Publisher flexibility — except when it's not?

OK ...

I've moved from the Eastern Front to the MCM Elegante hotel chain.

Combo editor-publisher position.

"We don't intervene a lot with individual publishers" I heard pre-hiring.

"We go straight by the rate card" on ad rates I heard post-hiring.

Just leaving that out there.

That said, I can ... blame others for that, on the issue of ad sales rates.

On the issue of quotes, whether direct quotes or nearly so?

Just leaving that out there. I'm not blaming myself for what I misheard, and my interpretation of the first quote based on previous experience in a similar editor-publisher role.

(That said, to be fair, the person who made the two quotes may have been influenced by a phone call concerning the information behind the second quote.)

As for legal advertising being "cleaned up"? Well ....

I'm still trying to figure that out.

Maybe I'll ask Clevinger some day.

I wrote all the strike-through before giving two weeks notice after noticing even more stuff, then getting fired when two weeks notice wasn't good enough.

I suspect if the money were right, someone in Hearne named Dennis Phillips would sell his own grandmother to Clevinger, too.

Clevinger runs the Lawflog blog. From what I know, it has a fair degree of accuracy on Hearne and Robertson County issues. That said, as Clevenger is both a lawyer and a former journo, he knows just how far to push something on the side of opinion or speculation while getting close to calling it fact, or on stuff that is fact but controversial, he knows just how much legal footing he has.

And, the further away from Robertson County you get, the less trustworthy he is. He's a gun nut, from what I can tell on Twitter, enough of one to do the "David Hogg Hitler salute" meme. He's also a Seth Rich conspiracy theorist and a MAGA-head, one who touts right-wing and even far-right-wing blogs.

All of this adds up to make him less than 100 percent trustworthy even on Hearne issues and even given the reality of what I know about Hearne. There, even, he's ... he's Joey Dauben with a brain and a law degree. Or, a more acerbic, low-rent, wingnut Glenn Greenwald.

Clevinger reminds me a bit of Dauben in other ways. Dauben would cybersquat on misspelled versions of website URLs. Clevenger creates websites like "Booger County Mafia" and "Dirty Rotten Judges" then lets them expire after a year or so.

On the third hand, per TPM, as well as the link below, he does take on Republicans as well as Democrats.

On the fourth hand, I'm not sure how much in the way of civil rights case work he does, and how broadly he defines that term.

And, while part of it may be contempt for being held in judicial contempt, he — he of liking to expose financial irregularities – owes $150K in judicial fines. If he refuses to pay, the DC court, on that fine, should convert his now-completed suspension into a disbarment.

He also has too narrow of a focus about some things in Hearne.

But, that's for him to figure out, not me.

And, as for that sale? Clevenger would reject Phillips' offer. And, would then write about it. And after that, both sides would engage in innuendo.

Besides that, Hearne's got other issues which even Marlin doesn't. Still the place where Walmart first (I think) CLOSED a store ... big enough for a NYT piece.

Meanwhile, I have my own reasons to distrust both Dennis and Teresa. In my opinion, adjectives like sneaky, snitchy, suck-uppy and even pretentious might apply. Yes, even that last one.

Texas newspaper ethics slouching toward Gomorrah

When did Ken Starr become a contributing op-ed columnist for the Waco Tribune? And why? This is the man who turd-polished Art Briles' reign of sexual assault by Baylor footballers, even after he was canned as president,then resigned as a professor.

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When did it become a "thing" for newspapers to run ads more than the customer desired, then bill them for the extra runs? (Until and unless a customer notices, that is.)

And, in my opinion, to state those magic words, I don't think it's being done by accident. I of course cannot read minds. So it has to remain my opinion.

Look, through laziness or whatever, I can see a classified ad simply staying on a classified page an extra week at a small-town non-daily paper. But, with ad billing software programs, the customer should only be billed for the number of runs purchased.

I know of this happening at one pair of papers. Personal contact with customers. Both classified AND display ads. On the one case, it ran 6x instead of 1x. Been told it might have happened before. Suspect it's happened nearby. Heard that it's not just an issue with one newspaper company.

I can't say anything more, for various reasons.

But, where I know it's happening? I wouldn't do business with that paper, let alone with a sister paper, if you put a gun to my head.

==

If you're a newspaper publisher, or owner of a group, and don't like the possibility of being tarred with a broad brush?

You have two options.

The first is to call out your newspaper peers. Not by name, of course, even for places where you've heard of this practice being done. But, yes, call them out. Not in an op-ed in your paper, of course. That does nothing. Try the TPA Messenger or something.

The second is to adopt a public policy at your paper, if you're a publisher, or your group, if you're an owner. Something like:

"We will give you double your money back for any overbilling for advertising runs you did not authorize."

Then, internally, make repeat violations, even if you can't prove intent, a fireable offense.

And, speaking of the TPA Messenger, one could argue for TPA to be more proactive.

==

If you're a newspaper customer, and this happens, and you suspect that, in your opinion, or ear to the street, it is part of a pattern? Rather than just fighting to get your money back, consider legal alternatives. Even if you do get your money back and you have the time, the money, and a lawyer willing to do discovery.

Or, better yet? Rather than threatening suit, file a criminal complaint for credit/debit card abuse. Under section (b)(1)(A) there, I believe an offense has been committed in such cases, and mental intent does not have to be legally proven. And, here in Texas, per that link, it's a state jail felony. (That said, intent will be in the center of jurors' mind if that goes to a jury trial, and probably in a judge's mind, too. With that said, good luck getting a county or district attorney to file a case.)

Tip 2? Sure, it's fine for a newspaper, like your grocer, to want to be paid in advance. If you're going to pay by credit card, just pay for that ad. You do not have to leave a card number on file.

==

If any big dailies see this, will they try to dig into it?

Probably not. They're losing the manpower, and besides, this is enough inside baseball that one newspaper or company wouldn't want to shit on another.

==

Meanwhile, ethics applies to use of the English language, too. A 20-something kid who can't write in complete sentences half the time is allegedly being trained to use InDesign enough to be given the label of "publisher" or something.

The local captain at the 'eastern front'

The eastern front's local editorial captain has multiple problems.

One is being a control freak. (I'm somewhat of one at times, so I know what I mean.)

Two is being a poor manager of other editorial staff, and derived from one, I'm going to say a poor manager of people in general. (Not the only person that way within the eastern front's outposts.)

Three is back to being a control freak. NOBODY proofreads the pages she builds because she doesn't let them. Stories may be edited OK, but headers and cuts written on pages regularly have errors. And, I'm at the point I don't care.

That's because, per Point 2, the company doesn't care. The bottom line is very much the bottom line at this place.

==

And, plain stupidity. I've NEVER, at a daily paper before, heard of a writer being asked to choose which photos shot by a staff photographer should be used. That's either the photographer or the ME.

And, what good does it do when she then goes off the board and chooses a picture of her own from the set anyway? And screws up the cutline to boot?

Oh, and creating the word "Handicapable" as a PC word in a headline for a handicapped event? Oh my fucking god. I about threw up over that one. This is also from a person who says you can't use "pot" in a story line. Bullshit. If you're going to invent a word, I'm going to use a vernacular word.

And, other crap?

Misspelling the name of Gov Greg Abbott as "Abbot." Misspelling "wrangle" as "rangle." Both in headers.

That said, I am learning new lessons in detachment from this.

==

Well, actually, I've moved on now.

She's a nice enough person. But ... most matters aren't up for discussion. Just "her decision."

Meanwhile, over at the Star-Telegram

From my years and years of living in or near the Dallas side of the Metroplex, I've seen the continued decline of the Dallas Morning News, and blogged about it repeatedly, in part because of the paper's pretentiousness, usually doubled down upon by the Belo corporation's own pretentiousness.

That said, over on the other side of the Metroplex, over in Cowtown, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram isn't totally hunky and dory either.

The StartleGram may not have the same individual, or corporate, pretentiousness as the Snooze. But, it's got problems.

I saw these problems when, for the first time in years, I looked through several issues at a fair-sized library when I got the chance.

Paid ad numbers by adhole percentage, in column inches, are no better than the Snooze's. And, that's with downsizing to a 46-inch web AND downsizing page counts — in some cases dramatically.

How dramatically? Or how drastically?

They run a 16-page paper on Mondays. That sounds like something for the Waco Tribune, or a few years ago, still for the Wichita Falls Times-Record-News. Yikes. (The Snooze, for comparison, runs 32 pages.)

AND, with that, and the smaller web, and, as I normally do, counting obits as paid ad inches, they STILL barely hit 25 percent on Mondays.

In addition, they've basically gutted the op-ed staff over there. NO local columns or editorials on that Monday paper. The dean of commentary of the StartleGram, Bud Kennedy, runs on a "Lifestyles" page and section the days he runs. (Bud may have been there in the past, to be honest.)

I used to think that, if a joint operating agreement was going to happen between the two papers, based on increased collaboration in the past decade, the StartleGram had the upper hand based on Snooze bleeding.

Now I'm not so sure.