FYI: NOLA.com, nj.com, mlive.com and other Advance sites are currently down. Anyone have info?

— Romenesko (@romenesko) September 14, 2012

What @romenesko followers say:

@BigAlFishes: “Maybe it’s like rolling blackouts with California electricity shortages. Friday? Eh, turn off the sites for a while.”

@DavisShaver: “Oh, you haven’t heard? To reduce costs, the number of days per week the sites are available has been lowered. Economics, ya know?”

@talkingnewmedia: “The servers have been cut back to three days?”

@JFusfield: “Don’t you wish you had a daily newspaper to read in situations like this?”

UPDATE: They’re back up.

Tipster #1 writes: “Pun or typo? Spelled right online.”

Tipster #2 writes: “The printed sports section front page had a very large headline: TOTAL TEEM EFFORT after the Packer’s win last night. We can’t tell if it’s intentional or not. There is no reference to teem or teeming in the article, and that seems a stretch to go for that pun. The website has “TEAM”.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel visual editor Ed Brud tells Charles Apple: “Smarter than the average designer, this copy desk of ours. Headline was playing off the swarming Packers defense.”

But it appears readers didn’t get that, Ed.

UPDATE: I asked the Journal Sentinel about reader reaction to the headline. Mike Davis, an assistant managing editor, sent this reply:

We did hear from some readers – probably about a dozen who called or emailed – and we explained that it was a play on words, not a misspelling. The headline and the use of the word “teem” was intended to describe the swarming nature of the Packers defense. Perhaps it was too clever at the expense of clarity.

Boston Globe staffers dealing with newsroom computer problems the past few weeks are said to be “at the boiling point.” Managing editor Caleb Solomon thanks colleagues for “keeping it to a simmer” and assures them that “our IT staff has been working long and hard on solutions.”

His memo:

To the Staff:

Many of you have been experiencing an array of Methode problems in the past few weeks and are feeling like you’re at the boiling point. I’m writing to thank you for keeping it to a simmer.

I realize how incredibly frustrating these issues are, from system slowness to disappearing slugs and assignments to the inability to search anything – all requiring lots of extra work on your part, often on deadline. Especially troubling is that some of these problems are brand new, and some things are broken again that we thought we’d fixed. This is not where we expected to be this far along in the project.

I can only report what I know. The troubles are confounding our IT staff and EidosMedia. But I can tell you that our IT staff has been working long and hard on solutions. They’re trying to solve the big questions underlying the spurt of troubles we’re experiencing at the same time they’re spending hours and hours with short-term fixes so that we can continue to publish. In addition, EidosMedia has been working on our problems from New York and their headquarters in Milan.

At this stage, I fear I can’t tell you when these disruptions will cease. So please continue to do your best. As soon as I get a better sense of when to expect improvement, I’ll let you know.

Caleb

What it’s like to work for Tribune Company. vimeo.com/48839148

— Ben Welsh (@palewire) September 14, 2012

* Chicago Tribune RedEye 10 year anniversary sales video (vimeo.com)
* You remember Lee Abrams, right? If not, here’s some background (Gawker)

* The Times story about USA Today, followed by the corrections (nytimes.com)

* Corrections and Amplifications (online.wsj.com)

The City of El Paso was ready to buy the El Paso Times’ downtown building for $14 million, but then the El Paso Times pointed out that the proposed price is $3.7 million more than what the property is appraised at. The purchase is now delayed.

“You have a situation here where journalists doing their job may have wrecked a deal for [their newspaper], but saved taxpayers money,” notes the tipster who sent me this link.

El Paso Times publisher Sergio H. Salinas “acknowledged the difficulty of covering a business deal in which the newspaper is involved,” reports the Times. He tells his paper that “we will continue to fulfill our responsibilities as a watchdog. At the same time, we have a valuable piece of property that we want to maximize.”

* City delays El Paso Times building purchase (elpasotimes.com)
* Earlier: City in talks to buy downtown El Paso properties (elpasotimes.com)

Gannett chief marketing officer Maryam Banikarim sent a memo to employees this morning with USA Today artist/illustrator Sam Ward’s explanation of his paper’s new logo and “cool balls.”

He writes:

“Just what are our balls? Well, they are what we will make of them. I believe our balls are symbols of who we are and where we’re headed. They are not stories, graphics, or illustrations. They are signposts, perhaps; reminders that offer inroads into America’s stream of consciousness. …

“Sure, our competitors will laugh. Let them laugh so hard that they cannot breathe. We should really only be interested in what the readers think. Yes, there may be a few laughing readers too, but not for long. Readers will come to enjoy “the show.”

From: A message from Maryam Banikarim
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 9:52 AM
Subject: Cool Balls

As I mentioned yesterday at the USA TODAY employee presentation, with Sam’s permission, I’d like to share his full note regarding our new logo and getting our mojo back….

Enjoy.
Maryam
————————–

Cool Balls by Sam Ward

I have a dream . . . that one day all Americans will join hands and declare their undying love for our balls; our spheres of influence, our behaviors, or whatever one chooses to call them.

Actually, and perhaps with an air of creepiness, I DID have a dream about this very topic. I dreamt that people all over the place were talking about the images in USA TODAY’s balls. It was creating quite a stir; which, if we do our job right, shouldn’t be far from the truth.

Whenever anyone steps outside the boundaries of the box it will create a stir. In fact, nothing good can be created without stepping outside the box. No, let me rephrase that; nothing can be created at all without stepping outside the box. Our balls could be our boldest statement; our chance to engage readers on a level that we currently are not doing.
Read More

“Next week will be my last as editor of the Voice,” writes Tony Ortega. “I will be leaving to pursue a book proposal about Scientology in its time of crisis.” Writer, editor and music critic Maura Johnston is also leaving the weekly.

* Scientology watchers: A message from Tony Ortega (villagevoice.com)
* Sources say Ortega’s exit was not his decision (observer.com)
* It’s Maura Johnston’s last day at the Voice, too (capitalnewyork.com)