Media Monitor: May 21

By Paul Schmelzer
Monday, May 21, 2007 at 10:28 am

Ridder hearing delayed: The Pioneer Press will have to wait an additional week to lay out its legal case for forcing its former publisher Par Ridder, now in that role at the newspaper across the river, and new Star Tribune operations VP Kevin Desmond to abide by non-compete clauses in their PiPress contracts — a move that would temporarily bar them from working at the Minneapolis paper. On Friday, Ramsey County Judge David Higgs granted a request by the Strib’s new legal representation to delay the start of the trial a week. Robert Weinstine, who now represents the Strib after Faegre and Benson backed out early this month due to conflict-of-interest concerns, said his office has been “inundated” with documents from F&B and needs time to sort through them. The hearing will be moved to June 25.

Radio K on Pawlenty hit list: Inside Minnesota Politics reports that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget-cutting measures call for nixing $11 million in funding for public radio stations. “That will certainly hurt all public radio stations in Minnesota,” IMP writes. “But the independent non-commercial radio stations that are not affiliated with Minnesota Public Radio could feel the pinch the worst.” These stations, which are affiliated through the AMPERS network, include the Twin Cities’ KFAI, KMOJ, KBEM and the University of Minnesota’s Radio K, as well as stations in St. Cloud, Grand Marais, Morris and elsewhere.

Pay-per-view Strib? “More than a few” readers have contacted Strib readers rep Kate Parry, she says, saying it’s high time the paper start charging for access to its website. This surprising doozy — in an age of the mostly-free internet, who are these people clamoring to pay? — is delivered as a parenthetical aside in Parry’s Sunday column running down reader responses to Strib restructuring plans. I’m not sure how this “ombudsing” thing works, but could she be priming the pump for an announcement about pay-per-view news?

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Comments

10 Comments

Robin Marty
Comment posted May 21, 2007 @ 11:27 am

note that in all the quotes Parry puts on the site none of them support her claim that people think they should pay for the strib online.

Jane McClure
Comment posted May 21, 2007 @ 12:08 pm

pay per view news? How about offering some online perks for those of us who still subscribe to the darn paper? or does that suggestion make poor Par Ridder’s brain hurt too much?
We print subscribers are the ones getting less and less — less world and national coverage, fewer local columns we like — and we’re supposed to get all happy and excited about the Bloomington City Council? We’re supposed to jump for joy about reading about suburbs we could care less about? Please. . . I don’t see our subsciption rates being cut, even though the coverage is!

eb
Comment posted May 21, 2007 @ 1:32 pm

Are local radio stations asking for help? As a listener & donor to several of the mentioned radio stations, I’m surprised that I haven’t had anyone ask me to contact the governor to ask for funding support. I think in this case the best defense would be a good offense. I hope Min Mon will cover any of the local radio station’s actions to maintain state funding. BTW, I think KBEM is one of the best stations in the nation.

Paul Schmelzer
Comment posted May 21, 2007 @ 5:08 pm

Just got this e-alert:

AMPERS is the state organization for independent PUBLIC STATIONS

Nora
Comment posted May 21, 2007 @ 2:09 pm

Pioneer Press might want to wait I think Ridder would the Strib to oblivion even without a lawsuit. So maybe Pioneer Press should hang on for while.

Robin Marty
Comment posted May 21, 2007 @ 6:27 am

note that in all the quotes Parry puts on the site none of them support her claim that people think they should pay for the strib online.

Jane McClure
Comment posted May 21, 2007 @ 7:08 am

pay per view news? How about offering some online perks for those of us who still subscribe to the darn paper? or does that suggestion make poor Par Ridder's brain hurt too much?

We print subscribers are the ones getting less and less — less world and national coverage, fewer local columns we like — and we're supposed to get all happy and excited about the Bloomington City Council? We're supposed to jump for joy about reading about suburbs we could care less about? Please. . . I don't see our subsciption rates being cut, even though the coverage is!

eb
Comment posted May 21, 2007 @ 8:32 am

Are local radio stations asking for help? As a listener & donor to several of the mentioned radio stations, I'm surprised that I haven't had anyone ask me to contact the governor to ask for funding support. I think in this case the best defense would be a good offense. I hope Min Mon will cover any of the local radio station's actions to maintain state funding. BTW, I think KBEM is one of the best stations in the nation.

Nora
Comment posted May 21, 2007 @ 9:09 am

Pioneer Press might want to wait I think Ridder would the Strib to oblivion even without a lawsuit. So maybe Pioneer Press should hang on for while.