Media Monitor: March 9

Size Matters to Smith: Outgoing Star Tribune reporter Dane Smith loads kudos and criticism into a nice interview with former PiPress media critic Brian Lambert:

“For years I’ve expressed my irritation with space limitations,” says Smith. Where 10 years ago a story filed from his beat might regularly run, “35, 45, 50 inches. Hell, even 70 [inches] if it was a hot profile”, 25 [inches] is now the norm. Worse, for whatever the combination of reasons, he says the Star Tribune’s website still hasn’t been tweaked and tooled to handle the detail-rich, “plus-sized” version of a story, with the speed-read nuggets going on to print. Smith openly laments what he sees as Minnesota Public Radio’s deeper and broader web-based political coverage. “I think MPR has maybe the best political page, don’t you?”

Michele’s Macaca? As Ann Coulter’s “Macaca moment”