, does this mean Mississippi Press is too?Frank Corder
@PamSiddall : Alabama Media Group will be over content and advertising and newsrooms will operate out of hubs in the stateMichael Tomberlin
Sad day for Alabama journalism with the B’ham News, H’ville Times, & Press Register all cutting to 3 prints/week. I’ll always prefer print.Nicole Bohannon
Birmingham News editor Tom Scarritt will retire when new companies are created in the fall (via @MAJ_Chicken)George Talbot
Alabama Media Group, a new digitally focused company http://blog.al.com/al/2012/05/alabama_media_group_a_new_digi.htmlAdvance Automotive
From The Times-Picayune to The Birmingham News, a tough day for Southern newspapers. AP story on cutbacks http://apne.ws/MKuXTCRuss Bynum
The paper at my college ( @TheCrimsonWhite ) will now be published more often than the paper in my city ( @Birmingham_News ). Whoops.Andy McWhorter
Just had our newsroom only meeting. Lots of Qs about the new role of each reporter, structure of the various hubs around the state.Marty Swant
Saddened 2 see the @Birmingham_News going 2 print editions only 3 days/week. I still love the feel of the paper n my hands daily. #oldschoolJohn Lyda
@goldmandc @Birmingham_News It is definitely a state that needs some watchdog journalism.Greg Jaffe
Just in case you missed it earlier Alabama Media Group will launch this fall w/ expanded online coverage 3 DAW print http://blog.al.com/al/2012/05/alabama_media_group_a_new_digi.html#incart_river_newsBirmingham_News
Media is a window in the wall of government. Birmingham News just put up curtains.Paul Nichols
RT @rapsheet: Oh no. My old paper, the Birmingham News following in Times-Picayune’s footsteps. 3 days a week: http://blog.al.com/al/2012/05/alabama_media_group_a_new_digi.htmlVito Stellino
Grim day in the newsroom. Many unanswered questions. What next? Put out the Friday edition.George Talbot
Paging Warren Buffett. @russbynum: From The Times-Picayune to The Birmingham News, a tough day for Southern newspapers. http://apne.ws/MKuXTCWendy Parker
Great. Now my hometown paper, the @Birmingham_News is going to three days a week: http://blog.al.com/al/2012/05/alabama_media_group_a_new_digi.html#incart_river_default #crapBrandon
At a loss for words. First the Times-Picayune, now the papers in Birmingham, Huntsville and Mobile: http://jimromenesko.com/2012/05/24/newhouse-papers-in-alabama-to-cut-print-publishing-schedule/ #print #journalismCameron Steele
DEVELOPING: Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville papers switching to a three-day-a-week printing schedule http://weldbham.com/secondfront/2012/05/24/birmingham-news-switching-to-a-three-day-a-week-printing-schedule/ via @WeldBhamThe Second Front
There’s writing on that wall. RT @deadlinenow: #NOLA Times-Picayune, Birmingham News will print only 3 times a week. http://bit.ly/LiPvgVhwickline
If you’re a fan of newspapers, the news out of New Orleans, Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville today is very sad.Keith Campbell
Wow! Sad day that the Birmingham News is cutting back to three days a week. Hope the Anniston Star and Gadsden Times isn’t next.Nathan Young
Significant day in the newspaper business. NOLA Times-Picayune getting all the headlines, but Birmingham News ceasing daily publication too.Jamie Cole
Add these to the list of cities without daily papers: Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville http://journ.us/KdLpKvPoynter
New motto for The Birmingham News: "Because nothing ever happens around here on a Sunday or Monday anyway."Bill Edwards
Disaster RT @steelecs At a loss for words. First the Times-Picayune, now papers in Birmingham, Huntsville and Mobile: http://jimromenesko.com/2012/05/24/newhouse-papers-in-alabama-to-cut-print-publishing-schedule/Pat Forde
I don’t know what to feel about the Times Picayune, Birmingham News, etc., daily reductions. Anger, sadness, pity all come to mind.Kenny Colston
Deeply saddened for my friends at the Press-Register. Great reporters facing an uncertain future.Brian Lyman
Wow. The Huntsville Times. The first paper I can remember readingBrandon Larrabee
These are the things that matter today. Scary. RT @danfaas: My friend, city reporter at Mobile Press-Register bought a house last week.Kyle Feldscher
With the Birmingham News cutting back to 3 days-per-week, they’re now only half as bad as they were before!Rob Pearson
@YahooForde Even as child of the digital age there is an unexpected sense of loss to see my childhood paper The Huntsville Times gt 3/weekjryerb
I sincerely hope my friends at @Birmingham_News keep their jobs, and wish them the best. Sad for #Bham that we won’t have a daily anymore.MadisonU
Wow…times are definitely changing! Alabama Media Group will launch w/ expanded online coverage & 3-day newspapers http://blog.al.com/al/2012/05/alabama_media_group_a_new_digi.htmlSamantha Corona
End of newspapers? Birmingham News to go to three-day paper this fall…Todd Thompson
Sad to hear about the News, Press-Register, and Times. But, in all honesty, it’s a new (digital) world. Everyone knew it was comingCamaran Williams
Lots of ugly news coming out of the newspaper world today. New Orleans, Birmingham, USA Today … Having a hard time unpacking it all.Kristin Whittlesey
Wow! Birmingham News going to three days a week. Ridiculous for a city this size. Can somebody restart the Birmingham Post-Herald?Jack Jacobs
Another body blow for newspaper #journalism, @Birmingham_News to print only 3 days a week, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday #mediaMark Sullivan
Bunch of Alabama newspapers are going from 7 days/wk to 3 days. Mgmt declares papers are enhanced. Half coverage = enhanced. #JournalismMathJerry Beach
Of course, there will be a reduction in the workforce as the papers transition to a 24/7 news cycle, Of course. Work all the time with less.Jerry Beach
@TheDaleJackson Funeral services for the Huntsville Times will be held every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and SaturdayRobert Barnett
Safest gig in journalism is a corporate wonk. Foxes continually get promoted to guarding bigger and bigger hen houses.Jerry Beach
Newhouse is actively restricting the flow of information to Southerners. I was raised on the Mobile Press-Register and firmly believe that.Alyson Sheppard
Most industries do what they can to maintain their core constituency. Newspapers run it off, then moan about the digital age.Jerry Beach
Interested to see the news today about newspapers decreasing print copies. Mulling over the connections between #journalism and #libraries.Tiff Norris
Newspapers used to call bullshit on double talk like the enhanced three-days-a-week newspaper. Now they are forced to perpetuate it.Jerry Beach
Birmingham News missed a golden opportunity to make a splash and go 100% online. Instead, they die a slow death over the next 5 years.Sam
Do you have questions about the changes in store for the Press-Register? Check out our FAQ | http://bit.ly/JuIx9pPress-Register
Do you have questions about the changes in store for The Huntsville Times? Check out our FAQ: http://htim.es/JfOiGJThe Huntsville Times
I suspect it is a very, very interesting day to be editor of the Huntsville Times, eh, @kwendt?Tim Ball
Journalism being gutted in Ala. & La. #SaveBamaNews http://bit.ly/KdI9yE @WSJ @nytimes @AnnistonStar @aldotcom @tuscaloosanews @lyman_brianGina Smith
Maybe the @Birmingham_News will learn that constantly berating their readers as ignorant, racist, bigots isn’t a good business model.Jacob Allison
@cbahn Wow. Losing my daily Huntsville Times. Doesn’t surprise me living in a high tech area, but I hate it for the older people.Christy Looney
But @jacoballison, the @Birmingham_News is so much smarter than us. Even though I still work 5 days a week.Andy Wood
Sad to hear about the Bham News http://m.myfoxal.com/autojuice?targetUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.myfoxal.com%2fstory%2f18616815%2fthe-birmingham-news-cutting-back-on-print-editionsDan Harralson
The Huntsville Times, the paper where I grew immensely as a design intern, is going 3 a wk and printing in Birmingham. http://blog.al.com/al/2012/05/alabama_media_group_a_new_digi.html#incart_river_defaultAndy Rossback
This whole Birmingham News restructuring makes the fact that they tore down a historic building for a parking lot even worseJoseph Blake
BURN IN HELL, @HuntsvilleTimes You don’t cate about your customers or your family & especially your employees! #WebsitesAreNotBetter #angry@thatsexybaldman
Birmingham News latest paper to go to publishing 3 days a week. Everything headed to the net. Can’t imagine where we will be in 10 yearsBill Rosinski
Newhouse decision leaves entire state of #Alabama without a major daily paper. #SaveBamaNews #SaveTheTPGina Smith
Steven Newhouse, chairman of Advance’s digital arm, said the changes at T-P, Bham News, etc. part of 4-year plan: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304840904577424352986964904.htmlMarty Swant
News about the Newhouse Alabama papers is a sad sign of the times. TV News in the state will have to pick up the slack.Samuel King
See also: Wade Kwon’s (@WadeonTweets) Storified collection of employee reactions:
Birmingham News staff reactions to coming job cuts, print reductionNewspaper employees tweet their updates and thoughts on Advance’s big changes
Disclosure: I worked for Advance at al.com for four-plus years, long before all of these developments came to pass. Good people; good company.
How has our economy evolved in the past five years? Which industries are shrinking or growing through these challenging economic times? These are some of the questions that the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) delves into each February in the “Economic Report of the President” (ERP). This year, the CEA worked with us to glean further insights into industry trends both during the recent recession and after its end in June 2009.
[…]
The fastest-growing industries include renewables (+49.2%), internet (+24.6%), online publishing (+24.3%), and e-learning (+15.9%). Fastest-shrinking industries were newspapers (-28.4%), retail (-15.5%), building materials (-14.2%), and automotive (-12.8%).
Since this great economic sorting out isn’t yet settled, I’m sure some of the industries in that terrific chart are still moving around.
C.S. Lewis, replying a letter to a young fan, on the what really matters in the craft of writing:
1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
[…]
4. In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”
You should read the full letter, which is full of masterful advice.
Steve Yelvington says “adaptive HTML5 layouts on the “everything just works” principle will eclipse smartphone, tablet apps.”
My boss once observed that I was something of a First Amendment guy. As a journalist himself, he understands, though all of us should. Those stories are more than a little abhorrent. But if anyone needs to have that explained: the Founders thought it kind of important. They put it first.
Sports: Auburn hired a new women’s basketball coach, Terri Williams-Flournoy, late of Georgetown. On her first day in the new job she said “We want to cause havoc as much as we can.
Like the sound of that. Before she took the job she called Nell Fortner, who just resigned from the position. Fortner is the best. Flournoy, or others, might be better coaches, but the athletic department will never find anyone that loves the place as much as she does. This is what she said when the new coach called: “She knew that it would be a great place for me to bring my family and she just kept going on and on and on about the community.”
The new NFL uniforms, in poor photographs. I’m not sure if it is the imagery or the new gear that is underwhelming. And “fast is faster”? Ugh.
