A (Possible) Buzz.mn Boycott and a Strib-Vikes Land Deal

Paul Schmelzer — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:30:38 +0000

The Bleating Quirk: The Rake’s Brian Lambert says what’s been on the minds of many I’ve talked with recently: How come the Star Tribune community blog Buzz.mn has become the sole domain of James Lileks, who was hired to manage it? “I and others never had the impression it was supposed to be a one-person rumpus room, yet another variation on ‘The Bleating Quirk,’” Lambert writes. “Is there, as one dime-dropper told me, ‘a de facto boycott’ going on? And how did Lileks end up with an editing job officially described as requiring, ‘the consummate team player’?”

Quoted at City Pages, Lileks suggested it’s a hard sell getting already overworked writers to contribute. “It is difficult to look at people who are working very hard and say, ‘Hey, can I have some of that?’” he told Paul Demko. “Really, there isn’t anything in it for them when it comes to the end-of-the-week paycheck.”

But maybe there’s another explanation. Lambert ponders whether “Nancy Barnes and Scott Gillespie, the Strib’s top editors, parked Lileks there just to goose up traffic with his ‘Bleat’ readers.” If so, are they — or potential contributors at the Strib — concerned that readers of this “community journalism website” aren’t necessarily from the local community? Or that many are arriving via Lileks’ personal conservative contacts? In today’s post on The Bleat, Lileks’ non-Strib blog, he praised Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds (dubbed “the godfather of conservative blogging” by Right Wing News), “whose natural generousity has thrown boatloads of traffic to buzz.mn this week, bless his soul” and mentioned a radio segment he did with Dean Barker, conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt’s co-blogger at Town Hall.

More InsideFour blocks for $45M in Strib-Vikings deal: Media watchers’ long-held belief that Avista Capital Partners’ purchase of the Star Tribune was in large part about real estate got some confirmation Thursday: The paper reports it is in negotiations to sell four blocks near its warehouse district headquarters to the Minnesota Vikings. The $45 million deal will house a stadium or development related to a new Vikings facility. It also gives the team right-of-first refusal should the Strib wish to sell the land beneath its office building.

“Hip hop” on the DL at B96: The sports/media link is intact at B96 as well, after reports that the Pohlad family, owner of the Twins, are buying B96. Strib columnist C.J. confirmed the station will keep its hip-hop format, but said general manager Steve Woodbury had qualms with the term. “Hip hop is too limiting,” he said. “We’re really ‘Rhythmic CHR,’ contemporary hit radio.”

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A (Possible) Buzz.mn Boycott and a Strib-Vikes Land Deal