A week ago, Seattle Times Executive Editor David Boardman wrote on Twitter: Somehow I missed this when it happened. But when I learned about it yesterday, I called the mayor's office to see what was up. Aaron Pickus, spokesman for Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, stressed that the mayor's office still has multiple subscriptions to the Seattle Times and that McGinn himself definitely reads the paper—including Seattle Times clippings and links that Pickus spends a lot of his day sending around to the mayor and his staff. But Pickus confirmed that the McGinn household indeed canceled its subscription to the paper more than a year ago, after the publication of this story. Then he put me on the phone with McGinn's wife, Peg Lynch, so I ... Continue reading →
19-year-old entrepreneur Eric Simons spent two months secretly living at AOL's Palo Alto, Calif. campus, sleeping each night on a couch like this one. (Credit: Eric Simons) It was 6 a.m. when Eric Simons was jolted awake by the yelling. After working until 4 a.m, the 19-year-old entrepreneur had finally passed out. A few hours of sleep would help with the day ahead. But unlike most people working at AOL's Palo Alto, Calif., campus who were surely still hours from showing up at the sprawling complex, Simons was already there. He'd been living there for two months, hiding out at night on couches, eating the company's food, and exercising and showering in its gym. And now, with an angry security guard bellowing at him, it ... Continue reading →
Former editor and publisher Richard L. Connor and a group of investors purchased The Times Leader for $65 million in 2006. Three months ago, a private-equity firm bought the Wilkes-Barre newspaper for a fraction of the price Mr. Connor's group paid: $5 million, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court. The firm also assumed an undisclosed amount of debt on behalf of the newspaper. Read the lawsuit HERE Along the way, Mr. Connor paid himself a hefty dividend, collecting $250,123 from the newspaper, the lawsuit said. Mr. Connor, who described himself in 2006 as a "very hands-on publisher" and "the end of the decision-making line," forced The Times Leader to set aside cash for his personal use and ordered the newspaper to pay ... Continue reading →
Sun-Times owner: ‘We’re not buying Tribune’ The Chicago Sun-Times, which has a daily circulation of 422,355, aims to add 100,000 new subscribers over the next two years by beefing up sports, celebrities and business coverage. “We’re becoming the No. 1 local newspaper in U.S. — we can do it,” Michael Ferro, chairman of the company that bought the paper last December, told a Chicago City Club lunch crowd on Thursday. “We’re not buying the Tribune, by the way.” (An earlier Crain’s story “hinted” that Ferro might purchase the rival paper once it exits bankruptcy.) Crain’s Lynne Marek reports: With regard to his digital strategy, Mr. Ferro said he’s trying to create a “great user interface” for a tablet application that is in the works. On ... Continue reading →
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By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff A Suffolk Superior Court judge today denied a motion to require disclosure of the confidential source behind a Boston Globe column about a sidebar conversation in the case of Dwayne Moore, the alleged gunman in the 2010 Mattapan killings whose prosecution ended in a hung jury. The column, published the day after a jury deadlocked, 11-1, on the charges against Moore in the quadruple homicide, described how the judge in the case was told that a lone juror had planned to be a “holdout” in the case before deliberations began. The columnist, Brian McGrory, attributed the details to “a person briefed” on the proceedings. Moore’s lawyer, John Amabile, argued that the leaked information painted a misleading picture that the jury ... Continue reading →
Cops raid spa owned by wife of Albany Times Union investigations editor In mid-March, Albany police raided a spa owned by the wife of Albany Times Union investigations editor J. Robert Port, who had been directing his paper’s coverage of the sheriff’s department’s use of criminal forfeiture funds, including purchasing take-home vehicles for investigators. (The unit was eventually shut down by the sheriff.) J. Robert Port Port tells the New York Times he believes his wife’s business was targeted in retaliation for those stories. “Obviously I have pissed some people off enough to the point where they would send in jackbooted thug police officers to do an anal search on someone I believe they thought was my wife,” says the investigations editor. “I am enraged, ... Continue reading →
CNN’s rotten ratings have grown only rottener. The Time Warner-owned news network drew fewer prime-time viewers last week than any week since September 1991, the New York Times just reported. But CNN isn’t the only network riding the down escalator when it comes to ratings. Over the same week, Fox News Channel attracted its fewest viewers in the important 25-to-54-year-old category since July 2008, the Times added. Various observers have blamed the viewership downturn on the lull in the 2012 campaign, on viewers defecting to the season finales on the entertainment channels and on the lack of breaking news. But I interpret the falloffs as fresh evidence that the audience for cable news has peaked. The first sign of a peak in cable news appeared ... Continue reading →
El Paso Times critics use paper’s website to call for boycott A Romenesko reader says the El Paso Times “made waves” with this endorsement of challenger Beto O’Rourke over longtime incumbent congressman Silvestre Reyes, and that “I got a chuckle” over editor Bob Moore’s Facebook post yesterday. Continue reading →
