It must be the day for sobering sports stories.Try this one from the OC Register. bit.ly/xMOh2G
— timmcguire (@timmcguire) January 20, 2012
Arizona State University j-school prof and former Minneapolis Star Tribune editor Tim McGuire recommends these stories in tweets today:
* Update on a teen who suffered a heart attack on the basketball court
* A paralyzed teen hockey player says, “This is almost like a calling”
* A baseball player who was paralyzed during a game resumes his studies
Credit Gawker reporter John Cook for prodding Atlanta Jewish Times owner and publisher Andrew Adler to apologize for his column suggesting “a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence.” Cook writes:
A nervous Adler told me over the phone that he wasn’t advocating Obama’s assassination by Mossad agents. “Of course not,” he said.
But do you think Israel should consider it an option? “No.”
An apology followed.
* Atlanta Jewish Times apologizes for Obama assassination scenario
* Newspaper editor: Israel should consider assassinating Obama
“When [Washington] City Paper launched its site in 1996 and I was made content manager, I created a house ad to promote this momentous event. The ad consisted of a single quote against a white background. In industry terms, it was called a ‘tombstone ad.’ Oh, the irony.”
* Dave Nuttycombe: That time I predicted the future for newspapers
Conrad Fink's Olympia typewriter in his office at Grady College || Photo by Mark E. Johnson
Chris Joyner writes in an email: “Longtime UGA [University of Georgia] j-school prof and former AP exec Conrad Fink died at the end of last week. A bunch of his former students (one of whom I married) have started a Google map to chart his influence on the profession. Thought you might find it interesting.”
* Photo gallery celebrating Professor Conrad Fink
* Map showing the scope of Fink’s impact on journalism
* The thanks we owe to mentors like Conrad Fink (Nov. 2011)
Raju Narisetti has resigned as Washington Post managing editor and to become Wall Street Journal Digital Network managing editor. || Read the Dow Jones press release.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING IN THE POST NEWSROOM (EMAIL FROM AN INSIDER):
An actual quote from somebody who despises him: “Ding dong the witch is dead.”
[Narisetti] is not a beloved figure in the newsroom, at least among those he did not hire. There is a feeling among old-timers and younger staff members with backgrounds in print that he has sullied the brand with many of his ideas and initiatives.
You can short-hand all of his sins/crimes against our journalism and brand as ‘dancing bears.’
“Other highlights would include the implementation of Methode, our universally despised new CMS, which he brought in, and this.
I welcome the departing managing editor’s response, of course, and comments from other people at the Post. Email me, or post in comments.
(Note: WP’s Paul Farhi was quoted on my site yesterday and I know some people will think I turned to him again for his observations. They’re wrong; this is not from Farhi.)
From 2010: Post writers and editors expect Narisetti to be a short-timer
UPDATE: This email comes from a former WSJ employee who didn’t want to be named:
I worked for more than a decade at Dow Jones and WSJ combined, and I am a huge fan of Narisetti. The fact that he is returning to WSJ actually makes me (at least briefly) sorry not to be there anymore — though this is not a reflection on Kevin Delaney, of whom I am also a fan.
Raju is a smart, thoughtful, energetic presence. I can’t speak for an entire organization, but I suspect his return will be widely welcomed in the WSJ newsroom. I can certainly vouch for a handful of former colleagues who have worked directly with or under Raju and like and respect him as much as I do. (It sounds like perhaps the folks at WaPo are struggling — as are journalists everywhere — with the pace of change and the huge questions hanging over the future of newspapers — and Raju has taken the brunt of the resulting resentment).
THE FAREWELL MEMO:
Date: Friday, January 20, 2012
Subject: Staff Announcement: Raju Narisetti re-joins the Wall Street Journal
To: NEWS – All NewsroomTo the Staff:
I am sorry to announce that Raju Narisetti is resigning as Managing Editor of The Washington Post, effective Feb. 1. He will be moving to New York to re-join the Wall Street Journal.
Raju has accomplished much in the three years since he came to the Post from Mint, a business newspaper and website he founded in India. He was closely involved in the redesign of our print edition in 2009; oversaw the selection and installation of Methode, the content-management system we use to edit and produce our news products; and has taken a leading role in the integration of our print and digital staffs and operations.
But that understates dramatically his role. Raju has helped to build an extravagantly talented digital team and provided much of the vision and strategy that enabled The Post to become one of the most innovative and
successful digital-news operations anywhere. Read More
By the way, that’s a Christian band, too. || An interesting tweet from Mr. Lyday.
UPDATE: Band manager Kris Chamness tells me the story and correction ran last July in the Mount Vernon edition of the Centralia Morning Sentinel. “We’re a drug-free Christian band,” he notes.
Rupert Murdoch and his crappy little New York Post should be ashamed. Three months later, still haven’t paid up on a freelance assignment.
— david ogul (@ogul) January 19, 2012
Veteran journalist David Ogul tweeted the above on Thursday, then sent me an e-mail about his attempt to get paid by the Post.
A photographer (Nick Morris) and I went on a story safari on Oct. 31 looking for the mother of Justin Bieber’s alleged love child. We were promised to be paid the day rate of $200. We spent a full day trying to track her down and sent over some material that was used in the Post story the next day. After making several phone calls and sending numerous emails, we still haven’t gotten paid. Mr. Morris had told me some horror stories of photographers who were stiffed by the Post, but only after we were nearly done with the assignment. To not be paid by a company owned by a gazillionaire nearly three months after rendering services – especially after those services cost but a measly $200 – is ridiculous.
I was told it would take about a month [to get paid]. I was an assistant metro editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune for 11 years, and I authorized dozens of freelance payments. The longest anyone had to wait was three or four weeks. It’s not the money here that is important. It’s the principle. This is the Post we’re talking about, not some struggling weekly.
Ogul made another attempt to get paid after sending his email. He reported back:
I just talked to the administrative editor in charge of payments, Anne Aquilina.
She said she would get right on it. Said she didn’t know what happened. Asked me to resend everything and she would walk it over to where it needed to go. I had sent emails and left messages in the past. Been hearing from others that’s how they work
I emailed Aquilina this morning and asked her how long it usually takes the tabloid to pay freelancers. I’ll post her response when it comes in.
FREELANCERS: HOW LONG DOES IT USUALLY TAKE FOR NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES TO PAY YOU?
The Connecticut Post ran this photo of a murder victim “only after considerable thought and discussion,” writes Hearst Connecticut editorial director David McCumber.
For some reason, police left the body on the Bond Street sidewalk, uncovered, for several hours after it was reported around 4 a.m. The photographer and many other children were forced to walk past it on the way to school.
While publishing this photo may make some people uncomfortable, it is an undeniably powerful representation of the spate of tragedy the city is enduring. Ultimately, what’s unacceptably uncomfortable is schoolchildren having to walk past homicide victims.
One blogger asks: “Isn’t running the photo a no brainer?”
