Media Watch

The mating sounds of dinosaurs

Former Cape Cod Times siblings sold again

The Lawrence, MA Eagle-Tribune and its group of North Shore dailies and weeklies  were sold yesterday to an Alabama media giant for an undisclosed amount.  The Eagle-Tribune wasn't so reticent in 2002 when it disclosed its $70 million purchase of the Salem News, the Gloucester Daily Times, and the Daily News of Newburyport from the Ottaway Newspaper division of Dow Jones & Co., owners of our own local daily newspaper.

As the Boston Globe reported today:

"Ending more than a century of family ownership, Eagle-Tribune Publishing Co., whose newspapers serve 55 communities in northeastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, will sell the chain to a company backed by an Alabama pension fund."

The sale would mark the passing of another family-owned Massachusetts newspaper company as the industry faces intense challenges from sluggish advertising revenue and declining circulation.

The Alabama company, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., (Ediror's note; not to be confused with our own Community Newspaper Co. which operates several Cape Cod weeklies and which is owned by The Boston Herald) went on a buying spree shortly after its 1997 launch, though this is its first foray into New England." 

 The Eagle-Tribune sale ends over a century of ownership in the same local family and marks simply another chapter in the implosion of the newspaper industry.  In the last 15 years, several family-controlled Massachusetts newspapers have changed hands, including the Enterprise in Brockton, the  Patriot Ledger in Quincy, MPG Communications in Plymouth, and the Boston Globe, which was purchased by The New York Times Co.

While our own daily is also a part of one of America's largest media giants, the Dow Jones Co., its prospects to remain as independent as it is today probably rely on its continued very high profitability of well over 30%, far better than its parent.  From a financial standpoint it would make more sense for Ottaway Newspapers to sell Dow Jones than vice versa.

But you should pay little attention to the media babble surrounding these newspaper conglomerations - it's just the mating sounds of dinosaurs.  

The bad news is no news

Your News Junky Fix? The bean counters are watering your booze

Although the effect on Cape Cod's media isn't obvious to the casual observer, the "bottom-lining" which is running rampant in America's news organizations is noticed by those here to peek behind the curtain. With each passing press run there is less locally written news in America's newspapers and more "filler" from national wire services, mostly the same news we all heard or read the day before on CNN or the internet.

The region's preeminent media writer, Mark Jurkowitz, on right, who appears regularly on the WGBH Friday program "Best The Press", and who recently moved to Boston Phoenix after years at The Globe, writes knowingly about the problem for anyone keeping up with this blog here.

As Mark points out this week with several quotable examples, the "bean counters" are rapidly destroying America's national press in its insane quest for 30% and more profits.

It's now been ten days since CC Times Editor Cliff Schechtman announced his departure, and there is still no replacement named.

At the same time the Business Page Editor Ethan Zindler has decamped for Washington DC, the fourth or fifth reporter to leave in the last six months.   WB

The Times loses another wind farm reporter

Word around the campfire is that Ethan Zindler, business reporter at the Cape Cod Times and the paper's lead reporter on wind farm coverage, is heading to the D.C. area to cover the banking industry for a trade publication while his wife will be working at Johns Hopkins.

Ethan was a kewl dude with legs in the MTV world and one of the most cyber-hip journalists on Cape Cod. 

The windy kiss of death? 

That makes three Times reporters (and one editor) who covered the Cape Wind farm project leaving in the past half year.

 As my blogmate Spyro quoth presciently many moons ago, "the problem with the Cape Cod Times is that they can't keep their reporters or get rid of their editors."     WB

Speaking as if with one Voice

Don't hold your breath if you're expecting the biweekly Cape Cod Voice to spill as much ink on coverage of wind farm supporters as they did for opponents, profiles of which dominated a recent issue of the paper. (The following issue was devoted to seals.)

Responding to my e-mail about this, senior editor Dan Hamilton wrote that a "small number of people have misunderstood our 'Those who oppose' theme issue. Interestingly, about half of that small number feel we were biased in favor of the opponents, ie unfair to the wind farm, and about half believe we were biased by being critical of the opponents and therefore were boosting the wind farm.

"As we explained in detail on page 5, the theme was not about the pros and cons of the project; rather it was about an unusual, newsworthy group. The proponents are just not the same, sincere and dedicated as they may be.

"So the short answer to your question is, no - dan"

But Hamilton's claim that the "those who oppose" issue was not devoted to the "pros and cons" of the wind farm is refuted by the issue itself - filling the paper with profiles of people working tirelessly to stop the wind farm is, in effect, an issue devoted to the, ah, "cons" of the proposal.

A sense of fairness that every journalist should possess dictates that the Voice accord the same treatment to proponents, unless that person is practicing advocacy journalism, as done here. But even here, in the allegedly lawless blogosphere, an obligation to those who disagree still applies. That's why I allow comments in response to my postings, regardless of who responds - and I've never deleted a single one.

As judgment calls go, this isn't even a tough one, and the Voice flunks miserably.

Hamilton also falls back on the weak argument that wind farm supporters are not as "unusual" and "newsworthy" a group as Cape Wind opponents; not "strange bedfellows," as described in the "those who oppose" issue.

But the Voice is hardly obligated in writing about proponents with the same theme in mind - a theme of their own choosing, presumably. To decide against fair treatment on this basis demonstrates a willful lack of imagination.

Perceptions of the Voice's heavy-handedness are only reinforced when you see a full-page ad from the Alliance in the current issue of the paper.

Recent job posting by Newsday

My blogmate Jack Coleman has a wry sense of humor. Last weekkend he penned this imaginary Want Ad in his WindFarmBlog. WB 

Wanted: editor to oversee coverage of towns on Long Island.

Prior management experience required, preferably at coastal daily. Ungodly hours, but plenty of perks (free copies of NY Times, Starbucks nearby, annual company trip to Yankee Stadium). Only hard-hitting and aggressive editors need apply (preference given to native New Yorkers).

Must possess visceral loathing for offshore wind power, as proposed by Long Island Power Authority. Direct, first-hand experience with offshore wind turbines not necessary. Only serious applicants; no phone calls.

No seal of approval for CC Voice

The free press belongs to the man who owns one

As my blog-buddy Jake Coleman pointed out recently and in the previous post here, the last edition of the frou-frou fourtnightly Cape Cod Voice devoted an entire issue on the opponents to the Cape Wind farm.

Since Jake a decent guy and a professional journalist, he assumed The Voice would devote the next issue to the proponents since even our local anti-wind farm daily The Cape Cod Times has reported in two polls that Cape Cod is evenly split of this issue and given oceans of ink to the proponents to argue their case.

'Fraid not, Jake. These elitists answer to no one in their efforts to shove their personal opinions down the throats of their readers, and their current edition is devoted entirely to that pressing, compelling and earth-shattering issue facing Cape Cod today - SEALS.  

The March of the Killer Turbines

If these bush league literati wish to learn the correct and professional way to cover this issue, they can run downstairs to Dan's newsstand and snatch a copy of The Boston Phoenix which did a long and fair examination of both sides in this issue which is easily the most important one to face Cape Codders in two generations.

Yes, insiders, that IS Alliance to Protract the Debate's Audra Parker basking in the sun on the curerent Phoenix cover.

P.S. We predicted here on as least two occasions that the owners of our local dailywould soon order Editor Cliff Schechtman to "fall on his sword" to separate them from his handing of the entire Cape Wind imbroglio at the newspaper. The announcement was more interesting in what it left out than in what it put in - no mention of Schecky's 40-odd Editorials knocking the wind farm. 

Voice owners might consider the same remedy.

But I received a friendly phone call from Publisher Peter Meyer assuring me that this was NOT the case, and that Shecky was leaving for greener pastures on his desire. 

Phoenix and WGBH  media  critic Mark Jurkowitz wrote in today's column, "An ambitious, aggressive editor determined to make the Times the key media player on the Cape, Schechtman --who not only ran the newsroom, but also sat on the paper's editorial board -- was a lightning rod for critics who believed the Times's staunch opposition to the wind farm on its editorial pages was excessive and occasionally bled over to news coverage. (Cape Wind president Jim Gordon has accused the paper's editorial board of launching a "jihad" against the project.) It didn't help matters that former Times reporter Jack Coleman, who covered the Wind Farm issues, wrote a piece (in Projo and CCToday)  explaining the reasons for departing the paper."

Tomfoolery at the Voice

In the recent budget debate, Bernardo led the effort to roll back the increases in the authority's subsidy from the County. Subsidy, because the Commission has its own revenue stream, just check your real estate tax bills.

For his efforts to bring some accountability to the bloated agency's budget, the Voice uncorked a personal attack on Bernardo. After the fact of course. No sense taking any chances before the vote.

For a publication that is dedicated to profiling "courageous" personalities on the Cape (those opposing the wind farm in this issue), they took the cowards way out. They failed to disclose to their readers that the Senior Editor has a personal relationship with the Executive Director of the Cape Cod Commission. Seems that HE is married to HER.

Editor defends his wife's agency with ink, saves his marriage, again, for now. Sounds about right for a publication that has innumerable incestuous relationships with many Cape Cod institutions. Sounds more like a conflict of interest. SM

Looking forward to the Voice's coverage of Cape Wind supporters

Interesting reading in the most recent issue of The Cape Cod Voice, with nearly the entire issue - at least as it appears online - devoted to profiles of opponents of the Cape Wind project such as Hyannis Marina owner Wayne Kurker, Alliance exec Susan Nickerson and new CEO Charles Vinick, Barnstable community activist Jaci Barton, fisherman Ron Borjeson and others.

Seeing how this is The Voice, safe to assume that we can expect similar coverage of those on the other side of the issue. They are about equal in number to opponents, according to a most helpful recent poll in the Cape Cod Times.  JC

Previous Media Watch posts