Mediaverse®

On Ernest Withers (The Federal Ruling)

2012-02-01T02:28:00.000-06:00

A U.S. District Court judge agrees with the Commercial Appeal that the late Ernest Withers' role as an FBI informant has been "officially confirmed," the newspaper reported Wednesday. An excerpt:

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, in response to a lawsuit by The Commercial Appeal, marks the first time a federal official has affirmed what FBI records already state: Withers, a civil rights insider, secretly worked as an informant during the heated struggle for equality in the 1960s.

Its historical impact aside, Jackson's ruling gives new life to the newspaper's suit seeking the release of Withers' informant file, a set of records expected to help gauge the full scope of his work for the FBI.

Jackson ordered the FBI to produce an index of any and all records in that file by March 16.

"With this common-sense ruling, the court has strongly encouraged the FBI to finally provide a clear picture of what our government was up to when it recruited citizens to monitor civil rights leaders," said the newspaper's Washington attorney, Charles D. Tobin.

"We hope the government will listen to her and release the entire Withers file."

Judge Jackson's ruling also notes that the Feds still do not confirm or deny Withers' role, which turns out to be standard protocol in these cases involving informants.

Yet, the FBI's own Keystone-Cop errors in responding to the CA's Freedom of Information Act requests since 2008--including inadvertently failing to redact Withers' informant number, which opened the door for the CA's 2010 report, as well as subsequently redacting that same info when filing documents as a court exhibit last year--led to Judge Jackson's conclusion of an official confirmation about Withers.

The Feds can appeal, and if they don't, the larger question is: what does the FBI actually have to reveal about Withers' file?

An excerpt from the ruling:

As a final point of clarification, the Court does not hold that the informant file must be produced – only that if the FBI has relied on the (c)(2) exclusion to treat the records as outside the scope of FOIA, that exclusion is no longer available in this case. So the FBI must review the file if it exists and then either produce the responsive documents or provide a Vaughn index identifying the specific exemptions under which any responsive documents have been withheld.

["(c)(2) exclusion" = "(2) Whenever informant records maintained by a criminal law enforcement agency under an informant's name or personal identifier are requested by a third party according to the informant's name or personal identifier, the agency may treat the records as not subject to the requirements of this section unless the informant's status as an informant has been officially confirmed."]

The key here seems to be the Vaughn index, which is an index of all the documents that have been redacted or withheld that provides the rationale for the redactions/withholding. The Vaughn index has to be detailed enough for a judge who knows nothing about the case to be able to decide whether the redactions/withholding are justified or not.

I'm no lawyer but Google suggests to me that this is not a good thing. For instance, when there are multiple redactions/withholdings, a Vaughn index can be coded, and that "coding" does little to advance the cause of journalism. An excerpt from the Justice Department:

A true Vaughn index identifies discrete portions of documents and identifies the exemption pertaining to each portion of the document. In most cases, such an index provides the date, source, recipient, subject matter and nature of each document in sufficient detail to permit the requesting party to argue effectively against the claimed exemptions and for the court to assess the applicability of the claimed exemptions.

To that end, the judge's denial of the CA's request to view Withers' files in chambers or in private is as equally significant as the confirmation because the ruling may not end up as a real win for the CA at all.

On The Mileposts (Measuring Commercial Appeal)

2012-01-29T21:53:00.001-06:00

In today's edition, Commercial Appeal Editor Chris Peck laid out the 10 mileposts that the newspaper will use to gauge whether 2012 proves successful.

The mileposts are: 1) integrate The Commercial Appeal into the larger Scripps business plan for newspapers; 2) keep maximum feet on the street; 3) strengthen reader-generated content; 4) focus on Sunday; 5) expand and improve the paid digital strategy; 6) identify our franchise beats and cover them well; 7) keep at investigative and big-picture project reporting; 8) efficient management and operations; 9) meet the budget, maintain staffing; and 10) communicate and collaborate on a constructive newsroom culture.

These are arguably recycled each year with evolving degrees of difficulty for individual success; the fifth milepost--the paid digital strategy--represents this best.

An excerpt from Peck:

5) Expand and improve our paid digital strategy. The bottom line is this: We need to get our readers into the habit of subscribing in print and subscribing on digital platforms like the iPhone, Android, iPad and other tablet products. Giving all our content away free on a website isn't a sustainable business model.

In 2011, we launched our comprehensive paid digital strategy, and it has been embraced more enthusiastically than we could have imagined. More than 1,000 digital-only paid subscriptions in just two months. More than 11,000 print subscribers signed up for our digital offers. We want to build on this success.

Two months. One thousand digital-only subscriptions. Just over seven percent of print subscribers have digital (i.e. Sunday circulation is 147,000, down 28 percent since 2006). If that's an embracing--an enthusiastic one at that--then the newspaper's imagination seems delusional. Or perhaps, it simply reflects how a really low bar was exceeded. Or this reflects how the CA's hardcore users have responded.

But I digress.

The Commercial Appeal's print circulation (daily and Sunday) has declined every year since 2006 (see the charts above). Considering this, the paywall is arguably one to two years late. As Peck notes in the excerpt, can the CA get readers to change their habits and subscribe to both? Subscribing to both basically slows the decline of print while building digital as its complement or eventual replacement.

Yet, can that occur fast enough?

In the Nieman Journalism Lab, Newsonomics Guru Ken Doctor offers quite a few takeaways on newspapers that are worth considering. For example, on the mindset of most newspapers, an excerpt:

The old companies are still stuck in a manufacturing mindset. Kodak creates film and products. Sears sells products. Newspapers print products and far too many “print” websites. The new world is about service. iPhone photos are about capturing moments, sometimes for family scrapbooks, but far more often adding to our individual and collective memories, of events, places; they are the kinds ofextensions to our brains that we’ve lately come to accept. Retailers like Target (“Expect more. Pay less.”) are about about price, but also attitude and service. News is about getting what I want now, not a physical product. Of course, it’s tough to change such a manufacturing mindset — one that produced profits to drool over for decades. The manufacturing mindset, though, is oh-so-last-century, and those that adhere to it are going down with it.

The CA has the best of both worlds but the "manufacturing mindset" is still prevalent because the digital edition simply mimics the print one. That's a problem.

To build off Doctor, how much of a service does commercialappeal.com really provide?

The site doesn't seem to enhance the user experience enough to lure more people to buy digital only subscriptions or bundle it with print.

(This isn't a content issue--though the CA's franchise beat approach does more damage to the city/county than it helps because it reinforces the fishbowl. There's more to Memphis than just crime, government, education and basketball.)

Here's what the CA could still do: build its digital staff.

Whereas fewer copy editors are needed because that work will be done off site, why not retrain those workers to be programmers and create a better digital experience?

*Doctor: The magic formula.

On The Fallout (The Suburban Rush)

2012-01-20T12:43:00.000-06:00

What's the rush?

One by one, the suburbs--Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Arlington--have received their consultant reports on the feasibility of starting their own municipal school districts.

While Millington's report is still to come, it's likely to mimic most of the others in its determination that 1) a municipal school district is feasible; 2) it can be financed relatively cheaply via property tax or sales tax; and 3) the schools within its boundaries should be transferred from Shelby County Schools for free.

Armed with this knowledge -- which one could argue shouldn't be taken as a legal green light -- suburban officials are now talking about referendums, hiring school superintendents, school board elections and more. The rush is on to open their school districts by August 2013, the date that the consolidation of Memphis City Schools and SCS should be completed and truly open for business. That's also when the Norris-Todd Law (also known as Public Chapter No. 1) re-opens the book for municipal districts as well as special districts.

Understandably, the suburbs want to be ready on that proverbial Day One; however, for all this talk about wanting quality schools and education, what's the rush?

Here's the pertinent passage from Public Chapter No.1:

From and after the effective date of the transfer of the administration of the schools in the special school district to the county board of education, the restrictions imposed on the creation of municipal school districts, in § 6-58-112(b ), and special school districts, in§ 49-2-501 (b)(3). shall no longer apply in such county.

Do you see a deadline in that passage? I'm just sayin, "from and after" seems pretty open-ended to me.
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For the record, the legal arguments presented in the suburban studies make as much sense as SCS did when it sued MCS on behalf of Memphis students in order to stop the charter surrender. The point is that one can make crazy claims but it doesn't mean that they will win in court. (Cloudy.)

But I digress.

An excerpt from Smart City Memphis on the burbs:

The other thing that’s telling about Mayor Goldsworthy’s comments about the school district was that she never talked about education. It was all about politics. It was about counting votes on the planning commission to marginalize any influence by Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, an objective that received warm applause from the crowd.

That in a nutshell does in fact sum up the back story on the towns’ school districts. It is all about political power, not student performance. It is about isolationism, and the fulfillment of a derivative and vanilla world that shuns “the other” and clings to a community of the “right people.”

Given the speed at which the suburbs want to move, one has to question whether the end result will be of any real quality.

This is quite different than MCS moving to surrender its charter as a means to prevent SCS from forming a special school district and endangering MCS's funding. What is now Public Chapter No. 1 is proof alone that the will existed within the Tennessee General Assembly to create another special district in Shelby County. At the very least, though, MCS and SCS have generations of experience running school systems and providing education.

Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville, Lakeland, Arlington and Millington have no experience at all. So pardon my skepticism when the Bartlett mayor talks about getting education right. He's simply misguided if he thinks that a Bartlett school district will be exemplary on Day One. All of the school districts can't hire the same superintendent. They might not be able to hire--or better yet, afford--the same teachers. And so forth.

But any of these prospective school districts could come closer to what these suburban leaders envision if they just take their time.
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The reality is that this ongoing gold rush for muni districts should not be happening.

For one, the unified SCS Board isn't even challenging the validity of Public Chapter No. 1 as it applies to the creation of muni and special school districts. (There may be legal fights over the transfer of buildings. WMC. MDN.)

Two, the state General Assembly, which re-opened those district doors on basically 2-to-1 votes in both chambers, isn't likely to reverse itself any time soon. Shelby County Democrats have no clout in Nashville.

And three, did I mention the words "from and after" from Public Chapter No. 1?

OK, just checking.
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Perhaps, these suburban leaders feel that it could be harder to breakaway once the unified county system gets its legs underneath it -- or buckles.

But it is beyond head-scratching to read and listen to these news reports of suburban pollyanna.

As fluid as educational reform and these measurements are now, one could foresee Shelby County having multiple under-performing school districts for no other reason than being administrative novices. (Fox13)

Wouldn't that be a boon for economic development? Well, at least for private schools.

Yet, if they bide their time, learn more about the process, get some real numbers to work with, develop some sound educational goals and win a few lawsuits, the suburbs will be right where they want to be -- and no one could fault them for choosing their own path.

* CA: The Hurdles.
*Flyer: Revenge.
*WREG: Money.

On Measuring Truth (Politifact Tennessee)

2012-01-15T18:03:00.001-06:00

The Commercial Appeal is now measuring the truth.

Along with its fellow Scripps paper, The Knoxville News Sentinel, the CA launched the latest state incarnation of the Pulitzer Prize winning fact-checking site, Politifact.

Politifact Tennessee joins Florida (the original), Georgia, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Oregon, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. PTenn--as I'll refer to it--features a staff of seven reporters/editors headed by CA Assistant Metro Editor/Reporter Zack McMillin. However, Politifact creator Bill Adair will oversee the site as he does with all the others. (For instance, Adair edited this fact check of Congressman Steve Cohen that was written and researched by McMillin.)

PTenn launched online Friday. Its first fact-check appeared in print in today's edition. Here's an excerpt from CA Editor Chris Peck on the launch:

All told, seven reporters and editors from Memphis and Knoxville have gone through some exacting training for how to fact-check an item for PolitiFact Tennessee. The training focused on where to go for original documents and nonpoliticized sources and how to double-check facts.

Why is this different from what journalists do every day? Well, to be honest, much of daily news is driven by what someone said, and how someone else responded, and that's what time permits.

The PolitiFact Tennessee team will take the time to go back and check. And interestingly, when reporters start to dig deeper the picture isn't always clear. Inevitable gray areas and some degree of judgment emerge in most political proclamations. Most of our world isn't starkly black and white, all true or all false. Nuance, exaggeration or personal interpretations all add to the flavor of a political statement.

PolitiFact Tennessee will analyze specific statements of politicians and then put the Truth-O-Meter to them. The Truth-O-Meter will run in print and on the PolitiFact Tennessee website and will rate statements across the spectrum of true, mostly true, half true, mostly false, false or a pants-on-fire lie.

According to Peck, the PTenn Truth-O-Meter results will be published on Sundays and Mondays just like the News Sentinel, though its unclear if local public radio will build on the discussion during morning drives like it will in Knoxville.

As I said on Twitter Friday, all I can is, "It's about time."

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Peck gave verse to the truth and nothing but the truth when he noted that "much of daily news is driven by what someone said, and how someone else responded, and that's what time permits."

Indeed, the news is often what time permits, which brings to mind the furor of last week when the New York Times' Public Editor Arthur Brisbane wondered whether NYT reporters should be "truth vigilantes." In other words, within their stories, should NYT reporters seek to challenge statements asserted by newsmakers? For example, Brisbane noted:

If so, then perhaps the next time Mr. Romney says the president has a habit of apologizing for his country, the reporter should insert a paragraph saying, more or less:

“The president has never used the word ‘apologize’ in a speech about U.S. policy or history. Any assertion that he has apologized for U.S. actions rests on a misleading interpretation of the president’s words.”

On the regular, I would kill for this sort of clarification but, to the point of this post, I seriously doubt that most reporters would have the time verify it on deadline by themselves.

That's why we have so many stories where newsmakers are allowed to run amuck with wild statements that are only "balanced" with quick reactions from others. On deadline, there's only enough time to ask someone else, "What do you think?"

If one can get that much. Deeper analysis, which often brings much needed context and challenge, tends to come later, typically on a Sunday (time and space issues), if at all.

That's not an excuse but one must understand how news works. But I digress.

Whereas the NYT might boast an ample research operation, I would be hard-pressed to say the same for the CA. I'm just sayin, how well staffed is the library at the CA?

The library is where the institutional knowledge is found when the reporters with long memories have long since been fired or retired. Yet, it seems like much of that has been ceded to Yahoo!-powered website searches and Google -- and even then, adequate context can be lacking beyond what was previously reported.

So, with that in mind, I welcome a venture that takes the time to challenge and go deep in a manner that isn't dependent on newsprint.
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ON ANOTHER NOTE, I'm a little mixed on the inability to comment on fact checks -- except on Facebook.

Besides Facebook, one can send a Letter To The Editor or E-mail the fact check writer. Perhaps, that's one way to ward off trollers as well as to inoculate oneself from the travails of anonymous submissions.

When one sends a letter, it's with the understanding that the letter might be published; I guess the thinking is that a knowing person would take steps to submit something truthful or accurate. But wouldn't PTenn fact check it anyway?

But I digress.

Unless you read the CA today, you really have no idea who is on the PTenn staff: McMillin, CA's Nashville Bureau Chief Richard Locker and Washington Correspondent Bart Sullivan. (Knoxville has Sunday Editor Steve Ahillen, Washington Correspondent Michael Collins and Nashville Bureau chief Tom Humphrey.)

All veterans of the political beat. Trusting voices for sure. (Others can argue whether they can discern "truth" but Politifact pretty much takes out the guesswork on what gets measured and how.)

I'm not really concerned with whether McMillin will have less time to focus on school consolidation issues (a re-org that put editorial writer Michael Kelley on the education beat should take care of that) or whether Locker will be distracted from his duties watching the Tennessee Legislature.

Considering that the venture launched on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am concerned that all of the PTenn staffers are white and male.

I'm just sayin, as a stickler for diversity, how does this venture create an opportunity for the next drum majors for truth?

The truth is that it doesn't.

*NPR: Lie of the Year.
*NYT: Politifact, R.I.P.

ON AN UNRELATED BUT RELATED NOTE: Congressman Steve Cohen didn't appreciate his Pants-On-Fire designation. Click on the picture to enlarge:

McMillin's response:

On New Year, New Responsibilities (CA Staff Restructuring)

2012-01-05T19:43:00.000-06:00

On Thursday afternoon, The Commercial Appeal announced a restructuring of its staff that primarily impacted editors and the editorial board. It comes after the CA eliminated 36 positions among other steps last month in the name of efficiency. (M:M)

For instance, longtime editorial page writer Michael Kelley will now move to the metro desk and cover education. Jane Roberts will still cover Memphis City Schools.

There's more in Peck's E-mail to staff, which is posted in full after the break:

We're into a new year, looking at new challenges, and will be asking some of our folks to take on new responsibilities in the newsroom.

Effective January 16:

John Stamm will move to the job of metro editor. We've been pressed for editing help the last year and John's experience gives us a strong new member for our local news editing team.

Scott Sines, as associate editor, will continue to oversee photo, design and digital desks and take on John Stamm's responsibilities for the copy desk and production. Scott will lead our efforts to bring a new Saxotech front-end system into the newsroom, make the transition to a universal design, build a virtual copy/design desk and continue development of our paid digital strategy.

Michael Kelley will shift to education reporter. Michael will be leaving the editorial board and joining the metro staff as an education reporter. He's been a great contributor to the editorial pages and will be the same off the metro desk.

Roland Klose, David Williams and Scott Sines will rotate through editorial board. With Michael's departure, these editors will fill in one day a week as editorial writers. In addition, Chris Peck will be writing 2-3 editorials a week along with Jerome Wright who continues as our lead editorial writer.

Teri Hayslett will assume some new duties in the library. With Rosemary Nelms' retirement, Teri will move into the library workflow as part of her expanded duties. She will continue to assist David Waters with Faith in Memphis.

Wendi Thomas will move to a Monday night metro editing shift. This fills a hole and gives us more editing depth from a talented journalist.

We'll have many details to work out in the next few days and weeks, related to a restructured metro desk, a new copy desk and design desk workflow, and a revised digital desk operation.

Through it all, we'll strive to keep putting out a good newspaper, keep supporting one another.

I much appreciate your efforts.

Chris Peck – Editor
The Commercial Appeal

On Dog Gone (Mike Matthews)

2012-01-03T21:12:00.000-06:00

UPDATE (1/3): ABC 24/30's Cameron Harper broke the news that Mike Matthews has been hired as a reporter for the Twin Stations -- an unconfirmed rumor for the past few weeks. An excerpt from the CA:

Station general manager Rene LaSpina confirmed the hiring, acknowledging that today marks the first day that Matthews is an official employee of WPTY. Adding that she’s known the reporter for years, LaSpina said she’s thrilled to have Matthews at the station.

“We were fortunate to be able to take advantage of Mike’s availability and move forward with this deal,” LaSpina said. “He’ll bring a great level of experience to both our stations, ABC-24 and CW30.”

I'll be watching. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

UPDATE (10/4): The Commercial Appeal posted its Matthews story Monday and the comment section is, well, the comment section.

On Twitter, Matthews confirmed his dismissal from WREG and said he wants to find a way to stay in Memphis. Yet, is that even possible?

I'm just sayin, this is a different situation than when Andy Wise, for instance, left WREG for WMC. For one, Wise already had a job lined up whereas Matthews apparently does not. The other question is whether there is a non-compete clause affecting Matthews.

When Wise bolted, a non-compete clause kept him off the air for a year -- though he worked behind the scenes.

To that end, there's a reason why you rarely see former WREG reporters immediately rehired at other local stations. Amy Speropoulus left for awhile before she returned and was hired at WMC; however, her departure and return were under far different circumstances than Wise or Matthews.

Nevertheless, it doesn't look good for the Dog -- unless, he wants to be a producer or editor for a year. (Or maybe not, a source says WREG reportedly will pay Matthews for the remainder of this year and then waive Matthews' non-compete clause. That means he'll be off the air until January at least.)

ORIGINAL POST (10/1): The Dog is gone at WREG News Channel 3, according to sources.

Mike Matthews, also known as "The Watchdog" for his government reporting, was dismissed after the station declined to renew his contract, sources said. Matthews was one of the longest serving television reporters in the city; he joined the CBS affiliate in 1997.

Neither WREG nor Matthews could be reached for comment.

For certain, Matthews was the kind of reporter that people either loved or disliked.

Take his presence on Twitter, which reportedly got him in trouble on occasion. His tweets were funny, profane, self-deprecating, sarcastic and more.

In short, he was an acquired taste. Many questioned his comedy; few could question his commitment to journalism. A sample of the reaction to news about Matthews' departure:

His bio:

Mike Matthews has a nickname, he's referred to as the "Government Watchdog." That's because Mike tackles the tough stories in city and county government.

Mike came to News Channel 3 in September 1997. He grew up in Walpole, Massachusetts and went to Curry College where he majored in communications.

His first broadcasting jobs were at television and radio stations in New England: Presque Isle, Maine, and Springfield, Massachusetts. Then, according to Mike, "I got smart and headed south to work in Columbia and Greenville, South Carolina, before parking myself in Charlotte, North Carolina."

Mike worked in the Queen City in television and talk radio for 13 years before moving to Memphis. He says he has grown quite fond of the Bluff City. "I can't believe how lucky a guy I am. I love this city. I love the history...the culture...the whole thing. This city has it all...and I love it."

More as this story develops.

ON AN UNRELATED, BUT RELATED, NOTE: WREG's Omari Fleming will join WXTF in Philadelphia on Nov. 1. He has been a reporter and weekend anchor at WREG for 10 years.

On Hindsight (2011)

2012-01-03T00:22:00.000-06:00

Top news story of 2011? The nuking of Memphis City Schools. (MDN)
Top media-related story of 2011? The Commercial Appeal paywall. (M:M)

*MDN: Banking. Health Care. Social Media. City. Restaurants. Small Biz. Nonprofits. CRE. Wrapped.
*CA: Sports. Domestic violence. Movies. Homicides.
*WMC: Viewer's Choice.
*Flyer: Music. Sports. News. Politics. Film. Locals. Editor. Fly on the wall. Food. Branston.
*Fox13: Year in review: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

On Barney Sellers (Godspeed)

2012-01-02T22:58:00.000-06:00

Former Commercial Appeal photog Barney Sellers passed away Monday. He was 85. An excerpt:A native of Walnut Ridge, Ark., Sellers was a Navy veteran and a graduate of Arkansas State University, the newspaper’s first photographer with a journalism degree who built his portfolio with a Speed Graphic camera.

“At the time I started here, just about every photographer in the USA wanted to work for Life magazine,” Sellers said when he retired in 1988, “but I wanted to stay here because this is my home region.”

In 1957, Sellers shot a photograph for the newspaper at a clothing store showing a man shaking hands with an arm coming out of a coat jacket hanging on a rack. The comical picture caught the eye of editors at Life magazine, which later gave it the full-page treatment.

Colleagues said Sellers was a go-to person for the newspaper's daily diet of quality photos.

“He was good at just about any phase of photography,” said former photo editor Bob Williams, who joined The Commercial Appeal in 1949, three years before Sellers. “He was an institution at the paper. I depended a lot on Barney B. (His middle name was Bryan.) I loved him like a brother.”

Godspeed, Mr. Sellers.

On Josh Pastner (Earning Stripes)

2011-12-24T12:08:00.002-06:00

With a 6-5 record, the Tiger men's basketball team needs an adjustment -- or as the Commercial Appeal notes, a change in stripes.

Tiger Beat Reporter Jason Smith offered a pretty good analysis of the problems that are plaguing the Tigers thus far via the perspective of two longtime sports journalists, Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com and Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News.

No offense to Goodman --who suggested that Pastner's race may also be a factor in his ability to deal with inner-city players (which is B.S. since his race didn't inhibit all these players from signing letters of intent when he recruited them) --but he really didn't add much to the conversation beyond the fact that Pastner needs to wield more power with playing time.

So, let's focus on DeCourcy. An excerpt:

Sporting News college basketball columnist Mike DeCourcy said if Pastner has made any mistakes, it was in his scheduling this season and his hiring last August of Los Angeles Lakers forward Luke Walton as an assistant coach. DeCourcy added, however, that he believes in Pastner's abilities as a head coach.

"You have to maximize your ability," said DeCourcy, who was inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame on Friday. "I think three things put them in a position where they would not maximize their ability. The first was the need to schedule in a more difficult fashion than what most programs, with their built-in advantages in so many other areas, would have.

"The second one is when you do schedule in a more challenging fashion, I think you have to know your team. Murray State (was) a high-risk, minimal-reward game. You lose that game and it hurts. If you're going to play so many really challenging games with brand names, that was a game they probably should've avoided. The third thing is I think the biggest mistake Josh made in the offeseaon was bringing in Luke. I'll never understand why he did it. I know there were good people that wanted the job. You have to know what your strengths are as a coach and what you need around you, and I don't think any of that is a guy who is just basically killing time."

Well stated.

_____________________________________________
Let's rewind for a second.

If I'm not mistaken, the Tigers were criticized for their relatively weak-non-conference schedule in the 2010-2011 season. Kansas, Georgetown and Tennessee were the highlights; all were losses. The team still made it to the second-round of the NCAA tournament, where they lost a close game to Arizona.

Given the talent level, people expected more. This season's tougher non-conference schedule is arguably a response to those expectations -- and Pastner's. In an interview with Smith after last season, he said that he wanted to have a tougher non-conference schedule this season because he believed that his young team would have the experience to withstand the challenges.

Pastner believes his team and program is elite; he wanted a schedule to reflect that. He got it. Despite their play, he also has the talent to compete with that schedule.

Yet, what he doesn't have is enough personal experience to help a fragile squad to deal with the hurt from so many tough losses.

I'm just sayin, what can he tap into? His time as a walk-on at Arizona? Years of sacrifice as an assistant? He has plenty of theories and hypotheses but that only gets you so far.

He hasn't really earned his stripes.

I don't care who he "helped" at Arizona or in AAU. I don't care that he's amassed a 49-20 record in his first years; he's never beaten a ranked-team--or the kind of elite program that he says Memphis is. Simply put, he personally hasn't achieved what he wants HIS players to achieve.

He's a general who has never been to war -- and his troops know that.

On Mike DeCourcy (Hall of Fame)

2011-12-24T10:01:00.000-06:00

Sporting News reporter Mike DeCourcy will be inducted into the United States Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame. DeCourcy is a former Commercial Appeal reporter.

An excerpt:

DeCourcy has spent the last 11 years as Sporting News' lead college basketball writer, following stints at the Pittsburgh Press (1983-93), the Memphis Commercial-Appeal (1993-97) and the Cincinnati Enquirer (1997-2000). He also is an analyst on the Big Ten Network and can be heard year-round as a frequent guest on sports radio stations coast-to-coast.

"It's an unbelievable honor. I've been a member of the Basketball Writers Association for nearly 25 years and it's been a wonderful association," DeCourcy said Friday afternoon. "I've been so fortunate to work at some great shops, from the Pittsburgh Press to the Commercial-Appeal to Cincinnati Enquirer and, best of all, Sporting News. And it has mostly been the wonderful people I've worked with that has afforded me a chance to have something like this happen."

The ceremony will take place in April. Congrats to Mike. Well deserved.

On Receipts (Southaven Mayor Greg Davis)

2011-12-20T22:21:00.000-06:00

UPDATE (12/20): In another followup on Receiptgate, CA Reporter Yolanda Jones notes that the Southaven Board of Mayor and Aldermen will meet tonight--in executive session--to discuss the $44,000 in receipts that state auditors asked them to review.

Southaven Mayor Greg Davis is expected to be there, though he's not likely to make any public comments about the ongoing state investigation. It'll be interesting to see if the public attends. And if citizens do, what will they likely say to Davis? (DeSoto Times: Davis's future.)

Over the weekend, Jones posted another story about Davis's generous tipping at restaurants while reportedly doing city business. The story reverberated across local media in a fashion that made me wonder: is Jones the only reporter who actually managed to get her hands on the receipts?

Kudos again to her for her initiative. Simply shaking my head at everyone else.

ORIGINAL POST (12/16): In a testament of public reporting, Commercial Appeal reporter Yolanda Jones reviewed hundreds of pages of receipts that Southaven Mayor Greg Davis had submitted to the state of Mississippi in hopes of drawing down the $170,000 in reportedly improper expenses that auditors want him to repay taxpayers.

On one receipt, she uncovered one of Davis's long-held secrets: he's gay. An excerpt:

Receipts from embattled Southaven Mayor Greg Davis reveal that he had the city pay for wide-ranging expenses including thousands of dollars worth of liquor, expensive dinners at a local restaurant and a visit to an adult store catering to gay men while on a recruitment trip to Canada.

As details emerged Thursday from the receipts, provided by state auditors to Southaven aldermen and subsequently obtained by The Commercial Appeal, Davis conceded publicly for the first time in an interview with The CA that he is gay and has struggled to keep the issue from affecting his public life as mayor of Mississippi's third-largest city.

"At this point in my life and in my career, while I have tried to maintain separation between my personal and public life, it is obvious that this can no longer remain the case," Davis said Thursday afternoon at his Southaven home. "While I have performed my job as mayor, in my opinion, as a very conservative, progressive individual -- and still continue to be a very conservative individual -- I think that it is important that I discuss the struggles I have had over the last few years when I came to the realization that I am gay."

[Full disclosure: I once covered the city of Southaven for The DeSoto Appeal, the CA's Mississippi edition. His personal disclosure is a surprise. I do not recall any rumors about it during my tenure.]

(WMC. WREG. ABC24. Google. Flyer.)
____________________________________________
A few things stand out:
1) I'm not surprised that Davis confirmed what Jones discovered. He has always been an open and available source who, if he could talk about a subject legally, he would do just that anytime and anywhere -- especially when he did not have much choice.

2) According to the CA, aldermen are reviewing 500-pages of receipts that Davis gave state auditors. While auditors revealed $18,000 spent on alcohol, one has to wonder whether state auditors found the sex shop receipt too -- or if they simply scanned and categorized receipts based on alcohol, restaurants, etc. I'm just sayin, Jones's discovery suggests something about the scrutiny applied by the state (and the city of Southaven).

3) There's a reason why the sex shop receipt ended up in the batch in the first place: Davis is meticulous. (And for the record, it's unclear what the purchase was for and the CA, which normally posts documents, has not posted that receipt or any other.) Facing a $170,000 re-payment, Davis promised to submit every receipt and perhaps he added this one without really thinking about it. After all, he could face criminal charges if he does not justify or repay the taxpayer money; that's pressure.

4) Everything happens for a reason. Davis has come out. That's a positive for him personally, though it could damage him politically because it's just one more secret made public.

On Bobby Dodd (Youth Basketball and Sexual Abuse Allegations)

2011-12-13T07:38:00.006-06:00

UPDATE: The YMCA of Memphis and the Mid South sent a statement to The Commercial Appeal, noting that it was launching its own investigation of Dodd's tenure there and that it has no recollections of any complaints about him during that period.

*MDN.

UPDATE: According to ESPN, MPD has spoken to both alleged victims and one of them, Ralph West, is contemplating filing a complaint. An excerpt:

The second alleged victim that "Outside the Lines" spoke with said he also shared his account for the first time Monday with Memphis police. Unlike West, he told ESPN he is unlikely to file a complaint, largely out of concern that his identity will become public. He also questions whether Memphis police have the tools to make a case, given that the alleged abuse occurred more than 25 years ago and physical evidence may be hard to come by.

"Right now, I'm not thinking about doing more," he said. "I'm more worried about my name coming out. I think the statute of limitations is way gone anyway."

Appearing at the news conference, Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Nichols was unable to provide clarity as to whether the statute of limitations laws in Tennessee would apply to events that allegedly occurred involving Dodd. She said the law has changed a half dozen times in the past three decades, suggesting that detectives needed to gather specific information and place it in a timeline before she could make any determination about the viability of pursuing charges.

West also has concerns about filing a formal complaint. He lives in Miami, and said his original goal in sharing his account -- exposing Dodd and getting him removed from a position of power over children -- has been achieved.

"I need to talk with my family," West said. "I'm weighing it. What am I going to have to do -- go back and forth to Memphis? Get an attorney? I don't want to have to retain a lawyer. It depends on what they ask of me. If this guy (Dodd) is ill (with colon cancer), he's going to be gonzo in a year anyway."

Still, he said he's likely to move ahead with a complaint if requested by the police and would make the effort to testify in court against Dodd.

Besides the fact that ESPN seemingly misidentified Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich, the investigation and eventual case seems shaky beyond questions of the statute of limitations. I'm just sayin, West's wavering will likely make this a difficult investigation to succeed if there is ever a trial.

That's why more alleged victims need to come forward -- or else, well, nothing.

UPDATE (12/13): On Monday, the Memphis Police Department discussed its investigation into the sexual abuse allegations levied against ex-Amateur Athletic Union President Bobby Dodd by two former players in an ESPN "Outside The Lines" report.

In essence, MPD confirmed it is investigating but it needs, and has not yet received, a formal complaint from any alleged victims so the investigation can advance. So, without explicitly calling for victims to come forward for fear of generating false leads, MPD walked a fine line.

According to MPD, no alleged victims had come forth as of Monday, which debunks an ESPN update that a third victim had come forward. And rightfully since the MPD cannot and will not compel victims to speak and/or file charges, the onus of the investigation seemingly falls on the shoulders of the two men who spoke to ESPN: Ralph West and another unidentified male. Will either file a formal complaint?

In a somewhat confusing story, The Commercial Appeal reported that MPD and West spoke Monday afternoon, though it's unclear from the story who contacted whom first. In the article, West states that he had not heard from MPD as of Monday morning but it's unclear if MPD had been calling to another phone number and voicemail that he hadn't checked. But I digress.

An excerpt from the CA:

West said he didn't plan to sue Dodd, and that the publicity surrounding the case has largely served his purpose.

"If somebody wanted to lock him up, that would suit me fine," West said. "(But) I'm not really -- at this point, it's not about revenge and maliciousness. What I wanted was him away from the kids."

In other words, if someone is going to file a formal complaint against Dodd, at this point, it seems like it will not be West.

If he does, will his media interviews help or damage the case?

Here's another question: has MPD contacted ESPN to get the identity of the other alleged victim in its OTL report?

*ABC24. *Fox13. *WREG. *WMC. *NYT.

UPDATE (12/11): The "Outside The Lines" report aired this morning, providing even more detail than what the since-updated online report has.

OTL showed how AAU has essentially backtracked on its claims of not being aware of the sexual abuse allegations against Dodd. He wasn't placed on medical leave; rather, the AAU now claims, according to OTL, that he was placed on indefinite suspension while the organization investigated the claims in early November. However, the organization did not contact Memphis police until last week.

Also, OTL stated that its sources believe that Memphis police have been contacted by a third victim.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, in today's edition, the CA focuses on the clouded future of the YOMCA. An excerpt:

DuJuan Taylor, YOMCA program director, predicted the organization's demise in the wake of the allegations against Dodd.

Asked if he was still its program director, Taylor said, "It ain't no program. The Y(OMCA), we're going to dissolve that. I will start a different program possibly."

Taylor said Dodd wasn't around the YOMCA team much.

"He was just the founder," Taylor said. "He donated money to us, but he was never hands-on. A lot of our kids don't even know how he looks."

The story also quotes William Anderson, an officer of the Youth of Memphis Competitors Association, who said he has spoken to Dodd since the OTL report became public but they did not speak about the allegations, just Dodd's health. Dodd reportedly has cancer.

That conversation may or may not be helpful to the YOMCA, especially if the police investigation reveals more recent victims.

*WREG: The investigation continues.

ORIGINAL POST (12/10): On Friday, ESPN's "Outside The Lines" reported that two former Amateur Athletic Union players alleged that Robert "Bobby" Dodd, AAU's president and CEO, molested them in the 1980s.

Both accusers gave details of alleged sexual abuse by Dodd that reportedly occurred in Memphis. Dodd founded and still has connection with the Youth of Memphis Competitors Association AAU basketball program.

And in response to OTL's investigative reporting, events quickly evolved from there. An excerpt from OTL:

On Friday, the AAU announced that it had contacted Memphis police after AAU officials learned from ESPN's "Outside the Lines" about allegations made by the two players. The AAU also announced its own investigation, that Dodd would not be returning to the organization after a medical leave, and named an interim leader.

"Outside the Lines" tried several times Thursday and Friday to contact Dodd about various abuse allegations. Dodd, 63, the AAU's top executive since 1992, did not respond to in-person visits at his home and AAU offices, telephone calls or email to answer questions about the allegations. The players allege a pattern of inappropriate touching of them by Dodd, masturbation by Dodd while they slept in hotel rooms during tournaments, and players younger than 16 being supplied alcohol.

Memphis police on Friday night issued a statement from Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong: "The Memphis Police Department takes allegations of child sexual abuse very seriously. Although this case has its challenges due to the amount of time that has passed, it will be thoroughly examined; and if the investigation reveals the law was violated, the person responsible will be held accountable."

Once the statements were issued and OTL reported what it had uncovered, local media kicked into gear. The Commercial Appeal, for instance, had five reporters working to produce its initial story.

For local media, this story is pretty much an all-hands-on deck ordeal -- or at least, it should be since the alleged offenses strike at the core of the city's most beloved sport.

Organized youth basketball is an aquifer of talent and opportunities for Memphis kids. An excerpt from WMC:

News of the allegations against Dodd spread quickly at the annual Memphis vs. Atlanta Roundball Classic.

"I don't see how somebody can do something like that," said Memphis resident Rico Williams.

"Penn State, Syracuse, it makes me think about those places, but not here," said Memphis resident William Woods.

Woods said he cannot believe a scandal like this has hit so close to home. Dodd not only worked with the AAU, but he was also with the East Memphis YMCA.

"Now with it being out in the open, I guess every parent should be concerned," said Woods.

Now, people will think about Memphis. (WREG.)
______________________________
This is only the beginning.

It's important to note that Dodd has not been arrested or charged. MPD has just begun its investigation--and it may not yield anything given the age of the allegations. Also, it should be noted that the burden of a police investigation is quite different than investigative reporting. While OTL has confirmed much of West's account, police and prosecutors will probably need more than that to move forward.

While local media may have its challenges confirming what OTL reported, there is plenty of ample ground to ply, including Memphis YOMCA and AAU basketball in general. Even this year, Dodd has been associated with tournaments.

Like elsewhere where sexual abuse allegations have arisen, it will be valid to raise questions about who knew what and why no one has stepped forward until now. Another excerpt from ESPN, quoting one of the victims, Ralph West:

West said shortly after that, Dodd bought a home in rural Mississippi and asked West and a teammate, Orien Watson, to move a file cabinet from his bedroom. He said they opened the filing cabinet and discovered male pornography, players' underwear, photos of players' crotches and butts in uniform, and a manila envelope of locks of boys' hair. Watson confirmed the account to OTL.

A fourth former player, who requested anonymity, said it was common knowledge among players who traveled that their underwear would at times go missing.

"I'm thinking this guy's -- this guy's sick, and that's it. It was very shortly after that I quit the team," West said.

Watson said he was never molested by Dodd. But players on the team heard that West was being abused, he said, and didn't know what to do with the information.

"When Ralph was playing, we just laughed about it, I guess because most of us didn't experience what he experienced," said Watson, a star who went on to play at Mississippi State.

(According to CA, Watson declined to comment.)

What if that file cabinet still exists? What if it has more recent content? In recent years, have any underwear mysteriously disappeared? Will parents question their kids--or themselves--and come forward?

Can YOMCA, one of the city's most elite AAU programs, survive what happens from here on out?

On Action News 5 (Promotions)

2011-12-09T15:39:00.000-06:00

The things you learn on Twitter: WMC News Director Tracey Rogers has been promoted to vice president and general manager of KAIT-TV Region 8 News, the Raycom Media sister station in Jonesboro, Ark.

Tammy Phillips, WMC's assistant news director, will replace Rogers. WMC General Manager Lee Meredith informed employees today. His email:

From: Meredith, Lee
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 2:29 PM
To: All WMC
Cc: McTear, Paul; Daugherty, Wayne; Rosser, Jeff; Baucom, Clyde; Schuler, Susana; Culliton, John
Subject: Tracey Rogers and Tammy Phillips

I am very excited to inform you that Tracey Rogers has been promoted to Vice President and General Manager of KAIT-TV in Jonesboro, Arkansas. As you all know, Tracey possesses unique qualities that set her apart. She knows how to tackle any opportunity and she knows how to recruit an army to follow her into battle. I have been fortunate to witness these miracle firsthand at two different television stations. I could not be happier for her to have earned this promotion.

Just as Tracey has earned her promotion, so has Tammy Phillips. I am proud to announce that Tammy Phillips is being promoted to News Content Director for Action News 5. Tammy has been with Action News 5 for a decade, excelling in many different areas. Last year, she was selected as WMC’s Employee of the Year. She has been the architect of many award-winning outcomes for Action News 5 including her work on the Wind Storm of the Century and the Mississippi Presidential Debate. Most recently, in addition to her other duties, Tammy has taken charge of our social media efforts and we have grown there tremendously because of her leadership.

Please join me in congratulating Tracey and Tammy on their promotions.

--Lee

Rogers has certainly proven herself since she arrived in 2007 when the NBC affiliate was lagging behind WREG Newschannel 3 in the ratings, especially at 10 p.m.

Under her leadership, that has definitely turned around. (CA). Among other things, she created a new evening anchor team of Ursula Madden and Joe Birch, brought Andy Wise aboard and most recently launched a 4 p.m. newscast. (Well, success with two out of three isn't bad; the 4 p.m. newscast is young.)

With Phillips now at the helm, WMC isn't expected to miss a step.

Congrats to both.

On X-Mas (Commercial Appeal's Reduction in Force)

2011-12-09T00:27:00.001-06:00

UPDATE (12/9): On its blog, The Memphis Daily News offers a bit of retrospect to place the latest round of layoffs in context.

The Daily News cites the end of The Inside Scoop, the daily deals website, as well as the implementation of the paywall as sort of precursors to these job losses. Perhaps, but they don't fully explain the cuts or what will likely happen down the road.

A better indicator occurred in October, when Scripps announced the $212 million purchase of nine TV stations from the McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Group. Once the deal is complete, the portion of Scripps that is exposed to the doldrums of newspapers will shrivel even more.

This movie has played before.

Remember when Scripps was a conglomerate of newspapers, broadcast stations, character licensing, digital media and cable networks?

Well, the profitable cable networks and digital media were spun off. The character licensing has been sold. What's to stop Scripps from spreading its moneymaking broadcast reach and ultimately spinning that off too?

Nothing at all. And in that light, despite what Scripps officials say, the writing is on the wall for newspapers like the Commercial Appeal. Scripps has made it clear that it wants newspapers to do what they do best: sell advertising and produce content.

That's why it's taking the steps to standardize and centralize its newspaper operations, moving copy desk duties to hubs for all of its newspapers and more. Sure, the CA is a paywall guinea pig but, if all of Scripps newspapers utilize the same platform, then isn't that a much easier rock to move later on?

Business stinks in newspapers. Scroll down and read the 3rd quarter report; every important advertising sector is down and circulation isn't what it once was. Meanwhile, costs are rising and the only thing to sort of temper it is reducing operations (i.e. layoffs).

Last year, the Commercial Appeal was the only Scripps newspaper with mobile, web and tablet products. Now, all of the Scripps papers have them. And given the company's history of gussying things up, if online products and paywalls work well for newspapers, then that's one way to make them even more attractive to sell.

I'm not suggesting that the CA is going to close. I'm just saying, one day, when Scripps Broadcasting Group spins off, the CA and its print brethren will be left behind holding a bag with the Scripps name on it. I hope I'm wrong but I'm probably not.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: Lacey Winters, the CA videographer, is among those laid off as is Jonathan McCarver, a web developer. A good source also noted that Rob Jiranek, the CA's vice president of development, is also gone but that has not yet been independently confirmed.

UPDATE (12/7): Jen Simmons, who handles social media for the Commercial Appeal, is apparently among those impacted by the layoffs. She tweeted the news this morning. That's unfortunate, considering how much value Simmons has added to the CA's social media brand during her tenure.

According to Guild President Wayne Risher, the total number of Guild-covered positions affected is 16, including seven positions that are vacant and will not be filled.

Risher noted that all of the CA's unions and even exempt staff are being impacted. How many is unclear.

The Guild is also noting that management is denying outplacement training to those laid off. The training helps people with job search basics and more. The Guild hopes that management reverses course on its denial.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, the Knoxville News Sentinel, the CA's sister newspaper, announced the elimination of 33 positions Tuesday. An excerpt:

The KNS Media group, which includes the News Sentinel, today eliminated the positions of 33 employees, a reduction in force reflecting the economic challenges the newspaper industry has been facing.

The layoffs represented about 7.5 percent of the organization's workforce and included four newsroom employees. In most cases, they were effective immediately.

"The decision to eliminate positions was not an easy one," said Patrick Birmingham, president and publisher of the News Sentinel. "We looked long and hard at many options and did everything we could to preserve as many jobs as possible.

"Unfortunately, right now there is an economic reality facing the newspaper business, and that reality forces us to make tough decisions at times like these."

ALSO, ON A RELATED NOTE, here's what Scripps recently reported for its Newspaper Division:

Newspapers

Total revenue from Scripps newspapers fell 4.4 percent year over year to $96.0 million in the third quarter of 2011, reflecting an improvement in the rate of decline from the second quarter, when the year-over-year decline in revenues was 5.6 percent.

Circulation revenue in the third quarter was essentially unchanged at $28.6 million.

Print advertising revenue was down 7.9 percent to $56.5 million.

Advertising revenue broken down by category was:

Local, down 3.4 percent to $18.6 million
Classified, down 10 percent to $18.7 million
National, down 31 percent to $3.1 million
Preprint and other, down 4.1 percent to $16.1 million

Within the classified advertising category, help wanted advertising was essentially flat compared with the year-ago period, while automotive advertising was down 8.7 percent, and real estate advertising, which has been weak due to the prolonged nationwide housing slump, was down 17 percent.

In 2011, we began reporting revenue from certain of our digital offerings net of the amounts paid to our digital partners. As a result of this change, reported digital revenues decreased 8.2 percent to $6.4 million and reported pure-play digital advertising was down 3.2 percent. If 2010 revenues had been reported on this net basis, total digital revenues in the third quarter of 2011 would have been unchanged and pure-play digital revenues would have increased 6.4 percent.

Management’s August guidance included a low-single-digit percentage increase in third-quarter newspaper expenses. Due to lower employee costs, the newspaper division’s actual expenses were essentially flat at $94.4 million.

The expense for newsprint and press supplies increased 6.5 percent in the quarter, largely driven by a 5.5 percent increase in the price of newsprint.

Third-quarter segment profit in the newspaper division was $1.6 million, compared with segment profit of $6.6 million in the third quarter of 2010.

If I'm reading this correctly, lowering employee costs is helping Scripps to manage its expenses. It can't control newsprint and press supplies prices. That tells you all you really need to know.

More as this story develops.

ORIGINAL POST (12/6): The Commercial Appeal will reduce its staff by at least nine Guild-covered positions five days before Christmas, according to Wayne Risher, president of the Memphis Newspaper Guild

The Guild is the newspaper's largest union. It's unclear how many non-Guild-covered positions will also be affected. Risher laid out the coming layoffs in a letter to members posted on the union's website.

An excerpt:

With sadness and regret, I must inform you that the Memphis Newspaper Guild was notified today, Tuesday morning, by The Commercial Appeal that 9 Guild covered employees will lose their jobs by Dec. 20 as part of a reduction in force. The company, confirming rumors that had been swirling for the last few months, said job reductions would be made to cut expenses and achieve efficiencies in the business.

The company said names of affected employees could be released to the guild later today.

Management gave this breakdown in cuts in guild-covered jobs by department: 1 in editorial, 2 in accounting, 2 in online services, 1 in advertising, 3 in operations. No information was provided on cuts of non-guild-covered employees, although it is our understanding the reduction is building-wide.

According to Risher's letter, the Guild was supposed to learn the identities of the nine affected Guild employees today. It's unclear whether the Guild has received that information.

In any event, the notice confirms rumors that have swelled inside 495 Union for months. And the timing harkens back to the days when the Guild didn't have a contract and Christmas time cuts happened often.

More as this story develops

On Being Clubbed (The Rotary Club Animal Shelter Report)

2011-12-05T00:00:00.000-06:00

UPDATE (12/5): The new Memphis Animal Shelter opened Saturday, providing an opportunity for local media and residents to see the shelter for themselves. (WMC. ABC24. MDN.)

Again, despite what some report, the Rotary Club did not prove that animals were missing nor that there were links to dogfighting.

UPDATE (11/22): ABC24 reported Monday that a Memphis Animal Shelter supervisor made it explicitly clear to employees that poor performance will no longer be tolerated. An excerpt:

With a new shelter opening up, Memphis Animal Control workers were told higher expectations of them are now even higher.

Employees were told there would be no more hanging around doing nothing, they need to increase their call volume, take better care of equipment, and that playtime is over.

Employees say they're upset not about what was said, but how it was said. The supervisor swears so much, he even addressees it during the meeting.

The supervisor told employees that they could file a grievance about the amount of cussing in his speech, according to an excerpt of the tape in ABC24's report.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, WMC reported that Mayor A C Wharton wants to tie MAS cameras into MPD's Real Time Crime Center, which would essentially turn the shelter into a prison for workers. An excerpt:

They are also recording video images in-house and storing them off-site.

"I'm going to see if we can send them right into the Real-time Crime Center where they will be in a secure location so if anyone wants to go back to investigate allegations of wrongful conduct, it'll be right there," Wharton said.

ALSO, the charges against Demetria Hogan, a former Memphis Animal Control officer, were reduced. Prosecutors called five MAS employees to testify, which likely means the forthcoming grand jury ruling and perhaps the trial could be opportunities to explore and scrutinize the dog-fighting ring allegations.

ORIGINAL POST (11/21): The Memphis Rotary Club is not a grand jury.

Yet, local media has essentially treated the Club's 22-page "report" on the Memphis Animal Shelter as a stunning indictment nevertheless. (CA. WMC. Fox13. WREG. ABC24.) An excerpt from the CA:

Some employees at the Memphis Animal Shelter had ties to dogfighting rings and operated outside city rules and procedures, according to a study of the shelter’s operations conducted by the Memphis Rotary Club.

The 22-page report to Mayor AC Wharton from the Rotary Club’s Memphis Animal Shelter Evaluation Committee says that according to interviews with shelter workers, “there remains the clear understanding, on the part of all the employees, that certain individuals are exempt from the rules.”

Metcalf Crump, co-chairman of the Shelter Evaluation Committee, said shelter employees told committee members that some of their co-workers appeared to enjoy a protected status.

“The staff was very open and wanted to share with us their feelings and thoughts and they did,” Crump said Wednesday.

It should be noted, however, that, a month after the Rotary Club offered its services to audit the shelter, City Chief Administrative Officer George Little confirmed that the Humane Society of the United States-- or "folks knowledgeable in best practices" -- would be asked to conduct its own independent investigation. It's unclear whether the Humane Society agreed. But I digress.

The Rotary Club "report" is another example of an organization getting access to information/sources and bringing forth an account that local media could not.

However, since its release, reporters should have done more to scrutinize what the Rotary Club claimed and failed to substantiate within its "report."
________________________________________
The opening summary provides the most damning and unsubstantiated section in the Rotary Club "report" (emphasis added):

Our interviews with Management, and with certain lower level employees, who specifically requested an opportunity to talk to us, reveal an organization, that while improved from a previously very poor condition, is still in basic disarray. The employees at every level, while not willing to say so on the record, will readily volunteer that there has been a relationship between certain individuals and the illicit dog fighting rings in the Community. This is particularly true where those who are perceived to be in a protected status are concerned. Extra care should be taken with new hires in the future to insure that they have a desire to work humanely with animals.

The ambiguity here is stunning.

The report fails to detail the alleged relationships. It also fails to clarify whether "certain individuals" are employees or volunteers -- though local media, as typified by the CA excerpt, asserts that those individual are employees, which is strange since the report spent a lot of space noting problems and challenges with volunteers whose "true intentions are not immediately known and will only become evident over time."

(As an aside, the report also notes this about some volunteers: "Other volunteers have been intrusive and bordering on illegal as using the volunteer position to take photographs and post on the internet alleging animal abuse/neglect." Bordering on illegal. Yet, no media scrutiny about volunteers. But I digress.) (ABC24. WMC [1]. CA.)

Even if one was to stick with the storyline of employees as crooks, there is no further detail within the section of the "report" that explicitly deals with management and supervisory staff interviews.

I'm just sayin, if these illicit dealings were worth mentioning in the opening summary, then why wasn't it listed as one of "the major points derived by the interviewers from the shelter employees"?

That should be a red flag. The report reveals no links to illicit deals.

Another red flag seems to be the fact that those interviewed weren't asked the same questions. Only Janet Hooks, director of Public Services, seems to have been asked about the alleged "back door." An excerpt:

“Back Door”
In response to our question that we have heard both dogs and supplies are being sold “out the back door” of the shelter, she claims not to have heard such under the current administration. She knew similar accusations existed under Alexander (former shelter administrator, indicted) prior to 2009 raid.

This makes me question the so-called "independence" of the Rotary Club committee. The report does not list who the members of the committee were. Are they "volunteers"? Did they have preconceived notions about the shelter? Was the report and its questions influenced by animal rights groups? Is "protected employees" another way of saying "civil service"?

In any event, a common theme is that hearsay is presented as credible evidence when it's not.
__________________________________________
The "report," or that assemblage of various notes, is simply shoddy work. It levels serious allegations but the Rotary Club didn't even see fit to push for more concrete proof.

It doesn't matter if they lacked subpoena power or not. According to the report, the unidentified employees were eager to talk, which means the committee could have gone further with its leads but it did not.

Where is the evidence? "Missing" dogs that actually might not be "missing" because of impractical and inefficient methods of tracking animals?

For the record, I seriously doubt whether local media would have published the "back door" allegation on their own because corroboration and evidence would be hard to find. The "report" provides a convenient means to get it on the record.

That suggests that the "report" not only confirmed what animal activists thought about the Memphis Animal Shelter but also the deep-seated beliefs that local media, overall, has seemingly held as well.

But instead of really pushing to develop their own reports and shore up an obvious lack of real sources, local media will likely sit back and wait until the Shelby County District Attorney does all the heavy lifting and possibly ties up all the details in a pretty bow of a real grand jury indictment.

On The Squeeze Play (Sports Talk Survival)

2011-12-01T04:03:00.002-06:00

revised
UPDATE (12/1): On his website, Chris Vernon announces that 730 Verno Radio will become 730 Yahoo! Sports on Monday. An excerpt:

This is the best thing that could happen for us. Your support of the show and the sponsors has enabled us to keep the show going without giving in, or giving up.

Losing Fox and having to come up with something could have been totally devastating, but instead people rallied like never before behind the show and made #VernoRadio a success, and made Yahoo! want to be affiliated with the station. I can never thank you enough. So next week we will become 730 Yahoo! Sports and will be a Yahoo! Sports affiliate until Entercom comes in and tries to steal that too (haha). #VernoRadio.

Sports 56 WHBQ currently has Yahoo! Sports programming. Program Director Eli Savoie said the station knew the switch was coming but it won't have much of an impact on its operations. "We're committed to doing local radio," he said. "Which network we carry doesn't make much difference for us."

*MBJ: Verno Radio.

UPDATE (10/17): In case you missed it, 730AM lost its Foxs Sports programming deal to Entercom Communications, which flipped AM790 from country to sports talk. That's where you'll find Jim Rome et. al. this morning.

In turn, 730AM has now become Verno Radio, which is basically a continuous loop of "The Chris Vernon Show" -- the only programming asset the station has left.

As remarkable as that seems, there's a real question of how long can Chris Vernon last -- without national programming.

Sources at Entercom emphasize that Vernon wasn't the target of AM790 switch; the switch was bound to happen because of the plethora of programming Entercom gained after getting the Grizzlies radio deal. (Scroll down to see Entercom's Dan Barron's quote.)

Initially, Entercom sources said, the goal was to get Yahoo! Sports programming for AM 790 but Yahoo! decided to stay put at Sports 56 WHBQ. That's when Fox Sports came calling, according to sources.

So, if Yahoo! is an unmovable object, what other opportunities exist for Verno Radio to expand its own programming?

The answer could determine how long Verno Radio stays on the air.

*The Big Lead.

On Monday, Entercom Communications will switch AM790 from country music to sports talk featuring Fox Sports radio programming, Dan M. Barron, Entercom's Memphis market manager, confirmed Wednesday.

Entercom already owns WMFS 680AM/92.9FM, the local ESPN affiliate; this switch essentially snatches Fox programming from KQPN 730 Fox Sports, though the 1000-watt station is still left with its most valuable possession: The Chris Vernon Show. [Verno's show: 10/12]

And in response, the locally-produced show will begin looping its broadcast all day, starting Monday, host Chris Vernon confirmed Wednesday. He plans to call it "Verno Radio," an idea that he seemingly came up with Tuesday. That's how fast these changes are happening.

Barron described the WMC-AM switch as a "bandwidth" expansion to meet the radio group's growing programming needs. In an email, Barron wrote:

"We love the sports business and have discovered that our listeners do too. When we launched WMFS as an AM/FM combo in May of 2009 we believed there was an appetite for more sports coverage in Memphis that covered the national playing field as well as area play-by-play such as St. Louis Cardinals, UT Vols etc. In January of 2010 we launched a local show featuring Gary Parrish and Geoff Calkins. That show has become wildly popular and is the most listened to sports show in this market according to Arbitron for Men 18+. We recently launched the Eric Hasseltine Show and announced a partnership w/ the Memphis Grizzlies. As WMFS 92.9/680 has grown into a balanced radio and popular radio station including national shows such as Mike & Mike, Colin Cowherd, local shows such as Gary & Geoff and Eric as well as play-by-play UT, Cardinals and soon Grizzlies we recognized that we needed more "bandwidth"; we had more content and opportunities than we had availability. At the same time the folks at Fox Sports contacted us and asked if we would consider being their local partner. They've got a great lineup and we have a great signal so it just seemed like a good move for everybody."

Whether the move is good for everybody depends on whom you ask. Vernon sees it as a "squeeze play."

Vernon believes that Entercom is intent on putting him out of business, noting that over the years Entercom has signed away talent -- like Parrish and Hasseltine -- that used to work closely with him.

Now, WMC-AM is taking away the Fox Sports affiliation, which leaves KQPN in somewhat of a desperate spot without any national syndicated programming. Vernon believes Entercom wants to force him to come and work for them.

"It's a shame," said Vernon, who feels that Entercom's move will backfire because CVS's loyal advertisers will now get more exposure for their money when his program loops.

Yet, is it a long-term solution? It's not more than likely, which could be the start of some interesting affiliation switches in the weeks ahead. Well, that's if the looping works.

If anything, Vernon is in a comfortable spot. Vernon admits that KQPN's low-signal is problem but that's overshadowed by the fact that KQPN provides him with the kind of opportunity that working for another station might not.

In other words, he owns the production for his show and he generates enough advertising revenue to make him arguably one of the top paid sports radio hosts in Memphis.

"If I could support my family the same way being at another station, I would go," said Vernon. But he knows he can't.

So, he's turning a desperate situation into an opportunity: Verno Radio, all day.

Now, he says, his listeners can tune in all day -- no more appointment watching or spending time in the car in places where they can barely get the signal -- and that, he hopes, will also be better for his advertisers.

When asked about the possibility of Vernon joining AM790 at some point, Barron said: "It's really not for me to say. I believe Chris is a talented guy, who appears to be happy where he is."

On Who's Next? (The Coach Carousel At Memphis)

2011-12-01T00:42:00.001-06:00

UPDATE: The Daily Helmsman offers a bit more clarity on the buyouts, noting that R C Johnson will remain on the university's payroll until 2013.

UPDATE (12/1): In today's edition, Commercial Appeal reporter Kyle Veazey notes that, in 2012, the University of Memphis will be paying three football coaches. An excerpt:

Larry Porter, dismissed Sunday after winning three games in two seasons, will continue to be paid his annual salary of $754,890, minus what he would be paid if he lands another job. Tommy West, dismissed after the 2009 season, remains on the payroll through the end of the 2012 season to the annual tune of $925,000.

If one assumes, for argument's sake, that the U of M will pay its next coach exactly what it paid Porter last year, the total is eye-opening. Add up those three 2012 salaries, and the equivalent annual salary for the three head coaches combined is a little more than $2.4 million.

According to a USA Today database of coaches' salaries, that would be the 19th-largest annual salary in the nation, a spot below Mississippi State's Dan Mullen and ahead of Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson, Tennessee's Derek Dooley and Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer.

And if Memphis is to make a splash with its new hire, it'll likely have to pay a substantial sum more than what it was paying Porter.

U of M Athletic Director R C Johnson says the contractual buyouts won't be a problem. The regular athletic budget has enough money to cover the obligations, he says.

Buyouts happen. They are an eye into the thinking of both sides--the coach and the university--at the time that the deal was struck.

For instance, with Porter, the U of M seemingly took a different approach, getting him to agree to language that reduces the annual amount of his buyout by whatever salary he earns in a new job. (West did not have that provision in his contract.) Surely, Porter agreed because he didn't see himself being unemployed so soon. (To that end, one might argue that coaching contracts are front-loaded with salary to prevent colleges from getting buyer's remorse. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. See Bobby Petrino, Arkansas.)

But I digress.

The Flyer's John Branston noted the history of Memphis buyouts--and in fact, channeling West, he suggests that it's a prophecy that a Memphis football coach will be bought out. Eventually.

*The Helmsman: Your turn, Shirley.
*CA: Randy Fitchner.

ORIGINAL POST (11/29): Larry Porter didn't really have a press conference Monday. Fired as University of Memphis's head coach Sunday, he had the equivalent of an exit interview -- and he can thank his predecessor, Tommy West, for that. (Fox13. WREG. WMC. ABC24. MDN.)

Porter, whose record was 3-21, admitted that his "biggest" lesson learned involved how to deal with the media. Porter might have been joking but, if we're completely honest, there's some truth there. The media didn't cost him his job; the losses and the manner in which the team lost did.

However, if Porter had opened up to the media in his first year like he tried to do this year, then maybe there would've been a deeper reservoir of patience for him to draw from like there is for Men's Basketball Coach Josh Pastner, a media darling who has yet to prove he can fulfill the lofty dreams (and delusions) that Tiger fans hold dear about their sports.

In any event, Athletic Director R C Johnson is gone too -- or soon will be by June 30. But does he really deserve a retirement lap? And what about that bonus money he owes? (Fox13. CA. WREG. WMC. ABC24.)

Re: money. An excerpt from the CA:

University of Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson's stated intention to retire by the end of the fiscal year -- June 30 -- could have $20,000 worth of importance.

That's how much he owes the U of M that day in an installment plan reached last fall to repay the bonus he received for the vacated 2008 Final Four basketball season. Johnson has already paid $20,000 and is due to pay another $20,000 on June 30. But the repayment agreement only has him on the hook to pay it if he's still employed on that date.

So if his final day is any time before June 30, he wouldn't have to repay the bonus, U of M general counsel Sheri Lipman said.

Johnson also won't have to pay back the final installment of more than $31,000, which would be due on Jan. 1, 2013.

*CA: Calkins: Shirley Raines takes right step. Be Bold.
*Flyer: Murtaugh: Starting over.
*CA: Veazey: The hunt is on again. The Search.
*Fox13: Hugh Freeze?
*ABC24: Mixed Feelings. The Search. Questions. Buzz.

On The Silver Star News (Building Destroyed)

2011-11-29T20:42:00.002-06:00

Early Tuesday, the building that housed The Silver Star News in Orange Mound was destroyed by fire, according to WREG.

An excerpt:

A piece of Memphis history went up in flames Tuesday morning. Fire destroyed the building that housed the long-time community newspaper called the Silver Star News located on Park Avenue in Orange Mound.

Fire investigators haven't said what sparked the fire, but there was not a working smoke detector inside the building.

There isn't much left to the building that also housed the Memphis Candle Light Ballroom.

Reverend Jimmy Williams started the Silver Star 25 years ago. Early Tuesday, he watched as firefighters worked for hours to tame the fire that ripped through the building.

"To see something like this happen, it brings bad feelings, sadness, heartache, pain." said Williams.

Condolences for the loss of all those memories. Williams, however, plans to publish the weekly on schedule this Thursday. That's dedication. (WMC)

On Being Thankful

2011-11-24T11:22:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving. Mediaverse® will resume after the holiday.

Thanks for all the professionals who are spending this time bringing us the news.

Thanks to everyone for your support of Mediaverse® and its mission,
especially my wife, April, and daughter, Ari.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

On Suburban News (Sold Again)

2011-11-24T11:07:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday, Journal Inc. announced the acquisition of the former West 10 newspapers. The acquisition price was not disclosed.

An excerpt from the Journal's story:

"We are delighted to acquire the Bartlett Express, Millington Star, Collierville Independent, Shelby Sun Times, Oakland News, and the Classified Advantage and the opportunity to produce The BlueJacket for the Millington Naval Base," said Clay Foster, CEO of Journal Inc.

"Our goal is to build on the solid foundation of community journalism these products are known for, and we look forward to working with the staff and our customers in better serving the needs of the readers and advertisers in each community," Foster said. "I am certain that the fine people at these locations working with the Journal Inc. team will bring even better future service to these communities."

*Commercial Appeal.

On The 26th MidSouth Regional EMMY® Award Nominations

2011-11-23T20:44:00.001-06:00

Last week, the nominations for the 26th MidSouth Regional EMMY® Awards were announced. WHBQ Fox13 led all local media with 21 nominations.

WMC Action News 5 has seven; Running Pony Productions has 5; WREG NewsChannel 3 has 3; and the University of Memphis and Memphis Grizzlies each have 1.

It's unclear why the Twin Stations were left out. In any event, a full list of nominees after the jump.

NEWSCAST/EVENING
Action News 5 at 6pm, Krista Pennie Myers, Brent Green, WMC
Deadly Tornadoes, Tony W. Gupton, Christine Bowley, WRAL
DNC coming to Charlotte, N.C., Robin Lowe, WCNC
Flight 1549 Comes Home, Bridget Russo, Marti Hause, Blair Miller, Erica Bryant, WSOC
News 2 at 10, Stephen Hubbard, Bob Mueller, WKRN
Woman with a Gun, Blair Miller, Natalie Pasquarella, Michael Maciejewski, WSOC

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT - NO TIME LIMIT
Eli Did Half, Amanda Hara, WTVF
Fallen Officer, Jill Monier, Michael Moore, Trevor Campbell, WHBQ
NewsChannel 5 Investigates: Sovereign Citizens, Ben Hall, Iain Montgomery, WTVF
Someone To Talk To, Nick Beres, WTVF
The Life of a Volunteer, David Wood, WHNT

CONTINUING COVERAGE - NO TIME LIMIT
Assignment Afghanistan, Jeff Tang, Nathan Thompson, WTVF
I-team: The fall of David Torrence, Jeremy Finley, Jason Finley, WSMV
Mid-South Tornados, Paul Sloan, Alistair Clark, Ernie Freeman, Eric Helvie, Gregory Coy, Michael Moore, Ken Jobe, Les Smith, WHBQ
Tornado Aftermath and Recovery, Rick Gall, WRAL

SERIOUS FEATURE NEWS REPORT
A Mother's Grief, Elise Morgan, David Wood, WHNT
Don't Fear the Reaper, Erin Holt, WKRN
Living Miracle, Jeremy Jones, Lori Brown, Michael Hamlet, WMC
Smithville Thanks America, Paul Sloan, Alistair Clark, Les Smith, WHBQ
The Love of It, Heather Graf, Nathan Thompson, WTV

SERIOUS FEATURE NEWS SERIES
Damien on Death Row, Jill Monier, Clint Jiras, Alistair Clark, WHBQ
Main Street, North Carolina, Bryan Mims, Richard Adkins, WRAL

LIGHT FEATURE NEWS REPORT
Angelo Lucchesi: 90 Proof, Mearl Purvis, Michael Moore, WHBQ
Birthday Card, Scott Mason, Robert Meikle Jr., WRAL
Cat Man, Nick Beres, Nathan Sharkey, WTVF
Delgado Guitar, Cindy Carter, Bradley J. Pfranger, Andy Firkus, WZTV
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, Michelle Li. WECT
Raleigh Denim, David Huppert, Pete Bell, UNC-TV
Sings Like a Byrd, Demetria Kalodimos, Brian Hallett, WSMV
Zero Handicap, Brian Hall, Brian Formica, WFMY

BUSINESS/CONSUMER REPORT
Andy Wise's Behind these Walls, Jeremy Jones, WMC
Crooked Contractor Law, Scott Noll, WREG
Electronic Pickpocketing, Scott Noll, WREG
I-Team: The Fall of United Benefits of America, Jeremy Finley, Zina Bauman, WSMV

SPECIALTY ASSIGNMENT REPORT
Mid-South's Most Wanted Series, Michael Moore, Jill Monier, WHBQ
Often Awesome, Bob Buckley, WGHP
School Patrol, Vicki Yates, Charlie Woodward, WTVF
Technology In Schools, Michelle Stark, Gregg Stone, WHNT

SPORTS SEGMENT
Big Dawg, Alex Farmartino, Raycom Sports
Grizzly Family, Valerie Calhoun, Michael Moore, WHBQ
Signing Day, Emily Pearce, Patrick Slattery, Vanderbilt University News & Communications
The Runner, Bob Buckley, WGHP
Tom Walter's Sacrifice, Steve Becker, Ray Goodrich, Sarah O'Neil, FOX Sports South
WCYB Sports-Jordan Conigliaro, Jordan Conigliaro, WCYB

DOCUMENTARY/TOPICAL
Don't Make Me Start This Car!, Craig Leake, Mackenzie Leake, The University of Memphis
Learning with the World, Donna Campbell, UNC-TV
Nashville Rises, Zac Adams, Skydive Films
Souls of Our Teachers: An Inside Look at Urban Education, Wendy H. Gill, Russ Gill, Professional Communications
Untamed Legacy: America's Wild Mustang, Peter DeLynn, Sergio Plecas, Jen Noble, Alex Gazio, Michael Noble, WTCI

HISTORIC/CULTURAL PROGRAM
He's My Black Panther, Bob Buckley, WGHP
Stax: The History Of Soul Music, Ralph Sutton, Tom Dees, Derric Curran, WHBQ
Tennessee's Black Heritage, Jeff Davidson, Anne Holt, WKRN

ARTS
Creative License, David Van Hooser, Steve Hall, Barry Cross, Ken Tucker, Doug Jackson, The Renaissance Center
Letter from God, Bradford Van Demark, Terry D. Choate, Matt Coale, Brian Parker, Teea Goans, The Crosswind Organization
Memphis Composer, Darcy Thomas, Michael Moore, WHBQ
Step By Step with Billy Elliot, Angela Hampton, Mark Falgout, Ted Silver, WTVD

ENTERTAINMENT
Behind The Scenes at the Emmys, Mearl Purvis, Alistair Clark, WHBQ
The Dreadful Hallowgreen Special, Cameron McCasland, Larry Underwood, Shackle Island Studios / Peculiar Productions
The Marty Stuart Show, Kathryn Russ, Marty Stuart, The Marty Staurt Show
The Sovereign Sportsman in Belize, Eric Richey, Joel Evans, Sovereign Media Group

COMMUNITY SERVICE
Children's Health Crisis Project, Kevin Crane, Beth Curley, Mary Makley, Kathy Edson, Will Pedigo, Jo Ann Scalf, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Nashville Public Television
Labor of Love, Bill Shory, Lee Ann Bowman, Brittany Bailey, John Martinm Cyndy Cass, WBIR
Lights, Camera, Take Action, Michael Moore, Gregory Coy, Howard Langston, Mearl Purvis, Vanessa Ezernieks, Amy Hanford, John Koski, WHBQ
WRAL News: Disaster Relief, Rick Gall, WRAL

SPECIAL EVENT COVERAGE/EDITED
Fox8 Family Christmas, David Weatherly, WGHP
Home For The Holidays, Howard Langston, Nicholas Burchett, Trevor Campbell, John Koski, Waheed AlQawasmi, Vanessa Ezernieks, WHBQ
The High Efficiency Revolution Tour. Laramey Lawson, GS&F
The Nashville Build, Laramey Lawson, GS&F

PROMO SPOT/IMAGE
Bed Bugs, Becky Shores, Bradley Thompson, WHNT
Diamonds - Add Some Color, Kent Edens, Dara Canada, Jewelry Television
Emergency Baritone System, Len Faulconer, Resa Toeller, UNC-TV
FOX 50 Next MasterChef, Marc Derro, Karin Fullington, WRAZ
The Explorer Zone!, Len Faulconer, Heather Dollar, UNC-TV
The Only One, Chris Conroy, Tonya Smith, Rich Wales, Jenny Smith, WMC

PROMO SPOT/SPORTS
Braves "Are You Ready to Go?”, Michael Brouder, Michael Emerick, Adam Shumaker, FOX Sports South
High School Football Extra Preview Special, Melanie Johnson, Ron J. DeJoseph, Jr., Todd Boggess, Andrew Manzella, Yesenia Herrera-Ibarra, WSOC
Memphis Tigers: Hear Me Roar, Neal Barenblat, Running Pony Productions

COMMERCIAL SPOT
General Davoudpour, Debra L. Rhodes, BOHAN Advertising
Home Federal Bank "Here", Charles Tombras, Tombras Group
Kidnapping, Debra L. Rhodes, BOHAN Advertising
Memphis Zoo: Press Paws, Javier Leiva, Running Pony Productions

COMMERCIAL CAMPAIGN
Just Kitchens – Cenwood, Debra L. Rhodes, BOHAN Advertising
Mac's Speed Shop Beer, Bikes and BBQ, Chris Stevens, David Jewell, Mad Toy Box Films
Memphis Tigers: Invest in the Helmet, Javier Leiva, Running Pony Productions/CS2
Shoney's - Starting Fresh, Debra L. Rhodes, BOHAN Advertising
The Nashville Predators, Laramey Lawson, GS&F

ANIMATION
Composite Animation, Ron J. DeJoseph, Jr., WSOC
Scott Mahr Animation Composite, Scott Mahr, WHBQ/Running Pony Productions
TV64 VIP Spot FSO, Dave Kaminsky, Jeremy Bonham, WSOC

DIRECTOR/SHORT FORM
Diamond Campaign - My First Best Friend, Nathan Marshall, Jewelry Television
FOX 50 Lip Dub Project, Marc Derro, Karin Fullington, Phillipe Charles, WRAZ
FOX13 Promotion P.D.S., Paul Sloan, Waheed AlQawasmi, WHBQ
Mac's Speed Shop Beer, Bikes and BBQ, Chris Stevens, Mad Toy Box Films
Snuggie and Apple, Chris Conroy, Tonya Smith, WMC

EDITOR/SHORT FORM
Doodles, Scott Reid, WRAZ
Mike Emerick - Edit Composite, Michael Emerick, FOX Sports South
Patrick Stage Edit Composite: Memphis Grizzlies, Patrick Stage, Memphis Grizzlies
Scott Mahr Editor Short Form Composite, Scott Mahr, WHNQ
Tornado Disaster Response, Joel Evans, National Guard Strength Readiness Support Center

GRAPHIC ARTS
Motion Graphics Composite, Taylor Lowe, BlueSky Filmworks
Scott Mahr Graphic Arts Composite, Scott Mahr, WHBQ/Running Pony Productions
Shan Graphic Arts Composite, Shan Zhong, WRAL
The Art Boyz, Vince Conti, Kinsey Grigsby, John Edmonds, WKRN
WHNT HD Look, Joe Glotzbach, WHNT

PHOTOGRAPHER/NEWS
2011 Composite, Gregory Simpson, WSOC
David Willis Composite, David Willis, WKRN
D-Roll, Derric Curran, WHBQ
Eric Sander, Eric Sander, WGHP
Thompson's Travails, Nathan Thompson, WTVF
TV 'tog, Richard Adkins, WRAL

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
2011 Summer Food Drive, Joshua King, Andrew Manzella, Rossana Seitter, Randy Fulp, WSOC
Aspiration: Achieved, Nicholas E. Dugger, Andrew Humphries, Robert Devlin, Mark Duvall, Irish Furbush, Tyler Spann, TNDV Television
Home For The Holidays, William Garner, WHBQ
World Outreach Church: Easter 2010, Nicholas E. Dugger, Robert Devlin, Andrew Humphries, Tyler Spann, TNDV Television

VIDEO JOURNALIST
24 Hours in the Life of a Tornado Survivor, David Wood, WHNT
Airbrushed, Derric Curran, WHBQ
Forrest Sanders Composite - Life After the Storms, Forrest Sanders, WSMV
This Is What Is Floating Down The Mississppi, Michael Moore, WHBQ

WRITER/NEWS
David Wood Writing Composite, David Wood, WHNT
Hara's Stories, Amanda Hara, WTVF
Les Smith Writing Composite, Les Smith, WHBQ
Navy Veterans Reunion, John Carter, WBTV
Tar Heel Traveler, Scott Mason, WRAL

WRITER/SHORT FORM
Go Green With Dr. Gangrene 2011, Cameron McCasland, Shackle Island Studios / Red Headed Revolution
It's O-Fishel, Shelly Leslie, WRAL
Jenny Smith Composite, Jenny Smith, WMC
JTV Diamond Campaign - My First Best Friend, Nathan Marshall, Dara Canada, Jewelry Television
JWalker Words, Jerry L Walker, WTVF
Lip Dub Composite: Lyrical Copy, Phillipe Charles, WRAZ

On Penn State (The Coverage)

2011-11-20T20:50:00.002-06:00

In his Sunday Commercial Appeal column, Otis Sanford argued that the media--presumably, the national media--has been too slow on its coverage of the Penn State scandal. An excerpt:

My beef with the media is based on the belief that they could have done more to expose Sandusky's wretched behavior much sooner.

Let me be clear. The lion's share of the blame for keeping Sandusky's deviancy a secret rests with ousted head coach Joe Paterno and others on and off the Penn State campus who opted to protect the national reputation of their hallowed football program.

It's inexcusable that they, along with executives at the charity Sandusky founded to help troubled boys, failed to alert law enforcement about not just suspicions, but eyewitness accounts of Sandusky sodomizing young boys on the Penn State campus.

Still, I cannot give the media a pass. How many questions did they ask, for example, when Sandusky -- at one time the heir apparent to Paterno -- abruptly "retired" from Penn State at age 55 in 1999? Apparently not enough to uncover the whispers and widely circulated rumors about Sandusky sexually preying on young boys.

In other words, if more media had followed the story that the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News broke last March, then more could have been uncovered sooner.

Let's not get carried away.

There's a reason why most of the news coverage has come since the grand jury indictment was released: it made reporting what allegedly happened easier.

______________________________________
To be sure, when the Patriot-News broke the grand jury investigation story in March, the newspaper took on a lot of risk to its own credibility. An excerpt:

Nearly everyone in this story spoke on condition of anonymity. That concerned us from the very beginning. At every step, we made certain that at least two different and wholly unrelated people — and nearly always more — reported the same facts.

In other words, the newspaper had innuendo but it had to go the extra miles in corroborating to transform rumors into its standard of fact.

But what if the Patriot-News was wrong?

After all, at that time, it was possible that the grand jury may not have returned any charges like a previous one did in 1998. (That also might explain why there wasn't much of a memorable media tempest back then; I'm just sayin, wouldn't that have forced Sandusky's hand at his own charity before 2009? But I digress.)

No other media was willing to accept that kind of risk based on reporting that would take them months, if not longer, to verify on their own.

Recognize that timelines wouldn't be so elaborate if not for the work of the grand jury and its the credibility of its investigation. Grand juries can compel people to talk about details on the record in ways that newspapers and broadcast stations cannot.

So, unlike the Patriot-News, most media waited until the release of the indictment. Lazy journalism? That's debatable.

It would have been beyond reckless to question Sandusky about allegations as serious and devastating as child sexual abuse when one couldn't corroborate it with other sources beforehand.

Would any of the mass reporting have stopped what happened to Sandusky's alleged victims?

The damage had already been done.

*Jackson Baker
*Wendi C. Thomas
*Frank Murtaugh.

On 140 Characters (Local Media Engagement)

2011-11-14T11:32:00.001-06:00

The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and The George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs published a study on the use of Twitter by 13 major news organizations.

Based on a week's worth of tweets, the study notes that major news organizations spent more time promoting their own content instead of engaging their followers or sharing content that wasn't their own. An excerpt from the overview:

This is not to say that news organizations are not tapping into public sentiment on Twitter through other means. News staff may well be reading, even sometimes doing so on air, the comments posted by their followers. And reporters may have their own list of Twitter feeds that they check regularly. Still, these findings reveal limited use of the institution's public Twitter identity, one that generally takes less advantage of the interactive and reportorial nature of the Twitter.

This behavior resembles the early days of the web. Initially, news organizations, worried about losing audience, rarely linked to content outside their own web domain. Now, the idea is that being a service-of providing users with what they are looking for even if it comes from someone else-carries more weight. It bears watching whether Twitter use for mainstream news organizations evolves in this same way.

My impression is that the study wants news orgs to interact with their followers in the same manner that their followers interact with their own followers. Yet, that's not how news org act -- nor should they. After all, it's difficult for news orgs to share info from other sources because verification is difficult.

And if the retweeted info proves to be inaccurate, then that seemingly harms the credibility of the news org that retweeted bad info to their followers. There's just a different level of trust imparted upon news orgs than others.

So, it just makes sense that most news orgs stick to what they can verify, which is their own content. And even if they primarily post their links to themselves and don't interact with followers, their tweets still illicit a public response, which can be of great value to news orgs. But I digress.

In Memphis, local news org overwhelmingly promote their own content (which is cool) but they also utilize twitter to answer reader/viewer questions as well as to live tweet events. There is also a healthy number of reporters (more on the broadcast side) who use Twitter to develop sources/beats, report and interact with followers on a daily basis.

For what it's worth, some TweetStats statistics for the larger news media in Memphis: @memphisnews, @memphisflyer, @actionnews5, @abc24, @3onyourside, @myfoxmemphis, @mbjmemphis and @memphisdaily (also @TDNpols, the Daily News' political twitter).

On Almost (The Failure of Knight Ridder)

2011-11-13T16:41:00.001-06:00

In the Columbia Journalism Review, Michael Shapiro provides an in-depth examination of the San Jose Mercury News.

The lengthy narrative isn't so much about reporting than it is about the decision making that prevented the Mercury News--and by extension, the former Knight Ridder--from truly capitalizing on a digital strategy that may have lessened the downturn that newspapers have and continue to experience.

An excerpt:

Ingle had devised Mercury Center as a laboratory. And here was data pointing to a daring hypotheses: if we stop thinking of a newspaper—and a website as the extension of the newspaper—solely as a repository of information that can appeal to everyone, then we are no longer restricted to a business model that relies overwhelmingly on a single source of revenue (advertising) predicated on appealing to the largest number of people. What if, in addition to a product for everyone, we charged for, say, specific categories of information? What if we did not try to replicate online the business that existed in print? What if we stopped thinking like newspaper people—dedicated to preserving a business whose core is an advertising-dominated paper? What if we adapted to the growing disruption by slicing off parts of what we make available, at no cost to everybody, and instead enhance and sell it? What if we began thinking of our business, our relationship with our customers, the allocation of resources in an altogether new way and, like startups, we began developing new markets, rather than try to patch together a semblance of the big market the technology was undoing?

The early results from the Mercury Center suggested that users so valued those premium features that they were willing to pay. So why stop there?

Bear in mind that charging for access was already the precedent: users had paid $9.95 a month for access via AOL and then $4.95 a month for web access. The Merc dropped the fees in the hope of generating more traffic, and with it, more advertising, even though the revenues from those online ads were a seventh of their print counterparts. The decision not to charge for content reflected an electronic version of the business model built on amassing the largest possible audience, not on cultivating niches.

The seeds for paying for access were there years ago but, in many places, they weren't really cultivated until now, which is arguably too late.

And in that argument, I would also contend that establishing a paywall to impact a newspaper's entire audience makes even less sense when it's clear that premium niche content, done well, could do just as well or even better with time.

But, as the article notes, time is something corporate-owned newspapers don't really have.

On Copyright Infringement (Daily Helmsman vs. WMC)

2011-11-10T00:22:00.000-06:00

UPDATE (11/10): Scott Carroll, Editor in Chief of The Daily Helmsman, provided some insight into the copyright infringement issue with WMC. Here's his e-mailed response:

Sorry for the delay. I'll just touch on a few things, and if you're interested in any other info, give me a call.

Understand that the decision to run that story was not made in haste, anger or with any malicious intent, as I interpreted from emails and tweets from WMC-TV is their impression. The boilerplate nature of that story reflects a very careful effort to present facts, and facts alone. I believe the story was successful in this.

The motive behind its publication was not to damage the reputation of Ms. Phillips, Ms. Rogers or WMC-TV, and it was most certainly not an attempt to capitalize on any kind of controversy.

At best, WMC-TV exercised very poor judgment in its decision to run that photo under an assumed past agreement, especially as leadership at this newspaper changes almost every semester.

Turnover notwithstanding, no Helmsman staff in at least 20 years has had any such agreement -- written, verbal, or otherwise -- with Channel 5 or any other news source, as we addressed in the story.

The only recent connection of any kind between the two was in 2009, when sports editor Joseph Russell interned with Channel 5.

During that time, Russell honored the non-compete clause in his contract with the Daily Helmsman, which prohibits staffers from assisting or contributing to another media outlet on a story of interest to The Helmsman.

A near universal policy among news sources, as you are no doubt aware.

The only apparent exception to that non-compete clause was when a U of M sports story belonging to The DH was published by WMC-TV during his internship. Of course, this was done with the permission of The Daily Helmsman.

Which brings me back to this supposed agreement where apparently, under "blanket permission," our content has been used at Channel 5's discretion not only in the case in dispute, but in the past, as well.

Unacceptable.

And it seems that if there were such an agreement, Channel 5 would be the only beneficiary, as The Helmsman uses absolutely none of WMC-TV's content, nor has any current interest in doing so.

We are not a wire service, much less a free one.

WMC-TV attributing our content does not excuse the fact that it was used without consent, mistakenly or otherwise.

AOL/Huffington Post contacted us after the story and asked permission to use the same photo for a feature on children to similar to Arun.

We said “yes,” and thanked them for their interest in our work.

Remember, The Huffington Post, as an aggregate news source, has been criticized for years in the journalism community for doing precisely what WMC-TV did.

But even they asked permission.

University of Memphis Magazine also contacted us, asking permission to use the photo and Chelsea Boozer’s original story.

Again, we said “yes.”

So, you can see this was not about picking a fight with a corporate media outlet, grand-standing or acting on some prejudice against WMC-TV.

This was purely about protecting our content from misuse, and exercising our professional rights.

Again, thank for your interest in this situation, and feel free contact me with any more questions.

UPDATE (11/4): The Commercial Appeal initially did an article on young Arum Jambulapati in 2009. He was 10, a freshman. (Subscription req'd)

The Helmsman and WMC simply brought the story up to date.

And to be sure, there is some previous history between those outlets. They, at least, has a contributor relationship during the Tigers' NCAA basketball tournament run in 2009. (An inquiry has been sent to WMC News Director Tracey Rogers. Also, the link leads to an old profile; the student pictured is no longer on the Helmsman's staff.)

So, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to think that WMC, at the very least, thought it had some type of understanding with the Helmsman.

ORIGINAL POST (11/3): On Tuesday, WMC aired a story about a 12-year-old boy who is seeking his college degree at the University of Memphis. The next day online and on its front page today, the U of M's student newspaper, The Daily Helmsman, accused the NBC affiliate of "copyright infringement."

An excerpt from the Helmsman:

A story broadcast and posted online by WMC-TV Action News 5 on Tuesday used copyrighted content from The Daily Helmsman without permission.

The story used a photo taken by Helmsman photographer Aaron Turner, originally published on Oct. 12 with Helmsman reporter Chelsea Boozer's story "UM's youngest student, 12, settles in."

The photo was attributed to The Daily Helmsman, but was pulled from the newspaper's website without consent.

It was removed from WMC-TV's website on Wednesday at the insistence of Helmsman Editor-in-Chief Scott Carroll.

WMC-TV news director Tracey Rogers said that the station assumed it had "blanket permission" to use Daily Helmsman content.

Candy Justice, General Manager of the Daily Helmsman, said that in her 20 years with the paper, no such relationship has existed between it and other media outlets.

As the Helmsman notes, WMC removed the attributed photo; however, WMC's version of the story, itself, is still online with all of its debatable writing -- and that might be the real crux of the issue.

For one, the Helmsman noted that the 12-year-old's family declined to speak with WMC's reporter Jerica Phillips. Two, the administrator quoted in WMC's story told the Helmsman that he did not provide the TV station with a couple of facts used in WMC's story.

Clearly, to the Helmsman, the source for those facts was its Oct. 12 story but WMC did not attribute any facts or statements to the newspaper.

WMC appears to assume that some of the facts were now public and used them in the context of its reporting. WMC also claims a copyright on its content.

Ironic? Perhaps, in this case.
_________________________________________________
Let's be clear on a couple of things: 1) Phillips did some reporting -- or at least tried to do so. She contacted the boy's family and one of his professors. 2) There is a difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism.

The Daily Helmsman did not accuse WMC of the latter, though several passages of Phillips' story closely resemble Boozer's. Here is an example:

Boozer:

With no high school diploma and a 5th grade education, Arun initially wasn't allowed to fully matriculate. His genius-level IQ persuaded Betty Huff, vice provost of enrollment services, to allow Arun to become a concurrent student, meaning Arun could earn credit but couldn't seek a degree.

After earning As in all of his courses, Arun was allowed to fully enroll at age 10 in the spring of 2010.

Phillips:

Without a high school diploma and only a 5th grade education, initially Arun Jambulapati was not able to enroll at the University of Memphis as a full-time student.

But after factoring in his maturity and intellectual abilities in pre-course work, the administration allowed him to enroll full-time at just 12 years old.

There might be an issue if we were talking about term papers. This is journalism and TV stations have been adapting print content forever under the guise of fair use. This will not be the last instance of that.

After all, once published, information does become public domain. It's OK to use that information just as long as the work isn't completely duplicated or rewritten without attribution.

In other words, even TV reporters have to actually make an effort to report.

Phillips arguably did that.
________________________________________
Is the Helmsman overreacting? That's a good question.

I mean, WMC did attribute the photo to the Helmsman photographer, which is the proper protocol.

The Helmsman, in its anger, wanted the photo removed and WMC obliged -- which again is proper, even if not necessarily required.

And while WMC's reported rationale of "blanket permission" is flimsy when it probably meant to argue fair use, it is hard to argue, again, that the facts in the Helmsman's Oct. 12 story are not now in the public domain.

So, the Helmsman's front page story seems a bit much.

If anything, it simply would have been nice if WMC acknowledged that the story first appeared in the Helmsman. (A nicely detailed and well written story, by the way.)

Lesson learned: A little credit goes a long way.

On Inside Scoop (The Deal Rush Is Over)

2011-11-08T08:38:00.001-06:00

UPDATE (11/8/11): On its blog, The Memphis Daily News reported that the Commercial Appeal has closed Inside Scoop.

The Inside Scoop site itself notes that the new deals are no longer being offered and that purchased vouchers will remain valid through their expiration date.

Ted Gorman, director of Online Advertising at CA Media, confirmed the closure, noting that E.W. Scripps, the parent company, has made a company-wide decision to deploy the resources for deal sites elsewhere.

Gorman noted that the Memphis site, which launched in July 2010, made revenue but the increasing back-end support for the site created difficulties in moving forward.

ON AN UNRELATED, BUT RELATED, NOTE: Scripps reported earnings today.

UPDATE (12/9): Focusing on the plethora of online deal sites, including Groupon, the CA updates on its own: Following a trend among newspapers, The Commercial Appeal recently launched the first Memphis-based deal-of-the-day site, Inside Scoop.

"It's been phenomenal," said Maggie Louie, the CA's online marketing specialist.

Because of the high demand among local businesses to be featured, the newspaper intends to add additional side deals to Inside Scoop each day, Louie said.

ORIGINAL POST (7/13):The Commercial Appeal launched its latest advertising business model, Inside Scoop, on Monday.

It's a private-label application developed by Shoutback Concepts that is designed to provide incremental advertising revenue through social media.

An excerpt from the CA's article:

The premise is simple.

Advertisers agree to offer a specific "Daily Deal" that will be accessible via the CA's online Inside Scoop. Each offer will appear on the front page of The Commercial Appeal and online at commercialappeal.com.

In addition, the deals will be promoted through e-mails and social media communities such as Facebook and Twitter.

Specials will be promoted for 24 hours only, during which time customers must log on to purchase a voucher for the deal.

Every offer must be purchased by a minimum number of customers -- usually at least 15 -- to be valid. Those that don't will be canceled and customers will not be charged for deals that do not attract enough buyers.

Typical discounts will be from 50 to 90 percent off regular purchase prices, and the site will accept major credit cards.

At least 15 people have to buy the deal in order for the "deal" to close and allows the buyers to get a printable voucher that can be used at the participating business. The vouchers are good for a year unless the business puts restrictions on it. But this isn't Priceline and you're not bidding in the dark. All the information that you need--from restrictions to details about what included--is available about the deal.

Like Tuesday's deal was two shows for the price of one at Playhouse House on the Square. (By the time this is posted, the deal will be gone.) There's a countdown clock on the page and a buy counter that tells you how much time is left on the deal and how many people bought in. As of this posting, the Playhouse deal only had four buyers. Ideally, those four buyers would probably lead the way to encourage others to buy in so they can get the deal. Word can spread via Facebook, Twitter and E-mail.

In doing so, the CA and participating advertisers get valuable insight into consumer behavior as well as inroads into some social media networks (and younger buyers) that weren't open before. The additional win for the CA is that any business can participate at no cost, which is perhaps attractive for businesses wondering whether social media can actually generate sales.

Maybe not for Playhouse on the Square but the CA's Inside Scoop is only two days old.

On another note, there is a potential downside. I mean, what if people continue to buy but there aren't enough others to activate the deal? That's like dangling cheese even though their order gets canceled and they aren't charged. Still, what if the mice--uhm, customers--get disinterested?

I'm just sayin, that's a lot of dependency on customers to do your marketing/sales. Then again, folks do that work all the time. It's called word of mouth.

Not to mention, there's a new piece of cheese to chase every day.

*EyeNews: Living Social (offers similar savings)

On Joe Frazier (Godspeed)

2011-11-07T22:38:00.001-06:00

Smokin Joe Frazier died Monday night. The legendary boxer was 67.

He fought against and beat some of the best but, for some, the more recent local memory will perhaps be the embarrassment of charity boxing match with former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton in 2006.

You can re-live it here.

Godspeed, Joe. You deserved better.

On Weather With Dave (The Presence)

2011-11-07T10:14:00.000-06:00

In Sunday's Commercial Appeal, freelancer Richard Alley had a great piece on WMC's chief meteorologist Dave Brown. An excerpt:

A fact that thousands of schoolchildren in Memphis already know is that Dave Brown, chief meteorologist and weather director for WMC-TV Channel 5, does not like snow. He loves, as he says, "quiet weather, I love sunny days with highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s."

But there's a backstory to his disdain for the flurries; it began when he was 16 years old. "I went to work one Sunday afternoon in my mom's brand new '63 Plymouth, and five hours later when I'd left work, it had gone from a cloudy day to 14 inches of snow on the ground. The trip, which normally took about 10 to 12 minutes for me to get home, took 41/2 hours. I have not cared for snow since that time. I was a nervous wreck by the time I got home."

The story also notes that Brown dreamed of being a rock-and-roll radio deejay. I couldn't imagine that at all. One could reasonably argue that his presence makes WMC the competitor that it is.

On 125 Years (The Memphis Daily News)

2011-11-01T01:40:00.000-05:00

This year, The Memphis Daily News has celebrated a milestone of 125 years of news reporting and more. An excerpt from Bill Dries' latest report:

The Memphis print media market has been building to a more competitive level in recent years and The Daily News – as it has throughout its history – upped the ante considerably with a new and sustained emphasis on more detailed coverage of business, politics and the public interest.

The foundation for the coverage began 15 years ago with the online debut of The Daily News. It continued with the company’s acquisition of the real estate information company, Chandler Reports, in 2004 and the June 2008 debut of The Memphis News, the weekly version of The Daily News featuring a growing amount of original content.

That growth continues this month with an expansion into weekly sports reporting with the same emphasis on a deeper and broader context.

The expanded business, political and public interest coverage flows through the daily newspaper as well as online and a multi-platform Twitter presence that offers real-time coverage of events.

The result is more fluid and comprehensive coverage backed by the same source material the newspaper was built on in 1886 and new sources of information that make a patchwork of transitions an ongoing narrative of a city in a critical period of change.

The Daily News is expanding into sports. Let that marinate for a second.

The newspaper already does an outstanding job on local government, legal and real estate coverage and has made strong steps in business and social media coverage.

And now, this relatively-small staff plans to wade into sports --albeit on a weekly basis. That and the words "emphasis on a deeper and broader context" suggest that Daily News reporter(s) [and I wonder who they will hire to cover this beat] won't be on the sidelines covering local sports.

Dries' article doesn't expand on the "how."

However, to me, "deeper and broader context" says sports enterprise -- sports versions of what the newspaper has done on Craig Petties and Morgan Keegan. Indepth. Trend-reporting. Connecting dots. Making a big picture small and relatable.

Maybe, a columnist/reporter strategy like the Flyer uses with Frank Murtaugh and Chris Herrington. We'll see.

But knowing the Daily News, "weekly coverage" has the feeling of training wheels -- and it's only a matter of time before the newspaper gets up to speed on sports writing and simply takes off.

*193 Jefferson Ave.
*Longtime Subscriber.

On The Tsunami (The CA's Paywall Launch)

2011-10-30T01:37:00.000-05:00

UPDATE (10/30): Time's up: the paywall slams shut this week. An excerpt:

Visitors to commercialappeal.com will be allowed to view 10 articles per month for free. After that, they will be asked to purchase one of several subscription options: home newspaper delivery, which includes full digital access, digital-only access, or a "day pass" for 24 hours.

Home-delivery subscribers to The Commercial Appeal will have full access to the entire suite of digital products, including commercialappeal.com, our mobile website and our suite of apps. Headlines, breaking news alerts, Best Bets for entertainment, obituaries and classified ads all will remain available at no charge.

The best value for consumers who want to use our digital apps is to subscribe to the paper," said Joe Pepe, publisher of The Commercial Appeal.

No one can say that they weren't warned. So, now what will you do? I, for one, subscribed -- to Sundays.

Coupons, baby.

__________________________________________
On a more serious note, the paywall isn't an elixir that will absolve all of the CA's problems. If anything, it will create new challenges. As the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism recently reported, apps, iPads and tablets don't make people want to pay for the news.

In other words, regardless of the platform, news is still news. And only a small percentage of tablet users actually pay for news.

Optimist-types might say that remaining 86 percent represents a huge selling opportunity and it does. But (and there always is one) that would require newspapers to actually innovate in ways that goes against their present DNA.

I'm just sayin, there's a reason why the CA's paywall is so tied to its print subscriptions -- the true endgame here since print remains far more profitable than online.

As long as the chief cow produces milk, there's little reason to be innovative online. Nice photo galleries and nifty page design can only go so far. So, no, I don't expect the CA to revolutionize the news experience in town.

But I digress. Ten articles a month is little too restrictive. Corporations will quickly find themselves in a bind since one digital subscription can be used on five computers and/or phones. Good luck with that.

And some people may just forgo the CA altogether. TV new sites offer breaking news just as fast in some cases. Often, TV news strips the best stories from the CA anyway. AP does it too. And all of that content is free.

UPDATE (10/16): Last week, top execs at the CA fielded questions about the paywall and digital apps during a live chat. Some of the highlights:

1) The metered paywall will be up at the end of the month.
2) The CA is working to gain the rights to add comics to its apps.
3) The meter on the website will only count on local content. AP stories, obits, classifieds and blogs will remain free to read at no charge.
4) For apps, one can get obits, classifieds, weather and some special content for free.
5) The CA is still unsure of how, or if, comments should be part of its paid apps.
6) Social media links that connect to paid content will count against the 10 story per month limit.
7) The CA will continue to post significant breaking news outside the paywall on the apps and the Web site.

UPDATE (10/2): In today's edition, the Commercial Appeal made it clear that its paywall will be rolled out over time.

It will eclipse its mobile apps starting at midnight, when the free trial for the smart phone and tablet apps expire. An excerpt:

The apps are the first phase in the digital subscription strategy of The Commercial Appeal. Coming soon, the same subscription policy will apply to other mobile devices, such as Blackberrys.

The week of Oct. 16, the metered subscription strategy for our website will be in place. Visitors to commercialappeal.com will be able to read 10 articles within a 30-day period for free. If they want to read more they will be asked to subscribe.

Once those pieces are in place, content from all of The Commercial Appeal platforms will be subscription-based.

The mobile site isn't mentioned. I suspect that it will be covered as well.

On an interesting note, the CA says it's pleased by the number of app downloads but it doesn't give any indication of the numbers.

Considering that execs seemed pessimistic about the numbers, I wouldn't read too much into that.

ON AN UNRELATED, BUT RELATED, NOTE: In the comments section of the CA article, Online News Editor Gary Robinson notes that blog articles will not count in the 10 articles per month limit.

ORIGINAL POST (9/30): Speaking at the Society of News Design Conference in St. Louis, CA Editor Chris Peck tells attendees that the paywall will launch Oct. 2. Roanake (Va.) Times Editor Carole Tarrant provided the live-tweets, which caught the attention of local news watchers.

Overall, some pretty revealing tweets, especially the arguably pessimistic outlook on the digital growth in Memphis. I do find it intriguing that the CA does not plan to basically repackage the print edition for tablets. That might actually spur me to buy one just to check out the reinvented product.

*Daily News: Oct. 2. The Paywall.

On Clear Channel Radio (Reduction in Force)

2011-10-28T00:00:00.002-05:00

Word continues to spread about the deep cuts at Clear Channel Radio stations across the country. The ax fell in Memphis Wednesday, according to sources.

Clear Channel Radio, which owns seven stations in Memphis, cut at least five people here: KWNW 101.9 Radio Now's Ty Hawkins and four people at WDIA1070AM, production director Aisha Raison and hosts Jeff Lee, Yvette Whiteside and Greg Peters. (Sources said the severances included non-compete and confidentiality clauses.)

As WREG noted Thursday, though Bobby O'Jay, Bev Johnson, Mark Stansbury and Ford Nelson are still at WDIA, the cuts have left questions about whether the historic African-American station has essentially been gutted by ClearChannel's new strategy for its regional market radio stations.

An excerpt from the NYT regarding the strategy:

On Thursday, one day after the layoffs, the company announced a new national programming operations team that would take successful shows on one station and share them with other stations and would develop programs for broadcast across the country.

Ms. Goldberg said that through this week’s regional reorganization, “some of the top on-air talent in the country will conduct custom breaks and produce localized content for each city.” She suggested that “the content our listeners hear will be more localized, not less,” even though some of the hosts won’t be living or working in those local areas. And she emphasized that listeners will still hear local traffic, weather and news.

“Just about every station that’s used this strategy has delivered better ratings than the content it replaced, even if the person giving the information isn’t located on-site in that city, because the product is better,” she said.

So, in other words, those who remain won't have real programs? They'll just provide enough so you'll think you're listening to local programming when, in most cases, you're really not.

(Radio-Info. Ark Biz.)

On Coach Abel-ity (Tirades)

2011-10-27T00:35:00.000-05:00

UPDATE (10/27): Some additional links as this story develops: Coach Abel gave a couple of interviews, expressing regret at what he said.

*WREG: Abel. Raw.
*ABC24: Abel Responds.
*WMC: Updated.
*Fox13: Pastner on Abel. Wiseman.

UPDATE (10/26): The video has returned.

*WMC: A robust FB discussion.

ORIGINAL POST (10/25): On Monday, Collierville Head Coach Shawn Abel resigned after someone posted on YouTube Sunday a recording of an expletive-laden speech Abel delivered to players last Thursday.

WMC first reported on the YouTube link, which has since been removed. The link included a transcript of what Abel said. Here it is as written:

you jus wanna go head and walk? i dont give a shit, we can play without you. so help me god ill pull the freshman team up to play tonight. we dont spat, nothing changes tonight. i will have it done my way or your ass will be gone. you dont call the fucking shots around here. you think youre a man, step up and be one. dont try shit behind my back, dont bring your damn friends from another school over here, ill have his ass arrested for trespassing if i see him again, hes on another campus, its illegal, trust me. dont wanna be a dragon, you just want your buddies here, buncha me people. thats all it is. thats whats fucking wrong with you. you dont give a shit. you dont wanna look like the guy next to ya, you wanna do your damn thing and you know im right. thats whats been our problem all damn year. it isnt age, it isnt injury, it isnt the officials, its individuality. go fucking play golf. you wanna make yourself look like shit, i dont care. dont do it under my name. ive lived with this shit so long im sick of it. perfectly good team going down the shitter, cause you wanna do your own thing. thats why half leave in the first place after eighth grade, thats why you go somewhere else. cause i dont get mine. thats exactly what it is, and thats why youre in the shitter right now. and you can stay there i dont care but youre not gonna look like and individual out there tonight. and you wont next friday either, and if you got plans for that shit again next friday stay home, im sorry to yell but apparently you dont understand me when i talk to you like a human. (punching the white board) figure this shit out. (kicks a marker)

Abel's team is 4-5 with four in-conference losses. Clearly, they are having a bad season.

To that end, expletives aside, Abel's rant seems like a last ditch effort to infuse a bit of energy in his squad before the game. They lost. (CA. Fox13. WREG.)

As I figured, Abel simply lost his team. From WMC, which notes that several players recorded the tirade (which wasn't his first time):

"It wasn't a pep talk and it wasn't getting you ready for a game," one player said. "It was a cussing, screaming psycho."

The players said it was not Abel's first rant this year. Abel has coached at Collierville for more than 24 years, becoming head varsity coach last year.

"He was one of my biggest role models," one player said. "I looked up to the man probably more than any other coach that I had."

But the players we spoke with said almost everyone on the team wanted Coach Abel to leave.

Abel was setup? Maybe, maybe not. The players more than likely waited until he inevitably blew up again and were prepared for it. Either way, it's pretty remarkable and sad.

On Smithville Revisited (10 Seconds of Terror)

2011-10-23T20:37:00.000-05:00

In Sunday's edition, The Commercial Appeal revisited Smithville, Miss., the small town southeast of Memphis that was devastated by a tornado on April 27.

"Smithville: 10 Seconds of Terror," written by reporter Kristina Goetz and photographed by Alan Spearman, is a riveting narrative that, depending on one's capacity for empathy, could lift your heart and transport it 130 miles away. An excerpt:

In all the years Jimmy Cowley had known Mikey Phillips, he'd never once seen him speed. But without so much as a country nod, Phillips mashed the gas pedal and flew past his lifelong neighbor up Mississippi Hwy. 25.

Curious, Cowley watched as Phillips disappeared down the two-lane road toward Smithville Town Hall. Cowley never saw the barreling monster in his rearview mirror.

An odd, gray mass, a half-mile wide, covered the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and hastened across the rural road, snapping power lines like the crack of a whip. Sparks burst from the poles like emergency flares, as if to signal the fury to come.

Storm sirens blared all afternoon as ominous storm clouds rolled above 150-year-old pines and flat farmland already planted in rows.

Cowley looked over his shoulder, again and again, thinking the storm would sweep in from the west, the same way showers passed through this map-dot Mississippi town since he was born in 1942.

Then the right window of his Chevy pickup blew out. The storm caught him from behind.

Boom. Every window in the truck exploded.

Cowley hit the brakes and held tight to the wheel to keep the wind from broad-siding his pickup. He made a hard left turn into a driveway, and the back of the truck lifted off the ground.

He was in the whirl of the tornado

Normally, I wouldn't be so liberal with the length of the excerpt but it's important to highlight great writing when you come across it.

Throughout this story, Goetz is a pure vessel.

Listen to Crowley's own words and one can appreciate how Goetz respected his recall and vivid detail. She didn't make the story about her and how her visits and interviews affected her. She didn't interject that kind of "color" into the article.

This was all about the survivors and their struggle.

I'm just sayin, as a reader, you don't get to experience that everyday in a newspaper or a newscast.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, if you were on the fence about the CA's paywall, the "10 Seconds" content gives you a strong reason to grab your wallet.

Overall, it's a strong package, especially the snippets about the dead. The Google mapping of the tornado's path didn't quite work on an emotional level because of the replication of the National Weather Service alerts. Yes, the alerts are factual but the science felt dry.

Spearman's photographs speak for themselves. Excellent work. Outside of the narrative, the best part of the package is audio of the Smithville residents produced by Kevin Houston.

Their voices are clear, haunting and I listened to them over and over. Anytime a package compels multiple experiences, that's something you should be willing to purchase.

On The Settled Threat (Certain Season Ticket Holders)

2011-10-12T20:27:00.000-05:00

UPDATE (10/12): A good follow-up by the Commercial Appeal: Legal experts stunned by the settlement. An excerpt:

"I was like, 'wow,'" McCann said. "The lawsuit, the claims did not seem very strong and I'm surprised that the defendants -- Calipari, Derrick Rose -- that they would agree to pay anything."

ORIGINAL POST (10/10): In case you missed it, Commercial Appeal reporter Kyle Veazey, acting on a tip, managed to unearth a confidential settlement reached between University of Memphis Athletic Director R C Johnson, former coach John Calipari, former guard Derrick Rose and three local attorneys who threatened legal action on behalf of "certain season ticket holders."

The attorneys alleged that the 2007-2008 basketball season was vacated because of the actions of Johnson, Calipari and Rose and thus diminished the value of their 2009-2010 season tickets. (The NCAA vacated the season in 2009.) An excerpt from last Thursday's story:

Calipari and Rose, according to the settlement agreement obtained Thursday by The Commercial Appeal, agreed on May 28, 2010, to pay a total of $100,000 to the three attorneys -- Martin Zummach, Frank L. Watson III and William Burns -- who were representing, in the agreement's words, "certain ticket holders." The amount was to be disbursed "as they agree among themselves."

Calipari, who left Memphis after the 2008-09 season for the University of Kentucky, also agreed to donate his bonus to the U of M scholarship fund. The agreement approximated the value of the bonus at $232,000.

Rose, who has starred the last three seasons for the NBA's Chicago Bulls, was also to "consider ... making a suitable donation" to the scholarship fund sometime before 2015.

The agreement said the unnamed season ticket holders believed that Calipari, Johnson and Rose were responsible for making their 2009-10 season tickets and future season tickets "potentially" worth less than they had anticipated.

Johnson, Calipari and Rose deny all allegations as part of the settlement. (An aside, why wouldn't you sue the University as well?) In an accompanying column, CA's Geoff Calkins suggested that the three attorneys take a bow for doing something that the University wouldn't (or couldn't) do for a variety of reasons. An excerpt:

Martin Zummach, Frank Watson III, William Burns and the Memphis fans you represented, go ahead, take a bow.

You got the bonus back. All $232,000 after-tax dollars. Paid to the Memphis scholarship fund. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t read the confidential settlement agreement with my own eyes.

“Mr. Calipari agrees to donate the bonus he received,” it said.

Plus, he agreed to kick in another $100,000 for some aggrieved fans.

Justice, thy name is three lawyers threatening to file suit. Who knew vigilantism could work in hoops?

It's debatable whether "fans" were clamoring to get back the $232,000 bonus that Calipari was given after the 2007-2008 season, especially since "fans" were never going to get a dime of that money.

And that raises a question: who are the "certain season ticket holders" that got the $100,000? If the threat of lawsuit was for the benefit of those who purchased season tickets, then why aren't all season ticket holders benefiting?

This doesn't feel like justice.
______________________________________
It's important to note that the attorneys' complaint never made it to court -- and not necessarily because Cal et. al. wanted to avoid publicity.

That POV assumes that the complaint had actual merit.

University of Memphis attorney Sheri Lipman--who provided the CA with the settlement agreement after receiving it from Johnson's attorney--calls the complaint "baseless factually and legally."

I'm inclined to agree because it seems far-fetched that fans could prevail in court on a matter where only the University of Memphis had the best claim.

And considering that U of M was not a party in the settlement, it would be extremely difficult for the "certain season ticket holders" to prove that Johnson, Calipari and Rose deceived them in any form or fashion -- two years later, when the latter two were long gone. (I'm just sayin, couldn't one argue that the "value" of Tigers basketball tickets have only increased since 2009?)

But I digress.

We'll never really know why Cal, Johnson and Rose "settled" -- though for the latter two, this doesn't seem like much of anything. I'm just sayin, Johnson's contract already called for the return of his 2007-2008 bonus and Rose is only asked to "consider" giving a donation by 2015.

The three Robin Hoods don't deserve credit for that, though one could argue that the settlement may have compelled some action.

The most intriguing aspect is why Cal agreed.
___________________________________
It's not because he felt guilty.

Considering he has a $36.5 million contract at the University of Kentucky, I'm not of the mind that he's going to miss $232,000 or $100,000 anytime soon.

What we'll probably never know is how many threats of litigation did Calipari receive in the aftermath of the NCAA ruling. Perhaps, it could be argued that this "settlement" gave all sides--including the Robin Hoods-- an opportunity to close the door on this matter once and for all.

The settlement contains language that put the onus on the Robin Hoods to prevent similar lawsuits from being filed on or before Dec. 31, 2010. (Why that date? Perhaps, that's when the statute of limitations on fraud expires)

But I digress.

At least, Cal's money will go back to scholarships. But what about the $100,000 that these "certain ticket season holders" wrangled?

Perhaps, it went to their certain pockets. So much for the game and all that.

On Steve Jobs (Godspeed)

2011-10-05T19:00:00.000-05:00

The Apple Statement. Godspeed, Steve.

On Memphis 13 (Integrating Race)

2011-10-02T21:02:00.005-05:00

(revised)
Monday marks the 50th anniversary of the integration of Memphis City Schools by 13 first graders. It was the nation's most successful effort at integration because of the absence of violence.

The Commercial Appeal advanced it with several stories, including one on the front page of Sunday's edition. An excerpt:

But when the 13 African-American children in Memphis enrolled in all-white schools, there was no violence.

Police commissioner Claude Armour saw to that, said Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles, who was chairman of the local NAACP's education committee and whose daughter, Dwania, attended Bruce.

"They were down in the basement of a police precinct," said Kyles, who was also at that meeting. "(Armour) said 'I'm a segregationist. I believe in segregation. But I am the law and any policeman who can't go out there and protect these little nigra children, turn in your badge and your gun.'"

The children knew none of that.

This particular story was curious in terms of political correctness. I'm just sayin, it's seemingly OK to write the word "nigra" but not the word "nigger," for which "nigra" is white Southern slang. (And no, the "a" on the end does not make it a term of affection. But I digress.)

The slur also appears in the Viewpoint cover story but not in the other "School Desegregation at 50" stories: Timeline. 13 Now. Catalyst.

Still, it's no wonder that the CA disabled the comment sections on all of them.

____________________________________
I'm not really concerned about any racists who may have sullied the story. It's clear that the 1960s still cause a surge of intense emotions in Memphis and elsewhere.

I'm more concerned with the editorial decisions, especially the ones in the lead article -- though in all honesty, it would have been impossible to tell the story of Memphis 13 without the use of the word "nigger." Another excerpt:

And the children were fed a steady diet of the word "n--" -- a slur flung by classmates too young to know the meaning.

Or to understand the hurt.

"There were children at the school that were real friendly," White said, recalling playing Chinese jump rope, a game with rubber bands. "And there were some, it was obvious how their parents felt about us. You got to thinking n-- was your name."

"I wasn't the new kid in the class. I was the n-- in the class," Dwania Kyles said. "And I remember I didn't have any friends. I couldn't wait for play time so I could see Harry or Mike."

Again, the quotes accurately reflect how Joyce White and Dwania Kyles remember that time period. I'm fine with that but what bothers me is that neither used the term "n-word."

It does not appear in the quotes. Both clearly said "nigger" but the CA edited the slur. Why?

Nigra is as much of a slur as nigger but the CA obviously felt differently. Editing the word was the wrong move in my opinion.

If you're going to openly use a derivation, then it's fine to use the whole word. Or better yet, if you're not sure, then don't use any version at all. Indirect quotes could've done the job, though the article would've been less colorful.

Then again, there isn't much description at all in the article. Excluding the photographs, it's basically a collection of quotes and facts.

But I digress.

I suspect that the CA knew the power of "nigger" and its ability to throw any sentimental recollection hopelessly off track. But it took that risk --and I applaud that risk-taking.

Still, this seems like such a wasted opportunity.

There's no special online section like there was for Electrolux. No links to the CA's archive for past reporting. No video recollections from the Memphis 13 -- and several still live in Memphis.

Even if there is a documentary, it's the CA's responsibility to tell this story right and it half-stepped.

*Fox13: The documentary.
*WMC: Anniversary.

On Writing Tickets (Or Not)

2011-10-02T19:26:00.001-05:00

UPDATE (10/2): Fox13's Ernie Freeman was able to sit down with the previously elusive Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. to talk about the alleged ticket "slowdown."

It's always helpful to remember that Wharton is a lawyer because he makes a sound case for why a "slowdown" might be questionable.

Indeed, there could be other factors that explain why fewer tickets were accounted for in July and August. For one, it was one of the hottest summers in recent years. That could have played a role.

But what really stands out is the timeline. Fox13 has reported on the ticket totals for July and August but it has not yet fully explained how those totals are compiled. I'm just sayin, is it possible that the July total, for instance, represents tickets written in June?

*Fox13: Political. MPD.

ORIGINAL POST (9/30): On Monday, Fox13 reported that Memphis police officers were writing fewer tickets -- at least since July and August.

Fox13, quoting unidentified sources within MPD, said the "ticket slowdown" was essentially a work stoppage by officers in response to the City's 4.6 percent pay cut of their salaries. The Memphis Police Association has denied that there is any coordinated action.

MPD Director Toney Armstrong had denied knowledge of any "slowdown" until today when Fox13 and the Commercial Appeal reported on an E-mail warning from the director to staff about the possibility of one. An excerpt from Fox13:

On August 10, Armstrong sent an email to his executive staff with a forwarded "tip" about a work stoppage which read, "According to an anonymous source, Memphis police officers are on a non-official strike, slow down, work stoppage and/or do no more than necessary, on account of the pay cut. Officers will answer their calls, but very slowly."

Armstrong referenced this post and wrote to his executive staff, "make sure our supervisors are monitoring."

Fast forward, city officials expressed shock at the "slowdown." Memphis Mayor A C Wharton is declining to answer questions about it; Fox13, which describes the "slowdown" as a "crisis" and "scandal," suggests his reticence may be related to the Oct. 6 municipal election.

No, they aren't kidding.
______________________________________
This story isn't a laughing matter.

For one, the "slowdown" is technically a work action and police are prohibited. It is an unprecedented story. Two, fewer tickets may have an adverse impact on the city's finances though it's difficult to gauge the extent of it.

Also considering that any negative impact-- again, if there is one --would impair the city's ability to restore a pay cut, the "slowdown" would be ironic and self-defeating. But I digress.

What about the math? To get 18,317 fewer tickets, Fox13 added the year-over-year differences from July and August. The station took the average cost of a ticket in each category and arrived at a potential impact of nearly $800,000 from July and August alone.

July and August are the first two months of the city's fiscal year and, to that end, the CA noted that the combined revenue collections for both months were down about $300,000 from the same period in 2010.

However, as WMC pointed out Thursday, there are a number of factors that can account for a drop in ticket writing. More importantly, in terms of the collection, how much of that revenue actually comes from tickets? And what about tickets that are written but are ultimately dismissed without any courts costs? That would also impact the actual collections.

I'm just sayin, it's premature to calculate any impact, especially when a written ticket may not result in an actual payment/collection of a fine.

(And is this issue more about money than safety? Have preventable accidents increased? Has it taken longer for police to respond to calls?)
_____________________________________________
For what it's worth, MPD writes a load of citations. In 2009 and 2010, the number of citations exceeded 260,000 each year.

Here's the headscratcher.

In the Fiscal 2012 budget, the city budgeted for an 82 percent increase in court costs and fines, which would be the largest percentage increase in years. In the $18.5 million budgeted for fines and forfeitures; the largest increases are for court fines and court costs. (How is that related to ticket writing?)
___________________________________________
In the end, what does any of this matter?

I'm just sayin, an officer can use his/her own discretion when deciding to write a ticket.

It would be hard to prove or punish that discretion, which makes it even more difficult to target individual officers for discipline.

And since the department isn't going to issue a blanket punishment--especially with the union denying any concerted act--Director Armstrong isn't going to investigate.

The city isn't going to pursue anything either.

However, that's not going to stop journalists from creating the semblance of a crisis, asking whether the city is going to stop officers from writing fewer tickets (as a civilian, I'm not sure if I want MORE tickets) when the city can't truly prove that officers are acting out on purpose.

ON AN UNRELATED, BUT RELATED, NOTE: Why write tickets that will ultimately be dismissed? I think it's a deterrent and an indirect gamble. I mean, you may get a ticket for going 5 mph over the speed limit and the city gambles that you may not show up for court, which escalates what you'll ultimately pay and generates more money for the city.

*Ticket fines and Types of Tickets.

On A Cloud (The Commercial Appeal)

2011-09-30T08:56:00.001-05:00

UPDATE (9/30): The Commercial Appeal will have its design functions "virtualized" by the second quarter of 2012, according to a posting on the Memphis Newspaper Guild website. An excerpt:

Editor Chris Peck said Scripps has decided to roll with a plan to "virtualize" design functions rather than centralize. Centralization would have entailed setting up a universal desk that would serve Scripps papers in Tennessee, Florida, Anderson, S.C. and Evansville, Ind. Scripps was looking at setting up such a desk in Florida.

Peck called together design and copy editors Wednesday afternoon to inform them of the decision. He said that while there may be a few positions eliminated at other properties as part of virtualization, "There's no layoffs here that are going to be tied to that."

By the second quarter of 2012, Scripps expects to have a new front-end computer system installed at the CA that utilizes cloud-based computing. The system, called Saxotech, will succeed our Tera system and be used for everything from writing stories to page layout.

This new system will make it practical for page designers or copy editors at any participating property to do design or editing work for the other properties.

It's called Scripps 3.0.

Another excerpt:

This type of standardization, part of what's called Scripps 3.0, is already in place for Scripps newspapers in the Southwest and West, with a centralized, universal desk based in Corpus Christi, Texas. Scripps stocked the universal desk with some 40 editors and cut personnel at the newspapers served by the desk.

Peck said the Texas desk setup is saving Scripps about $1 million a year. Scripps expects to save similar dollars at the Eastern papers. Some of the savings will come from lower expenses of keeping individual front-end systems running at the different properties. There also will be savings from personnel to be cut, presumably at Knoxville and Naples, Fla. "They're not looking here for staff reductions," he said.

Peck said the CA was able to argue successfully to Scripps executives that our desk is at least as efficient already as a centralized desk would be, based on the number of pages each designer produces each day.

[Ed. Note: This info is somewhat dated. But it brings us up to speed on Scripps 3.0]

More as this story develops.

ORIGINAL POST (7/11): In Sunday's edition of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Editor Jack McElroy announced changes that could also be reflected at The Commercial Appeal in the near future.

According to McElroy, KNS is switching to a new production system called Saxotech and will utilize "cloud computing" to produce the newspaper. An excerpt:

The conversion is part of a bigger transition being made by the E.W. Scripps Co., which owns the News Sentinel and 13 other newspapers. Scripps is converting all of its papers to Saxotech, and they will be produced together in a "cloud" computing environment.

That means that, unlike in the past, we won't be working on computer servers here in our own building. Instead, our keystrokes will travel through the Internet to a big server farm in northern California, where all the Scripps papers will be on the same database.

Saxotech isn't necessarily new to Scripps; its software has been used at Scripps papers in Evansville, Ind. and elsewhere since at least 2006. McElroy notes that, once the CA is on Saxotech, the two newspapers will be able to share content much faster.

As part of the change, KNS is also undergoing a redesign, which will launch July 19.

It's unclear how far along the CA--Scripps' largest daily newspaper--is in its Saxo training or if it, too, will undergo a redesign.

If anything, this particular Saxo evolution takes on a greater significance here as the CA moves even closer to implementing a paywall. Saxotech bills itself as a provider of content management and monetization solutions.

In a recent interview with News & Tech, Jim York, vice president of IT at Scripps' newspaper division, gave the bigger picture for the project known as Cloud 9. An excerpt:

"Cloud 9 affords us a significant strategic advantage," he told News & Tech. "It's a vital piece of a larger project that will streamline processes and focus resources on our two pillars: sales and content.

"The new standard systems and harmonized processes will provide the business intelligence needed to maximize revenues, bundle sales across products and markets, improve the deployment of resources and provide a ‘plug-and-play' infrastructure, allowing us to quickly execute."

The project, according to Art Ridgway, managing director, IT operations at Scripps' newspaper division, is centered on existing SaaS deployments of its editorial and advertising and circulation systems, powered by Saxotech and Brainworks, respectively.

"This started in the third quarter of 2009, including moving advertising, circulation, editorial and all publishing systems to a cloud," he said of Cloud 9, which is slated for completion in late 2012.

(SaaS defined)

According to News & Tech, when Cloud 9 is completely operational, Scripps anticipates lopping off some 35 percent of its current IT operating expenses.

Could the cloud mean job losses at the CA?

More as this story develops.

On Shane Myers (Godspeed)

2011-09-29T00:31:00.001-05:00

UPDATE (9/29): The obituary for Shane Myers:

SHANE E. MYERS, 38, of Cordova, died Monday, September 26 at Methodist LeBonheur Germantown Hospital after a 5 year battle with colon cancer. The family will receive friends from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and from 4-8 p.m., Thursday, September 29 at Memphis Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens on Germantown Rd. Shane was a web producer at WPTY ABC 24, was a Green Bay Packers fan, member of FN’A BBQ Team. He leaves his wife of 13 years, Krista Pennie Myers; his father, Chad Myers; one sister, Jackie Holloway of Bluffton, IN; three brothers, Jamie Myers, Tracy Myers of Bluffton, IN, and Shawn Myers of Boulevard, CA. He was preceded in death by his mother, Beth Myers. In lieu of flowers, memorials requested to Memphis Shelby County Humane Society or the American Cancer Society . Online condolences may be made at www.memphisfuneralhome.net Memphis Funeral Home And Memorial Gardens 3700 North Germantown Rd. (901)725-0100

Visitation is today from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and from 4-8 p.m. at Memphis Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens on Germantown Rd. (The online memorial.)

(ORIGINAL POST 9/27): Shane Myers has lost his battle with cancer, according to ABC24. Myers, the twin stations' web producer, was 38.

An excerpt from ABC24:

The ABC 24 newsroom will remember Shane as a man who was excessively kind and eternally optimistic; his influence on all of us will not be forgotten.

Shane started as a photographer with ABC 24 in January 2002 and later became the Web Producer, shepherding impressive growth and success for abc24.com.

"Shane Myers was a wonderful employee and a dear friend to the entire ABC24 family. His smile brought joy to everyone that knew him. He will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family," said Rene LaSpina, Vice-President and General Manager of WPTY, WLMT and WJKT.

Godspeed, Shane.

On Crave (Beale Street Clubbing)

2011-09-29T00:20:00.001-05:00

UPDATE (9/29): Police have charged 23-year-old Kristina Mullins in the shootings near 380 Beale.

It's still unclear if Mullins and the other victims were at the Crave. Fox13 is reporting that they were not. An excerpt:

We're told the shooting stemmed from a fight on Beale and escalated to the public parking lot behind club. Club patrons also use the lot.

*CA: Editorial: Decision Time. (Sure, bulldozing a club will stop people from doing stupid things. Right.)

ORIGINAL POST (9/28):Three days later, the ABC24 headline is still wrong: "Beale Street Club Invovled in Police Shooting." Yet, this isn't about the spelling and proofreading errors; the syntax, though, is telling in its implication.

The club was involved.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, gunfire erupted behind the club at 380 Beale, leaving six people wounded. One was the alleged shooter who was wounded by police. None of the people have been identified.

Yet, so far, the club has been treated as nothing less than an accomplice given the history of that building. An excerpt from the CA:

It's not the first violent incident at the location, as 16 people have been shot at or near the site since 1992 and dozens more have been arrested in fights.

Five people were shot outside the venue, then occupied by the Plush Club, in July 2009. Three years earlier at the Plush Club, three people were shot during a birthday party for Memphis rapper Yo Gotti.

In 1993, a 16-year-old was killed inside the venue, which was then called Beale St. Place.

And in 1992, two men were shot to death outside the location, which was then occupied by Club 380.

The most recent incident before Sunday's shootings was a May 2010 brawl at the Plush Club involving as many as 100 people. Four officers were injured in the melee, and four men were arrested on charges of inciting a riot and assault.

After a financial lawsuit was filed against the club's owner and a nuisance complaint filed by the District Attorney's Office, the club closed the following month.

Crave opened in August.

The DA is even investigating the club after this latest incident. [WREG (1).]

Let's find a bit of common ground here: there's a reason why Memphis Police maintain a strong presence on Beale Street.

Over its history, Beale Street has had its share of violent incidents. Yet, no one talks about pulling its liquor licenses or shutting it down. Beale Street serves a purpose; it's a tourism generator. That's the big picture.

I would argue that 380 Beale has a bigger-picture purpose too.
__________________________________________
In a sense, this is an economic development issue.

Memphis needs a growing social scene if it wants to attract more young professionals, especially African Americans.

Yes, there are clubs like Senses, Rumba Room and Silver Spoon but these venues also cater to college kids. It's interesting how on some nights restaurants, like Rain on Germantown Parkway, become de facto clubs for young professionals.

That seems to speak to the lack of options -- besides networking events like First Fridays. But I digress.

Keeping the Crave open is arguably in our economic best interests.

Or put it this way, no matter what the name is on the building at 380 Beale, it's a club. It's a venue to bring a level of mini-concert entertainment that attracts young professionals. Others too.

Is there a possibility that a violent incident might occur? Yes. But that's one of the reasons why there's so much security on Beale. (Why not extend the security zone?)

I'm just sayin, we don't know if the alleged shooter or the other wounded actually went to Crave that night. The shootings happened in a private parking lot next to the Crave.

The building just seems caught in the crossfire. Again.

On Being Unified (When You're Really Not)

2011-09-26T02:45:00.000-05:00

In a week, the new Unified School Board will be sworn in -- though its first meeting as a board is still a month away.

The Flyer's Jackson Baker provides a good synopsis of what has transpired to this point, including noting that the USB includes those with obvious motives. An excerpt:

So it was that the unity of the Thursday night get-together convened by Russell was somewhat deceptive. One member of the new interim board, broker Chris Caldwell, reported being hot-boxed by two of his new colleagues from SCS, David Reaves and Mike Wissman, who made the case for new breakaway districts when the time came. Indeed, Wissman had just been elected mayor of suburban Arlington, a municipality which has already engaged the consulting group Southern Education Strategies, to help it plot the course toward an independent district. Other municipalities — Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett — are embarked on similar preparations. Bartlett’s mayor Keith McDonald, who was recently named to the transitional committee, has served notice he intends to lead his city into a separate school district, and he makes the case that new county districts are entitled to inherit their present school buildings and other infrastructure cost-free, on the ground that the state-mandated Average Daily Attendance formula had already distributed tax moneys for capital construction on a 3:1 ration favoring the city schools.

Yet, WREG/CA columnist Otis Sanford sensed enthusiasm amongst the bunch, while noting the symobolism of chicken salad. An excerpt:

The enthusiasm was perhaps best exemplified by transition commission member Daniel Kiel, a U of M law professor who has studied public education in Memphis for years.

While doing research on the city schools, Kiel said he discovered minutes from a board meeting in 1961 in which the board discussed merging with the mostly rural Shelby County School district. The plans included establishing a single countywide school board and a group of experts that would make up a transition team.

That discussion occurred 17 years before Kiel was born. Now he's a member of the very transition team he read about. Now he's sitting in the proverbial fishbowl.

"I'm excited to be part of something that we've been kicking down the road for a long time," Kiel told me. "It's exciting."

Yes, exciting. The USB is replete with storylines.

Who will establish themselves as leaders? Experts? Villains? At what point, will the seven appointed USB members turn into true politicians, considering that 2012 is an election year?

Will the members who favor municipal school districts galvanize into a voting bloc and pretty much dash what is, for the moment, unity in name only?

Who will follow the money? When each school system has been fully audited, who will become the most defensive?

Ditto these questions for the 21-member transition team, which will meet Thursday. (ABC24. WREG. CA.)

*MDN: The Blueprint.
*Fox13: Questions. Luttrell.

On The Tsunami (Paid Digital Content)

2011-09-18T16:27:00.001-05:00

UPDATE (9/18): Well, for one thing, Deputy Features Editor Mark Richens wasn't wrong.

Several months ago, Richens tweeted about the pricing structure of the Commercial Appeal's new paywall and today the newspaper made the official announcement with the same prices. (Scroll down for the backstory.)

The tsunami has arrived.

But it'll be months (?) before we find out the amount of casualties (lost readership) and property damage (revenue losses) that the landscape-altering change will have caused.

An excerpt from the CA:

Obituaries, classified advertising and some breaking news will continue to be offered free on the app, and on the newspaper's website, commercialappeal.com. Non-subscribers who use their computers to visit the website and view more than 10 articles a month will be asked to subscribe. They will have an opportunity to sign up for full access for $9.95 per month, or 99 cents a day. Once signed up, website users also will be able to access Commercial Appeal content on smartphones and tablets.

The Commercial Appeal's paid digital project is fully supported by E.W. Scripps, the parent company of the newspaper. Scripps is using Memphis as one of two test sites for a paid digital launch and will be evaluating customer responses over the next few months.

Test or no test, there is no turning back.

Scripps will probably use Memphis to fine tune the implementation elsewhere. So, with that lab testing in mind, it makes sense that the CA won't tell the mice (readers) when the paywall actually hit on the website. They'll keep coming just so they can see what it feels like. (If they need a clue, just download the CA app.)

Mediaverse® readers want to know: what does this mean for this site? It means the cost of production went up.

I can't foresee a life without CA content -- not because it's better than anything else, there's just more of it than anything else in Memphis.

And I seriously doubt if any other local news outlets will step up and offer more content than what they currently do. That's why I feel like if people abandon their subscriptions or just stop reading the CA online then it'll only be a matter of time before they return.

UPDATE (5/27): Intentional or not, a pretty awesome conversation about journalism and paywalls is taking place in Memphis. (Ex.: Flyer. Vibinc. LWC.)

More will weigh in as The Commercial Appeal gets closer to implementation. To me, this simply reinforces how much Memphis values journalism, especially the work done by the city's largest daily newspaper.

Let's just clear the air though: paywalls are not silver bullets.

It likely will not create or save jobs. It likely will not bolster or enhance coverage. It likely won't sanitize the inanity of some comment sections. In fact, paywalls aren't even truly about content or quality.

A paywall offers a semblance of protection for the print product, potentially spurring print subscriptions because online access would be unlimited. Or, it could increase digital subscribers who don't want to the aftermath of paper stacks.

Bottom line, the publisher wins by keeping readers, not "losing" them to some other source for information. But I digress.

Paywalls are protectionism.

No one owns "news" once it enters the public domain but, with a paywall, the CA is essentially arguing that it does own "news" -- or rather, its spin on it. (And, yes, it is spin. Sigh.) Instead of facilitating an exchange of ideas and information, a paywall, in essence, limits to whomever can pay.

This is where we are now. (Don't make me play the po'-card.) I may seem naive in lamenting pay-to-learn schemes since advertising revenue -- the true bill paying money -- remains troubled. Newspapers must find new revenue streams and a paywall is one way.

But it's not the only way. It lacks any semblance of a creative solution to take advantage of the CA product and capabilities. I mean, the Daily News is free online but I suspect that publication benefits greatly from its lock on databases and real estate information. In other words, advertising isn't its only lifeblood.

Why can't the CA earn revenue from by hosting conferences or workshops? Or turn its valued reporters into best-selling authors or speakers? Why can't the CA delve into treasure trove of archival material and launch a thousand subscriber-based blogs?

Why not?

In some ways, the CA is like government. It has a duty to be all things to all people. And in recent years, it has recognized that it can no longer afford to be all things.

After all, advertising, like property taxes, isn't what it used to be and bills still have to be paid. It's just a matter of figuring out how to do what it can.

Hell, everyone can relate to that.

UPDATE (5/26): Well, stuffing the Commercial Appeal's content behind a paywall has taken longer than 90 days but the implementation is imminent -- that assessment is based on tweets from CA staffers on Thursday that openly discussed the inevitable.

Deputy Features Editor Mark Richens reignited the discussion with a tweet. Soon, it was followed by more details:

(Richens: 1, 2, 3)

To be sure, a formal announcement is still in the works. According to the staffers, they were given more info about the paywall Wednesday but they expect more details will be worked out in the days (or weeks?) ahead.

The implementation of the paywall -- whenever it occurs -- will dramatically alter the local news landscape, not just for the CA but for every media outlet in town, including Mediaverse®.

I'm just sayin, Memphis will still have free content but being "free" won't be good enough much longer.
______________________________________
For the record, I don't like paywalls but rehashing the failure of newspapers makes little sense.

To that end, I accept them as part of the media's evolution but I thoroughly reject the oft-stated rationale for them that free content devalues the work of journalists, which is such luscious B.S.

The Memphis Business Journal has a paywall but are its reporters paid more than others? No way. Have they hired more reporters? Not hardly. "Free" content is just a convenient scapegoat for cost-cutting ... wait, right, no rehashing. Moving along...

Initially, the paywall ruckus might be much ado about nothing.

I'm just sayin, the start of anything new always causes some disruption so the real story won't be how many "readers" the CA might lose online. (Print subscribers will get unlimited access, which is a real homage to newsprint bread and butter but also makes one wonder if the digital content will remain as mundane and repetitive as it is now. Richens did say that the mobile apps would be better. But I digress. [Market data])

The real story for every media outlet will be how quickly readers adjust.
_____________________________________________
Surely, the paywall will create a ripple of change. Will it be a wave? Who knows. A tsunami? Doubtful. But there will be some pay-adverse readers who will turn away from the CA and increase their usage of the Memphis Flyer, The Daily News and the local TV web sites--all of whom provide free content.

Yet, what will they get at those sites? While TV sites update as much as the CA does, the quality of their updates pale in comparison. Whereas the CA might post an article filled with reporting, local TV news sites, for instance, might post a one or two paragraph summary or an AP article.

To that end, hopefully, the increase in users will result in better quality readable content on TV news sites, which have improved in recent years.

The point is that the CA paywall has implications for others.

It won't be a free boost for the Flyer and others because they'll certainly have to make adjustments to improve what they offer. That could have cost implications. But I digress.

As for this site, well, all links go dead eventually, right?

The paywall could mean "subscription required" notes by CA links, which can be a hassle. And no, I don't foresee limiting linkage like what currently happens with the Business Journal because their best content is behind a paywall, which makes trying to link to it senseless.

The CA, though, might make this painless since it'll take 10 story clicks before the paywall prompt shows and some readers may never hit that mark during a day. (Part of the reader adjustment is that they'll get pickier about the stories they read.)

So, theoretically, you can still browse for free or find some loophole in the coding that nullifies the counter altogether. But I digress.

Will the paywall be profitable? Who knows. But it's clear that there will be no turning back.

*For reference: NYT: A note
. Letter.

ORIGINAL POST (1/9/11): In the next 90 days, The Commercial Appeal is launching a paid digital news initiative, Executive Editor Chris Peck announced in his Sunday column today.

An excerpt:

The Commercial Appeal is launching its paid digital news initiative in the next 90 days.

If you are a subscriber to the print newspaper, you will get this digital content as part of your subscription, at no extra cost.

Others will be asked to pay for a digital subscription, either by the month or by the day.

Our smart phone content will be quick and easy to read. Our iPad/tablet content will look elegant, be modeled more on the aesthetic of reading, and will be a place where ads can be displayed and read with ease. Mobile Web access to our content will still be there -- but for a price.

We need you to go with us on this. You are already headed there with your smart phones and tablets. We're going there too. It's a way we can and will keep our local news reporting strong in this digital age.

So, will you go?
_______________________________
The paid digital news initiative comes with risk but, as Peck dutifully notes, there are few other alternatives -- and remaining "free" isn't one of them. Another excerpt from Peck:

Within 90 days this newspaper will have our new digital content offerings ready. We think they represent a critical step ahead for us -- and for all print publications.

Why? Because it gives print a chance to hit the reset button -- to move away from the free Web model. We've tried that model for a decade now, the model that gives away expensive-to-gather, proprietary local content unbundled from paid subscriptions and left to float around on Google for free.

It's a suicide spiral for local media like us. Yes, we'll still have some version of a free website -- but it's not a business model that can support 100 local professional journalists in Memphis or anywhere else.

At this point, it would be instructive to note that The CA, like other print publications, only has itself to blame for this predicament. Instead of innovating, the newspaper has spent much of the past decade merely waiting for death: cutting staff, trimming operations, reducing newsprint and so forth.

That's not to say that those moves didn't make sense because they did, especially in a climate of losses in advertising and subscriptions. However, they were short-term thinking at best.

I'm just sayin, this paid digital news initiative is The CA's strongest commitment to the web yet--and it arguably should have come years ago. But I digress.
_____________________________

For the record, I don't believe that online content is "free" at all.

It's just that news content providers don't get a cut of what people pay to Internet Service Providers and cellular companies get online and access their content.

The iPad could change that. Yes, there are a growing number of tablets, which could bring us back to where we are now, but the iPad stands to be the industry leader--not to mention the fact that Apple is willing to deals where publishers can charge tablet subscriptions and keep that revenue, as Neiman's Newsonomics notes. (RJOnline)

(That's important because the two most important revenue streams for newspapers are advertising and subscriptions; online advertising only accounts for about 16 percent of revenue for most papers. On another note, the Apple relationship also explains why the CA is putting limits on its mobile site as well.)

But are people willing to pay for news content? Not really.

Only 18 percent of respondents to a 2010 Pew Research Study said that they purchased news online.

Eighty-two percent said no.
______________________________
On a glass-half-full view, that "no" group represents a big opportunity but will newspapers be creative enough to put a dent in it?

I'm not so sure.

I'm just sayin, even though The CA is following in the footsteps of the New York Times with this paid model, it is not the New York Times.

The CA has no clue about online interaction. Its electronic products are mirrors of its print edition. It has taken more than two years for the CA to get to this point.

The reality is that CA articles will continue to float around on Google and wherever else. However, when you click on that, you might just be able to read a paragraph before you're asked to pay up.

But here's an X-Factor: local TV news.

Their websites are free. So are their apps. Video content is integrated. And by the way, they cover the same ground as The CA.

They might not go into as much detail as print but journalism is journalism, right?

ON AN UNRELATED, BUT RELATED, NOTE: Peck, who is also on the board of directors of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, wrote an article about the organization's recent study of editors and technology.

It would have been nice if Peck's article focused on how The CA's editors view the issue but the newspaper isn't as forthcoming as it would like its sources to be. Yet, the ASNE study shows how static newspapers have been on the issue of technology. They've had years to prepare and so many editors just aren't ready at all.

On Electrolux (The Incentives)

2011-09-18T15:28:00.001-05:00

In today's edition, Commercial Appeal reporters Amos Maki and Daniel Connolly provide a detailed report on the state and local incentives that landed Electrolux in the Frank Pidgeon Industrial Park.

It's a quality read -- with plenty of supporting material available online, which has become a trademark of the CA's investigative reporting efforts.

In a story about Electrolux's cost-cutting initiatives, Connolly clearly lays out the underlying premise of the CA's report. An excerpt:

One of the last steps in the cost-cutting process was the company's 2010 decision to shut down a unionized kitchen appliance plant in L'Assomption, Quebec, and build a new one in Memphis, where unions are weak and wages and transportation costs will likely be lower.

Memphis is benefiting from Straberg's strategy.

For now.

The company's history suggests that if its leaders ever concluded that leaving Memphis would boost profits, they would do so.

The contract that local and state officials signed last year with Electrolux after a round of secret meetings blocks governments from recovering most of the money invested in the project if Electrolux fails to create the desired number of jobs or leaves early.

Indeed, as the above graphic highlights, Electrolux is moving some jobs to Mexico. And if it could happen to Webster City, IA and Greenville, Mich., what would prevent Electrolux from pulling jobs from Memphis in a few years? Such has been our lot.

To that end, if Electrolux did bail or failed to create the number of promised jobs, the CA dutifully notes that the city, county and state would not be in a position to recoup much, if any, of the Electrolux incentives, which the CA conservatively valued at an estimated $188.3 million. [CA: How we calculated that figure.]

To be sure, others can critique the math, which the CA validated through numerous qualified sources; let's examine the premise of the CA's argument.

________________________________________
By its very nature, economic development is a game of leverage.

Electrolux's 2004 Annual Report

The CA's reporting clearly shows how Electrolux used its leverage to reap even more incentives from the state, county and city -- lest they feared that the company would close its plant in Springfield, Tenn., even though the company maintained that it had no such plans. The state opted not to call its bluff. (Would you?)

It is what it is. But I digress.

As far back as 2004, Electrolux has made its restructuring plans clear -- shifting production to low-cost countries and accessing new, modern and more efficient manufacturing facilities. So, it was little surprise that the Electrolux left Greenville and Webster City for Mexico or L'Assomption, Quebec for Memphis -- nor was it a drastic decision.

I'm just sayin, the company's decision to leave those cities wasn't made overnight.

For instance, Electrolux got the Webster City and Greenville plants when it acquired White Consolidated Industries (Frigidaire) in 1986.

That's 20 years or more of operation in those cities.

Though Electrolux had invested millions over the years and Michigan offered to build the company a new plant, Greenville still couldn't do much about the lower wages that the company wanted (or more pointedly, the union issue). That seems to be a theme.

As the CA notes, Memphis offers lower wages than L'Assomption (where the plant had operated for decades); this is also a right-to-work state.

It also gets a brand spanking new facility here.

Again, I digress.

Beyond the benefits that Electrolux gets by locating here, is it still simply one phone call away from uprooting everything and going south of the border?

Sure, maybe, 20 or 30 years from now.

On A Head Unrolled (Athletic Director R.C. Johnson)

2011-09-14T18:25:00.001-05:00

In the third week of an excruciatingly painful 2011 football campaign, a head rolled at the University of Memphis -- though not the one fans wanted. Defensive coordinator Jay Hopson opted to resign instead of choosing another position with the staff, according to UM.

Now, the team has co-defensive coordinators: Galen Scott and Mike Dubose -- yes, the former Alabama coach. (No comment.)

Though a sacrificial head-roll was inevitable in a season where Tiger football has hit bottom, angry fans aren't likely to be appeased until embattled AD R.C. Johnson chopped.

Commercial Appeal columnist Geoff Calkins has publicly called for Johnson's resignation and lamented how the powers that be simply don't care. He even discussed the topic on his WKNO program with George Lapides who vehemently disagrees that Johnson should be let go.

Yet, lest there be any confusion over whether Johnson stays or goes, one only needs to listen carefully to the words he stated in his own defense to FoxSports 730's Chris Vernon Tuesday. Go ahead and listen. I'll wait.

_____________________________________

One of the rationales for keeping Johnson, as proffered by Lapides, is that every AD goes through rough patches. Whether Johnson's stretch is actually bad or not is relative. It could argued that Tommy West was not a bad hire because of the consecutive bowl-game streak.

Let's just stop right there. This is symptomatic of the problem.

Johnson feels the football program would turnaround if it can simply get back to going to bowls and getting fans excited. Six games, that's it.

This is the administration's aspiration. Six games and roadtrip will appease the fans. Seriously. This is what a culture of losing subconsciously perpetuates.

The bar is set so low. To me, Tommy West was an utter failure. Memphis has never won a Conference USA Championship.

And honestly, winning a conference championship should be the bar for the program -- and it is for Coach Larry Porter. But it's not even imaginable for Johnson or anyone else.

With that kind of thinking, how is the program supposed to grow? The university will only invest so much to get those six wins and think that its mediocrity is enough to get in a BCS league. Whatever.

The simple answer is: bring in an SEC-minded AD. Recruit an executive, like Tennessee did, to run the program with visions of championships in his head.

Not roadtrips.

*Flyer: Three Thoughts. Downgrade.
*Fox13: Coach Porter Show.
*CA: He hasn't left yet. Jerry Lawler.

On Schnucks (The Denials)

2011-09-14T16:02:00.002-05:00

UPDATE (9/14): Shelley Baur, the author of Integrity Based Communications, spoke to the Memphis chapter of the Public Relations Society of America today. Her topic, of course, was integrity and utilizing faster truth-telling to prevent public relations calamities.

Her example: Schnucks and the Commercial Appeal.

Baur questioned the Schnucks spokeswoman's integrity -- even went through scenarios in which the spokeswoman could have possibly stood on her own integrity and prevented the company from making her tell an untruth to a CA reporter. (See the backstory below.)

And on those moments, Baur's presentation felt like some inside baseball knowledge for PR professionals -- until she cautiously asked if there was a reporter in the room and it was pointed out that CA reporter James Dowd there covering the meeting as usual.

After that, the presentation was simply awkward. It goes without saying that one can't question the Schnuck's spokeswoman's integrity without also questioning her Kroger counterparts. Nor can it be done without recognizing the fact that, though she could have handled the situation differently, nothing should have stopped the CA from publishing an article well before Sept. 2.

Case in point: the future of the Cleo gift wrap plant.

On Tuesday, the CA reported that the buyer of the plant wouldn't say for certain what its future would be. An excerpt:

"I can't say one way or another," said Ron Noyes, CFO of Minnesota-based Impact Innovations.

A pretty non-committal on-the-record response. Was he lying? It doesn't matter. That didn't stop the CA from publishing it as it should've done with Schnucks.

Today, the CA reported online that the plant's equipment will be auctioned off -- a strong indication that the plant is doomed to close. No quote from Noyes.

Good reporting, good follow-up. Maybe, also, a good lesson learned.

UPDATE: Craig Silverman, editor of RegretTheError.com, weighed in on the CA-Schnucks story on the Columbia Journalism Review's website. He supports the newspaper's view that the Schnucks spokeswoman lied to its reporter. To Silverman, the CA was right to hold Schnucks accountable.

An excerpt:

The resulting report may seem like nothing more than payback, but it does two important things. First, it helps readers understand why the paper published a story that led with false information. At the same time, it holds the company accountable. Second, the story functions as something of a warning to other would-be dishonest sources: You can’t lie to us and get away with it.

I suspect the paper feels justified in doing this because the transgressor is a professional communicator. She is expected to meet a higher standard, and it’s fair game to hold her to it.

That’s especially true when you consider what Willis told Romenesko. Asked why she told the paper no deal was being negotiated when that’s exactly what was going on, here’s what she said: “I gave them the best information I had at the time.”

Yep, another lie.

Did she lie or not? That's not really the point. Or better yet, if she lied, did Kroger lie too? Surely, the CA contacted Kroger for comment about the pending deal but there is absolutely no mention about that at all.

Inquiring minds want to know. The way the CA has handled this raises far more questions than there should be if the newspaper really declined to report what it had because it couldn't get the info confirmed as several sources suggest -- adamantly dismissive that potential advertising losses played any role in the reporter's or his editor's thinking.

OK, I believe they are right on that point.

But where's Kroger in the CA's ire? This is where the slippery slope continues.

Did the CA call Kroger and their spokesperson admit that there was a deal but asked the newspaper to hold off in return that it would get official confirmation first? See, where this is going? But I digress.

No other local media has reported a problem like the CA has. That's telling, though they would likely keep it close to the vest.

And in the end, that's what the CA should have done. I'm just sayin, even though Schnucks has sold its stores, it's still going to be somewhat involved in commercial real estate sales with other property that it owns as the Memphis Business Journal notes.

For at least one reporter at the CA, writing that faux accountability story has clearly burnt one bridge and who knows how many more.

UPDATE (9/9): Relying heavily on local media reports, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, requesting an investigation of antitrust issues involving the local sale of Schnucks stores to Kroger.

An excerpt:

As Schnucks departs the Memphis market, Kroger plans to convert 8 Schnucks stores into Kroger stores with 5 other Schnucks and Kroger stores closing, giving Kroger a total of 43 stores in the region. It has been reported that before the sale, Kroger accounted for approximately 30 percent of grocery sales in the Memphis metropolitan area while Schnucks accounted for approximately 13 percent of the grocery sales. In the City of Memphis itself, these figures are likely to be much higher. Therefore, as a result of the deal, Kroger could control substantially more than 43 percent of the market share, with no comparable competitor.

It is also important to note the impact that closing these stores will have on current Schnucks employees. 1,193 people work in Memphis area Schnucks stores and while employees have been told that they may reapply for their jobs at Kroger, there is no guarantee that they will be re-hired, particularly since several stores will be closing. At a time of heightened unemployment in Memphis, this could be especially damaging to our community.

He went on to voice concerns about Kroger's potential market dominance and the letter notes that he enclosed several Commercial Appeal articles for reference. And no, the letter doesn't mention any claims about the Schnucks spokeswoman allegedly lying to the newspaper.

*The FTC Guide to Antitrust Laws.
*CA: Cohen. (WREG. Fox13. WMC. ABC24.)

*Gawker: Cursed Spokeswoman.
*MBJ: Sad day. An excerpt on Schnucks spokeswoman Lori Willis:

She also sounded genuinely sad at the news of the grocery's exit. The family owned company — led by a third generation and rising fourth — made a very tough decision to leave the Mid-South. It came to the market in 2002 with virtually no name recognition and worked hard to "raise the bar on food expertise and service," she said. Its operations will now be completely focused in the Midwest with stores in five states: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.
"It's a very sad day," she said.

ORIGINAL POST (9/7): Facing backlash from readers for not reporting on the Schnucks-Kroger deal in advance of the Sept. 2 announcement--despite having "mounting evidence" that something was in the works-- The Commercial Appeal publicly defended itself with a simple explanation Tuesday: Schnucks lied to us.

An excerpt:

When rumors and clues -- some conveyed by worried Schnucks employees -- started coming on strong to at least one newsroom, Schnucks headquarters repeatedly denied a deal was in the works to sell its Memphis stores to Kroger.

"There's no truth to those rumors," Schnucks spokesman Lori Willis told The Commercial Appeal on Aug. 25.

That was just eight days before the companies announced the sale and closing of stores that would cost the jobs of hundreds of Schnucks workers.

"Typically, we would not comment on rumor and speculation, but I will acknowledge these rumors have gotten to a point with the media where I feel I need to tell you there is no truth to those rumors," Willis continued on Aug. 25.

"It's business as usual at our stores,'' Willis said then. "Most questions have come from The Commercial Appeal. We have not had any questions outside that."

The article is an amazing slam of the St. Louis-based company -- even questions the professionalism and ethics of the Schnucks spokeswoman for allegedly lying.

Today, in response to Poynter's Romenesko, CA Business Editor Roland Klose and Biz reporter Tom Bailey expounded on the article. An excerpt:

“I felt like our brand — our newspaper — was damaged” by Schnucks’ denials, which prompted the paper to stay silent about sale rumors, says business editor Roland Klose. Readers, he says, have accused the paper of being “derelict” by not running rumor stories, but “we felt it would be irresponsible …and it was such an adamant denial” from Willis.
Bailey doesn’t believe the PR woman was simply out of the loop when she talked to him in late August. After the deal was announced, he says, “she said, ‘We couldn’t tell you, Tom, because we had this agreement” with Kroger.

Has the CA's brand been damaged? Of course, it has -- but the blame shouldn't fall on Schnucks.

____________________________________________
As usual, this is a debate on the merits of journalism. This isn't personal. It's truly unfortunate that the CA's biz desk (of which I was once an employee) has found itself in this predicament.

Since his arrival as Biz Editor in 2010, Klose has notably improved the section and Tom Bailey is one of the better reporters on that desk as well as the CA period.

Yet, the reaction to the Schnucks sale is a pox on that desk, the newsroom and all other local media who also may have received information from employees and failed to report.

For the CA, it confirms what one has suspected about its business reporting for some time. It will not report unless there is 1) a press release; 2) official documentation (i.e. court, SEC filings, etc.); 3) someone (i.e. a corporate spokesperson, official or speaker) goes on the record; and 4) another news organization breaks the news first.

Schnucks did not issue any press releases. (Kroger did on the day of the announcement --more on this later) Schnucks is a privately-held and is not required to disclose information. There were no other news reports in advance of the sale -- not even in St. Louis.

And for the record, if another news org had broken the story in advance, there's no question that the CA would have reported it.

But this is about the Commercial Appeal having the opportunity to be that news org and break the news but it decided to hold pat for several weeks.

No disrespect to Klose's view of responsibility, but couching that with Schnucks' "adamant" denials makes the decision to withhold even worse.
__________________________________________________
Read between the lines.

Neither adamant denials nor anonymous sources have ever stopped the CA from publishing other articles, especially on public figures like former Mayor Willie Herenton. But he doesn't buy ad space in the CA.

Schnucks does.

And for the record, there is no confirmation that Schnucks pulled an overt power play to kill the story so, yes, this is speculation. But let's talk about what's in front of us -- nowhere in CA's slam of Schnucks, which is leaving the market, is its partner, Kroger's even mentioned in a negative context.

I'm just sayin, where's the info about Kroger's response to reporter inquiries? Did the CA even ask Kroger? It's unclear in such a pointed and damning article.

So, unless Schnucks confirmed info (i.e. says it's OK) as it did with the gas card story, the CA apparently declined to push an advertiser on a story when jobs and more (advertising revenue) hang in the balance, citing journalistic responsibility.

Investigative reporting applies to businesses too.

And, by its own admission, it was receiving credible information from employees and others but it set that aside because Schnucks wouldn't give them the story. An excerpt:

Employees and others had sent e-mails and made phone calls to The Commercial Appeal for several weeks.

Not only were Schnucks stores canceling its gas-card program -- which the newspaper reported Aug. 16 -- but the stores had quit distributing Schnucks-logo shirts to employees, weren't resupplying stores normally, were running out of items, and were sending the regional HR person back to St. Louis headquarters, sources told the newsroom.

Some were frustrated that that there'd been no news reports about the deal.

"Just wondering why no one has picked up the news that Schnucks has sold to Kroger and is closing 5 to 6 stores," wrote one man in an Aug. 25 e-mail to The Commercial Appeal. "The impact on the local economy, the employees, vendors and competition should be a front page story."

One person called anonymously in late August to report -- accurately, as it turns out -- Kroger would take over Schnucks stores on Sept. 10 and was keeping it quiet because the sale involved lots of job cuts.

On Aug. 18, a Schnucks employee called the newspaper saying he'd heard the rumors and wondered if the newspaper had.

Again, this is a stunning admission -- thoroughly wrapped in the victim's clothing. But I digress.
_________________________________________
Business reporting, in and of itself, has changed dramatically as the news orgs suffer through a difficult era of declining advertising revenue.

At the CA, the business section, like other areas, has been cut back; staffing changes have occurred. Most importantly, while reporters cover specific areas, the days of reporting on operational changes -- like what some of the Schnucks tips focused on -- are gone.

Reporters don't have the time to do day-to-day or inside baseball reporting of companies any longer -- unless said company issues a press release or is part of some larger trend. The quick hit is best.

(Again, no other local media reported on the possibility of the sale before the executives were actually in town to break the news.)

It is what it is.

But this was an opportunity for the CA to turn back the clock with the kind of investigative reporting that its staffers are fully capable of producing.

For whatever reason, it failed to do so.

To that end, one can't help but wonder if The CA effectively wanted Schnucks to give it the story based on its calling alone and Schnucks declined.

And instead of working to publish stories that could force Schnucks and Kroger to comment -- and heck, a "no comment" or "Both companies declined..." would have sufficed-- the Commercial Appeal muffled itself and is now crying about it as the valid complaints rise against it.

And maybe, besides some otherwise good reactionary stories [1,2,], something else good could come from this disaster: a CA business blog.

Consider it, on a blog, the CA could enable some crowd-source reporting on information like this from Kroger's 10Q:

Capital expenditures reflect our strategy of growth through expansion, as well as focusing on productivity increases from our existing store base through remodels. In addition, we will continue our emphasis on self-development and ownership of real estate, logistics and technology improvements. The continued capital spending in technology is focused on improving store operations, logistics, manufacturing procurement, category management, merchandising and buying practices, and should reduce merchandising costs. We intend to continue using cash flow from operations to finance capital expenditure requirements. We expect capital investments for 2011 to be in the range of $1.7-$1.9 billion, excluding acquisitions and purchases of leased facilities. We expect total food store square footage to grow approximately 1.0%-1.5% before acquisitions and operational closings.

As a result of the Schnucks acquisition, we have a better idea of what this means for Memphis.

ON AN UNRELATED, BUT RELATED, NOTE: There's a notable difference in how Memphis Flyer columnist John Branston reported on the federal lawsuit against First Horizon than what the Commercial Appeal reported today, which comes from a more defensive and corporate position than Branston's pure scrutiny of the assertions as stated in the lawsuit.

On 9/11 (Ten Years Later)

2011-09-11T11:14:00.001-05:00

On the morning of this Sept. 11, I am sitting on the couch, holding my 2-year-old daughter in my arms. My wife has fallen back to sleep but Ari and I are watching C-SPAN, listening to family members read the names of all who died in New York City on this day ten years ago. Tears are streaming down my face but Ari is restless. She wants to hear the music and see the lights dance on her Baby Einstein player. So, as much as I struggle with old feelings, I oblige. Now, Ari is dancing to this strange mashup of xylophones, colored lights and sacred names.

I am smiling.

On this day, America reflects on 9/11.

Ten years later, our lives continued and changed, how should journalists tell this story? How should we recast the past? How has hindsight informed or blinded newsrooms?

This is a special day for me, which is one of the reasons why I'm watching this coverage. At that time, I was the transportation reporter for the Commercial Appeal and was one of a team that pulled out all stops to report how Memphis was impacted by those attacks. When the FAA cleared the skies in the aftermath of the attacks, more than 200 planes were diverted to Memphis International Airport. Over the next several weeks, I reported on FAA developments, impacts on Northwest Airlines and FedEx, stranded passengers, increased airline security and more. But my most vivid remembrance of that time has nothing to do with any of that.

I could handle the work, the long hours. I was thoroughly immersed in all of the news and images. What I couldn't handle--or really describe to anyone--was the weight of my emotions after the work--the task of reporting--subsided.

First responders experience this. They break down in tears. So did I. The depression, the anger, the loss of focus, all that --and perhaps more. But I digress.

Everything happens for a reason. Like the joys, even the pain we experience provides lessons, molds us into who we are. Can we accept what we see? Can we appreciate what has happened and look forward to what may happen?

For me, ten years later, I can finally answer, "Yes."

THE FRONT PAGES: Here is a collection of front pages from today that stood out.

God bless America.

On Officer Lied (Situation Critical)

2011-09-09T06:36:00.001-05:00

UPDATE (9/9): Martha Mote became a free woman again Thursday. Shelby County D.A. Amy Weinrich dropped all charges against her. An excerpt from the CA:

"We just didn’t feel that we could continue to hold Ms. Mote in custody on these felony charges, nor continue to have her facing the felony charges given what we have learned since Sgt. Benjamin was shot on Saturday," Weirich said

WMC. Fox13. WREG. ABC24.

On Facebook, Mote's supporters are expressing their vindication, including noting that Mote plans to file a lawsuit and clarifying that she was never Benjamin's mistress, just a friend.

Also, the CA and ABC24 report that Memphis Mayor A C Wharton wants to pursue hate crime charges against Benjamin for lying about who shot him. An excerpt from ABC24:

Mayor Wharton says Benjamin's actions are inexcusable.

"I am grossed out over it," says Wharton. "It goes beyond hurt."

He says the description and lie were no accident.

"The idea was, who would be a likely suspect," he explains to abc24.com. "Playing on race and ethnicity? For an officer of the law, it is despicable. For anybody to do that, it is utterly despicable."

It's also a hate crime according to the mayor. He told Director Armstrong he wants charges pursued on both the state and federal levels.

Wharton wants to make an example of Benjamin.

Does this mean that Benjamin's lies have also turned into a political issue in the Hispanic community for this election year?

ORIGINAL POST (9/6): The story of MPD Sgt. Norman Benjamin continues to evolve as the police investigation goes on. Here are some examples:

*WREG: The family of Martha Mote, who has been charged with attempted second-degree murder, says she's innocent and that Benjamin is suicidal. An excerpt discussing Mote's family:

The family told News Channel 3 they visited Mote in jail for the first time Monday afternoon. Mote told them Benjamin actually shot himself in wanting to commit suicide, but Mote is still charged with attempted second degree murder.

Simmons said Benjamin was very kind to the whole family and that Mote would never have wanted to hurt him.

"He has bought this lady cars, he has helped this lady pay bills, down to everything. Like I said, he's an angel. She would not do this to him," he said.

Simmons and his family could not say whether the shot fired on Saturday had to do with Mote's niece.

Indeed, on WREG's Facebook page, people who know Mote and Benjamin have been posting information about the details leading up to Saturday's events, including an allegation that Benjamin purchased a firearm the day before the shooting.

Stephanie Mote is Mote's daughter. It's clear that Mote's supporters are taking to social media to defend their mother. How much of the information can be verified? And while WREG has allegedly been given information by Mote's family, it remains to be seen how much of it will be filtered into their reporting.

*WREG: How has the Hispanic community and the perceptions of it been affected? WREG tapped into the comments from its Facebook page for a story and talked to a local business.

It's a start but this also underscores how lacking Hispanic sources/resources are in local media. We only need to look to history as to how this would have played out if Benjamin had falsely accused an African American. There would be more coverage of the outrage. But local media doesn't have the inroads to truly report on how local Hispanics are reacting.

It's interesting that Commercial Appeal reporter Daniel Connolly wrote today's front page story on Benjamin because Connolly's fluent in Spanish. But I digress.

Will we see more about the Hispanic reaction?

*ABC24: Playboy.
*WMC: Casanova.

*Initial Post.

On Officer Down (Stable But Critical Condition)

2011-09-05T00:27:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: He lied. An excerpt from the CA:

A wounded police sergeant said a Hispanic man shot him and police gave a description to the public, but Memphis Director of Police Services Toney Armstrong said today that the officer was lying and that the shooter was a woman the victim knew.

The woman, 54-year-old Martha Mote, has been charged with attempted second-degree murder and the use of a weapon during a violent felony.

Officials may bring charges against Sgt. Norman Benjamin for false reporting, Armstrong said. Benjamin is still recovering at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis.

The wounded officer may have been involved in a relationship with Mote and with a female relative of hers who is underage, Armstrong said.

“Sgt. Benjamin’s actions during this investigation are inexcusable and will not be tolerated by this administration,” Armstrong said. He added that he would make sure that Benjamin is punished to the full extent of the law and administratively.

Credit to MPD for a thorough investigation -- aided, of course, by the CrimeStopper's tip line. (Fox13. WREG. WMC.) But I digress.

It's clear that MPD needed some time to talk to Benjamin before it definitively debunked his initial version of how he got shot, including an alleged Hispanic suspect who wasn't.

Still, this episode highlights the need for local media to scrutinize the police narrative. The information is only as good as what police know at the moment -- and even then, it's just one side of the story. To that point, though, eyewitness accounts seem equally befuddling in hindsight. An excerpt from ABC24:

"They have to have a lot of guts to shoot a cop,” said an eyewitness Tania Moreno. She works next door to Los Comales and saw the bullet hole in Sergeant Benjamin's stomach.

"They were trying to rob him and that's when they shot him. It's crazy. It's just a bad neighborhood. They're just looking around to see who they can rob," said Moreno.

Moreno seems to suggest that even eyewitnesses thought Benjamin's initial story was credible. That raises questions about what really happened on Summer, especially if it is possible that Benjamin could have been shot elsewhere. (ABC24)

I'm just sayin, how is it possible for eyewitnesses to mistake a 54-year-old white woman for a Hispanic male? But I digress.

Unless the police figure out the lie, it's unlikely that local media will.

ORIGINAL POST (9/5/11): As of Sunday night, the suspect, who shot and critically wounded MPD Sgt. Norman Benjamin Saturday afternoon, was still at large.

The common description of the suspect is: dark complexion and long black hair, clothed in a black cut-off T-shirt and dark pants

WMC, Fox13 and ABC24 also noted that the suspect is Hispanic.

So far, the coverage has gone as expected, though this story has been far less dominant in comparison to the fatal shooting of Ofc. Timothy Warren in July.

Yes, college football was big on Saturday.

WMC, for instance, broke into programming during the Notre Dame-South Florida game but, overall, the coverage didn't appear to be wall-to-wall Saturday or Sunday.

Other than the upgrade of Benjamin's status to stable but critical condition Sunday, there haven't been many developments.

The suspect is still at large but the description is so vague that he is effectively disappeared -- unless someone who knows him snitches. (WREG)

And I guess, if the manhunt drags out, local media will get to explore that topic again too.

But I digress.

One of the more disturbing stories, though, was a WMC interview of Memphis Police Association Vice President Michael Williams Sunday night that discussed Benjamin's shooting as perhaps yet another reason for the Memphis City Council to pay attention to police salaries.

So, each time an officer is wounded or killed, there needs to be a discussion about salaries? Is this what has to happen to get a wage increase?

On Break (Coming Back Soon)

2011-09-03T10:34:00.002-05:00

Enjoy this blast from the past. Thanks.

On Losing Sight (To Report or Not to Report)

2011-08-25T17:00:00.000-05:00

In today's edition, Commercial Appeal columnist Wendi C. Thomas likened a local optometrist to a "bully" because of the way Dr. Dawn Kamin handled a dispute involving the property management company of the building where she leases office space.

An excerpt from Thomas's column:

Last month, Kamin had a 20-foot flagpole installed outside her Affordable Eye Care office in Germantown's Corporate Centre, where she leases space.

Don't miss that: She leases the space. It's not her property.

Tesco Development, which manages Corporate Centre, told the building's owner that Kamin could fly Old Glory from a bracket attached to the building.

Those are Tesco's rules, but Kamin wanted to do what she wanted, where she wanted and when she wanted.

Instead of acquiescing after noting that Tesco already flies two American flags on the property, Kamin instead talked to more than a few media outlets, managing to come off as an aggrieved victim.

An alarmist headline on Fox News' website read: "Tennessee Woman Told to Remove American Flag Outside Her Optometry Office."

Initially, Kamin talked to The Commercial Appeal -- and yes, she did come off as the aggrieved (or better yet, dogged) victim. I'm just sayin, for those playing close attention, the story noted how Kamin was in the wrong but was damned to fight anyway.

The above photo makes her look heroic. But that's sort of besides the point.

Was the Kamin story worth covering in the first place? Sure, why not?

______________________________________________
First, as anyone who has done community journalism knows, news can be awfully fleeting.

On some days, hard news can be downright non-existent in comparison to Memphis, where breaking news happens in abundance.

That's not to suggest that the Kamin story was manufactured because clearly there was a dispute between two parties.

That alone fits a justifiable criteria to be news worthy of feeding the daily news-gathering beast, especially in a hyperlocal environment.

In hindsight, what stands out, though, is how even relatively small news can register once it hits the public conscience -- and is repeated by local TV outlets after appearing in print (or vice versa). (Everyone has slow news days.)

I'm just sayin, Kamin was on Fox News. Of course, the additional ingredients were there: the flag, patriotism, fighting against regulation, etc. -- all those things that would make a Fox "patriot" buzz.

But I digress.

Attracting attention is simply easier now with so much media available -- and willing to report.

If Thomas was really bothered by the attention that Kamin has received, then perhaps she should convene a meeting in the newsroom to discuss how write these stories in such a manner where conflict does not trump the underlying facts.

After all, her employer gave Kamin a platform. You can't fault Kamin for that.

Open Thread

2011-08-22T07:58:00.000-05:00

Thanks for your patience. This is an open thread for comments until the blog gets back to full operation. Comments are moderated. Thanks!

On The Paywall (CA Mobile Apps)

2011-08-09T06:47:00.000-05:00

UPDATE (8/9): E.W. Scripps Co., the parent of The Commercial Appeal, posted a second-quarter loss on declining revenues. The newspaper division continues to lose but Scripps sees signs in digital products and paywalls. An excerpt from the press release:
"In the newspaper division, encouraging results from the development of digital businesses and strategies to secure the print audience are being offset by continued declines in several core print advertising categories. Most challenging are those segments of revenue, such as real estate, that are closely tied to national economic conditions.

"We continue to simplify our newspaper operations and advertising sales efforts, especially in print, where readership and related circulation revenues are encouraging but advertising demand remains weak. An ambitious reorganization of the division is putting us in a much better position to focus on audience development and revenue generation. But expenses related to the reorganization, including those for implementation of new systems and analytics, are leading to some expense growth in this difficult revenue environment. Longer term, however, we expect the investments to pay off.

"Pure-play digital audiences and revenues, those with no direct tie to print products, continue to show good growth and we're now rolling out several aggressive models that inspire information consumers to pay for content. Like some others in the industry, we believe properly packaged, compelling local content can have direct economic value in the fast-evolving digital marketplace.

In other words, the paywall is coming but only time will tell if it'll be enough to truly mitigate the print advertising losses.

The full newspaper breakout after the jump:

Newspapers

Total revenue from Scripps newspapers fell 5.6 percent year over year to $102 million in the second quarter of 2011. Print advertising revenue was down 7.7 percent to $61.3 million. Both figures reflect slight improvements in the rate of decline from the first quarter of 2011.

Advertising revenue broken down by category was:

Local, down 4.6 percent to $20.7 million
Classified, down 9.4 percent to $20.0 million
National, down 31 percent to $3.1 million
Preprint and other, down 3.5 percent to $17.4 million

Within the classified advertising category, help wanted advertising improved on a year-over-year basis for the fourth consecutive quarter, rising 4.4 percent. Automotive advertising was down 6.4 percent, and real estate advertising, which has been weak due to the prolonged nationwide housing slump, was down 16 percent.

Circulation revenue in the second quarter was essentially flat at $29.7 million.

In 2011, we began reporting revenue from certain of our digital offerings net of the amounts paid to our digital partners. As a result of this change, reported digital revenues decreased 3.9 percent to $6.7 million. If 2010 revenues had been reported on this net basis, pure-play digital advertising would have increased 10.3 percent and total digital revenues in the second quarter of 2011 would have increased 3.1 percent.

Consistent with management's guidance in May that second quarter newspaper expenses would be up in the low- to mid-single-digit range, expenses in the newspaper segment rose 3.9 percent, to $97.1 million, due to higher costs for newsprint and employee benefits. Employee costs rose 3.3 percent, driven, in part, by the reinstatement of the 401(k) matching program in mid-2010. A 10 percent increase in the price of newsprint in the second quarter resulted in a 10 percent increase in the expense for newsprint and press supplies.

Second-quarter segment profit in the newspaper division was $4.9 million, compared with segment profit of $14.6 million in the second quarter of 2010.

Again, the key is the paragraph about the digital offerings but that has a long way to go to actually change things for the newspaper

ORIGINAL POST (8/7): Somewhat quietly, The Commercial Appeal launched new versions of its mobile apps for the iPhone and Android phones -- and no, they aren't exactly free.

The apps can be downloaded for free. One can access some basic features but non-CA subscribers will need a subscription for full access (presumably, to comment among other things).

The subscriptions cost $9.99 for 30 days or 99 cents for 24 hours.

It's unclear if the apps will push users to the subscription page after so many article reads a month.

An excerpt from the CA's FAQ:

Your Web site has been free so why are you charging me for getting news on iPhone, iPad, Android etc? (Hold this question until this happens.)

You mean you are going to charge for your Web site too? (??)

These questions are unanswered for the moment. But I digress.

Judging from the screenshots, the apps are much better than the mobile site, which is still free -- at least for now.

On Gambling (Millington Mayor Richard Hodges)

2011-08-09T05:47:00.000-05:00

UPDATE (8/9): According to The Commercial Appeal, Marlin Roberts, the confidential informant in the TBI investigation of Millington Mayor Richard Hodges, has come out in defense of him. An excerpt:

In the affidavit, agents state the informant told them Hodges owed him more than $10,000 in interest-free IOU's, threatened him with code enforcement action to get more money, and provided him with an honorary police badge coveted by the informant in return for money.

But Roberts said the affidavit accounts are filled with "lies and manipulations."

The impetus for the investigation was "nothing more than a personal vendetta between Terry Roland and Richard Hodges," he said.

ORIGINAL POST (8/7): The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's probe of Millington Mayor Richard Hodges seemingly poses a bit of a journalistic quandary: reporting on the investigation without drawing connections to the suicide of his wife, Rita.

Yet, that's bound to happen.

To be sure, suicide is a taboo topic for media outlets, principally because the coverage may unintentionally cause others to take their own lives. Also, it's often unclear why people choose that route and, unless there are clear indications, speculation is best avoided. (Tips for reporting.)

Ms. Hodges' death, though, occurred July 26, the day before TBI agents raided the city's offices. And even though, in the immediate aftermath Mayor Hodges dismissed any connection between the raid and her death, the release of the TBI Agent David Harmon's affidavit threw all of that into question again.

The affidavit, itself, provides details of conversations between Mayor Hodges and the owner of Transmission Doctors over gambling debts among other things. In one conversation on April 27, 2011, Hodges was overheard blaming the Transmission Doctors owner (who, at that time, was acting as a confidential informant) for his wife attempting suicide. An excerpt:

During the same telephone conversation between TBI CI and Richard Hodges, Hodges stated that it was the TBI CI's fault that his (Richard Hodges) wife tried to kill herself. Richard Hodges stated to the TBI CI that Rita tried to kill herself because the TBI CI had told that Richard Hodges was still gambling at the TBI CI's transmission shop in Millington.

This is how the CA treated this passage:

In the same phone call, Hodges said it was the informant's fault that Hodges' wife, Rita Hodges, had tried to kill herself after being told by the informant that her husband was still gambling at the informant's transmission shop. (Rita Hodges would later commit suicide on July 26, a day before the TBI raid.)

It's not a direct correlation, just a re-statement of events. But I digress.

This is all based on an affidavit, an agent's word (and perhaps, a recording) against Hodges'. Was Hodges truthful? Then again, how difficult had his gambling become for him to allegedly use his wife's health in such a fashion?

This could be the beginning. (ABC24. Fox13. )

How deep or far might this go? The affidavit paints how Hodges might have tried to trade city favor in exchange for debt forgiveness or just cash. Were there other cases? Is the Transmission Shop the only place he gambled?

There is a cloud over all of Millington's business.

And while Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland takes credit for blowing the whistle, he, too, admitted to gambling at the shop, though he claims that it occurred before he was elected and was "harmless."

Will he get caught up? Who knows.

And in the center of it all, there's still a suicide. Somehow, someway, it's going to be talk about as it was at her funeral.

What did Rita Hodges know?

*CA: Stopped talking. Shocked. Subpoena.
*WMC: Standing ground. Subpoena. The dark.
*WREG: Prayer vigil.
*ABC24: No resignation.
*Fox13: Reaction. Several years.
*MDN: Affidavit.

On Action News 5 at 4 pm (Lindsey Brown)

2011-08-08T00:37:00.002-05:00

WMC Action News 5 is launching a 4 p.m. newscast later this month, according to the journalist hired to anchor it.

In her farewell at WTOK Newscenter 11 in Meridian, Miss last week, Lindsey Brown noted her new job at the NBC affiliate in Memphis.

She starts this week.

The 4 p.m. newscast is expected to start Aug. 22, according to Brown's Facebook page. (Station officials could not be reached for comment late Sunday.)

For WMC, the 4 p.m. newscast represents a true life without Oprah. When Oprah's talk show was live, the station was competitive against WREG's 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. newscasts. The rebroadcasts of Oprah? Well, not so much. An excerpt from The Commercial Appeal's article on the recent July sweeps:

In the 4 p.m. slot, WREG pulled in a 5.9 rating for its hour-long news broadcast, followed by Fox 13 with 5.2 for its 60-minute Judge Judy programming block. ABC 24 finished third with 3.7 for the Maury Povich show and WMC finished fourth with 2.8 for rebroadcasts of the Oprah Winfrey show.

The rebroadcast got pummeled by Maury. Enough said.

It should be noted, though, that WMC swept the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news slots in July ratings period.

However, WMC barely beat WREG at 5 p.m., which suggests that an even weaker 4 p.m. lead-in might cause problems that even Brian Williams and a strong NBC network newscast can't help -- at least in the beginning.

The key will be Brown and how quickly she can bring the newscast up to speed. (It's unclear if she'll have a co-anchor. UPDATE: Sources say Jarvis Greer will be the co-anchor; a part-time sport producer has been hired to help him on the sports desk.)

Judging from Brown's social media accounts, it appears that her transition from Meridian to Memphis has been in the work for at least a couple of months. Here's her bio from WTOK:

Lindsey is a lifelong Mississippi resident who grew up along the Mississippi coast in Long Beach. She came to Newscenter Eleven in 2006 as a general assignment reporter. After three years at the station, she was selected to co-anchor the 6 p.m. show and also anchor the 10 p.m. show.

Lindsey's work in Meridian has earned her several first place Associated Press awards. She received the thrill of her life when in March of 2008 she took to the skies to fly in an F-18 Hornet with the Blue Angels at NAS Meridian.

Her love for journalism began in high school where she worked for the news team, and while in college at the University of Mississippi she reported and anchored for her college station. She fell in love with reporting while interning in newsrooms in Tampa, Florida and Biloxi. Lindsey's work as a student journalist earned her three state-wide AP awards and was named The University of Mississippi Broadcast Journalism Student of the Year in 2006.

Lindsey loves to travel and discover new places and cultures. Her favorite visits to date are Cannes, France and Washington D.C., but still loves seeing all the Magnolia State has to offer. She is a member of the Meridian Junior Auxiliary and attends First Christian Church in downtown Meridian.

Welcome to Memphis, Lindsey. Good luck.

On Mediaverse

2011-07-27T11:44:00.000-05:00

Appreciate the support. The site will be updated next week. Follow us on Twitter: @Mediaverse.

Thanks!

On The Bluff City (The World Series of School Funding)

2011-07-21T06:11:00.005-05:00

UPDATE (7/21): If Tuesday night's vote was a Memphis City School's bluff, early indications show that it's working. Proof:

1) National TV coverage that put the city on defense. [CNN. MSNBC.] 2) The delivery of $3 million owed to MCS. [CA. Fox13. WMC. WREG.] 3) Today's meeting of the City Council's Education Committee to hear MCS's budget, an appointment that MCS says it has been trying to make since April. 4) Wharton's unenforceable promise that MCS schools will open on August 8. [WREG. ABC24. CA. Flyer.]

[Thomas: Maury Povich. CA: Widespread.]

But I digress.

Let's cut through some rhetoric on both sides.

First, let's start with MCS and its "fully funded" argument. It's a nuanced position that seems to imply that the city hasn't paid a dime (i.e. deadbeat dads). However, the city has provided funding since the 08-09 school year but it hasn't completely paid the amount approved by MCS and the City Council.

MCS's chief point focuses on what's owed, including the $55 million (or $57 mil or $59 mil) cut in 2008 that courts have since ordered the city to restore. But the city hasn't. Why?

An excerpt from the the city's fact sheet:

The Memphis City Council and MCS have been negotiating the $57mil judgment MCS won against the city for the 2008-2009 school year and the City’s $160mil counter claim which is currently in the courts and will be ruled upon in the near future unless a settlement is reached.

One, this assumes that the city's $152 million counter claim has merit. [The counter claim seeks payment for past loans as well as a repayment for the fiscal years when the funding exceeded the $0.85 per $100 valuation or the statutory limit that the city's charter allows to be levied on behalf of schools. As an aside, we can argue whether a city statute overrides the state's funding formula.] Two, it also assumes that MCS is willing to negotiate. It hasn't. But I digress.

As shown above, the city's rationale delays paying the court-ordered amount because, if the city should win its counter claim (which has not yet been heard in court and it's unclear why this important claim has not been fast tracked), then the city has also argued that MCS would have no way of paying the city back. In other words, the city is possibly doing MCS a favor.

But MCS has reserves. The problem, though, is that, because the city's funding has fallen short, MCS officials say they have been using their reserves to help them finish school years and they no longer can afford to make up the difference.

The question for MCS, however, is: when have they had to hit reserves in years past? Surely, not as early as October, right? That's one reason why the delay seems unnecessarily drastic.

Or maybe not. As much as one might not one to admit it, MCS Commissioner Kenneth Whalum raises a valid argument: where is the court-ordered money? Wharton has been forced to publicly admit that it's not there.

And the election-year thorn is to revisit the explanation of its absence. To be sure, that explanation isn't on the city's fact sheet either. Neither is the fact that the tax rate levied for schools was cut in 2008, which undercuts the city's argument that it doesn't affect the monies that MCS gets. Another excerpt from the fact sheet:

According to MCS’ recent budget the City’s proposed contribution to MCS’ 2012 budget is 8.65%--This is less than a dime on a dollar. Think about it. Even if the City completely refused to fund them at all, a dime out of a dollar should not be a cause to shut down schools. Prudent management should be able to open schools, even on a reduced basis with 90% of its budgeted revenues.

Again, the city doesn't particularly care much for the state's funding formula. I'm just sayin, the city's slice is still part of the funding pie -- no matter how little it is.

The city, as a local education agency and taxing authority for MCS, has to pay or else MCS doesn't get its state or federal money.

Then again, there could be some hoping that Judge Mays finds that MCS simply doesn't exist.

*Fox13: Herenton. What's next. Teachers react.
*ABC24: The clash.
*WREG: Parents. Teachers. School board.
*WMC: Battle lines.

(ORIGINAL POST: 7/20): bluff [bluhf] –verb (used with object)
1. to mislead by a display of strength, self-confidence, or the like: He bluffed me into believing that he was a doctor.
2. to gain by bluffing: He bluffed his way into the job.
3. Poker . to deceive by a show of confidence in the strength of one's cards.

This week, the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners put on its best poker face -- or at least, it's trying.

The board voted unanimously Tuesday night to rescind its calendar for the 2011-12 school year, which opened the door for the board to then vote to "indefinitely" delay the start of the school year until the city of Memphis fulfills its funding obligations to the district. [CA. MDN. WMC. Fox13. WREG. ABC24. Baker.]

That vote might have been unanimous but board President Martavius Jones was the sole reluctant hold-out because the board's demand ties the opening of schools to receiving $55 million in property tax revenue that the city has budgeted for MCS but has not yet collected. [MCS Funding powerpoint.]

The message: MCS is not bluffing.

The board is using its biggest chip at the most opportune time to perhaps ensure its victory in this latest round in the World Series of School Funding, which gets real when MCS submits its budget for Council and Shelby County Commission approval in August.

Soon after Tuesday night's vote, there was a report that Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. planned to present MCS with a $3 million check today.

Yet, don't read that as a sign of the city folding beneath pressure.
________________________________________
Earlier Tuesday, Wharton had emphasized that he was willing to give MCS $3 million immediately to satisfy an overdue final payment of funding for the 2010-2011 school year. The total is $8.8 million; MCS, Wharton said, would receive the remainder through the collection of delinquent property taxes as it does every year.

Wharton said the city cannot make property owners pay their taxes on time. (Hence, Jones' reservation but I digress.)

However, the mayor and the City Council made it clear that MCS's money for 2011-12 is there -- even though the amounts owed/paid are confusing.

Nevertheless, from their perspective, MCS is playing election-year politics. [Fox13. Deciphering. Branston. WREG.]
_________________________________________
Let's pause for a moment.

Despite Fox13's coining, this isn't an MCS lockout -- at least, not yet. I'm just sayin, MCS's hand hasn't been fully played yet.

Tuesday night's votes aren't irrecovable. The potential for reconsideration is there, even if it may not happen before Aug. 8 when school was scheduled to start.

Speaking of which, as both sides acknowledge, it's not unusual for MCS to start a school year without its budgets being approved.

However, MCS doesn't want to start a year that it can't finish financially. (In order to get state and federal dollars, MCS has to have its funding from the city and county. That's the way the funding deck is stacked.) To that end, perhaps, the board is buffering itself for a difficult budget approval process, especially since the City Council is arguing in court over whether MCS even still exists. (There are politics on both sides but I digress.)

Yet, the Council says it has all of the $78.2 million in funding for 2011-2012. (Hopefully, someone will develop a flow chart to help track payments and promises.)

With all of that, it is possible for this latest round to finish with some chip stacks lessened or built higher but with all the players still at the table, cards perpetually shuffled, game naturally in play.

It is what it is.

*WREG: Parents.
*Smart City: The Lost Year.

On Unsolved (The Murder of Lorenzen Wright)

2011-07-19T03:13:00.001-05:00

UPDATE (7/19): Additional stories: Fox13. An excerpt: "You will never see cold case in the same sentence with Lorenzen Wright until I'm dead, not until I am dead. That was my first born child. I am not going to ever give up on my child," said Deborah Marion. "I didn't plan to bury my son, my son is supposed to be burying me. When you say you know what I feel, no you don't know what I feel."

*ABC24 (The Call), quoting Fred Horton, Wright’s former high school basketball coach:

Horton thinks the reward should be increased.

“Money talks,” said Horton, “it should be more than $6,000.”

*Dated Nancy Grace: The shocking 911 call capturing NBA star Lorenzen Wright’s murder was on July 19th…but Lorenzen Wright’s body wasn’t located until July 28. Crucial hours and days gone that could have brought investigators that much closer to finding Lorenzen Wright’s killer. With multiple law enforcement agencies now involved in the active investigation, the hunt is on for justice and answers.

We Want Justice for Lorenzen Wright!

*SlamOnline.An excerpt: Was Lorenzen Wright’s killing the culmination of bad money management? Pressure to take care of his entourage and family? Bad luck? Who can say? In any case, Wright’s murder should hang over the franchise like…well, like the Lorraine Hotel, where Dr. King was killed, hangs over Memphis. And while the Grizzlies have taken huge steps forward in the last decade, nobody in Memphis, or around the League, should soon forget Lorenzen Wright.

ORIGINAL POST (7/18): The coming one-year anniversary of the murder of Lorenzen Wright provides the opportunity to shed light on the cache of unsolved murders in Memphis.

To its credit, The Commercial Appeal seized that opportunity Sunday.

The city's largest daily newspaper utilized the unsolved murder of a NBA star/local legend as a valuable public service reminder that other lesser known (but no less important to their families and the community) unsolved murders that have occurred since Wright's death.

It was a nice gesture, even though the stories of the other 22 cases since Wright's murder were cramped into one article and notated on a map whereas the death of the NBA star and local legend merited a longer, introspective article and an online special section.

The CA, nevertheless, shed some important perspective on the challenges that the Memphis homicide investigators face when the trail of leads turns cold -- even if the newspaper failed to note the total number of unsolved cases on the shelf for MPD and the Shelby County Sheriff's Department.

An excerpt from Sara Patterson's article:

When leads run out on a case, investigators meet and decide what's next. They may retrace their steps, canvass the neighborhood and redo interviews depending on the available labor pool, said Lt. John Mills, the officer in charge of cold cases for the Shelby County Sheriff's Office.

The decision to put a homicide case on the shelf is not made lightly, he said.

"When you work so hard and you aren't able to see the finale -- that hurts you, too," said Mills.

Former investigator Bob Wright said he's still haunted by the puzzles left in pieces, the unsolved cases from his past. He worked in homicide for the MPD in the '80s before becoming chief of investigations and retiring in 2002.

"I can remember every unsolved homicide I worked," he said. "Some cases, you just don't have a lot of to go on. "

Lack of manpower during a rash of killings also shifts priority to the ever-growing number of new cases, he said.

Good information. Patterson goes onto quote local activist Steve Moore of "Stop The Killing" who notes that the community also has to get involved in solving these cases.

In my opinion, this is where the CA could play a critical role.

It created a nicely-designed online special section to help readers catalog the stories related to Lorenzen's murder, even included links to related documents.

But why not take it a step further and allow readers to truly crowd-source not only Wright's murder but other unsolved cases as well?

There would be little difference between that and the clarion calls that media outlets make for photos and tips following other news events like severe weather.

Perhaps, the biggest difference may be that the information gained by crowd-sourcing a murder might never see print--and that's OK. The larger point is that there is a resource for information that the public, journalists and police can access and utilize.

Indeed, if one of the impediments to solving a murder is the exhaustion of leads, why not give the public a crack at it?

And if the police don't provide information, surely mom detectives, like Deborah Marion and Brenda Gibson, will.

Give them the platform to do it.

*WMC: One Year.