Secrets of the City

MNSpeak Exclusive!!

Psh. Real media does it.

His other stuff was good, but Robson’s T-Wolves coverage was great…and since MPLS in no way resembles a basketball town, as in nobody else really cares, I’ll miss his insight. I’ll have to go back to The Sports Guy and Free Darko for my hoops reading.

If if MNspeak is anything, it’s not real media.

While lately, is kinda a complement (sorry Jason, nothing personal).

so really all that VVM wanted was the city pages name and not any of the staff or anything, right?

By reliable source, do you mean your dad’s brother?

In any case, the City Pages fallout begins…This is becoming par for the course for Twin Cities media.

Thank Gawwwdd, Britt was so tiresome. I’ve only read him for the past year and he was awful. His blind allegience to and advocacy of Keith Ellison stood against the core and creed of a respectable and credible reporting. I hope he fades into oblivian or goes and works for Ellison. I would like to see him attached to Ellison when Ellison screws up with either money in his freezer or a woman carrying his love child.

I left City Pages years ago. Way ahead of the curve on that one!

Few TC writers have Brit’s range. He runs the court and plays both ends. Bball. Politics. Neighborhood squabbles. All solid.

Not my dad’s brother.

I liked Britt’s stuff. I hope he stays in the cities.

Britt gets a lot of credit for his basketball writing, and justly so, but as his friend and future former editor, I’d like to point out that his coverage of state politics and legislative affairs over the past few years has been just as exceptional. And I know there are a number of reporters at the dailies here who agree.

Oooh, “not my dad’s brother.”

Your dad’s friend, then?

So Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times said this last week:

“I really don’t know whether we’ll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don’t care either. The Internet is a wonderful place to be.”

Does City Pages really need a paper when you consider its younger-ish demographic?

Agree or not with Britt’s take on things (and it’s impossible not to do one or the other most of the time), the man is dogged in his reporting and passionate in his arguments. He’s got integrity, personally and professionally, and that, brother, is rare. Too bad for City Pages.

Does City Pages really need a paper when you consider its younger-ish demographic?

Can web-only publications provide enough ad revenue to retain good writers?

I think we’re going to see online ad rates skyrocket as tradition media switches to online formats. Come a few years from now, if you want to be associated with a big brand on the internet, you’re gonna have to pay big.

Is that Jen Vogel? Are you really living in London? That’s the rumor (not started by Matt’s dad’s brother).

And as long as we’re giving away Grammy’s: I like Brit’s basketball writing, but I don’t like his hip-hop writing. That’s counter-intuitive, isn’t it?

Can web-only publications provide enough ad revenue to retain good writers?

That is SUCH a softball. =)

Nope, I’m not living in London. But apparently I need to get out more.

No, keep staying in. Evidently, it’s working for you. It’s not like they’re saying you’re dead.

Thanks Steve, I’ll certainly take that under advisement.

No problem. I don’t post on mnspeak for a month and there’s whispering that I moved back in with my mom. You go incognito for a beat and they start a rumor that you live in london. Sexist bastards.

I believe Ms. Vogel is back on the masthead of The Rake. I hope she’s not in London, or she might be in for a bit of a commute.

Oh, c’mon. if Tommy B. can edit most of it from the master toilet, why couldn’t J.V. edit it from Chelsea?

As to Matt’s hope: Britt isn’t going anywhere.

As for Britt’s Wolves blog, it will survive. I’ve heard it was one of the bigger page-view generators for CP, so (aside from quality) it has value someone else will certainly grab. The media world seems to be evolving toward a collection of subcultures, and as masochistic as we Wolves fans are, Britt’s b-ball writing is a true pleasure.

Britt is a gawd send.

Meredith needs to get laid.

I’m not an economist by any means, but it would seem to me that if you take away the hard goods of paper/ink/physical distribution and so on, that provides you with a variety of options:

1. A transition to online ad rates.
2. A transference of money from physical manufacturing to content.
3. A faster response time. Perhaps a “weekly” just isn’t fast enough or competitive enough.

Online ad rates are a clusterf*** because most ad departments undersell them as a “want a web ad with that print placement?” scheme. Online ad rates are a cultural reflection, not an economic one. Once that changes, I think it leaves more to invest in content.

I think this is why the newspapers are oggling their online properties. And don’t say you don’t support the online properties…I’ve seen the stats. You do. A lot.

Strib story is up:

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/998011.html

Sorry; new here:

High-speed rail to London…oh, wait.

What did this guy who quit write on state politics? I’ve never heard of him.

My brother doesn’t tell me or Matt a damn thing about the inner workings at City Pages. Our topics of conversation usually go in this order: Nebraska football, our kids, our parents. Sometimes, but only after several drinks, we talk about our wives.

Big all-news meeting on the scheduled at the Strib on Tuesday. The ax might be falling over there, too.

re: Strib

New editor?

Hey Tom–Nothing meant by the comment. It was intended as a joke, but you know how it goes. Skip those irritating exclamation marks and all of a sudden everyone thinks you’re serious about everything.

Oldest media story in the world — Rats Off a Sinking Ship. Kick a few out of the way and save yourself.

Hope Mr. Robson and these other people have plans beyond City Pages. Not like they’re leaving the New York Times or anything.

The strip joint and sex talk ads will keep coming in.

Online only is a hard route to go. If that would be the case, CP (and anyone else) would devolve into a “staff” of unpaid contributors and would instantly lose all credibility. The physical newspaper is still necessary and relevant, just to a lesser degree. The two (web & print) need each other to survive and complement each other. If you want to talk ad rates; I can say that some raised theirs by a multiple of 4 recently.

I guess I am somewhat curious about why losing breathless coverage of gangster rappers and NBA criminals by a 53 year old chunky white guy is a loss for the paper?

Just wonderin’….

Is it true that Withering Glance is headed from the Strib to CP to run alongside Savage Love?

That would make a full page of gay sex talk! VERY progressive!

So where are Perry, Walsh and Robson going to go
and what are they going to write?

What’s the REAL reason they were fired?… the new guy
want only his personal cronies and “yes” people on board?
Writers who will agree to write a paragraph length article
to leave lots o space for more enormous ads?

Matt’s point about the switch from paper to online is…well, where MNSpeak and TCDaily Planet seem headed…can the former CP writers or former writers from other publications create their own online publication
which would give them more freedom, and provide an income
they can live on?

Those of us who like reading what they write will miss them…
not only that certain politicos will be very glad they’re gone…no one
left to shine the light on the stuff they don’t want illuminated…

Except G.R. Anderson…but perhaps he’s next?

The dead tree media is soooo twentieth century. There’s nothing “progressive” about it.

The loss of Perry was a good thing for the predictable City Pages as we knew it. Walsh’s departure will hardly register beyond the bands that were friends with him. But losing Robson does seem signficant. He was versatile, provided the best Wolves coverage of anyone in the TC media and in general wrote well-reported stories. It’s true those stories had a point of view (that’s the mission of the alt press) — and in my opinion he made far too many excuses for Keith Ellison’s tax/campaign finance troubles — but he was a really good writer and reporter. City Pages’ loss will probably be the Rake’s gain. (Look at Lambert; his Rake stuff is twice as good as anything he did for the PiPress.) Robson’s byline was, seriously, about the only reason I read City Pages. If Mosedale goes, heck, turn out the lights.

bud jr is the Ted Haggard of MNspeak.

mazaspazza is the David Duke.

I am the Walrus.

I enjoyed working with Britt for many many years at CP. And I agree that his Timberwolves coverage is fantastic! It’s developed into a must-read online at the CP Sports blog. He claims to be a self-inflicted luddite, so when we introduced blogs at CP, he called it a bunch of BS. Gave me the classic, “can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” But he learned how to publish online and create a discussion on the sports blog. He’s a great comments moderator and debater. I would enjoy seeing him do the same with politics.

Will this have any effect on the pornographic ads that are in the back third of the publication?

Perry was a great writer as well as editor. Walsh and his effort to spearhead Wellstone World Music Day were awesome as well. After Walsh left, I thought “only two more folks there who write significant enough stuff worth reading.” Now Robson has left, and his excellent political writing with him. Just one left.

Please don’t leave us, Diablo!

Re: the Strib tip -

No meeting today. Bum steer apparently.

Agreed on Lambert and the Rake, by the way. Tom has a good opportunity to deepen an a team of alt-weekly all-stars who got their starts in the ’80s and ’90s.

alt-weekly all-stars

heh. oxymoron if there ever was one.

No, pal, here is your oxymoron.

Oooh, that’s so clever!

Putz.

Rake should go weekly NOW!