If the Pants Fit…

In which a simile, properly employed, offends: Mention George Bush in your media column and you might get kicked in the golf pants. In Friday‘s story about morale at KSTP TV, The Rake’s Brian Lambert invoked the names of George Bush and Dick Cheney a few times, once in comparing the station’s ratings to Bush’s flatlining approval, another time making a parallel between the VP’s “flat out dead wrong” advice with that of a longtime KSTP consultant. “Come on, Mr. Lambert. How are you going to get a real job at the Minnesota Monitor or the press office of Keith Ellison if you don’t have the guts to really go after the jugular?,” writes Nihilist in Golf Pants. “How about throwing in some Bush-Hitler references, at least?”

Two-line editorial: Mediation comments on Strib reader’s rep Kate Parry’s Saturday column soliciting story pitches: “Cut your reporting staff to cut overhead and then find out you need to still find news?  Try directly appealing to readers for stories.”

M is for… First came the fashion publication W, then Oprah’s O magazine. Now, a local publication is entering the pretentious realm of the one-letter title. Macy’s North will launch the 128-page M magazine in September. With a circulation of a half-million (mailed to customers), the promotional magazine will offer fashion and lifestyle photo spreads, plus local interest pieces on landmarks in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. It’s being produced by three-letter Mpls.St.Paul magazine parent company, MSP Communications.

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