Collected and Edited by Rick Kaempfer
Highlights and links to the big stories in the news this week about the media. This column appears twice a week at MEDIA NOTEBOOK
Chicago Tribune to cut 80 newsroom jobs
(Chicago Tribune) Phil Rosenthal writes: "The Chicago Tribune began informing staff Tuesday it will eliminate around 80 of its current 578 newsroom positions by the end of August and reduce the number of pages it publishes by 13 percent to 14 percent each week. There also will be a reduction of jobs in other Chicago Tribune departments, but that number was not immediately available. A paper spokesman declined comment. Because some newsroom jobs have been left unfilled in recent months, the actual number of staffers to exit the paper is expected to be between 55 and 58."
Lara Logan: Back from Iraq, into the tabloids
(Washington Post) Howard Kurtz writes: "As CBS's chief foreign affairs correspondent, she regularly risked her life by accompanying American forces in combat. But there were more personal strains as well: Her mother had died after a lengthy coma, she and her husband had long ago agreed to a separation, and, last November, she broke off an intense relationship with another journalist in Baghdad. Soon afterward, Logan started dating Joseph Burkett, a federal contractor stationed in Iraq who was separated from his wife back in Texas. Now, having just moved to Washington with an expanded portfolio for the network, Logan finds her romantic life reduced to tabloid fodder. And there is a new complication: She recently discovered that she is pregnant."
CLICK HERESpike O'Dell's plan to retire prompts talk about his successor
(Chicago Sun Times) Robert Feder writes: "Let the guessing game begin about who'll take over the biggest radio job in town. With six months to go on his deal as morning personality at news/talk WGN-AM (720), Spike O'Dell is getting ready to call it quits from the top-rated Tribune Co.-owned station. Although he could choose to work past December, sources said O'Dell already has told his bosses that he plans to retire from his $1 million a year gig at the end of the year."
The $400 Million Man(New York Times) This is probably the best and most thorough piece I've seen about the man who just signed a deal for $400 million. Zev Chavets writes: "Limbaugh’s show emanates from a nondescript office building on a boulevard lined with tall palms. There isn’t even a security guard in the lobby. The elevator opens directly onto a pristine anteroom furnished in corporate glass and leather. An American flag stands in the corner. Only a small, framed picture of Limbaugh, bearing the caption 'America’s Anchorman,' reveals that this is the headquarters of one of the country’s most admired and reviled figures. The anteroom was empty when I stepped off the elevator one afternoon in mid-February. Limbaugh receives very few visitors at work, and no journalists from the hated 'mainstream media.' When I was buzzed into the control room, I was met by Bo Snerdly — a very large man in a Huey Newton beret — who glared at me. 'Are you the guy who’s here to do the hit job on us?' he demanded in a deep voice. 'Absolutely,' I said."
The $200 million man?
(Reuters) Clear Channel's Premiere is in advanced talks with another conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity to try to sign him for an eight-year contract worth about $200 million, The Wall Street Journal said, citing a person familiar with the situation. Clear Channel was not immediately available to comment.
Clear Channel CEO signs gigantic 5-year deal(Radio Ink) Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark Mays informed company employees that Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan has completed an agreement that will keep him in the radio group's top spot for another five years. In a memo, Mays said, "As we move toward the closing of our merger, I want to share with you an important additional piece of news. It's my pleasure to let you know that John Hogan has signed a five-year contract with the company."
CLICK HERE
When Fox News Is The Story
(New York Times) David Carr writes: "Like most working journalists, whenever I type seven letters — Fox News — a series of alarms begins to whoop in my head: Danger. Warning. Much mayhem ahead. Once the public relations apparatus at Fox News is engaged, there will be the calls to my editors, keening (and sometimes threatening) e-mail messages, and my requests for interviews will quickly turn into depositions about my intent or who else I am talking to. And if all that stuff doesn’t slow me down and I actually end up writing something, there might be a large hangover: Phone calls full of rebuke for a dependent clause in the third to the last paragraph, a ritual spanking in the blogs with anonymous quotes that sound very familiar, and — if I really hit the jackpot — the specter of my ungainly headshot appearing on one of Fox News’s shows along with some stern copy about what an idiot I am."
Irena Briganti: The Most Vindictive Flack in the Media World
(Gawker) Briganti is Fox's VP of media relations, and #2 in the PR command structure under Brian Lewis. But if Lewis sets the tone, Briganti is the one who carries out the executions. Here's a very abbreviated list of her all time hits:
***When Anderson Cooper chided Fox for running with a false report of Obama going to a Muslim school, Briganti responded with, "Yet another cry for attention by the Paris Hilton of television news, Anderson Cooper.”
***Briganti attributed Keith Olbermann's attacks on Bill O'Reilly to his "personal demons, and said "In the meantime, we hope he enjoys his paranoid view from the bottom of the ratings ladder and wish him well on his inevitable trip to oblivion.”
***When Christiane Amanpour said CNN and Fox were intimidated by the Bush administration and practiced self-censorship in the run-up to the Iraq war, Briganti responded, "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."
CLICK HEREThe Murdoch Lifer Who Runs Dow Jones
(Ad Age) Nat Ives writes: "It's already been eight months since Rupert Murdoch plucked Les Hinton from London to run Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, and Mr. Hinton does not like to dawdle. 'In media and media-executive jobs, the ponderous do not survive,' he told Advertising Age. But to appreciate his moves -- not to mention his relationship with Mr. Murdoch, whose $5.6 billion acquisition of Dow Jones last December shook the industry -- we have to go back to 1959."
Egos keep newspaper presses rolling in New York
(Crain's New York) Matthew Flamm writes: "Across the country, the newspaper industry is going through arguably the darkest period in its history, with publishers slashing newsroom staff and giants like Tribune Co. standing on shaky ground. Things are different in New York. The Daily News is investing in new color presses. The Wall Street Journal is launching a weekend magazine. The New York Times, despite cutting 100 newsroom jobs, has not cut back on coverage. The New York Post and the New York Sun continue to publish in the face of unending trails of red ink. Most remarkable of all, four dailies—eight counting the Journal, Long Island's Newsday and freebies amNew York and Metro—fight for attention at a time when most cities can barely support one. The troubled economy and competition from the Internet—the two forces hammering the industry—are taking a toll here, too. But thanks to the giant egos of wealthy media barons, including Rupert Murdoch, Mort Zuckerman and newspaper newcomers the Dolans of Cablevision, the ordinary rules don't apply."
The nation's indecency czar: FCC Chief Martin
(Philadlephia Inquirer) Bob Fernandez writes: "Martin has solid Republican credentials. He was a top 2000 campaign official for President Bush, and his wife, Catherine, is the former chief spokeswoman for Vice President Cheney. One of the youngest FCC chairmen in history, he has presided at the agency during a time of tumultuous changes in media and technology."
CLICK HERE
Mark Suppelsa goes to Channel 9(Chicago Sun Times) Robert Feder writes: "Chicago television's news wars heated up Monday with official word of a key talent hire and major expansion plans at WGN-Channel 9. Confirming a report here last month, bosses of the Tribune Co.-owned station announced the hiring of Mark Suppelsa as principal news anchor. Starting later this month, he will succeed Steve Sanders as 9 p.m. weekday anchor alongside Allison Payne. Suppelsa and Payne also will anchor a new half-hour newscast at 5:30 p.m. weekdays, starting in September. Terms of Suppelsa's six-year, no-cut deal, negotiated by agents Todd and Brian Musburger, were not disclosed."
Amy Jacobsen sues Channel 2
(Chicago Tribune) Phil Rosenthal writes: "It took a year, but Amy Jacobson has gone from swimsuit to lawsuit. The former WMAQ-Ch. 5 reporter is seeking more than $1 million in damages from WBBM-Ch. 2 parent CBS, Channel 2 boss Joe Ahern and others, complaining that a tape it aired of her in bathing attire at the home of a potential news source in July 2007 subjected Jacobson to 'enormous public humiliation and disgrace.' Jacobson wound up losing her TV job and, eventually, her home, according to the suit filed Monday in Cook County by attorney Kathleen Zellner on behalf of Jacobson, husband Jaime Anglada and their two children, all of whom alleged to have 'suffered from observing the devastating effects on the person they love most.' Jacobson's suit, which states 'some would say' she was 'the best in the business' before the July 5, 2007, incident was recorded by Channel 2, alleges the station never should have shot the video, should never have aired it and should not have edited it the way it did."
Chicago Radio Spotlight interview with Tomano & Touhy(Chicago Radio Spotlight) Last weekend I spoke with Tomano & Touhy, the morning drive team at WKAN in Kankakee. They talked about their roller coaster career ride, which has included several firings--including once while they were live on the air. Next weekend: WIND morning co-host Cisco Cotto.
