Minnesota Independent » Rick Kupchella

Media Monitor: Q is for ‘question’ in MPR’s new brand

Paul Schmelzer — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:14:09 +0000

What’s in the Q? Minnesota Public Radio is capitalizing on its status as possibly the state’s best newsroom by rebranding its news operation to better integrate radio and online news: It launched MPR NewsQ today. But what’s up with the name? The first association I get with “Q” is the now-defunct Twin Cities queer publication Q Monthly. (A little googling finds several others, including a college LGBT publication called Q Magazine and a Q-Notes.) My guess: it stands for “queue.” Local technology consultant Sheldon Maines tweets his confusion. “Why? What does it mean? What’s with random capital letters?” Later, he notes that one needn’t stand in line — like my guess suggests — to get news online. On Twitter, other locals are pondering other q-words: quorum, quandary, quasi, quibble…

Kupchella to tackle healthcare reform: Rick Kupchella has two new projects in the works after leaving KARE 11 two weeks ago. One’s a new-media project, but details haven’t been revealed yet. This is the other: the i.e. network, a PR effort targeting healthcare reform. According to the network’s site, they’re partnering with Target and “some of America’s most progressive corporate entities” to create The ALLIANCE for a Healthy Twin Cities to promote lower cost, higher quality healthcare through a focus on wellness. But it might not be as “progressive” as you’d think: partnering with Kupchella is Tom Mason, formerly chief of staff for Norm Coleman, senior communications adviser to Tim Pawlenty and communications director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Once dubbed a “rising star” of the GOP, he also published Twin Cities Business Monthly for five years.

Saberi’s plea: As Fargo-born journalist Roxana Saberi calls for the release of her former cellmate in Iran, Iranian aid worker Silva Harotonian, protesters for democracy in that country are reportedly dealing with the government’s news blackout by making an underground newspaper. Here’s the translation of one.

LATimes gives props to local Twitterer: The Los Angeles Times included a local — Secrets of the City‘s Max Sparber — in its list of funny tweets in response to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s news conference yesterday, in which he revealed he’d been unfaithful to his wife. “None of us are in a position to judge Sanford until we too have had sex with a woman in Argentina,” Sparber wrote. “Now who is up for a road trip?”

Hubbard honored: Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of KSTP radio and TV as well as other broadcast stations, is receiving the Historic Site in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists tomorrow. The family-owned company has been in business since 1942.