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Grangenois Named Publisher of Chronicle of Higher Ed

Mireille Grangenois, who started her career in newsrooms 30 years ago but left after a decade for positions on the business side of newspapers, in new media and in public relations, is returning to journalism as publisher of the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Grangenois, 53, will oversee advertising for the two newspapers and its three Web sites – http://www.chronicle.com, http://philanthropy.com, and Arts & Letters Daily, http://www.aldaily.com/ – as well as its newsletters and special reports, including The Chronicle Review, the organization announced on Thursday.

She told Journal-isms that in these economic times, philanthropy and higher education are in the thick of seeking and promoting new economic models. "Innovation and new ways of doing things. Have you ever known of a time when we needed that more?" she asked.

The Chronicle publications were among the first to be on the Web, she said. "I’m joining a very nimble and very smart team of leaders."

"With the appointment of Grangenois, The Chronicle has redefined the publisher’s role to include oversight of all revenue-producing areas – including display advertising, classified, and circulation – as well as marketing and new-product development," the Chronicle’s announcement said.

‘We are delighted to have a professional with such a breadth of media experience in both editorial and business taking the reins at this critical juncture in the Chronicle’s history,’ said Philip W. Semas, editor in chief of The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc., in the release. ‘Her wide-ranging background will be a tremendous asset as we work to strengthen our existing businesses, in print and online, and develop new services and sources of revenue. She also understands the important roles that higher education and philanthropy play in society and the important roles that our publications play in those fields.’

Grangenois began her newspaper career as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun in 1978. She went on to serve as a correspondent for Business Week magazine in New York and Detroit and as a reporter for USA Today and Gannett News Service in Arlington, Va.

"In 1988 she became director, minority affairs, for the American Society of Newspapers Editors in Reston, Va. From 1990 to 1998, she held positions with Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. In her last position there, she served as director of retail advertising," according to a bio.

"While at The Baltimore Sun from 2000 to 2007, Grangenois oversaw a 200-person sales division, and served as vice president for marketing and interactive media and as general manager of baltimoresun.com. For the past two years, she has been a managing director at Burson-Marsteller, a worldwide public relations firm, where she created . . . a new multicultural practice serving clients such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the United Negro College Fund, and Amgen, a human-therapeutics company.

"Grangenois is married to Steven Holmes, former New York Times and Washington Post journalist who now is CNN’s executive director for Standards and Practices."

 

After the bloodletting, a reorganization at the Baltimore Sun.

Few of Color in Baltimore Sun’s Reorganization

After laying off 61 people Рincluding at least eight of color -in its newsroom, the Baltimore Sun on Friday announced a reorganization plan to implement what spokeswoman Renee Mutchnik said had said would help transform it into "a 24-hour, local news-gathering media company so we can more effectively gather content and distribute it among our different platforms: print, online and mobile."

Few journalists of color were listed in the staff memo.

Sam Davis, assistant managing editor for recruiting and staff development and the highest ranking journalist of color, told Journal-isms his role was unaffected.

Named in the announcement were columnist Jean Marbella as politics and government editor; Michelle Deal-Zimmerman as one of four content editors, lifestyle, and Maryann James, community coordinator, lifestyle,

The roles become effective on Monday.

Columnist Tells Readers, "My Cancer is Gone"

"To my dear readers:" Mary Mitchell began her Chicago Sun-Times blog on Wednesday.

"Words cannot adequately express my appreciation for your prayers, messages of encouragement, flowers and cards.

"As expected, I faced my fight against breast cancer with the unswerving love and devotion of my family and friends.

"But I also had the support of strangers, many of whom shared comforting expressions of faith and hope. Some of these supporters were fans. Some were critics. All who reached out shared their belief that I could conquer the crippling fear of a cancer diagnosis.

"On Wednesday, I got good news from Dr. Andrea Madrigrano, the surgeon who performed the first phase of my treatment: my cancer is gone."

Mitchell disclosed her cancer to readers on April 13, saying she had been diagnosed a month earlier.

"I spent days weeping and praying before I had the strength to even begin researching my disease," she said.

Tim Jackson

Flu Threat Said to Be Dwarfed by Gun Violence

"The deadly contagion is spreading, striking down young and old, well-heeled and downtrodden, sophisticates and illiterates. Last year alone, the affliction killed thousands in Mexico and even more in the United States," Cynthia Tucker wrote Wednesday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"Not swine flu. Gun violence. While federal and state authorities are preoccupied with preventing a swine flu pandemic from overwhelming the United States, the epidemic of gun violence rages on, unabated and little noted.

". . . We have an odd way of assessing risks. While swine flu may yet emerge as a full-scale pandemic, it hasn’t proved especially lethal so far. Even in Mexico, where public health facilities are not as well developed as in the United States, the death toll has crept past 150 but hasn’t claimed lives on the scale of drug-related gun violence."

Too Much on Obama’s Personal Life, Poll Says

"Most Americans say that the news media has devoted too much coverage to Barack Obama’s family and personal life during his first months as president, but the right amount of coverage to his leadership style and his policy proposals," the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported¬† on Wednesday.

"The latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted April 24-27 . . . finds that just over half (53%) of the public says there has been too much coverage of Obama’s family and personal life, while 40% say the amount of coverage has been about right. Just 4% say there has been too little on this topic.

"By contrast, the public believes news organizations are devoting the right amount of coverage to Obama’s leadership style and the way he is managing his job (60% right amount) and the policies he has proposed (58%). In terms of policy proposals, however, more than twice as many say there has been too little coverage than too much coverage (27% vs. 12%).

"A separate news content analysis released April 28 by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that Obama has enjoyed substantially more positive coverage than either of his predecessors during his first months in the White House. And it finds that the coverage has focused significantly more on his personal and leadership qualities than the early coverage of either George W. Bush or Bill Clinton."

Meanwhile, President Obama’s primetime press conference Wednesday averaged 18.8 million viewers across the three broadcast networks that aired it, David Tanklefsky reported¬†in Broadcasting & Cable. That number was down from the 29.5 million that tuned in on the four broadcast networks for the Mar. 24 press conference. Fox, which chose not air it, did not see improved ratings to "Lie To Me," though the network did have the highest rating of the hour due to audiences splintering across the three networks that ran Obama.

Think Twice About "Reverse Discrimination" Term

"First of all, I don’t believe there’s anything such as reverse discrimination. You can be discriminated against because you’re White or Black or Asian. But there’s no thing as reverse discrimination. It’s a misnomer," lawyer Darrell S. Gay of the DLA Piper law firm told the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a 2007 hearing.

He’s right, but opponents of affirmative action have succeeded in making the term part of the political – and media – discourse. Those who use it often don’t realize they are taking sides in an argument.

The term is in the news again because the Supreme Court began hearing arguments last month in a landmark case filed by 17 white and one Latino firefighter against the city of New Haven, Conn., who say the city threw out the results of promotion tests because no African Americans qualified.

The term "reverse discrimination" is not in the Justice Department’s friend of the court brief, a department spokesman told Journal-isms.

Nor is it in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, national origin, or religion and is the basis for most anti-discrimination legal action.

But it’s all over an Associated Press story¬†that leans heavily on quotes from Roger Clegg, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, "a conservative think tank that advocates eliminating race and ethnic considerations."

The term apparently began sometime in the 1970s, promoted by those who wanted to equate efforts to redress discrimination against blacks with the discrimination itself. In the same spirit, Ward Connerly, who crusades from state to state against affirmative action, calls his organization the American Civil Rights Foundation.

Dianna Johnston, an assistant legal counsel at the EEOC who specializes in Title VII, told Journal-isms that "A claim of race discrimination can be brought regardless of whether alleged discrimination is because the complainant is African-American, Caucasian, Asian, or any other racial group."

Asked if the commission ever uses the term, she said, "it recognizes the term but analyzes race discrimination cases the same, regardless of the race of the victim of discrimination."

"United in Marriage, Separated by Red Tape"

Kimi Yoshino, a Los Angeles Times journalist on assignment in Baghdad, fell in love with an Iraqi reporter for the paper. But it’s his brother who is let into the U.S. as her husband languishes, the Times said in summarizing Yoshino’s first-person story, which appeared¬†on Wednesday. A pocket video camera became Yoshino’s constant companion, and through e-mailed video journals her husband met her friends and discovered her neighborhood. (Credit: Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

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