Coming soon! A PHAWKER Q&A with WHYY’s Marty Moss-Coane [above, 1969]
MEDIA: Evolve Or DIE
For the first time in years, every sector of television news lost audience in 2006, and newspapers, despite garnering a larger audience than ever for their content via online platforms, faced increasingly downbeat assessments of their business models, a new report from the D.C.-based Project for Excellence in Journalism finds. According to the fourth-annual edition of State of the News Media, shifting economic fundamentals are spurring mainstream news organizations to try to build audience around “franchise” areas of coverage, specialties, and even crusades. Cable’s”argument culture” is giving way to an “answer culture,” a growing pattern that has news outlets, programs, […]
The Case Of The Vanished Owner, The Silent V.P. & The Newspaper That Got Scooped On Its Own Sale, Possibly
As you may well have heard by now, the following item appeared in Michael Klein’s Inqlings column in this Sunday’s Inquirer: The Philadelphia Weekly is on the market, according to publishing sources around town. I hear that the asking price for the freebie formerly known as the Welcomat is north of $25 million and that Review Publishing LP has signed confidentiality statements with prospects. It’s not clear whether other Review papers — the Atlantic City Weekly and the South Philly Review and the Southwest Philadelphia Review — are involved. Neither publisher Anthony A. Clifton [NOT pictured], who’s owned the paper […]
DN’s Philly Confidential Gives TODAY I SAW Props
BY DAVID GAMBACORTA I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now that reporters rarely, if ever, witness a crime that we end up writing about. Ninety-nine percent of the time, someone gets shot, our little breaking news pagers go off, and we dash out to the crime scene. But every now and then, someone comes along and tells us what it’s like when you fall into that other one percent. Super friends, meet Jeff Deeney. Jeff’s a local freelance writer who also doubles a social worker in our troubled town. He details his gritty and sometimes unpleasant encounters in a vivid […]
PHILLY MAG: Looking For Rosebud In The Winter Of Our Dissed Content
Press Lord 2.0 Can a self-made ad man with big ideas and a Walter Annenberg fascination save the Inquirer and Daily News? Maybe. But when Brian Tierney’s finished, the newspaper business may never be the same By Jason Fagone THEY HAD LET THE PLACE GO TO HELL. Tierney could see it the first day he walked in the door. In the lobby alone, the paint was peeling and the floor was dirty. The reception desk was plated with metal that gave off a chilly, clinical vibe. Off in the corner was an old Panasonic on a TV cart, an orange […]
WASHINGTON POST Runs John Doe Editorial From Patriot Act Victim
[Excerpted from The Washington Post] My National Security Letter Gag Order BY JOHN DOE Friday, March 23, 2007; Page A17 The Justice Department’s inspector general revealed on March 9 that the FBI has been systematically abusing one of the most controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act: the expanded power to issue “national security letters.” It no doubt surprised most Americans to learn that between 2003 and 2005 the FBI issued more than 140,000 specific demands under this provision — demands issued without a showing of probable cause or prior judicial approval — to obtain potentially sensitive information about U.S. […]
HOT DOCUMENT: Don’t Blinq, You’ll Miss It
From: Gordon, Anne Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 5:13 PM To: Inquirer Subject: metro column news Staff, I am pleased to announce that Dan Rubin [pictured, left] will become a full-time Metro columnist, effective immediately. His column will appear on Wednesdays. He eventually will move to twice a week. Meanwhile, Annette John-Hall will debut her column this Friday. Annette delayed the start of her try out so that she might tend to some personal issues. She is back now and ready to write. Please welcome her new column, focusing on local issues, people and places, when it appears tomorrow. Anne […]
SPANK THE MONKEY: Philly Judge Strikes Down Fed Porn Law
Writing that he “may not turn a blind eye to the law in order to attempt to satisfy my urge to protect this nation’s youth by upholding a flawed statute,” a federal judge in Philadelphia this morning struck down another of Congress’ attempts to restrict pornography on the Internet.U.S. District Judge Lowell A. Reed Jr. ruled that the 1998 Children’s Online Protection Act was ineffective, overly broad and violated First Amendment’s free-speech clause because it was not the “least restrictive” way Congress could have tackled the thorny problem of children’s access to pornography on a personal computer. The law, known […]
MEDIA: INQUIRER KILLS SHISTER COLUMN
LONGTIME Inqwaster television columnist Gail Shister (pictured, below right) has been stripped of her assignment, in a move that’s been met with surprise and disapproval by many at that paper and at the Daily News. On Tuesday, Shister was told she would no longer be writing her widely read column, and would instead be asked to do more pop-culture television features, she confirmed yesterday. “We’re all part of a new world here, and I never thought I’d be immune, but I’m not ready to uncork the champagne yet,” Shister said of her disappointment. “There are better ways to utilize my […]
MONOPOLY: TV Fans Chafing From New Backdoor Assault, Decry Lack Of A Courtesy Reacharound
Comcast Corp. is giving some viewers a little agita by pushing HBO into its more expensive digital-cable tier just weeks before The Sopranos begins its final season.The change doesn’t sit well with some customers, who see it as reducing their service or forcing them to pay more for channels they already have. “I guess the thing that bothers me is, the service is bad and rates keep increasing,” said Alan Letofsky, one of many customers who recently received a notice from Comcast saying they would need a digital-cable box to keep HBO, which telecasts The Sopranos. “We just don’t want […]
THE MICHAEL SMERCONISH EXPLAINER: Wiping The Smirk Off Mr. Clean With The Dirty Rag Of Truth
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Michael Smerconish looks like Mr. Clean, or, as he is known to Russian housewives, Mr. Proper. Michael Smerconish is also a country club Republican, a talk-radio host and, as of late, a regular fixture of the Inquirer’s Sunday Op-Ed page. Bully for him, we’re all for equal time and open debate even if we think he has his head up his ass most of the time. Sadly, because of guys like Smerconish — Machiavellian media climbers that will say ANYTHING to ensure their butt space in the game of musical chairs that is the talking head punditocracy […]
MEDIA: End Of The World As We Know It & I Feel Fine
BY Carla Marinucci, San Francisco Chronicle Political Writer It may be the most stunning and creative attack ad yet for a 2008 presidential candidate — one experts say could represent a watershed moment in 21st century media and political advertising. Yet the groundbreaking 74-second pitch for Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, which remixes the classic “1984” ad that introduced Apple computers to the world, is not on cable or network TV, but on the Internet. And Obama’s campaign says it had absolutely nothing to do with the video that attacks one of his principal Democratic rivals, New York Sen. Hillary […]