I will miss your blogging, mostly for its integrity. You always reported both sides of the story as honestly as possible and if you had an opinion in the matter you described that seperately. You took your stories much more seriously than your opinions. As G K Chesterton observed."The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly." May you continue to soar.
Good Luck and Godspeed
Wrenching news. Joe the Plumber is gonna take your job. Foreign correspondents are shaking their heads in disbelief.
The Feral Beast wagers that he won't get accredited or go any further than the standard celeb tour of Sderot taken by Mayor Bloomberg.
At Time Warner's Politics 2008 Summit, the former CBS anchor made some noise this morning, turning a panel on media bias into a forum for his complaints about the creeping timidity he sees in journalism.
"The press, in the main, has been in a defensive posture for some time," he said, opining that complaints from conservatives, in particular, have succeeded in engendering "self-censorship" by big media organizations. "The press should be independent with a capital 'I.' Fiercely independent and even ornery from time to time."
He picked up this theme again at the conclusion of the panel, delivering a peroration that drew spontaneous applause from the audience:
No one is fearless, but fear shouldn't be in the DNA of an American journalist.... American journalism stands for clear-eyed, well-researched, know the facts, look 'em in the eye, ask 'em the tough question, don't back down, don't back away, just keep coming. That's the kind of coverage the American public deserves.
It's not the kind of coverage the American public has been getting from the presidential debates, however, Rather said.
"First of all. these aren't debates. Let's get that straight right from the beginning. They are a something, but they're not debates."
"These so-called debates are put on by the two major political parties, for the two major political parties and their candidates," he added. "These so-called debates are not by the people, for the people. They are by the parties, for the parties. That's what's wrong with them."
Sources at Dow Jones & Company Inc. say that Marcus Brauchli, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, is submitting a letter of resignation, with his departure to be announced as early as Tuesday morning. Time magazine reported that the separation is said to be amicable and Brauchli is likely to stay with the company in a yet-to-be-determined capacity. One source says a search is already underway for the next managing editor.
A spokesman for News Corp., which owns Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, had no comment.
Brauchli (pronounced Brock-lee) started at Dow Jones as a copyreader in 1984 and rose through the ranks from foreign correspondent to global news editor, overseeing the paper's successful Asian and European redesigns in 2005. He was named to the paper's top job almost exactly a year ago, replacing Paul Steiger, who had held the job since 1991. Brauchli received a standing ovation in the newsroom when his appointment was announced and was viewed as someone who would safeguard the paper's credibility in the face of Rupert Murdoch's ultimately successful attempt to purchase Dow Jones.
Sources say that Brauchli tried to find a middle path between the paper's traditionalists and Murdoch's new vision for the paper.
Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham has consciously avoided publicizing Newsweek's revamping.
"It was stealth redesign," Meacham said yesterday as he was getting ready to ship the first of the new-look pages to the printer.
"I just want people to judge it when they see it," said Meacham. "I don't believe in sweeping declarations."
As part of the redesign - the first in six years - Newsweek's logo will undergo a slight tweak, but won't be radically different from what it replaces. In addition, many of the stories in the print version will be longer.
Meacham has also lengthened its Periscope section, doubled the size of its Conventional Wisdom Watch and added four new columnists.
"What we are trying to do here is clear out the clutter and speak in a print vernacular," said Meacham.
Meanwhile, Newsweek.com will now be a standalone Web site, though it will still have some loose ties to MSNBC.com under a new multi-year contract.
The new Web site goes live tomorrow with more breaking news, a blog from Newsweek political reporter Andrew Romano and daily updates of popular print columns such as "My Turn."
Though the magazine's Web strategy of going it alone will give Newsweek technological control of over how its site is displayed, it's a gamble because a large chunk of Newsweek's Web traffic was driven by MSNBC.com.
In August, for example, roughly 50 percent of the 7.2 million unique visitors to Newsweek's Web site came from MSNBC.com.
Rival Time magazine, meanwhile, had 4.4 million unique visitors.
There may be dark days ahead for Time magazine (pictured left, with its controversial mid-90s pigment-enhanced cover of OJ Simpson beside Newsweek's untouched version.) Mainstream print media looks like it's in free fall, folks.
Time's total paid and verified weekly circulation during the six months ended June 30 stood at 3.4 million, down 17.1% from 4.1 million during the same period last year following a reduction in January in the magazine's rate base. Newsweek's circulation stood at 3.1 million, virtually unchanged from a year earlier.
Time spokeswoman Betsy Burton said the decline in circulation was in line with the magazine's expectations after it slashed its rate base--the average circulation level it guarantees advertisers--from 4 million to 3.25 million. The move was part of Time's plans to shift its ad sales efforts to audience measurements, as opposed to strict circulation measurements. The magazine has said the former will provide advertisers with more transparency and accuracy.
Also in January, Time began publishing on Fridays, rather than Mondays, and overhauled the magazine's design to place a greater emphasis on news analysis.(It resembles a faux-Economist.) Burton said the redesign has been well received by reader focus groups and said she didn't believe it was a factor in the magazine's circulation decline.
The first half of 2006 has been a challenging period of transition for Time Warner's Time Inc. unit. The subsidiary said in January that it would cut nearly 300 jobs, bringing its total headcount down to about 11,000. In March, it sold 18 smaller magazines, including Popular Science and Field & Stream, to Bonnier Group, a Swedish media conglomerate.
In conjunction with the rate base reduction, Time also pulled back on verified subscriptions--those subscriptions sold to doctor's offices, beauty salons and other public areas. Verified subscriptions at Time plunged 63.5% to 128,032 during the six months ended June 30, from 350,623 a year earlier.
But verified subscriptions were up sharply at other big Time Inc. titles. Sports Illustrated had verified subscriptions totaling 144,624 during the six months ended June 30, up 77% from 81,857 a year earlier, while verified subscriptions at Money skyrocketed more than ninefold to 214,760 from 20,866 a year earlier.
Other top 25 magazines notching circulation gains during the six months ended June 30 included O, The Oprah Magazine, up 4.3% to 2.4 million, and Hearst's Good Housekeeping, up 2.8% to 4.7 million. Losers included TV Guide, down 12.2% to 3.3 million; Playboy, down 5% to 2.9 million; and Ladies Home Journal, down 4.3% to 3.9 million.
