The Davis Cup Is On Where?

Versus Forgets To Advertise Its Own Coverage

An ad in today's New York Times sports section for this weekend's Davis Cup final matches in Portland is all well and good. At the bottom it tells us when to tune in. Except there's scant mention of where.

Turns out it's on Versus, formerly known as OLN, which got a few more eyeballs every year for its Tour de France, I mean Lance coverage, but otherwise slumbered on digital sports tiers and the upper reaches of DirecTV.

Oh, yeah. Versus also broadcasts NHL games, though the ratings have shown few have noticed.

Anywhoo, Versus didn't do itself any favors solving its identity crisis with the ad, whose subhead is USA versus Russia, with versus in vertical small type.

Further down, in even-tinier type, we're told to go to versus.com for the local channel number. But prominently mentioned is the fact that you can watch encore broadcasts on the Tennis Channel (yes, there really is one).

Versus is a long way off from being able to assume most of its viewers have heard of the channel, let alone where to find it.

Let's hope Andy Roddick and James Blake do a lot better than the Versus marketing department.

Yet Another Hole For The Mets To Fill, This Time In The Radio Booth

Departure of Tom McCarthy Back To Phillies Needs New Artist To Paint The Word Pictures
Maybe Tom McCarthy was worn down by the commute from South Jersey. Maybe Or, maybe the Philadelphia Phillies made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Either way, he's left the New York Mets radio booth and will come back to the Phils -- whose games he called before heading to Flushing.
McCarty signed a five-year contract and do TV, where greater visibility and bigger bucks loom. McCarthy will reportedly do the three innings of play-by-play that Harry Kalas doesn't do. And if Kalas decides to eventually pack up that distinctive baritone and head off into retirement, there'll be a first-class heir apparent already there.
It doesn't appear that McCarthy will pop on radio, as the Hall of Famer Kalas does for one inning.
In his two years in New York, McCarthy made a great tandem with Howie Rose. Both grew up Mets fans, but never root, root, rooted for the home team. In fact, like all Mets' announcers, refreshingly, they were free to rip the players when warranted.
And given the calamity of September, they had plenty of material to work with.
McCarthy brought an unabashed enthusiasm for the game, as well as a deep knowledge of what was happening on the field. It was obvious he did his homework. New York fans expect nothing less.
Now comes the hard part of finding a new voice to join Rose, who sets a high bar for anyone who sits next to him. I don't expect the Mets will elevate long-time fill-in Ed Coleman, who also does pre- and post-game duties. After all these years, it's evident the team likes Coleman right where he is, and they'll get a bigger voice to handle balls and strikes all year.
Some of the better voices are locked up by ESPN, but others mentioned by the Daily News, include Andy Freed of the Devil Rays and the Phillies' Scott Graham.
Then again, the Mets could turn to a minor-league PBP guy like Dan Hoard of the Pawtucket Red Sox. It wouldn't be the first time. Pawtucket games were once called by a guy named Gary Cohen.

What Lurks Next for the Merc: A Bold Step Toward Resurrection or the Final March Toward Oblivion

No Way Mercury-News Readers Come Out Ahead Regardless of Final Decisions

Reading Howie Kurtz's piece today in The Washington Post about the San Jose Mercury News' furious attempts to reinvent itself and I wasn't sure whether to just bang my head against the wall or let out a few sobs in solidarity to those left in the newsroom.
It wasn't enough to halve the editorial staff to 200. Now, according to Kurtz, two-thirds of those left will eventually be left working on the online edition. Those who remain will be stewards of a dramatically scaled-down version of the Merc, once the undisputed 800-pound media gorilla of Silicon Valley.
Now? Don't ask. Since its acquisition by MediaNews, the sole objective of its chief Dean Singleton has been to figure out a way to weasel out of union contracts rather than contemplate the best way to put out a viable newspaper. And it shows.
The latest efforts certainly don't sound encouraging. Nor does Executive Editor Carole Leigh Hutton. "We have to have a print product that requires fewer people and less newsprint."
Groan.
Consider one prototype being considered, where the Merc becomes just three sections: Live, Play and Innovate.
Huh? Exactly.
As I've acknowledged before, nobody disputes the Merc faces a myriad of problems, its myopic management among them. Trying to think of a new way to do things may be the only option left.
However, we're still at a point in time where a newspaper's print version is still the straw stirring the online version's drink.
To allocate most of your staff to the Web site and dessicate your newspaper is foolhardy at best. Do any of these focus groups that have slammed the current state of the Merc take a look at how much time people actually spend reading the paper online? And when they read are they really reading, or just skimming?
Would the Merc stoop to serve that clientele, and offer up reportage that's even thinner than it is now?
Dressing up a story with video, a photo gallery, blogs and a podcast sounds great -- at least conceptually. Getting people to actually do something with all that information is another matter. So is assuming that most of your audience is willing to once and for all totally forsake its bond with the print version. In 2007, that's an overly bold assumption.
Kurtz mentions the number of people bitching about the cutbacks in comics and how hard it is to find the puzzles. Something is lost when you don't have a pencil in your hand while being tortured by Sudoku or the Saturday New York Times crossword. They're not meant to be solved staring at a computer screen. It just doesn't feel right.
But then again, neither does what's happening to the San Jose Mercury-News.

Selena Says See-Ya To The New York Times

Roberts Bolts to S.I. for Big Bucks, Somewhat Bigger Profile, What's Next for Gray Lady as Sports Section Continues its Slow Fade?


Sports Illustrated nailed a big fish to apparently swim on its back page, when it recently landed New York Times sports columnist Selena Roberts to replace Rick Reilly, who gave into the temptation of TV and a $2 million annual salary to skedaddle over to ESPN.
This is a great get for S.I., which lost a lot of its luster with the departure of Reilly as well as columnist Steve Rushin.
Roberts once again gives the magazine at least one weekly must-read again.
Which leaves the Times in a bit of a lurch. Its sagging sports section is propped up by a still-strong columnist corps, including Bill Rhoden, George Vecsey and Harvey Araton. But the Times never replaced the recently retired and not-missed Dave Anderson.
As it continues to penny-pinch away, it's hardly a sure thing that the paper will replace both Anderson and Roberts.
After all, this is the same paper that all but gave up on covering hockey, except for New York Rangers home games, notwithstanding the fact that the Rangers are one of the hottest teams in the NHL and tickets are once again hard to come by.
Now the New Jersey Nets have been relegated to wire copy for road games and mostly freelancers for home games. John Eligon, who covered the team last year, is now popping up mostly as a reporter in the Metro section, in true Times tradition of sports reporters crossing over to news, i.e. Joe Sexton, Jane Gross, Robin Finn, Michael Janofsky, etc.
Not that their is anything wrong with that, but it nonetheless is troubling that local sports teams become increasingly marginalized while the Times takes the notion of it being a national newspaper a little too much to heart.
To do sports right, get your act together at home before you take it on the road.

Bauer Power: Jack's Back in a Killer (Literally) "24" Trailer

UPDATE: FOX Makes It Official: No "24" Until The WGA Strike Is Over. See release:
Finally caught up to the trailer for season 7 of "24."
For those of us jonesing for thepremiere, this morsel was a nice taste of things to come, with the poorly kept secret of Tony Almeida's resurrection, with a devilish twist.
What's not known is how many episodes have been shot, which could prove to be a bad case of Bauerus interruptus if the WGA strike drags on for too long. You thought the terrorists on the show were bad asses. Well, they've got nothing on the writers.
And that could prove to the show's undoing, according to the blog 24 Headquarters, which reports that Janeane Garofalo isn't crossing picket lines, and since she has a big role this season, that's problematic in the least.
It could get worse. IGN, which also keeps close tabs on all things "24," speculates that if the strike lasts until at least January, there wouldn't be enough time to shoot and show a whole season of 24 episodes. That could prompt Fox to shelve the show until 2009. Again, that's just speculation, but given the perilous state of things in Hollywood, not out of the realm of possibility.

Giuliani Threatens To Be A Media Whore If Elected President

Which is What Got Him Into Trouble as Mayor, Until.....

Advertising Age trumpets the troubling news that Rudy Giuliani would hold frequent White House press conferences should he get to take up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

To White House correspondents bruised from running up against stone walls erected by the Bush administration, that might seem like welcome news indeed. But word to the wise: be very careful what you wish for.

"As president. I'd probably have many more press conferences than anyone since Kennedy. I enjoy doing them. They keep me on top of things. They do mean you make a few more mistakes because when you answer a lot of questions and you are a little more open about it, you are going to have to go back and correct what you said, but it's much better."

Better for whom? Jon Stewart?

During Giuliani's two terms as Big Apple mayor, you couldn't get the guy to shut up. At first, it was refreshing. He appeared hands-on right around the time the city was about to embark on its latest renaissance.

From clamping down on squegee-wielding panhandlers to going after diplomats who didn't pay parking tickets, Giuliani showed he was a man of action and that improvement in the city's quality of life was perception as well as reality.

But as his second term drew to a close, most New Yorkers were tired of his shtick. Soon, he was often on rants about things like jaywalking, which city dwellers consider a right, not a violation, and even told people what water to drink during a heat wave (Dasani).

Giuliani was poised to fade into obscurity as a high-paid partner at some top law firm or something of that ilk. Of course, his legacy was dramatically reconfigured following 9/11, which made him a star, not to mention fabulously wealthy as an A-list consultant and lobbyist.

So, do you still want him blabbing him away in the press room? Well, no one said the White House is a democracy, and Giuliani is notorious for keeping his own counsel. It'll be all Rudy, all the time, if he gets to relocate come 2009.

Reporters may start waxing nostalgic about lazy days in Crawford, Texas, before long.

Denver Doggie Day Care Story More Hype Than Horror

CBS4 Barking Up Wrong Tree in Sweeps Stunt

Few stories grab more attention than tales about pets abused or killed. I found that out years ago while a reporter at the Bergen Record.

I did a series of reports about a shady pet store that, among other things, was marketing purebreds that turned out to be diseased mutts. The number of letters and phone calls I received from readers was unmatched for anything I did before or since.

So, it was no surprise that KCNC-TV (CBS4) in Denver would turn to a tragic animal spot to goose up ratings during sweeps. This one involved owners who left their pooches at doggie day care centers, only to get their pets back dead.

Veteran reporter Rick Sallinger (above) focused on the owners of two dogs who perished in various ways. Their stories could have been served up as a cautionary tale and launched another story -- that Sallinger is set to do tonight -- on what to look for in a doggie day care facility. That should have been that.

The problem is, Sallinger set this up as a trend piece, with "numerous instances" of dogs killed or injured. We see Sallinger poring over more than 500 state inspection reports, which found 10 dogs died and an unspecified number injured.

So, it was numerous if you define that as more than one. But numerous actually means "existing in considerable quantity" or "comprising a great number." Ten doesn't qualify.

Yes, 10 is too many, but Sallinger never tells us over how many years those deaths were recorded, a crucial omission that fails to put his story in proper context. This is especially important when you're dealing with a topic that stirs up raw emotions in so many viewers whose dogs are cherished family members.

Either it's a runaway epidemic of neglect or a number that, from a statistical standpoint, could be expected.

While Sallinger closed out his report stating that most doggie day care centers are "excellent" (how would he know?), that information gets lost amid the four minutes of hype that preceded it.

I knew Sallinger as a reliable correspondent back from my days at CBS, when he would file freelance reports to the radio network. Only because I know he can do better I'd like to think he was put up to this by an overzealous news director looking for some ratings juice in the hyper-competitive Denver market.

Regrettably, though, this story is a dog that definitely will not hunt.

Is Ann Curry Too Cold in Antarctica To Do Another Story?

Maybe NBC's Taking This Green Thing a Little Too Far, Recycling Dispatches From Bottom of the World

Kudos and all to NBC for its Ends of the Earth coverage, where Matt Lauer is reporting from the North Pole, while Al Roker is stationed at the Equator in Ecuador and Ann Curry drew the short straw and grabbed some serious frequent-flier miles to get to Antarctica.
The logistical hurdles for such an undertaking are daunting, even with today's technology, so the fact that the "Today" crew is pulling this off with apolomb is admirable from a journalistic standpoint and we'll look especially good when ratings are tabulated at the end of sweeps.
We'll assume that Curry is doing more than communing with penguins and checking out the PX at McMurdo. After all, this morning she had two packages on "Today." Still, you'd have thought she and her producers would have been able to come up with another story or at least repackage one of them for "Nightly News."
Instead, Brian Williams & Co. had Curry on live for the intro of a piece about how women rule the roost at the bottom of the world, and the toll that can take. It was a good slice of life, but if you were a loyal NBC News fan, there was no need to see that story twice in 10 hours.

Disenfranchised Football Fans May Actually Have to Listen to a Game on (GASP!) The Radio

UConn and Rutgers Fans: That Newfangled Internet Can Also Hook You Up

Rich Sandomir has a column in today's New York Times about how what have turned out to be big games are being seen on more diminutive channels like ESPNU and the Big Ten Network because of prior commitments.

That's good for the networks, bad for a lot of fans, whose cable systems don't carry those channels, or cost extra on satellite, like ESPNU does on DirectTV.

Which means fans, especially in the New York metro area, may have to get used to something that has long been alien to them: listen to the game on the radio. The horror of it all.

In New York, we've long been accustomed to seeing every major-league game on TV. You can even find many of the local college teams on the tube more often than not.

It's a stark contrast to other parts of the country, where games for some teams are still "radio only," a term rarely heard in the Big Apple nowadays.

So, a primer for fans of teams like Rutgers and Connecticut, which unexpectedly is ranked no. 13 in the BCS standings. Those teams square off Saturday night, and you can only watch if you have ESPNU. And if you live in New Jersey or Connecticut, there's a good chance you don't, because the major cable systems have kept it off.

UConn fans should be used to this by now, as this is the team's third appearance this year on ESPNU. Not to worry, the Huskies have a robust radio network whose flagship is WTIC, whose signal booms all over the Northeast and parts of Canada at night (the game starts at 7:15 p.m. ET).

But if you trashed your transistor or don't want to shiver in the car listening, WTIC.com will bail you out.

If you favor a Scarlet Knights call, you are also well-served by 50,000-watt Rutgers flagship WOR.

Who knows? This radio thing may really catch on someday.

If You Don't Ask, They Won't Tell; Patroon Can Make You Feel Like A Buffoon When You Get The Check

Restaurant PR Blunder: When You Don't Feel Special For Ordering the Special

A buddy of mine took a client out to dinner at Patroon, a well-regarded Midtown restaurant that once earned a three-star review from Ruth Reichl in The New York Times in 1998, though it was knocked down to one star by Eric Asimov four years later.
The dinner tasted good, but the check left a sour taste.
Patroon's been around long enough (since 1996) to have established a pedigree for reliable steaks, seafood, duck and roast chicken at prices that wouldn't be considered unreasonable by Manhattan standards.
And owner Ken Aretsky's been doing the restaurant game long enough at different venues to know how to keep customers happy. Which doesn't happen when you fleece them at the end of the night.
My friend was informed about a special, a whole roasted Bell and Evans chicken infused with truffle butter. Sounds special indeed.
The friend and his dining companion decided to order the dish. Since it's not the type of thing you do in front of a client, he didn't ask how much it would cost, nor did the waiter volunteer that information.
Given that the ordinary organic chicken on the menu cost $26, one could expect at least a nominal boost in price, given that it was a "special" and the "T" word was uttered. But the restaurant was a little too pleased with its bounty.
When the bill came, my friend found out that a "special" chicken at Patroon cost a whopping $100. Which is why the waiter didn't tell them beforehand, but which is why he should have.
Even if you're on an expense-account meal (my friend is actually self-employed), that kind of stunt is not one to countenance lightly. And if you're the one picking up the check, you invariably feel too abashed to make a scene, which the restaurant is counting on.
In the end, Patroon might have provided a high-quality chicken, but pushed it on its clientele in a low-class way. Jacking up the bill without prior warning may give the till a quick boost, but at the expense of future business, which Patroon won't get from my friend.
There are enough steak houses in New York where you can pay a lot for a meal, but at least they give you fair warning on the menu.
For someone who aims to play in the upper eichelon of the New York restaurant scene, what Aretsky and company pulled was strictly bush league.

Kai Ryssdal is the King of Naps

So That's How You Spell His Name; "Marketplace" Host Recalls His Start on the Financial-News Dawn Patrol

When I first heard the "Marketplace Morning Report" during breaks of "Morning Edition" on NPR, I initially assumed the newscasts were taped the night before. But then I heard how the European markets were doing "at this hour" and how the Nikkei and Hang Seng had fared overnight.

Then I wondered how the host, Kai Ryssdal, could be so damn upbeat, given he was broadcasting from Los Angeles, where it was the dead of night.

Ryssdal tells the Miami Herald some of his sleep secrets:

I rolled out of bed at midnight and was at work at quarter to one. It would give me two hours to figure what was going on in the world. I would work until noon. Grab a three-hour nap, get the kids from school. I'm married with three kids.

We'd do homework, put the kids to bed and have time with my wife. And then sleep from nine to midnight. So I would have two three-hour naps.
I think we made it work. I had taken a job with my eyes open and understood it was an overnight shift.

Ah, so that's it, keeping your eyes open, something this night person had a hard time doing when he got stuck doing morning drive during more than a decade in radio.

Ryssdal's hours have been a little more sane for the last two years, since he took the reins of the main "Marketplace," which tapes at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time. We emphasize a little. He gets up at 4:45 a.m. to start trolling for news. Old habits die hard, but the dedication uniformly shows up in what goes on the air.

So, belated props for all those years of providing a little public-radio pep, something current Marketplace Morning Report co-host Doug Krizner could use more of. Someone hook this guy up to a Starbucks I.V., stat!

There Is Such A Thing As a Free Lunch (Or Dinner) If You Blog About Food

It's no secret that bloggers are more prone to flattery, flackery and freebies than those toiling in the MSM.
After all, few of us get rich from blogs. Hell, few of us get anything, carpal tunnel and tsouris excepted.
But there are enough blogs being taken seriously that some businesses will do just about anything to get a favorable plug. And they aren't shy about getting said plug.
On exhibit is a New York restaurant chainlet called Smorgas Chef, which was decently reviewed in Zagat, but could clearly use a few more fannies in their seats, given they are prone to offering 1,000-point reservations on OpenTable.com (never a good sign of prosperity).
Smorgas Chef wants publicity, and it's willing to pony up some free herring and gravlax for the privilege. On its Web site, it openly courts food bloggers and reviewers to "write anonymously, objectively and without 'special treatment' that could influence their experience."
You know, special treatment like the promise of a free meal, which comes after the blogger sends in a copy of their review and a receipt from their meal. That gets them a free second meal for up to what was spent on the first visit.
Bloggers can write about whatever they want, the restaurant implores, but "you should cover the usual subjects, like food, presentation, ambiance, tempo, and of course service."
Thanks for that prescient tip, my skoal brothers.
At the bottom of the page, it says "reservations are recommended."
If you do follow that recommendation, make them on Open Table and get those 1,000 points.

Merrill Lynch O'Neal Fallout: 'Times' Dukes It Out With 'Journal' To Write the Best Financial Bodice-Ripper

Call It A Draw: As O'Neal is Shown the Door, Fascinating Portraits of a Ruthless Warrior Conquered and the Mess He Made

With Merrill Lynch Chairman and CEO Stan O'Neal valiantly trying to make a graceful exit after losing the confidence of his board of directors, that meant some financial journalists were in an unaccustomed role of working on Sunday.

Landon Thomas Jr. and Jenny Anderson in The New York Times showed it was time well-spent, offering up an unflattering, but compelling look at an often-brilliant but flawed leader done in by his own arrogance.

At times the piece reads more like a treatment for a melodrama than another sordid chapter in the subprime mortgage mess that left Merrill's portfolio $40 billion in collateralized debt obligations wilting on the vine.

Twice, he came close to leaving the firm and was notorious for his propensity to fall into a funk when things were not going his way. A golf fanatic — his handicap is nine and he belongs to four country clubs — he often plays alone, in addition to the usual rounds with clients and a circle of friends outside Merrill.

Ouch.

Over at The Wall Street Journal, Randall Smith wasn't cutting O'Neal any slack either. Seems O'Neal wasn't a big fan of collaboration.

Mr. O'Neal's aloof management style was on display at the firm's quarterly operations-committee meetings ... Instead of fostering freewheeling interchanges, the meetings were often staged and choreographed, with formal presentations to which Mr. O'Neal would ask questions but rarely entertain discussion....

Also visible at such meetings was Mr. O'Neal's open disdain for Bob McCann. The popular executive had left Merrill but returned in 2003, after an O'Neal purge had thinned the ranks at the top, and took over the firm's core army of 16,000 brokers. If Mr. McCann made an observation at a meeting, Mr. O'Neal would often barely acknowledge it...

Double ouch. If the truth hurts, then O'Neal is in need of a big bottle of Anacin pronto.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times got on the board with a story on the Web site yesterday, but decided to stick with a perfunctory news account devoid of nuance or detail that couldn't be learned anyplace else.

Which meant FT editors had to read the Times and Journal to figure out just how juicy this story really was.

This Wasn't The First Time Lesley Stahl Ticked Off A World Leader

Like Sarkozy, Yeltsin Also Stormed Off In a Hissy Fit Back in 1992

French President Nicolas Sarkozy hasn't been in office long, but he's amply demonstrated over the years how he's very much the publicity whore. But only on his own terms.

Lesley Stahl showed how she found that out the hard way on last night's "60 Minutes."

It looked like Stahl sacre bleu it when she asked him about rumors that his wife left him -- again.

Right before the question, we see Sarkozy pimp-slapping his press secretary on camera for even scheduling the interview. So, the guy's already in a foul mood and loaded for bear. And totally disinclined to play out scenes from his marriage with an American reporter, and a woman to boot.

"If I had to say something about Cecilia, I would certainly not do so here."

"But there’s a great mystery. Everybody’s asking," Stahl pleaded. "Even your press secretary was asked at the briefing today."

"Well he was quite right to make no comment. And no comment. Merci."

Then he ripped out his earpiece and left the room, after muttering "Bon courage."

Not exactly worth the shlep to Paris, if you ask me. Given Sarkozy's temperament, Stahl had to have known such a reaction was possible. But maybe that's why she asked the question.

A more-innocent line of questioning by Stahl sent a 1992 interview with Boris Yeltsin off the rails. She's at his dacha while he's playing tennis. He sits to chat and then accused CBS of being in cahoots with Mikhail Gorbachev to doctor a video that made him look soused, as if producers needed any help in that regard.

Yeltsin then storms off, despite on-camera pleas by no less than Don Hewitt to come back. Yeltsin angrily demurred.

Again, sometimes the better story is in what's not said during the interview. And Yeltsin blowing off steam as well as the interview turned out to be one of "60 Minutes" most-memorable moments.

Sarkozy won't qualify on that account, but it was easy to see why Stahl must have had an acute case of deja vu.

The Dark Lord Of Newspapers Descends on Connecticut

Reporters at the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time Should be Afraid. Very Afraid

On Thursday came word that Tribune had finally unloaded its smallest newspapers, the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time to a joint venture of Hearst and MediaNews for $62.4 million.
Then yesterday, the next shoe dropped, when it was revealed that MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton addressed the newsrooms and told employees they would have to reapply for their jobs. But don't worry, we'll probably rehire most, if not all, of you anyway.
We'll see.
This is not Singleton's first foray into Connecticut. He already owns the Danbury Times and the Connecticut Post in Bridgeport, along with six weeklies.
Here's a telling quote from yesterday's Advocate story on the acquisition: "The newspapers will continue to run independently, but the ability to collaborate 'makes it very exciting for our advertisers, our readers and our employees,' said Singleton...."
Employees should be excited only if Singleton was using excited as a synonym for nervous, if recent history is a reliable guide.
MediaNews is the dominant chain in the Bay Area, owning every major newspaper except for the San Francisco Chronicle, which just happens to be owned by Hearst.
In August, Singleton combined operations of the unionized Oakland Tribune and four other newspapers in Media News' Alameda Newspaper Group with those of the non-union Contra Costa Times and other smaller newspapers.
By doing so, MediaNews contended that unionized employees now made up a minority of staff at the combined operation, so the company would no longer recognize the union. The NLRB is now involved in this dispute and the unions are keeping the PR heat on.
Why does this matter in Connecticut? Because reporters at the Advocate are unionized. Gannett was set to buy the paper in March, but walked away from the deal when an arbitrator ruled it had to honor the union contract rather than force employees to reapply for their jobs and negotiate a new deal.
Given Singleton's union animus, you can bet that the UAW, which represents the Advocate is girding for battle. It's no stretch to see how Singleton could merge the operations of his four Connecticut dailies to dilute the union's strength, just as he did in the Bay Area.
As it is, pressmen and mailers at the Advocate and Time will lose their jobs by the end of the year, as printing of the Advocate and Time will be shifted to Bridgeport and Danbury. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Same goes if you're a reader, as Singleton has slashed and burned his way through the newsrooms at his California properties to make more money. That includes fewer reporters and a centralized copy desk, which has been responsible for some notorious boners.
No reason why he couldn't do that in Connecticut, but there are many reasons, as has been proven in California, for why he shouldn't.
But solid journalism and recognition for the hard work of dedicated employees are usually distant constellations in Singleton's media galaxy. What really does matter? For starters, the $1.83 million Singleton made in the most-recent fiscal year.
Somebody has to pick up that tab, after all. Union contracts make that a lot harder.

Meet FEMA's Newest Lunkhead, Mike Widomski

Disaster Chieftains Do A Heck Of A Job With a Fake News Conference

Al Kamen has a priceless item in his latest Washington Post column about why questions at a Washington FEMA news conference Tuesday about the California fire response were soft at best.
The reason: all of those asking the questions were FEMA employees posing as reporters. That must have really cheesed off MSNBC and FNC, which carried some of the briefing live.
The feeble justification for this came from spokesman Mike Widomski, who said the newser was thrown together at the last minute because the agency had been deluged with calls from reporters.
In the end, news organizations were given 15 minutes advance notice. Reporters could dial into the briefing by phone, but would not be allowed to ask questions.
So, FEMA couldn't wait another hour for journalists to hightail it down to HQ to hear FEMA deputy director Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson pat the agency on the back? Guess not. Then he would have had to field questions that included the K word. Can't have that now.
All of this fakery was viewed as no big deal by Widomski, when quizzed by Kamen.

"If the worst thing that happens to me in this disaster is that we had staff in the chairs to ask questions that reporters had been asking all day, trust me, I'll be happy."

Then he must be positively ecstatic, not to mention totally clueless. But such is FEMA.
If Widomski's name is vaguely familiar, that's because he was on the receiving end of one of the most notorious emails that sent at the height of Michael ("Heck Of A Job) Brown's reign of error.
It came from Marty Bahamonde, who was the only FEMA official in New Orleans when Katrina hit. Bahamonde had been sending urgent emails to Brownie about how things were going from worse to catastrophic at the Superdome, and not getting much of a response.
Then Brownie's press secretary wrote that "[i]t is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner. Gievn [sic] that Baton Rouge is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy. He needs much more that [sic] 20 or 30 minutes."
To which Baramonde replied to Widomski and another FEMA flack:

"OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! ... Just tell her that I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy restaurants. Maybe tonight I will have time to move my pebbles on the parking garage floor so they don't stab me in the back while I try to sleep."

No indication that Widomski ever replied. Even he must have known it was best to keep his mouth shut.

UPDATE AT 7:30 P.M. ET

FEMA says it's sorry. "Stunts such as this will not be tolerated or repeated."

It Really Pays To Be Rick Reilly

He's got 10 million reasons to smile

When it was announced a few days ago that Sports Illustrated superstar columnist Rick Reilly was bolting the magazine after 23 years to become a multi-platform icon at ESPN, Reilly made it clear it was pretty much a money thing. Oh, and the fact that he'd get to be on TV a whole bunch didn't hurt either.
But as Keith Kelly reports in the New York Post, it was truly, madly, deeply about the dough-re-mi. Reilly is reportedly pulling in $2 million a year for five years, doubling what he was making at SI. His soon-to-be-former employer had offered $1.5 million. But then there was that TV thing. Seems appearing on SI.com just wasn't enough to satisfy his video jones.
So off to ESPN he goes, just as soon as his non-compete expires June 1. And he's departing in spite of once bearing some ill will toward his new employer, whom he told Gelf Magazine read his columns a little too closely.

GM: You mention in the book [Hate Mail From Cheerleaders and Other Adventures From the Life of Reilly, a compilation of his columns] that ESPN has ripped off some of your column ideas. Have you ever complained about it? Why do you think that's such a regular practice in Bristol?

RR: I feel like I've flat-out handed them five or six Emmys. They take columns I've discovered and written—about people nobody's heard of—and do them as though they found the guy, and then they win Emmys for them. The Jake Porter column. The "picking up Butch" column. The Katrina-survivor basketball column. It's endless. And what bothers me, I guess, is that they give no credit, such as, "as first reported in Sports Illustrated." Or at least do one of their treacly, misty shots of the column. But what can you do? Sue? [Editor's Note: In response, an ESPN spokesman tells Gelf, "We learn of story concepts from a wide range of sources and outlets."]

Funny how $10 million can get you to feel differently. That's Reilly you hear laughing all the way to the bank.

Running The Ratings Numbers at XM and Sirius

And You Don't Have To Count Very High; No Surprise or Sign of Trouble?

Arbitron, with a few caveats, has released the first ratings report for XM and Sirius channels. As you'd expect, with nearly 400 channels between them, the audience is rather spread out. And for most channels, Howard Stern, excepted, rather puny. In some instances, only a few hundred listeners may be tuned in at any given time.
In and of itself, that does not come as a shock. But further down the line, the numbers could have some troubling implications, especially if the two companies succeed in merging.
For example, the two XM stations I listen to the most, adult album alternative channels Starbucks XM Cafe and The Loft together pull in just over 10,000 listeners in an average quarter hour. Over at Sirius, the similarly themed The Spectrum notches 3,700 listeners a quarter hour.
If XM and Sirius merge, as the two companies desperately hope to do by the end of the year, it could be hard to make a case for three similar stations that together can't even muster 15,000 listeners, even if they are intensely loyal and may have predicated their decisions to describe largely on the basis of these channels.
XM has already jettisoned one AAA channel, when it combined Hear Music with the XM Cafe earlier this year.
Still, all those small numbers eventually do add up. And satellite radio listeners can register their discontent with their wallets. People choose to pay $12.95 a month for their subscriptions -- they don't need to.
Here's a cheat sheet for the top channels on both services. The first figure is the average number of listeners per quarter hour. The second number is their channel position, followed by their cumulative audience for the week:

TOP 5 XM TALK
1 20,800 The Virus (202) [O&A] 22 16,800
2 15,500 Fox News (121) 485,400
3 9,300 XM Comedy (150) 422,200
4 9,100 ESPN Radio (140) 262,600
5 8,700 Talk Radio (165) [Beck, Ramsey etc.] 154,800


TOP 5 SIRIUS TALK

1 96,700 Howard Stern 100 (100) 1,225,100
2 30,700 Howard Stern 101 (101) 502,000
3 8,600 Sirius NASCAR Radio (128) 177,600
4 6,400 Blue Collar Comedy (103) 311,200
5 5,300 ESPN Radio (120) 147,100

TOP 5 XM MUSIC
1 27,100 The Blend (25) [lite pop] 548,0002
2 5,100 Flight 26 (26) [AC] 713,700
3 24,900 Willie's Place (13) [trad. country] 437,000
4 22,900 Top Tracks (46) [classic rock] 607,600
5 21,800 Top 20 on 20 (20) 1,055,300

TOP 5 SIRIUS MUSIC
1 20,400 New Country (60) 455,900
2 17,700 Sirius Hits (1) [Top 40] 653,200
3 17,600 Octane (20) [hard rock] 357,600
4 14,300 The Pulse (9) [90s hits] 405,000
5 12,300 Big 80s (8) 450,000

Loss of Rick Reilly Another Blow in Sports Illustrated's Fight for Relevance

Rick Reilly's departure from the back page of Sports Illustrated to front and center on ESPN may indeed have been amicable and a case of big bucks being dangled in front of the already well-compensated columnist, not to mention a case of wanting to try something new.
SI big cheese Terry O'Donnell said Reilly was a big talent whom he would "miss personally."
And who the magazine will miss even more.
No doubt, SI is still all about some of the most stunning sports photography anywhere. Its writing is more often than not prescient and engaging. The larger problem, though, is that in the hypercharged 24/7 realm of the Internet and, especially, the blogosphere, long gone is the need to turn to an SI for sports information, analysis and eloquent recaps.
Instead, you turn to SI for destination reading -- the season previews, the excellent "Where Are They Now" takeout from a few months back. And you look for signature columnists, which included Reilly and Steve Rushin, who quit earlier this year after SI wanted him to do other things besides his nonpareil column (if you haven't read any of his books, now would be a great time if you need a Rushin fix).
Take away the guys who make you think, laugh or cry in the space of one page and you've removed much of the magazine's value proposition.
True, Dan Patrick is fully severed from the ESPN mothership that for so long nurtured him and whatever his proclivities were at any given moment, and he will now have a large profile on various SI platforms.
Nice guy, knows his sports, but he's no Reilly or Rushin.
The magazine knows that, too. It remains to be seen if readers will notice, or care.

Spirit Airlines Gets See-No-Evil Treatment from Wall Street Journal

Article On No-Frills Carriers Leaves Out Most Important Part of Story

Scott McCartney, who authors The Middle Seat travel column for the Wall Street Journal, is normally a reliable correspondent on trends in air travel.
Which is why it's puzzling as to why in today's column, which dealt with how budget airlines are trying to position themselves in the marketplace, he omitted one crucial incident that left the article frustratingly incomplete.
At least half of the column focuses on Spirit Airlines' effort to reinvent itself as the capo di capo tutti when it comes to cheap airlines.
It squeezes more seats than other carriers onto its Airbus A-319s. Want water or soda? Two bucks, please. Got two bags to check. It'll cost you $20. Spirit's even testing selling the types of items usually found in a minimart, like newspapers, playing cards and aspirin.
McCartney notes that air on the flights is offered for free, "Spirit sometimes jokes."
Har, har.
"Customers will shift airlines over $5 or $10 when buying a ticket, but once they buy, they are willing to spend." opines Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza.
This is the same Baldanza who caused a PR headache when an email intended for a manager was also sent to a couple who had complained about bad service and wanted a refund after they missed their connecting flight.

"Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny."

Needless to say, this spread like wildfire in the blogosphere, where more Spirit horror stories emerged. And despite overwhelming evidence of rudeness and indifference on the part of Spirit employees, airline flackette Alison Russell was resolute, telling the Orlando Sentinel Baldanza had nothing to be sorry for.
Apparently, hubris costs extra at Spirit too.

At the very least, McCartney should have mentioned this imbroglio. As far as I can tell, Baldanza has never commented on it publicly, and McCartney should have tried to get him on the record, as it speaks directly to what really is the theme of his story -- that flying on cheap airlines can come at a price.