Ridders’ Big Brother Moment — And the Perils of Hyper-Local News
Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 8:43 am
- 12 Comments
Tony Ridder testifies: The Pioneer Press’ Jennifer Bjorhus has been doing some great reporting on this week’s hearings over Par Ridder’s actions as he left the St. Paul paper for the Star Tribune. Is it just me, or does her description of Par’s father testifying have an Orwellian tinge?
“Creating a uniquely Ridder moment in Ramsey Count District Court, Tony Ridder beamed down from a large screen on the courtroom wall, testifying via videotape that Par, then publisher of the Pioneer Press, ‘had full authority’ to pull out and waive the noncompete agreements at the newspaper himself, without getting approval from higher-ups at Knight Ridder.” Bjorhus also reports that Ridder’s noncompete agreement states directly, “This Agreement may not be modified except in writing and signed by the parties.”
Quotable Joe: Columnist Joe Soucheray, also writing at the Pioneer Press, thinks MediaNews honcho Dean Singleton has the wrong approach to the noncompetes: “Personally, I would do everything possible to make sure these three characters had to keep their jobs in Minneapolis — that the owners, Avista Capital Partners, could not, under any circumstances, replace them. They did not accomplish anything here of note and did not even manage to take any information with them when they left the Pioneer Press that was thought to be useful, according to their new bosses. In other words, they brought their best stuff, but because they might very well be incompetent, it didn’t amount to much.“
Journos in Entenza’s thinktank: Matt Entenza‘s new thinktank, Minnesota 2020, is well-stocked with local journalists: Conrad de Fiebre, who took a buyout from the Star Tribune, is a fellow focusing on transportation for the organization. Lee Egerstrom, a longtime agriculture and business writer for the Pioneer Press, is a research fellow working on rural economic development issues. The progressive group has a newsy communications director, too: Glen Fladeboe, a former editor at WCCO, has that job.
Duluth’s Buscaglia not going to California: Friday is the last day of work for Duluth News Tribune publisher Marti Buscaglia, but she won’t be taking on a new gig as publisher of California’s Orange County Register, as planned. The 54-year-old backed out of the job after informing bosses that she misrepresented her educational qualifications on her resume. She didn’t disclose which part of her resume was incorrect. N. Christian Anderson, the paper’s current publisher, said Buscaglia agrees that the disclosure “damages her credibility with [the paper's parent company] and by extension with the readers of the Register.”
St. Paul community papers merge: “As it turns out, you can go hyper-local with community news and still fall on tough times in this business,” writes City Hall Scoop in a story that announces Avenues, sister paper to The Villager, has shut down. Mike Mischke, who publishes both St. Paul community papers, says the Scoop’s reporting isn’t quite right [see comments]: He says content from the less profitable Avenues will be folded in to the larger and older Villager and that the remaining paper will have the same monthly circulation as both Avenues and Villager combined. The Villager’s new look debuts Aug. 8.
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12 Comments
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 9:36 am
Compare & contrast Please take note of Duluth publisher Marti Buscaglia’s proper and better-late-than-never ethical decision to withdraw from her new post as publisher of the Orange County Register. Buscaglia fudged her resume but ultimately ‘fessed up, stepping down from both jobs due to the whack at her credibility and her fitness to lead a journalistic organization.
Now look at the scrambling, lies, army of lawyers and mountains of cash being tossed out to save Par Ridder’s hide, even after the spoiled little rich boy admits that he swiped corporate secrets, played all sorts of word games (“I meant I wouldn’t raid the PiPress talent TODAY”) and ran through parking ramps chasing after some purloined company documents.
Credibility? Fitness to lead a journalistic organization? And we’re talking about one of the nation’s 15 largest newspapers, not this state’s No. 3.
Worse, top editors who would rap the knuckles of a copy editor for driving around town with a campaign bumper sticker on her car merrily do Par Ridder’s cutting and slashing for him without ethical pause. Where’s Dean Baquet (L.A. Times editor who resigned rather than act as staff executioner) when you need him?
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 11:50 am
‘Cleaning’ those Excel spreadsheets Par could have saved himself a lot of headaches if he’d just removed the PioneerPress numbers from his spreadsheets (without losing formulas, text and formatting) — and it’s easy to do with a $30 Excel add-in or with a little custom coding.
You can get all the info you need with a web search: ‘Excel numbers delete remove’ (without the quotes).
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 3:01 pm
Tough times? Laura Yuen, the Pioneer Press reporter who wrote the piece for City Hall Scoop, mischaracterized the reasons behind the merger of the Villager and Avenues. We didn’t “go hyper-local”–we’ve always been that way–and we haven’t “fallen on tough times”–business is just fine, thank you. We will still be publishing 130,000 newspapers a month, but under one title twice a month rather than two titles three times a month. Ms Yuen might just as well have reported that the Villager is EXPANDING by 30 percent circulation–from 50,000 to 65,000 copies–with its August 8 merger with Avenues. In short, we’re not downsizing this operation; we’re merely reallocating our resources to better serve the demands of our readers and advertisers.
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 3:44 pm
Thanks for the clarification, Michael. And congrats on the successful continuation of hyperlocal news.
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 3:49 pm
Correction I amended my post in light of Michael’s clarification. Thanks.
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 4:36 am
Compare & contrast Please take note of Duluth publisher Marti Buscaglia's proper and better-late-than-never ethical decision to withdraw from her new post as publisher of the Orange County Register. Buscaglia fudged her resume but ultimately 'fessed up, stepping down from both jobs due to the whack at her credibility and her fitness to lead a journalistic organization.
Now look at the scrambling, lies, army of lawyers and mountains of cash being tossed out to save Par Ridder's hide, even after the spoiled little rich boy admits that he swiped corporate secrets, played all sorts of word games (“I meant I wouldn't raid the PiPress talent TODAY”) and ran through parking ramps chasing after some purloined company documents.
Credibility? Fitness to lead a journalistic organization? And we're talking about one of the nation's 15 largest newspapers, not this state's No. 3.
Worse, top editors who would rap the knuckles of a copy editor for driving around town with a campaign bumper sticker on her car merrily do Par Ridder's cutting and slashing for him without ethical pause. Where's Dean Baquet (L.A. Times editor who resigned rather than act as staff executioner) when you need him?
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 6:50 am
'Cleaning' those Excel spreadsheets Par could have saved himself a lot of headaches if he'd just removed the PioneerPress numbers from his spreadsheets (without losing formulas, text and formatting) — and it's easy to do with a $30 Excel add-in or with a little custom coding.
You can get all the info you need with a web search: 'Excel numbers delete remove' (without the quotes).
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 10:01 am
Tough times? Laura Yuen, the Pioneer Press reporter who wrote the piece for City Hall Scoop, mischaracterized the reasons behind the merger of the Villager and Avenues. We didn't “go hyper-local”–we've always been that way–and we haven't “fallen on tough times”–business is just fine, thank you. We will still be publishing 130,000 newspapers a month, but under one title twice a month rather than two titles three times a month. Ms Yuen might just as well have reported that the Villager is EXPANDING by 30 percent circulation–from 50,000 to 65,000 copies–with its August 8 merger with Avenues. In short, we're not downsizing this operation; we're merely reallocating our resources to better serve the demands of our readers and advertisers.
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 10:44 am
Thanks for the clarification, Michael. And congrats on the successful continuation of hyperlocal news.
Comment posted June 28, 2007 @ 10:49 am
Correction I amended my post in light of Michael's clarification. Thanks.
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