Stirring Stories as Stribbers Depart

First-person tense: Here and elsewhere, you’ve heard a lot about the tensions at the Star Tribune in the words of those who are losing their jobs. So, as Strib buyout takers enter their final week, it’s refreshing to hear from veteran reporters on why they do what they do and their most resonant memories. Readers rep Kate Parry chronicles recollections by Chuck Haga, Doug Grow, Sharon Schmickle and others — and some of the most affecting stories are about real people, instead of big-name newsmakers.

Grow recalls the story he wrote on “Kathi,” a girl who was sexually assaulted by members of a youth hockey team at age 15. As they went on to become high school hockey heroes, she was labeled a “slut,” Grow recalls. After years of ridicule, she killed herself at 18. “As I watch our worship of celebrities, no matter their behavior, I always am reminded of Kathi,” he wrote.

Rude awakening for Avista investors: The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that investors who bought loans to back Avista’s purchase of the Star Tribune had a rude awakening. “[T]he company’s cash flow,” said the subscription-only story, “already is running as much as 20% below Avista’s original financial projections for the deal, which closed just three months ago.” Additionally, some of the loans lost value last week, dipping to around 96.5 cents on the dollar. “Such levels indicate investors are worried about the newspaper’s ability to repay its debt,” said the report.

Invest in public journalism: Leonard Witt, former editor of Minnesota Monthly and the Star Tribune’s Sunday magazine, points out a post by the editor of the Greensboro News-Record, where 41 staffers were just let go. In additional to audience-centered reporting and new technologies, a remedy John Robinson suggested for moving the paper forward is “community building” — news and forums that “pull people together for positive change.” It sounds a lot like “public journalism,” the marriage of journalism and democracy and the focus of Witt’s work for the Public Journalism Network.

Porn, a metaphor for print media: “What do purveyors of dirty pictures have in common with journalists?” asks Information Week’s Alexander Wolfe. “Answer: They’re both getting screwed by the Internet.” Bloggers and citizen journalists, he posits, are a bit like the amateur porn stars promoting their, er, wares online — doing it cheaply and often giving it away for free — and eroding market share for the established biggies. Wolfe has news for the porn industry: as mainstream journalists have already discovered, he says, producing higher quality work isn’t enough. “Generating quality content isn’t hard. What’s difficult is finding the money to pay for it.”

Metro’s Best: Like City Pages and scores of other publications before it, Metro Magazine is planning a Best of the Twin Cities issue. While the issue won’t come out ’til October, you can submit your favorites — Best Online News Magazine, perchance? — to the magazine for consideration.