Small-town Texas editors and writers: Get a non-sports life!

A couple of years ago, I was at a photojournalism workshop and conference, and that leads to the header of this post. (And, its value has only increased with the novel coronavirus and the uncertainty of how many high school football games will even be played this year.)

It was specifically about sports photojournalism. And, at non-dailies, the managing editor may be doing it all. And in many cases, may be a sports geek (deliberate use of the word) first, and someone who muddles his way through news or feature stories second. (No political non-correctness intended, per the rest of this post; "he" is the operative word.)

At larger non-dailies and at small dailies, there may be a separate sports writer or editor. That person is still usually a "he."

Anyway, the one presenter was talking about tracking information while shooting photos.

And, this came up.

Not just one, not just two, but at least three attendees said they go to Hudl Saturday mornings and watch complete videos of Friday night's game to make sure their stats are correct.

There is SO MUCH emotional BS to unpack there.

First, UIL, unless the coach of the team you cover asks for your stats, doesn't give a flying fuck about your stats.

Second, the quarterback or tailback or wide receiver (or defensive end if you're so geeked out as to try to track tackles etc. on your own) doesn't care if you're a yard or two different from what his coaches have on numbers.

Third, the people reading your story may not care, and unless they're on either Hudl or MaxPreps (AND MaxPreps has full stats) they don't even know!

Fourth, some of your fellow editors and writers don't give a total flying fuck about our own stats past the final score and who scored what, when, and how.

Fifth, all of the above is, IMO, an ego trip, for the reasons mentioned.

Get a non-sports life.

No, maybe better yet, learn that a non-sports portion of your life can be made larger than it is now.

I know that many publishers say, whether with glee, chagrin or more complex emotions, that sports is the most important part of the community paper to many readers. Well, don't add fuel to that fire by thinking you need to be the omnipotent god of the sports pages. Besides, where down markers are spotted at and many other things is HIGHLY unscientific.

No print New York Times in 20 years? OK, and???

An interesting interview with exiting NYT CEO Mark Thompson. Or rather, compressed interview snippets from another site behind a paywall plus a second interview with neoliberals on steroids, McKinsey. The fact that Thompson thought that was a good place to visit is itself a "tell."

The reality, of course, is that the Times ain't all that, its shit does stink, and its "best news" is best news for the establishment class. That's takeaway No. 2 after the McKinsey butt-kissing.

No. 3? Thompson, though thinking editorial page editor James Bennet did need to leave over his handling of the Tom Cotton guest op-ed, applauded his hiring of the likes of all-purpose wingnut Bret Stephens and hardcore Zionist and Palestinian hater Bari Weiss.

So, Nieman, no, I really have no need to read the full, linked stuff at CNBC and pay for it, or at McKinsey and need to take a shower later. Pass.

It's stuff like this that led me to blog about how I not only wouldn't pay the current subscription fare, but to ask others if they'd pay the hiked rate.

If you want to be proud of a self-erected Overton Window, too, Mark, fine. Don't expect me to subscribe.

"Pink slime" journalism: both conservatives and liberals do it

Excellent piece by Columbia Journalism Review, following up on a report it did about the Tow Center and other folks. The biggest takeaways from CJR:

1. This problem has grown a lot since the original Tow piece.

2. Per a link to Open Secrets, although this started as a conservative to wingnut-conservative project, liberals are doing it, too. One biggie is the group behind the Shadow vote-tabulation app of infamy from the Iowa Democratic caucus. Another is Pantsuit Nation, obvious Hillbot folks. So, we're talking neoliberals. A third group also gets George Soros PAC money. (Cue wingnut conspiracy theories.)

3. What CJR doesn't mention is that, primarily for capital reasons, leftists aren't. (That said, CJR's general failure to distinguish liberal and leftist is itself an issue.)

4. The original "pink slime" wasn't necessarily partisan as much as it was cheap hypercapitalism.

5. Wanna know who's doing this in Texas? Page 11 of this link. Metric Media and Local News Network are conservative as are Record.

Missing from the CJR account is the problem with this much capitalism sloshing in the system. Missing are accounts of how doing these fake news sites rather than spending this money on ad buys further undercuts community newspapers which both duopoly parties give lip service to helping.

The battle to unionize the Snooze, aka the Dallas Morning News

Over at the Texas Observer, Gus Bova peeks at the battle to unionize the Snooze. This is the same A.H. Belo of the infamous ad "welcoming" JFK to Dallas, of a current editorial page editor being a former Shrub Bush flunky and all sorts of wingnuttia in between, with the occasional non-wingnut columnist claiming to be a librul. And I haven't even mentioned homophobe Rod Dreher's time there.

What prompted the drive and put it into gear, he notes, was a round of layoffs last year with FIFTEEN MINUTES NOTICE. That was then followed this year, during the early COVID days, by cutting pay up to 17 percent, but without an hours cut. With the pay cut less than 20 percent, employees couldn't file for partial unemployment bennies. Without the hours cut, they couldn't find other PT work so easily.

As for its antiunion history? Bova details the decades of that, as well. And, not just at the Snooze, but at other former Belo properties.

And, that's a key here. The Snooze and related Dallas properties is all Belo has. No other papers. No teevee. Just the Snooze and other Dallas paper products, plus the marketing division that it finally separated.

Bova gets a thing or two wrong, though. I wouldn't have considered the Snooze Texas' leading paper over much of its history. And going back more than 29 years, I wouldn't even consider it DALLAS' best paper. And, the closure of the Dallas Times Herald, which WAS No. 1, reinforces all the other bad behavior Bova paints. (Beyond that, the Snooze didn't start winning most of its awards until after the Times Herald was folded.)

At D Mag, Eric Celeste and Jim Schutze (nutbar alert!) weigh in as well. No, seriously, it's nutbar on Schutze's part, who says he "ratted out" a similar attempt at the Dallas Observer shortly before he was let go.

Really.

Celeste is generally sympathetic.

Schutze? Sympathetic to the degree it gives him a new tool for kicking the Snooze in the nads, and that's it.

Bye-bye to Big Jim Chionsini

I was following some rabbit trails online after getting a LinkedIn notice about a friend there (and acquaintance IRL) having a work anniversary, when I wondered why she'd left her previous paper.

I then found myself refreshed that, as I couldn't remember the name of "Colorado County Citizen," there's also a "Banner Pass"in Columbus, Texas. And, on the front page of their latest e-edition, I noticed a header near the bottom of the page. And thought I recognized the mug.

"Citizen owner passes away, 74."

Yes, Big Jim, per a tribute note at Granite's website.

First, my condolence to daughter Brandi.

Second, does she take over Granite and reunite them with her Fenice papers, split about three years ago? Could be interesting.

Third, I think of an utterance of his that I heard, among other places, from the mouth of thrown-off central Texas publisher Dennis Phillips: "You can do anything with one more ad," or words to that effect.

I did learn things in my time with Granite. That includes things about newspapers as a business. Many of them aren't unique to Granite, from what I've learned since then.

Basically, folks, if you have a small town community newspaper, and it's not owned by some big chain, whether publicly traded or not, it's still owned by quasi-corporate folks.

First, for tax and other reasons, each paper in the "family newspapers" chain is separately incorporated. I presume, per an analogy I've used before, that even though every State Farm or similar insurance chain office is "separately owned and operated," nonetheless, the ownership is structured so the newspaper owners, or the corporate suites in Bloomington, Illinois, have final control and say-so.

Second, because of that, if you're the local newspaper publisher, the shit flows downhill when there's problems. And, note, we're talking about the 2020 newspaper world. At the same time, the rosy smell of success doesn't often linger in the home office without being claimed by HQ.

Third, what the hell are all the fees you're billed for on your monthly statement? And, are they all really justified? As far as things like ad-building services for smaller companies, uh, no, probably not. But, the thing is, some of that stuff, you get charged whether you use it or not.

Fourth? In today's world, the individual newspaper will suffer first, HQ second.