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Seattle P-I Folding Print Edition on Tuesday

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Publisher Says "Bloodline Will Live On" Via the Internet

"The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will roll off the presses for the last time Tuesday, ending a 146-year run," Dan Richman and Andrea James reported Monday on the P-I Web site.

"The Hearst Corp. announced Monday that it would stop publishing the newspaper, Seattle’s oldest business, and cease delivery to more than 117,600 weekday readers.

"The company, however, said it will maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation’s largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.

"’Tonight we’ll be putting the paper to bed for the last time,’ Editor and Publisher Roger Oglesby told a silent newsroom Monday morning. ‘But the bloodline will live on.’

"In a news release, Hearst CEO Frank Bennack Jr. said, ‘Our goal now is to turn seattlepi.com into the leading news and information portal in the region.’"

Oglesby said in an interview "that the online venture would have a professional news staff of about 20 or 25. The vast majority of the P-I’s 167 employees, almost all in news, will lose their jobs," the Seattle Times reported.

"Staffers including Chris Grygiel, Levi Pulkkinen, Casey McNerthney, Monica Guzman and columnists including Joel Connelly, Art Thiel, Jim Moore as well as cartoonist David Horsey will continue working with the P-I, Editor & Publisher said.

"Michelle Nicolosi has been tapped to serve as the site’s editorial leader. She was previously executive producer of seattlepi.com."

William Yardley and Richard P?©rez-Pe?±a added for the New York Times, "The site has recruited some current and former government officials to write columns, and it will keep some of the popular columnists and bloggers who already work there, in addition to the large number of unpaid local bloggers whose work appears on the site. Hearst also plans to repackage material from its large stable of magazines for the site."

As reported on March 6, Candace Heckman, assigning editor for breaking news who is national treasurer of the Asian American Journalists Association, turned down an offer to work on the Web version, as did Hector Castro, a Metro reporter.

After the closure announcement, the P-I reported, Heckman pulled bottles of Georgia Moon Corn Whiskey, Wild Turkey bourbon and George Dickel Tennessee Whisky out of a bag and set them out at her desk.

"’I’d been saving that for a while,’ she said. She’d just sent a ‘farewell’ e-mail to the staff that said, ‘Come by the city desk for a drink: bring your own glass.’"

Mark Trahant, the editorial page editor who is also board chair of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, wrote to colleagues earlier:

"So what’s next? My plan is to write. I have a couple of books rolling around in my mind (one, a monograph on Sen. Henry Jackson," the late Washington state Democrat who championed defense issues, "is well past deadline). It’s time to extract these ideas and transfer them to paper. I’ll also be giving speeches – contact me, if you’re interested – and tackling any other project that suits my interests (while wondering, ‘does it pay?’) I’m ready for the challenge and excited by the outlook because I know it’s only black until dawn – and I’ve always loved mornings."

Black Enterprise Can’t Afford Freelancers, Writers Say

Black Enterprise magazine has told freelance writers it can no longer afford to pay them to write for the magazine, two freelancers separately told Journal-isms.

The two said they were told that Derek T. Dingle, editor in chief, informed his editorial team at a March 5 meeting that economic conditions had forced the magazine to stop using freelance writers, traditionally the backbone of the publication. Articles would have to be produced by the staff, he said.

An editor said the magazine would accept pieces if writers did not expect payment, according to one of the writers.

Dingle said last week through spokesman Andrew P. Wadium that the publication was scaling back, as are most publications, but would still use freelancers.

But on Monday, after a second editor’s message surfaced stating the magazine was no longer using freelance writers, neither Dingle nor Wadium responded to requests for comment.

Black Enterprise, the leading business magazine targeting African Americans, saw its advertising dollars drop by 20.8 percent in 2008, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Overall, the figure was 13.8 percent for magazines. The number of advertising pages declined by 24.8 percent, compared with 17.1 percent for magazines in general. Black Enterprise had a circulation of 530,655 for the six months ending June 30, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, up from the previous year.

The April issue, now on newsstands, lists 11 "contributing writers," or freelancers.

 

Chart in report shows circulation of major Spanish-language dailies for the six-month periods ending Sept. 30, 2001, through those ending Sept. 30, 2008 (Audit Bureau of Circulations.)

Pew Issues "Bleakest" Report on State of News Media

"Even before the recession, the fundamental question facing journalism was whether the news industry could win a race against the clock for survival: could it find new ways to underwrite the gathering of news online, while using the declining revenue of the old platforms to finance the transition?" began the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism’s sixth edition of its annual report on the State of the News Media in the United States.

"In the last year, two important things happened that have effectively shortened the time left on that clock.

"First, the hastening audience migration to the Web means the news industry has to reinvent itself sooner than it thought—even if most of those people are going to traditional news destinations. At least in the short run, a bigger online audience has worsened things for legacy news sites, not helped them.

"Then came the collapsing economy. The numbers are only guesses, but executives estimate that the recession at least doubled the revenue losses in the news industry in 2008, perhaps more in network television. Even more important, it swamped most of the efforts at finding new sources of revenue. In trying to reinvent the business, 2008 may have been a lost year, and 2009 threatens to be the same.

"Imagine someone about to begin physical therapy following a stroke, suddenly contracting a debilitating secondary illness."

In a report it described as its "bleakest" in the series, it said of Hispanic media, "the year proved by no means dismal but neither did it match several years of strong growth. And the outlook for 2009 was cautious." It also examined other ethnic media.

Laid-Off Editor at Miami Herald Thinking Globally

South Florida media watcher Bob Norman has compiled a list¬†of those laid off or otherwise affected by the Miami Herald’s plans¬†"to cut 19 percent of its workforce, reduce salaries of those who remain and require one week unpaid furloughs," as publisher David Landsberg announced on Wednesday.

"What follows are names that have been given by sources, most of them confirmed. Names are trickling out; most inside the newsroom aren’t sure who is being forced out yet."

The "work-in-progress list" includes reporter Jose Pagliery, photo director Luis Rios, photographer Lilly Echeverria and assistant world editor Michael Ottey.

"Business reporter Bea Garcia and foreign desk web editor Juan Tamayo were downsized to part-time work," it said. Other journalists of color are at risk of being laid off if not enough volunteers are found.

"I will try to land a communications job with an agency involved in global issues," Ottey told Journal-isms on Monday, confirming his layoff. "Foreign affairs, such as the World Bank, Council on Foreign Relations or even the State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs. I think my skills and foreign affairs knowledge would be perfectly matched for such a position. Looks like Washington or a foreign country are in the cards for me."

Staff of PBS’ "Now" to Take 8-Week Furlough

John Siceloff, executive producer of "NOW" on PBS, had good news and bad for his staff on Monday.

"We were just notified that NOW on PBS won the top award for political journalism on television, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, given by the Annenberg Center at USC. We tied with ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos,’ and beat every other news show on every network and every cable channel.

"And that’s not all. The polling company Erdos and Morgan found that opinion leaders consider NOW on PBS to be the ‘most credible’ weekly television news show on television."

Then the bad news: "We’re a million dollars short for 2009. PBS has maintained its generous support, but many of the philanthropies who support NOW have had to make severe cuts in their grants to the show, due to plummeting endowments.

"Every member of the staff, including me, will take an unpaid eight-week furlough this year. In that way, we avoid losing our most important resource: our journalists. No one will be laid off."

Lead correspondent Maria Hinojosa told Journal-isms in a hurried e-mail, "i am just staying focused on the work i love what i do but these are very very [scary] times. i am going to work on latino USA and my wgbh tv show (one on one with maria hinojosa) and spend time with my family who are desperate to see me."

Her assistant, Tesfaye Negussie, who is African American, said he planned to freelance during his furlough, doing political stories for public radio’s "Latino USA" and working on a short documentary.

Harpo Productions is the foundation of Oprah Winfrey’s media empire. (Credit: wikipedia.org)

Billionaire Oprah Gains in Net Worth as Others Lose

Oprah Winfrey was the only black media figure to make Forbes magazine’s 23rd annual World Billionaires List, as Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson dropped off.

Winfrey "is a rare gainer in terms of both rank and net worth . . . She jumped from spot 462 to 234 with her estimated net worth rising from $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion, according to Forbes," Georg Szalai wrote last week in the Hollywood Reporter.

Mexican telecom titan Carlos Slim Hel??, who last month bailed out the New York Times with a loan of $250 million, lost $25 billion and dropped one spot to No. 3.

The world’s richest black person¬†was Ethiopia-born business tycoon Mohamed Al Amoudi, 97th richest, with a net worth of $9 billion. Now a Saudi citizen, he made his fortune in construction and real estate before entering the energy business.

No reason was given for Johnson’s decline, and Johnson did not respond to requests for comment. But a story by Forbes’ Luisa Kroll, Matthew Miller and Tatiana Serafin said, "The world has become a wealth wasteland. Like the rest of us, the richest people in the world have endured a financial disaster over the past year. Today there are 793 people on our list of the World’s Billionaires, a 30% decline from a year ago."

Johnson dropped off the list in 2004, but rebounded. In 2004, Forbes wrote, "The nation’s first African-American billionaire has seen his fortune shrink along with the value of the Viacom shares he got in 2001 when he sold Black Entertainment Television. Also, ex-wife Sheila got half in 2002 divorce. Became first African-American with a majority stake in a pro sports team, buying a 60% stake in the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats. Also owns the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting."¬†

Time Stands by Disputed List of Endangered Papers

Time magazine is standing by a well-circulated list it posted last week of "The 10 Major Newspapers That Will Fold Or Go Digital Next," despite withering criticism of the blogger who wrote it and the publishing conglomerate that posted it.

"Some analysis. It was the financial equivalent of somebody asking me who I think will win the World Series this year," Ted Diadiun, public editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote on Sunday. The Plain Dealer was 10th on the list.

"Except . . .

"Except that somebody at the Time magazine Web site picked up the piece and posted it on Time.com, under the heading of ‘The 10 Most Endangered Newspapers in America.’

"The ‘news’ became so viral that The Plain Dealer was forced to publish a story about it in Tuesday’s Metro section, in which Publisher Terry Egger dismissed the prediction, saying that the newspaper made money last year and is budgeted to turn a profit again in 2009.

"This whole episode ought to send a chill through anyone who values news and information that can be trusted.

"Because if the ‘good riddance’ people were to get their way, the above scenario is the kind of ‘news’ they could look forward to: stories of undefined origin handed off from Web site to Web site, changing as they go."

The Philadelphia Daily News, New York Daily News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram, also on the list, challenged the blog posting as well.

Betsy Burton, director of public relations for Time, told Journal-isms, "TIME.com has a content syndication agreement with 24/7 Wall St.," the blog it displayed. "All content syndicated from other outlets is vetted by editors at TIME.com before it is posted. This article from 24/7 Wall St. is no exception." 

Pundits Quick to Grade Obama on Fixing Economy

"As the Dow embarked on a long slide after Inauguration Day — a nearly 2,000-point slide, to be precise — the drumbeat seemed to grow louder," Howard Kurtz wrote Monday in the Washington Post.

"’There’s no confidence in Obama’s plan,’ said Fox’s Sean Hannity. ‘The markets respond to data. They have no confidence.’

"The stock market is also demonstrating a lack of confidence in the president’s big government agenda," said CNN’s Lou Dobbs.

"And it’s not just those on the right. CNBC’s Jim Cramer ‚Äî an unabashed Democrat ‚Äî complained that President Obama’s ‘radical agenda’ was causing the ‘greatest wealth destruction I’ve seen by a president.’

"But is it fair to hurl such charges at a president who’s been in office for less than eight weeks? Isn’t Obama trying to dig out from the huge economic mess left by his predecessor?

"The chatter reflects a fast-forward culture that demands snap judgments. The cable news channels, not content to wait for the traditional 100-day benchmark — itself an artificial media construct — were grading Obama last week on his 50-day performance.

"’Fixing the economy is not a television-friendly story,’ says Fortune Managing Editor Andy Serwer. ‘A plane crash in the Hudson where everyone survives is a television-friendly story. This is a slog.’"

Obama is scheduled to appear on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno on Thursday to talk about his economic plan. It is the first appearance by a sitting U.S. president on a late-night TV talk show, according to Reuters. 

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