For my original, and skeptical, take on the small-town Minnesota newspaper owner who wants to go fight in Ukraine so badly that he wanted somebody to take his newspaper off his hands, go here.
For a story of his success, with more of his background, go here.
Interestingly, like me, he's single, no kids. He's done his share of bouncing around.
My impression? Per an old Civil War phrase popularized by Mark Twain, he hasn't seen the elephant yet and wants to go see it.
With no significant other or children, “it’s just me and the newspaper,” he said.
That kind of reinforces things.
This only reinforces my take more.
“I do not want to die,” Zion said. “I am not afraid of dying.”
Then he paused.
“I’m 54,” he added. “It’s not like I have a long life ahead of me.”
I feel a bit sad for him. It's like he's living through his love for Ukrainian music to the point of it becoming a fixation. (I exchanged emails with him before my original post; I still wonder, per it, if there's not business reasons behind this decision as well.
And, this story raises new issues. The Guardian reported, just days after my blog post, that he had someone else lined up to take it over. That fell through, I guess; Robert Lawson was listed as a "prospective candidate"in initial coverage of Zion. Also, he was a former newspaper editor; the actual "winner" is a former radio DJ. This also makes me think we're not getting the full story. Zion, in the new piece, doesn't tell WHY the original deal fell through.
I tweeted my original piece to CJR, Nieman, etc., asking somebody there to do a longer piece. Never happened.
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