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
Comedy gold...
Reviewing the Sarah Palin interview
(Washington Post) Howard Kurtz reviews the interview thusly: "Anyone who said that Charlie Gibson might go easy on Sarah Palin might want to quickly delete those comments. What the ABC newsman conducted was a serious, professional interview that went right at the heart of what we want and need to know about the governor: Could she be president? Does she understand the nuances of international affairs? Does she have a world view? He was all business, respectful but persistent."
Couric to interview Palin
(TV Newser) TVNewser writes: "Katie Couric will interview Republican VP nominee Gov. Sarah Palin next week on the campaign trail, days before the first presidential debate. We hear the interview will air on the CBS Evening News and on all CBS News platforms. It will also include something the previous two interviews did not — time with Sen. John McCain and Palin together. The interview takes place Sunday (the 28th) and Monday."
More Comedy Gold...
Facebook political ads test limits
(Wall Street Journal) Emily Steele writes: "Clicking on the ads takes visitors straight to a story on the Web sites of those publications. People who click on the ad that reads "WSJ Says: Palin Lied," for instance, are directed to a story on The Wall Street Journal Web site about the contradictions in Gov. Palin's record regarding the "Bridge to Nowhere." But none of the publications cited in the ads bought them -- or even was aware of them. The buyer -- though never identified anywhere on the ads or on the pages that you land on after clicking on them -- is the liberal group MoveOn.org. It's the latest example of fuzziness about who's behind what when it comes to political ads online."
CLICK HEREWhen the only thing you care about is stock price, what happens to your industry when the stock price tanks? Exhibits A & B below...
Bumpy road for radio staffers
(Chicago Sun Times) Robert Feder writes: "The idiots who've ruined radio are up to their old tricks again. This time around, the loss of jobs and destruction of localism has hit Metro Networks/Shadow Broadcast Services, thanks to sweeping cutbacks by parent company Westwood One. In Chicago, at least five on-air staffers were cut in the first wave of layoffs meant to reduce the company's overall work force by 15 percent -- or 300 jobs. Among Friday's casualties were news bureau chief Perry Williams, reporter/editor Tom Gaines (known on the air as Tom Kelly), and reporters Jill Urchak, Bill Souronis and Dan Levy. Most had been there a decade or more. Westwood One bosses say they plan to consolidate Metro Networks' 60 operation centers into 13 regional hubs. Even as they plan to slash $30 million from their annual budget, they're claiming service will improve. "Though we regret the need to reduce staff, these initiatives will help ensure that Westwood One retains its industry leadership position," CEO Tom Beusse said in a statement. What makes these job losses especially galling is that so many local radio stations rationalized the elimination of their own news operations in the first place by outsourcing those functions to bare bones Metro/Shadow."
Emmis cuts salary for its 64 most highly compensated employees
(Radio-info.com) Tom Taylor writes: "A while back, founder/CEO Jeff Smulyan announced he’d be reducing his own salary to $1 (though there were still bonuses and his take as a major shareholder – something that’s worth much less at current stock prices). But the action Emmis just informed the SEC about is more than a symbolic $1 salary – these “mostly highly compensated employees” are having their salaries cut way back to $15,000 for a very clear reason: “to increase defined consolidated operating cash flow” under the company’s November 2, 2006 “revolver”, or revolving credit agreement. Less money paid out to executives goes right to the bottom line and helps with lenders...Emmis will make up the shortfall between the 15 grand and their usual salary in quarterly bonuses taken from the proceeds of the sale of the last Emmis TV property, WVUE. But only if “certain performance targets from a prior quarter are hit.” Otherwise they’ll get stock, not cash."
Meanwhile, the newspaper business is in deep doo-doo too...
McClatchy cuts jobs; Star Ledger may shut
(Wall Street Journal) The malaise afflicting the newspaper industry worsened Tuesday as McClatchy Co. announced its second major staff reduction in three months and the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., took a possible step toward closure. The developments indicate the industry's fortunes may be falling further and faster than previously thought. McClatchy's latest round of cuts, which will trim 10% of its work force, follows a 10% reduction announced in June. Meanwhile, the owners of the Star-Ledger appear resigned to the darkest of the paper's possible fates despite deep pockets and a firm hold on an affluent market.
Tribune, Zell named in employee's lawsuit
(Wall Street Journal) Ovide and Koppel write: "One current and five former Tribune Co. employees accused the company and Chief Executive Sam Zell in a lawsuit Tuesday of mismanaging the newspaper-and-television concern, the latest sign of worker protest against Mr. Zell's oversight. The lawsuit, filed in a Los Angeles federal court, alleges Tribune and Mr. Zell have failed to uphold their fiduciary duty to the company's employee stock-ownership plan, Tribune's majority owner. The lawsuit also claims Mr. Zell and other Tribune officials have improperly raided worker pension funds. 'Zell and his accessories threaten to destroy the Tribune Company and its assets,' the lawsuit says."
CLICK HERE
Are real journalists jealous of Jon Stewart?
(Alternet) Norman Soloman writes: "Absent from the fawning media coverage of The Daily Show is evident self-awareness that the elaborate praise is a tacit form of convoluted self-loathing -- in professional terms anyway -- among the likes of, say, Times journalists. Their own media institution is so circumscribed and so lumbering in its daily incarnation that they're apt to be amazed and envious at the incisively documented presentations on The Daily Show. That's the way it goes in medialand. What isn't conspicuous is apt to be insidious. The tick-tock of U.S. media hypnosis may be passably good at looking back -- reexamining some aspects of propaganda for the Iraq invasion, for instance, years after it occurs -- while now helping to mesmerize the country into escalation of the war in Afghanistan. But let's not quibble. Everybody has a job to do."
An anchor lets down her hair(NY Times) David Carr writes: "The election season has been very good to a woman who seems to be benefiting from her status as an outsider in terms of gender and history. That would be Katie Couric, the anchor of the CBS Evening News. Sure, Gov. Sarah Palin makes headlines while Ms. Couric just reads them. And Ms. Couric has yet to prove that all of the lucre and attention lavished on her debut an anchor almost exactly two years ago was a smart business bet. Early efforts at innovation fell flat in the ratings, and a subsequent return to the evening news template left the impression that Ms. Couric was starring in her own hostage video...But once she left the anchor desk, she was everywhere at the conventions — soliciting people in a video on Digg about what questions to ask as a reporter for a nightly Webcast (cbsnews.com), seeking out the kind of conversations that made “Today” such a monster in the ratings. There was no convention bump in the ratings for Ms. Couric, and CBS and she remain a long way from precious bragging rights. But the odd anchor out has been in the middle of things for the last few weeks."
Anderson Cooper Off Camera
(USA Weekend) Monica Collins writes: "In April, Cooper casually relayed how a stalker had shown up at his apartment that morning with suitcases. Because of incidents like this, a guard, hired by CNN, now escorts Cooper home each night after he finishes anchoring Anderson Cooper 360. The need for protection complicates the life of this anchor who, for the most part, attempts to live without pretension. 'He doesn't want an entourage,' says Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/U.S. He comes into the building in his T-shirt and knapsack." Details magazine editor Dan Peres, who has known Cooper for nearly a decade, seconds this notion. 'You seldom meet him at a big, fancy restaurant,' Peres says. 'He doesn't care. If anything, he wants to fly as far under the radar as he possibly can.'"
CLICK HEREBuilding Teamwork with Talent
(Chicago Radio Spotlight) This week I reprinted a piece I wrote earlier this year for The Robinson Report, an industry publication. It was also reprinted in All Access. It contains my three tips for dealing with talent.
Mini Interview: Leslie Keiling
(Chicago Radio Spotlight) Every week I'm featuring excerpts from my SHORE Magazine article about 14 local radio voices. This week: WGN's Leslie Keiling.
Chicago Radio Spotlight interview: Kevin Robinson
(Chicago Radio Spotlight) This weekend I spoke with the former program director of WJMK and The Fish, Kevin Robinson, about his time in Chicago, and his current consulting job. Coming this weekend, former "Morning Fix" co-host, Alan Cox.
