Secrets of the City

The Strib has a blog called Yesterday’s News, and it’s great fun, whether they are reprinting an opinion that the Nazis will lose due to their lack of a sense of humor, a tale of preemies on display at the State Fair, a Lux Soap ad, or some Minneapolis ghost stories.

Brauer reports that, despite unsuccessful past experiences of putting their content behind paywalls, the Strib will soon be charging for some of the Vikings coverage. Would you pay?

In unexpectedly related news, filmmaker Michael Moore says that newspapers “slit their own throats” by pusuing profits at the expense of newsgathering.

The You Are Dumb blog sets its sites on Strib commentors, and finds them, well, to be pretty dumb. Specifically, the blog’s author looks at responses to the recent tale of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who was detained in Newark as a result of having his name on a watch list, which is approximately the equivalent of Julia Roberts being detained in China for being a possible terrorist. Strib commentors, however, don’t really seem to grasp the tale, so the blog clarifies: This is clearly, in the annals of airport security snafus, a minor incident. He wasn’t removed from a plane, he didn’t miss a flight, and he only lost a couple of hours. On the other hand, this is also clearly an issue of a broken system abusing an innocent traveler for no societal benefit, and only coming to light because the innocent traveler being abused has a certain amount of fame, power, and/or pull. And once we leave the land of Clearly, we enter the murky, confused world of the Strib commenters, who proceed to describe a whole other planet.

Nick Coleman, ousted columnist from the Strib, went on MPR with Cathy Wurzer this morning to talk about “making a difference.”

David Brauer maps out the declining economics of the Star-Tribune, which is now worth less than $90 million, while its advertising sales have fallen 20 percent. At least it is paying its bought-out writers in full. Why? Apparently, in part, out of fear of angering experienced journalists.

Brauer makes a case that newspapers matter, especially looking at local media. Mediation rebuts. What do you think? Has the time of the newspaper passed?

David Brauer at his Braublog: According to a buyout memo released this afternoon and newsroom sources, Nick Coleman and Katherine Kersten will lose their columns, though they may be able to remain at the paper as reporters. He also mentions that the memo called for “up to three” metro columnists and “up to one editorial cartoonist” to be sacked as well. What will the loss of locally-produced content mean for the Strib? How will it set itself apart from other newspapers and online sources of media?

Steve Perry is out at the Minnesota Independent, apparently as fallout from the recent budget cutting measures, which included the axing of several staff members. In the meanwhile, the Star Tribune must cut $30 million to survive, and it looks like they are asking the newspaper’s union to get employees to shoulder $20 million of that. This all seems premature to me. I mean, have they even checked for change under their sofa cushions?

You can read the story here, but the real head-scratcher line is the following one: So in a very unThankgivingy move, I called Shelby Wednesday to tell him that I was revoking his “Honorary Black Guy” card. Long, long time ago I elevated Shelby to honorary black guy because of how well he plays basketball and because Don thinks he prepares gumbo like an old Southern black woman. (via)