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"I do think that the quality which makes a man want to write and be read is essentially a desire for self-exposure and is masochistic. Like one of those guys who has a compulsion to take his thing out and show it on the street." - James Jones
Happy Tax Day Washington. Playbook tells us that "Patrick Henry, Ed's son, is 7." Here's your TV coverage of the Pope's visit. Here's the full text of Sen. John McCain's remarks to the AP annual meeting yesterday. Sen. Hillary Clinton speaks today. And be sure to check out TVNewser's ongoing coverage of the 2008 NAB-RTNDA conference in Las Vegas.
You think Obama's bitter comment was totally overblown.
Today's "Angry Journalist" rant of the day: "I'm angry because I just had a great job interview at a paper that has an actual functioning newsroom, with good editors who get to the root of the community's problems. So, why am I angry? They can't afford to pay me as much as the crappy paper I'm working at now. Damn IT!"
Washington Post reported on Saturday, "Caroline H. Little stepped down yesterday as chief executive and publisher of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), the company announced."
Washingtonian's Harry Jaffe reports, "The Internet is up, the newspaper business is down, so no one would expect the top people at the Washington Post Company to be pulling down tens of millions of dollars a year like their counterparts in finance and entertainment. But they're not suffering. According to 2007 filings, here are paychecks for the three best-paid Posties and their boss."
The AP reports, "As newspaper publishers build up their online operations and struggle through an advertising slump, one group is worried about being left behind -- the folks who make printing presses and other equipment used to make newspapers."
E&P reports, "U.S. daily newspapers shrank their newsrooms by 2,400 journalists in the past year, a 4.4% workforce decrease that's the biggest year-over-year cut in ranks since the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) began conducting its annual census 30 years ago."
Romenesko has a memo from the Post's Frank Ahrens: "After our big Pulitzer win on Monday, there was some melancholy around the newsroom along the lines of, 'Oh, this will be the last year this kind of thing will happen.' I said just the opposite. I bet the Big Three -- us, the Times and the Journal -- will most likely increase our dominance of the Pulitzers in coming years. Why? Because it's the mid-sized papers that have been/will be so hard-hit by cuts they will no longer be able to produce Pulitzer-caliber journalism." And, Los Angeles Times' Peter Spiegelresponds: "Frank Ahrens is an old friend of mine, so I hate to disagree with him in public, but I feel the need to defend my employer's honor. I'm not sure where he gets the idea that the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are 'the big three' of American newspaper journalism."
The Editors Weblog reports, "San Jose Mercury News designer Martin Gee has posted a photo documentary of the effects of several rounds of layoffs and buyouts in his California newsroom."
Washington Post's Dan Steinbergreports, "TK Continues to Win Argument Against Nobody"
Daily Campello Art News reports, "Norfolk newspaper The Virginian-Pilot sponsors an annual Student Gallery competition hosted at the Chrysler Museum of Art. The top awards were announced a couple of weeks ago at the Chrysler Museum of Art, where works by the contest's 62 finalists are on display. Erin Ayres 'Unveiled Tokens of Lonely and Deserted Past,' was among two works that earned her the $1,000 first-place award. Now the controversy part... Teresa Annas, art critic for the same newspaper courageously writes that: This year's top winners resulted from a third round of judging. The first two jurors selected nude artworks for first place. Those judges were Aaron De Groft, director of the Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William and Mary, and Scott Howe, director of education and public programs at the Chrysler Museum. The Virginian-Pilot, the contest's main sponsor, declined to honor those choices."
Business Week reports, "Who Rupert Murdoch Had On Speed Dial. ... Among a list understandably studded with News Corp executives and operating heads, it's interesting to find New York Post editor (and longtime Murdoch confidant) Col Allan."
The Washington Post reports, "Jack F. Patterson, a hard-nosed newspaper executive who guided The Washington Post to unprecedented circulation growth from the 1950s to the 1980s and who mentored generations of the paper's top administrators, died April 9 of melanoma at his home in Bethesda. He was 93."
New York Times' Clark Hoytexplores "The Blur Between Analysis and Opinion"
Washington Post's Deborah Howellasks, "The Washington Post was awash in Pulitzer Prizes last week -- six of them, the most ever for The Post. In the world of newspaper journalism, Pulitzers are the pinnacle. But the prizes are awarded by journalists to journalists. Do they mean anything to readers, especially in this perilous time of newspaper contraction?"
Ben Pershing's Player of the Week is Sen. Robert Byrd. "And, at 90 years old and in increasingly poor health, he is the chairman of one of the most important committees in Congress. The headline news on Capitol Hill this week was about Iraq, housing and the Colombia free trade agreement. But below the surface, a crucial subplot was unfolding in the Senate, as Byrd's Democratic colleagues cautiously began discussing whether he should continue to chair the Appropriations Committee. On Tuesday, about 15 key Senate Democrats discussed at a private meeting whether Byrd would be able to handle the upcoming Iraq supplemental bill, according to a Roll Call story (subscription required). That initial media report sparked a flurry of subsequent and sometimes contradictory stories in the Capitol Hill press. The Politico got several Senate Democrats saying -- publicly, at least -- that they support Byrd. Roll Call came back with a report that Byrd was calling colleagues in hopes of saving his job. The Hill newspaper said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) was angling for Byrd's post, though Leahy denied it. ... What's really going on here? Why is there so much confusion on the subject? There are two primary reasons: Senate collegiality and media skittishness."
A release announced, "WTTG FOX 5 has been awarded four regional Edward R. Murrow Awards by the Radio-Television News Directors Association, including 'Overall Excellence,' announced Duffy Dyer, the station's Vice President and General Manager. FOX 5 News also received awards in the 'Best Newscast,' 'Investigative Reporting' and 'Videography' categories."
Newsweek asks, "Can news anchors like Katie Couric survive?"
The Los Angeles Times reports, "Indecency cases stuck in legal limbo at FCC"
TVNewser's Steve Krakauerreports, "The 2008 Media Research Center's DisHonors Awards took place last night in Washington, D.C. and MSNBC's Chris Matthews was (dis)honored with the 'Quote Of The Year Award.'"
Washington Whispers reports, "CNN's Wolf Blitzer isn't just a newsman. He's also a Washington sports nut, a regular at George Washington University men's basketball games, a midcourt season ticket holder for the Washington Wizards, and big fan of the new Nationals baseball team. Lately, he's tied both passions together, giving a Wizards pregame analysis from CNN's Situation Room for the Verizon Center's JumboTron. Now, he has his eyes on the Nats, whose new stadium boasts the biggest outfield TV ever. 'I'd do it for the Nationals, too, but only if they want me,' he tells us. 'That's a really big scoreboard.'"
CJR's Curtis Brainardreports, "A strange thing happened Tuesday. The New Republic had just launched a new 'Environment & Energy' blog on Sunday, and it had already hit a bump in the road. Just below the blog's masthead was a small, green logo with the words, 'Powered by BP.' Within a day of the launch, TNR readers had begun to complain about irony of an oil giant (even one that has been trying to burnish its green credential for years) 'powering' (most assumed sponsoring) a blog about issues such as climate change and the development of renewable fuels. Just as I was reading the blog's inaugural posts and its readers' comments I refreshed the page and, lo and behold, the controversial BP logo had disappeared."
The AP reports, "As people turn increasingly to the Internet for their news, there is concern whether they are learning enough about what goes on in their communities. With 'the thinning down of newspapers and local television in America, there is measurably less local, civic information available,' said Alberto Ibarguen, president and chief executive of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. 'So what are the consequences of that?' The foundation and the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, hope to find out."
AdAge.com allows you to "Test Your Knowledge of Budget-Conscious News Ops and More in Media Guy's Media-Studies Quiz"
PaidContent.org reports, "Salon Media, the parent of Salon.com, has raised $1 million in equity financing by selling its stock, just in time as its money was running out, again. The note, which it issued on April 4, 2008, may be convertible at a future date into common stock of the company at a conversion price equal of $1.68, it said in an SEC filing. They bear interest at the rate of 7.5 percent per annum, payable semi-annually, in cash or in kind, and mature on March 31, 2012, the filing states. It will use the funds raised for working capital and other general corporate purposes, the company said."
toohotfortnr writes, "On Monday, THFTNR goes out of business and Attackerman rises to take its place. That means I have a limited amount of time to take this blog back to its essence: the beef with TNR. And I have one score in particular that I badly need to settle. The story of Snitching Ryan Lizza."
Washington City Paper reports, "The health problems that sidelined WTOP's Mark Plotkin for more than three months have apparently been resolved–the man was back in the chair this morning on the Politics Program in fine old form"
Don't forget, the NLGJA-DC Happy Hour is Thursday, April 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hotel Helix Lounge at 1430 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.
Washington Social Diary reports, "There are small parties and there are big parties, and there are parties that are huge. Washington's newest monumental addition, the Newseum, gave itself an opening party the other night that was huge -- so many (one count had it at 1800) that they had to stand in line. Men in black tie, women in evening dresses, getting checked off the guest list."
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