Category Archives: Uncategorized

Welcome, ‘rip-n-read’ background?*

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From The New York Times: Jess Bidgood will be the new On Politics writer, starting Monday.

And this quote from her was included in the announcement:

I got my start in public radio in Boston on the 4 a.m. shift, at WBUR, where one of my duties was to bring the newspapers inside when they arrived at 5 a.m.

Jess Bidgood

Brings me back to the days when my group of Newspaper journalists would refer to the local radio news and ”rip-n-read,’’ because the news guys would read our stuff over the air without any attribution. We would swear we could hear the newsprint rustling in the background.

* I’m sure Bidgood has never been involved in rip-n-read!

State of industry in one graphic

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It‘s not unusual for Newspapers to fill the news hole with large graphics and photos for the holidays; typically, not a lot of news happens. This full page graphic appears in many if not most, maybe all of the Newspapers by Gannett.. take a look:

It‘s all fun and breezy, but then there’s this:

NO PRINT EDITION! I remember when Thanksgiving Day was the day the Newspaper landed on your porch with and absolute THUMP due to the number of advertising inserts in it.

Beating up on my former Newspaper

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Take a look at this Flag and what do you see? I’ll wait for you.

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This is what I see….. It’s just a lousy buck, right? Yes, so why not print $1 ? Back in J-School I was taught that if there is nothing to report, then you don’t need it.

For example. if it’s the time, you don’t say, it’s 3:00 am, or 3:00:00 AM. It’s just 3 am.

And with money, if there are NO cents, then you don’t need 00.

I think the psychological factor is it makes it look more money… along the same lines of printing $1.99 makes you unconsciously think you’re getting a bargin.

And one more thing…

Excuse me?!!! Back in the day if I had let this go I would have been called to the the ME’s office and chewed out royally!

Always good to see this

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Surfing around Zillow looking at some houses in Estes Park, Colo., I notice this shot of a front page proudly tacked to this guy’s wall

Zillow

I won’t disclose the address, but it’s good to see that people still clip our newspapers and display them. This is the Trail-Gazette, which I worked for back in the ’80s. I was the news editor for about three years and features editor for a year.

By the way, when I was there the masthead was all black and the elk was a black silhouette, like this one, but I don’t recall that we ever threw color on it.

Newspaper ads still attract a lot of attention

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Twitter link

Mr. Epstein’s quarter-page ad in the Wall Street Journal is getting some attention across the internets.

Here’s how Ars Technica reports:

A man who has been an AT&T customer since 1960 has a message for CEO John Stankey about the company’s failure to upgrade DSL areas to modern Internet service. Aaron Epstein, 90, is so frustrated by his 3Mbps Internet plan that he took out a Wall Street Journal ad in today’s print edition in order to post an open letter to Stankey.

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Epstein paid $1,100 to run the ad for one day in the Manhattan and Dallas editions of today’s Journal, he told Ars in a phone interview.

ARS

Wow! News(paper) reader was a “real job?”

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You may have seen trailers for this “Soon to be a Major Motion Picture” book adaptation of News of the World — staring Tom Hanks.

Here’s the blurb from Amazon:

In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.

Amazon

But here’s relevant part to WannaBuyAPaperMister:

In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world.

Amazon

Imagine that! What a different time. What a job!

Let’s honor the brave journalists who waded into the insurrectionists and risked their lives during the Capitol Putsch

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Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois (D), introduced a resolution to honor those journalists who covered the Capitol insurrection/putsch. The former reporter at The Quad-City Times of Illinois & Iowa has secured backing of 42 co-sponsors.

Expressing deep gratitude on behalf of the people of the United States to the journalists and news staff who risked threats of injury and death to chronicle the horrendous details of the insurrection on January 6, 2021.

Whereas, on January 6, 2021, at the urging of President Donald J. Trump, insurrectionists gathered to besiege the United States Capitol in a violent attempt to overturn the 2020 electoral college results;

Whereas, on that day, President Trump addressed the insurrectionists and continued his previous attacks on the media, calling journalists ‘‘the biggest problem we have’’;

Whereas President Trump then falsely claimed that the 2020 Presidential election was ‘‘stolen by the fake news media’’;

Whereas President Trump then labeled the media ‘‘the enemy of the people’’ and again referred to it as ‘‘the biggest problem we have in this country’’;

Whereas the insurrectionists then surrounded, threatened, and struck journalists, destroying equipment and forcing personnel to flee for fear of their safety;

Whereas insurrectionists continued to target journalists throughout their invasion of the Capitol, vandalizing one door with their intent to ‘‘Murder the media’’; and

Whereas despite the overwhelming threats to their lives, journalists bravely continued to report on the bloody January 6th insurrection while also protecting and caring for victims caught in the attack: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) declares its deep gratitude on behalf of the people of the United States to the journalists and news staff who risked threats of injury and death to chronicle the horrendous details of the insurrection;

(2) encourages congressional support for the mental and physical well-being of the journalists and news staff affected by the insurrection;

(3) condemns the harassment and violent at-tacks on the media during the insurrection; and

(4) honors the January 6th contributions of the journalists and news staff as the newest chapter of our Nation’s ongoing struggle to protect free speech under the First Amendment.

Proposed resolution

It’s just about that time of the year …

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… when Newspapers run their annual list of “Top” stories of the year. These are usually the top 10, or top 20 — depending on how desperate they are to fill space.

I normally hate these reruns, because they don’t really bring anything new I think we’re all tired of people telling us what’s important. As I said, they’re mainly space fillers to pad out the newshole when traditionally there’s not much happening, but there are lots of ads. Gotta fill thos pages with something, right?

However, this year is quite different. There has been so much that has happened, but here’s my not very hard prediction of which U.S. stories will make the lists (in no particular order)

COVID-19 pandemic

2020 Presidential Election

The First American Coup

Trump’s impeachment

Wildfires (Climate Change)

Black Live Matter

Antifa / Fascist riots

Russia hacks US

Yes, I know I’ve missed some, but then again, I don’t have to fill any newsholes around all of those ads.