Secrets of the City

David Brauer points out a site called TCMedia Now (and points out that it’s got Mark Rosen in bell bottoms.) Also: Dave Moore’s final broadcast. So what is the site? From their home page: TCMedia Now is Twin Cities broadcasting media history and memories transmitted digitally now. News, commercials, local entertainment from WCCO, KSTP, KARE, KMSP and more can be relived instantly.

Wondering how your neighbors are doing, romantically speaking? I just glanced at I Just Made Love, which allows people to check in when they’ve completed, er, coitus; looks like the University of Minnesota is where most of the action has been in the last hour. Rah rah rah for Ski-U-Mah!

City Pages points out that the long-awaited Marriage between Jim and Pam on last night’s The Office was a spoof on the popular video of a Minnesota couple’s dance-mad wedding.

It’s widely agreed on that the comments section of the Star Tribune leaves a lot to be desired; it is, in the words of David Brauer, a cesspool. Brauer now reports that the Strib is taking action to drain that cesspool by hiring freelancers to read every single comment posted to the Strib and delete the bad ones: Sauer termed souped-up moderation a “trial,” noting budgetary uncertainties as the paper emerges from bankruptcy. However, he said his superiors had pushed the move while the paper was still in Chapter 11, adding that it was an expense worth fighting for.

A new local Web site dedicated to LGBT issues, The Colu.mn already offers artiles addressing Ellison’s work on behalf of same sex marriage and how the recession has affected gay and lesbian nonprofits.

Are you a dog owner who has been looking for a dog-friendly house cleaning service (which might be important; I imagine some cleaners might not do houses with pets), urban pet portraiture, or, um, a pet waste removal service called Doody Calls? Well, now there’s Sidewalk Dogs, just for you.

Former news anchor Rick Kupchella gives Minnesota Bring Me The News, a site that mostly will be filter other people’s news stories to present what they consider the most notable, but will also be doing some originally reporting, as when they recently broke the news that Norm Coleman has Bell’s palsey. The Deets looks at the site and responds: The interview with Sen. Coleman comes across as more of an MSP Magazine profile than a news piece. How about asking some sort of timely question of the former Senator regarding the healthcare debate? He’s of sound mind and may have an opinion on things like, “How would someone without health insurance cope with the situation you find yourself in?” Perhaps we’ll see more of that on Sunday from the site?

Nick Coleman, the columnist for the Star Tribune, has started a blog. There’s not much to it yet — a YouTube video and a somewhat awkwardly formatted reprint of a emotive piece he wrote about the shooting of Alan Reitter at Block E a few years ago. But, as David Brauer points out, it’s worth bookmarking because “his longer-form voice should be heard more than once a week in the Strib.” Brauer also points out that Coleman once had some very pointed things to say about Bloggers: Bloggers are hobby hacks, the Internet version of the sad loners who used to listen to police radios in their bachelor apartments and think they were involved in the world.

Who here is a Coleman fan?

FOX9 did an occasionally silly, but generall informed report about Twitter; they then posted it as a text story to their site that reads like it was written to be a Mr. Rogers’ script. DeRusha sees this as a teachable moment: Tonight’s lesson for TV journos: Text rules online, not video. You need to own the online version. Write it yourself.

Esme Murphy is a little less charitable: Of all the depressing developments in local journalism these days the Fox 9 version of their Twitter story ranks right up there.

Local non-profit MinnPost.com gets a nod in this Salon.com article. Writer Mieszkowski brings news of non-profit journalism to the mainstream by explaining the “whys” and “wherefores” of the growing trend precipitated by the rapid disintegration of the old publishing business model. She points out some success stories (e.g. Voice of San Diego) while Joel Kramer, CEO/Editor of MinnPost, points out the basic weakness of contemporary paper publishing:

In Minneapolis, MinnPost.com offers a mix of local reporting on politics, business and the arts, employing a staff of refugees from the declining local newspapers, as well as articles by local citizens. (MinnPost and Salon have co-published stories.) Joel Kramer, the editor and CEO of MinnPost, started the site two years ago as a nonprofit. “Quality journalism does not work as a consumer good anymore,” he says.

Kramer, who is the former editor, publisher and president of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, argues that the regional monopolies that newspapers used to enjoy have broken down. The big change, he explains, is that Mr. Newspaper Publisher can no longer kick back in his office with a cigar and establish ad rates. “The pricing power of publishers for advertising is dramatically deteriorated,” Kramer says. “That is the core issue, not whether readers love the stuff.”