Gannet’s Alexandria Town Town/Opelousas Daily World to Curtail Print Editions

A letter to our readers
By Judi Terzotis, The Town Talk President 5:04 p.m. CT March 8, 2017

The Town Talk is making a strategic change that further builds upon our digital-first approach by strengthening the direction of its exceptional seven-days-a-week newsroom and combining the best of its seven-day-a-week print product into three great editions — Wednesday, Friday and Sunday — beginning April 5, 2017.

While the frequency of the print edition is changing, our commitment to covering the news, sports, events, and stories that define our community remains a 24/7 priority for our staff and journalists. As you know, improving Central Louisiana’s quality of life is our passion, and 2016 was no exception.

A letter to our readers

Judi Terzotis, President, Daily World Published 5:04 p.m. CT March 8, 2017

The Daily World is making a strategic change that further builds upon our digital-first approach by strengthening the direction of its exceptional seven-day-a-week newsroom, and combining the best of its six-day-a-week print product into three great editions – Wednesday, Friday.

While the frequency of the print edition is changing, our commitment to covering the news, sports, events, and stories that define our community remains a 24/7 priority for our staff and journalists.and Sunday – beginning April 5, 2017.

 

 

 

 

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Gannetoids Continue March to Irrelevance

Perhaps the only reason to spend the dollar to buy a copy of Gannett’s The (Shreveport, LA) Times is no longer there.

Vicki Welborn, a 15 1/2 year veteran with the paper, and one of but a handful of investigative reporters in Louisiana, left last month to take a job at KTBS-TV3.

Our readers will recall Welborn’s on-target reporting at Gibsland, LA and Homer, LA, that was key to uncovering the public malfeasance in those towns.

She also uncovered malfeasance at the DeSoto DA’s office, and reported on former BESE member Walter Lee’s problems.

Knowing Gannett’s historical reluctance to cover government wrongdoing, we suspect they were uncomfortable having a reporter on staff that actually knew how to do investigative reporting. The (Monroe, LA) News Star didn’t earn the nickname “Mayo Mouthpiece” for nothing.

KTBS has gained a valuable resource with Welborn. We wish her well.

Butthurt at The Mayo Mouthpiece

Like most all welfare recipients that have a well-developed sense of entitlement, today The (Monroe, LA) News Star – aka The Mayo Mouthpiece – is suffering an acute case of butthurt over not getting their “fair share” of milk from the taxpayer tit.

The Mouthpiece’s Executive Editor is unhappy that they weren’t selected as the “official journal” for the City of Monroe at last Tuesday’s council meeting. Throwing around charges of “racism,” the editor just can’t get over the concept that a duly elected legislative body should not be a rubber stamp for the executive.

See here the opinion piece.

In our very first posting six years ago tomorrow, we opined that the concept of an “official journal” for a governmental entity is nothing but welfare, and often leads to a cozy relationship between politicians and those who report on what they do, or do not do. Public notices can and should be posted on the internet, since there are many more people who own computers and surf the web, than subscribe to newspapers.

At The Ouachita Parish Courthouse Tomorrow

Courtroom 7
Tuesday, May 19, 9:30 am

Judge H. Stephens Winters, in His Capacity as Chief Judge of the Fourth Judicial District Court vs. Hanna Media, Inc. d/b/a The Ouachita Citizen – Rule:DECLARATORY JUDGMENT

We will cover the hearing.

Louisiana Legislature Take Note

From today’s New York Times:

The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much

By PAUL F. CAMPOS

Interestingly, increased spending has not been going into the pockets of the typical professor. Salaries of full-time faculty members are, on average, barely higher than they were in 1970. Moreover, while 45 years ago 78 percent of college and university professors were full time, today half of postsecondary faculty members are lower-paid part-time employees, meaning that the average salaries of the people who do the teaching in American higher education are actually quite a bit lower than they were in 1970.

By contrast, a major factor driving increasing costs is the constant expansion of university administration. According to the Department of Education data, administrative positions at colleges and universities grew by 60 percent between 1993 and 2009, which Bloomberg reported was 10 times the rate of growth of tenured faculty positions.

Even more strikingly, an analysis by a professor at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, found that, while the total number of full-time faculty members in the C.S.U. system grew from 11,614 to 12,019 between 1975 and 2008, the total number of administrators grew from 3,800 to 12,183 — a 221 percent increase.

Seen This Morning in Monroe

Landrieu Should Concede – Today

Rather than put the State of Louisiana through four more weeks of TV ads, and a campaign that will be nothing but mud slinging, Mary Landrieu should do the honorable thing and concede to Bill Cassidy.

She can’t win. It can’t happen. No way. None. Cassidy came within a handful of votes of out-polling Landrieu.

It’s time to move on and begin the healing process for our state.

9:10 AM – Edited to add:

We can guarantee you won’t hear the first Louisiana newspaper or TV station editorialize on this issue. They all WANT a runoff. Why, you ask?

Money. Advertising dollars. They do what they do to make money. Remember that the next time some editorial writer or TV talking head tries to claim the moral high ground on some issue.

Gannett to Shed Newspaper Biz

Media Giant Gannett to Spin Off USA Today and Print Business

By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

The Gannett Company said on Tuesday that it planned to spin off its print operations, including USA Today, becoming the latest media company to break itself up.

The separation follows in the footsteps of many other media companies – from Rupert Murdoch‘s empire to Time Warner Inc. to E.W. Scripps – that have spun off their print arms in recent years.

Such transactions are intended to free faster-growing television and other media operations from slower-growing newspaper and magazine businesses, pushing up stock prices while allowing each division to focus on its own needs. Investors have shown far more appetite for broadcast assets than newspapers, which have continued to struggle as advertising revenue has declined.

By splitting up, however, Gannett may also be putting one or both of its soon-to-be independent businesses up for grabs. Shortly after shedding its magazines, Time Warner was approached by Mr. Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox for a big media company merger that Time Warner has so far rebuffed.

Gannett has moved to expand its broadcasting business in recent years, notably by buying the Belo Corporation for $1.5 billion last year to nearly double the number of stations it owns.

The publishing business, which will keep the Gannett name, will own 81 daily newspapers and the British news company Newsquest. Its flagship title will remain USA Today, which the company has sought to build out into a digital news giant.

BR, NO Newspapers Fight over Welfare Payments

Senate panel sides with Advocate on public notices

by koran addo
kaddo@theadvocate.com

State lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday that would allow The New Orleans Advocate to compete for the business of publishing legal notices in Orleans and Jefferson parishes.

The bill came under fire from the NOLA Media Group, which delivers a rival paper — The Times Picayune — three days a week.

State law says each parish in the state must designate a newspaper as the official publication to run judicial advertisements and legal notices.

In order to be selected, newspapers are required to meet a number of different stipulations, among them is a requirement that the publication must have been physically located in the parish for five years.

The last stipulation is a problem for The New Orleans Advocate, which put down roots in New Orleans in 2012 but is the community’s only daily, home-delivered newspaper.
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Senate Bill 630, sponsored by state Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Metairie, would lift that five-year restriction allowing The New Orleans Advocate to compete with the NOLA Media Group over the lucrative public notices.

Is The News Star the New Nixon?

It seems that The (Monroe, LA) News Star – more properly The (Monroe,LA) Mayor Jamie Mayo Mouthpiece – has taken a page from former President Richard Nixon’s book, and blames the whistle-blower, rather than the culprit. In today’s editorial, the Mouthpiece wondered about the snitch, and much of its news coverage all week worried about who told, rather than McAllister’s misdeeds.

Over forty years ago, Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, in what became one of the most celebrated First Amendment Supreme Court decisions in history. Wrote Justice Hugo Black in his opinion:

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people…

The “journalism community” lauded Ellsberg as a hero for “speaking truth to power.”

Nixon sicced the FBI on Ellsberg, and he was charged with espionage. The charges were later dropped after the government was shown to have illegally gathered evidence, among other misconduct.

In the McAllister scandal, the area’s daily newspaper demonized the whistle-blower in an effort to shoot the messenger. Instead of a watchdog for the taxpaying citizens, the Mouthpiece is the leading voice for coverup and excuses for governmental misdeeds.

But then, the Mouthpiece, and its parent company Gannett, is well known for its lack of “journalistic integrity.”

About the Ouachita Citizen and Sam Hanna, Jr.

Long-time readers of this newsblog are familiar with the problems we have had with the “real” news media. We never have shied from calling out their misdeeds, nor will we do so in the future.

But in this case, The Ouachita Citizen and its Publisher Sam Hanna, Jr. are to be commended for having the courage to report what is obviously a highly controversial story.

The First Amendment means just what it says, and it stays healthy when people use it freely.

You done good, Sammy.