A week ago today... the road not taken with the Miami Herald and some 411 about Beth Reinhard to consider

Below is an excerpted version of an email that I sent
last Tuesday.

to		"Abad, Eva - Miami"
cc		"Landsberg, David" "Gyllenhaal, Anders"

I believe this explains why I won't be attending tonight.

By the way, about the below: the un-named condescending
Herald reporter referenced is Beth Reinhard, and since
I originally wrote this, yet another story has run in the
Herald on Lauren Book without ever mentioning that
she's going to be a Broward School Board candidate.
Par for the course.

--------------
(This was originally sent to Rick of the South Florida
Daily Blog with bcc's to... well, people from coast-to-coast.
Never heard back from him, though.
C'est la vie.)

Friday March 26th, 2010
4:00 p.m.

Dear Rick:
Have been meaning to contact you about something since
this past Monday, and when I saw you broach the subject
Thursday in your discussion on your blog regarding the
Miami Herald soliciting material from local area bloggers,
I knew that I needed to write and share what I knew with
you and others in the area before I put it off any longer.

Herald Uses Local Blogger For Content
http://southfloridadailyblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/herald-uses-local-blogger-for-content.html
...Now the real reason I'm writing.

Did you receive one of these invites from the Herald?
Just so you know, I never actually contacted them about
this, either.

More from me about this after the story on the Gothamist
purchase.

from Vanaver, Elissa - Miami to "Abad, Eva - Miami" date Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 1:39 PM subject Community News Network

Thank you for contacting us about The Miami Herald's new Community News Network. Now that we're launched, we invite you to join us on Tuesday, April 6, to learn more about how you can post your news, photos and videos on our new community channels.

Date: Tuesday, April 6

Time: 7 p.m.

Location: The Miami Herald

1 Herald Plaza

Conference Room A

Please RSVP to Eva Abad

Elissa Vanaver

VP of Human Resources

Assistant to the Publisher

-------
Paid Content
By Rafat Ali March 22, 2010

Exclusive
Local Blog Network Gothamist Being Bought by Cablevision’s Rainbow Media

Gothamist, the local city blog network that is best known for its New York City edition, is being acquired by Cablevision-owned Rainbow Media, paidContent has learned. The price is between $5 million to $6 million, though we understand a good portion of that is a performance-based earnout.

Read the rest of the post at: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-local-blog-network-gothamist-being-bought-by-cablevisions-rainbow-media/

See also: http://outside.in/studies

Early last Friday night, I got an out-of-the-blue phone call
from someone at the Herald asking me if I'd received an
invitation to some event they were throwing having to do
with the launch of their "News Network."

After finally realizing that the phone call was legit, I laughed
and said that on the face of it, I thought that I was unlikely
to contribute material, photos or videos, given how often I
criticize the newspaper, whether due to its intellectually-shallow
editorials, poor editing and overall story selection, their Sunday
Op-Ed section being the worst of any paper in the country of its
size, plus, the all-too-obvious biases and limitations of certain of
its political reporters, whose complete and utter predictability
and conventional wisdom would've been embarrassing in 1989,
much less, the year 2010.

Where oh where are all the positive necessary changes
they should've made last year?

They have far too many genuinely unappealing blogs yet STILL
don't have an Education blog in the year 2010?
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/blogs/

They still have no Broward-oriented columnist that local
Broward County residents could read 2-3 times a week about
issues they're interested in, instead of having so many Cuba/
Sweetwater/ Calle Ocho-centric columns falling down upon us
everyday, as if Broward was terra incognita.

I'm a Blue Dog Democrat who'd like to see a smart and savvy
in-house Conservative columnist at the Herald opining on things
hereabouts, since this area is a target-rich environment of clearly
tired ideas and political and social personalities on life support
that need to be skewered and held-up to long overdue scrutiny,
but which never are.

So where-oh-where is that Conservative voice at the Herald
who'd strongly challenge the prevailing orthodoxy there at the
paper and in the community?
Sadly, it is yet another one of the things to come there that
never actually quite arrives.

The Herald's current notions of diversity, all too often,
consists of people of many creeds and colors all speaking
in unison, which is not really a voice so much as it is a chorus.

I'm really tired of seeing them run Miami news on the Broward
homepage of the website -like that perennial, flooding on
Miami Beach!-the sorts of stories which are already on their
website at the top anyway.

Those are the ones I've recorded with a lot of screen-shots over
the past year or so, but which I've never run and posted about
because it's so damn depressing, especially after the fact.

While it's nice that they are FINALLY running 6-8 more pieces
a day on their Naked Politics blog compared to their former
pitiful output, the fact remains that they have no video component
to that blog in the way of a YouTube page, like the Sun-Sentinel's
Broward Politics blog, http://www.youtube.com/BrowardPolitics
and too many items are run in Naked Politics that ought to be
running elsewhere, but the Herald has no other place to put them.

The perfect recent example of this is their post last week on cute-
but-completely-inexperienced Lauren Book-Lim, super-lobbyist
Ron Book's daughter, that in a normal newspaper, ought to have
been on the Education blog, since it's pretty clear she's running
for an open Broward School Board seat, which could necessarily
preclude her father from lobbying there

http://www.browardbeat.com/waiting-for-the-800-pound-gorilla/

http://www.browardbeat.com/index.php?s=%22Lauren+Book%22

which would make that a big story among those of us who care
about public policy in Broward.

See also http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/03/a-survivors-walk.html and http://www.facebook.com/people/Lauren-Book-Lim/10617635

But since they don't have an Education blog...

In any case, the Herald's Patricia Mazzei NEVER even
mentions her possible School Board candidacy in the most
recent post.
It's so damn maddening!

Thank God for the St. Pete Times political reporters that they
now run, otherwise...

As it happens, the Herald went ahead without ever telling me
and listed my blog on their South Florida blogs page when it was
first introduced last year.
http://yourblogs.miamiherald.com/

I only discovered I was on their Communities page when
someone I know in Miami mentioned that they'd seen it linked
there.
And that was a few weeks after they'd been running it.

That struck me as a very odd way of doing business
or creating relationships.

As to that invite above that I received on Monday, I'm going to assume
that if they are calling me and asking me to listen to their marketing pitch,
that given how many more people read your blog, you must've already
received something like this quite some time ago.

I'm not inclined to participate when the sad reality is that I'm much more
likely to get a quicker and more professional response to an email of mine
from Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal than I do from 99.9%
of their reporters, columnists or editors, esp. their largely invisible Broward
editors.

Gyllenhaal has actually written me a few times in the past 18 months
after I had bcc'd him about some troubling things I'd seen in the paper,
and I genuinely believe that he wants the newspaper and its product to
be much better, as do a handful of reporters there that I genuinely trust
and wish would be given more latitude in what they write about, so that
everyone benefits.

I'm just not that convinced that a majority of the people down at the
Herald necessarily want meaningful positive change readers are
clamoring for, including me.

Even after everything that's gone on there with the layoffs, there's an
awful lot of contrived and mediocre notions afloat there about what the
paper ought to be that to my mind, and many of the reporters there,
are gumming-up the works.

I hear somewhat regularly from reporters there about actions that
show more people than you think are still very resistant to some positive,
meaningful change that would benefit everyone.

Let me share a recent Herald anecdote that involves me:
Two weeks ago, a well-known Herald reporter called a local Broward
politician I know about something that I'd written about with 100%
certainty, and asked the pol what they thought of what I'd written.

What the reporter on the phone didn't know was that I was actually
in the room at the time standing next to this person when her phone
call came thru, and heard the entire conversation on speakerphone,
including the condescending reference to a short pithy email of mine
as "crazy mail" and me as "that blogger guy in Hallandale."

Like she couldn't bear to actually say my name or the
name of my blog, even though I had the story and the
Herald didn't.

To me, that attitude of hers explains a lot about why the Herald
is in the very sad shape it's in, despite having some very talented
people who could make it much better.

I guess I hardly need mention, do I, that this particular reporter
was NOT someone I'd even originally sent that particular email to,
since I have such a low regard for her, but someone else at the
newspaper whom I did send it to, clearly forwarded it to her since
it was so obvious that there was a story there on a silver platter
about govt. cronyism and no-bid contracts and HB Mayor Joy
Cooper

It was yet another local Broward govt. news story this particular
reporter knew nothing about, but typically, she never thought
to actually contact me about it, she called others who didn't know
anything about it until I told them via email and my subsequent
blog posting.

Well, that was more than ten days ago and the story has never
seen the light of day in the Herald or any of its myriad blogs.
Nowhere but my humble blog.
It's really dumbfounding.

Patricia Andrews, the Herald's former Broward bureau chief
was someone who had covered Hollywood and Hallandale Beach
back when I was living-up in the Washington, D.C. area, so I quite
naturally thought that she'd be especially receptive to hearing
about some very troubling things going on in the area that I and
many others were eyewitnesses to.
She was not.
She NEVER responded to a single email of mine,

She also never responded to occasional emails from about a dozen
or so other concerned HB residents, asking why she and the paper
were ignoring all the self-evident corruption and non-compliance
with the state's Sunshine Laws at HB City Hall.

Even now, the Herald has never written about the mayor suing
HB civic activist and blogger Michael Butler, a trusted friend of
mine, or even more troubling, the current HB Police Chief having
tried to frame and prosecute two innocent people -cops, no less-
in order to ingratiate himself with HB City Manager Mike Good
and Mayor Joy Cooper -and that TWO separate Broward
County juries ruled against him and the city by returning
verdicts against the city in less than 15 minutes.

Verdicts that resulted in HB taxpayers paying hundreds
of thousands of dollars in damages.

Yet the status and future of this corrupt Police Chief has NEVER
been discussed in a HB City Commission meeting, for obvious reasons,
even though in most parts of the country, that conduct would've
resulted in an immediate firing -and him being in prison now.

Another stellar example of Broward SAO Mike Satz doing
nothing!

None of what I've just mentioned has ever appeared in the Herald,
yet now they want my assistance?
I don't think that's going to happen.

For the record, the Herald has sent exactly one reporter to a HB City
Commission since June of 2008.

Before I forget, go to this animated video on paidcontent.org's site
titled Stop the Presses: How to Save Newspapers by Ted Rall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7qd8v8v2qk

Adios!

Dave

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Abad, Eva - Miami
Date: Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 2:17 PM
Subject: REMINDER: Community News meeting AT THE MIAMI HERALD
To:

If you haven't RSVP's please contact me as soon as you can.

Thanks!!!

Eva Abad
HR/Community Affairs Specialist

Executive Assistant

The Miami Herald

-----Original Message-----

From: Abad, Eva - Miami
On Behalf Of Vanaver, Elissa - Miami

Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 1:39 PM

To: Abad, Eva - Miami

Subject: Community News Network

Thank you for contacting us about The Miami Herald's new Community News Network. Now that we're launched, we invite you to join us on Tuesday, April 6, to learn more about how you can post your news, photos and videos on our new community channels.

Date: Tuesday, April 6

Time: 7 p.m.

Location: The Miami Herald

1 Herald Plaza

Conference Room A

Please RSVP to Eva Abad

Elissa Vanaver

VP of Human Resources

Assistant to the Publisher

Miami Herald Publisher David Landsburg Tries to Prove Herald's Still Relevant

Noticed a link to this on the left column of the Miami Herald's

website this afternoon and didn't remember having seen it

before, but the letter is dated from a week ago.

-----------------------------

http://www.miamiherald.com/1461

Miami Herald

From the Publisher

March 22, 2009

A Message to Miami Herald Readers and Advertisers

The news about the state of the economy and the toll it has taken on businesses across the nation has become a steady diet for all of us over the past few months. The impact has been felt in businesses large and small, and newspapers are no exception.

The Miami Herald Media Company, like many others, has taken actions to ensure that we weather the storm. As an enterprise committed for more than 100 years to making our community a better place, we have every intention of continuing to do what we do best well into the future.

I want to assure you that our company remains a strong, stable and vital organization. We are proud of the fact that we have the largest news staff by far in South Florida. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality news and information, in English and in Spanish, day in and day out.

And we know -- because you tell us -- that what we do makes a difference in your lives, and in the lives of many others across South Florida.

The Miami Herald Media Company also continues to offer the broadest reach for advertisers. The combined net reach of our products in our core market is over 1.4 million adults,* an audience no other local media can claim.

It’s true we are living in difficult economic times. While we work to manage these challenges, The Miami Herald’s commitment to you will not change. You can count on it.

David Landsberg Publisher

* Scarborough R2 2008, Core Market included South Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties.

Miami Herald cutting jobs, pulling plug on their International Edition -finally. But what's the strategy?

Note: Per my past comments of the last few months, Blogger.com seems to be screwing-up the formatting of these posts, as I've already spent over 90 minutes today trying to get it to stay exactly like I want, exactly like it looks in Preview. But it changes the moment I hit "Publish Post."

Until Blogger.com figures out how to solve the problem, if they ever do, for the forseeable future, the posts here will look very different from what I intend.

Screenshots of Charles Perez doing the lead-in on the Miami Herald cuts tonight on Local 10's 6 p.m. newscast, before throwing-it to Michael Putney outside the Herald Building, the wheels and gears of

a press run, the specific numbers involved in today's news, and the official statement from Herald publisher David Landsberg.

My comments follow the article.

__________________________________________

http://www.miamiherald.com/101/story/944120.html

Miami Herald

Miami Herald to cut 175 workers, reduce salaries

By John Dorschner

March 11, 2009

The Miami Herald plans to cut 19 percent of its workforce, reduce salaries of those who remain and require one week unpaid furloughs, publisher David Landsberg announced Wednesday morning.

''About 175 employees will lose their jobs as a result, and we will eliminate another 30 vacant positions, for a total reduction of 205. Reductions will occur in all areas of our operation and at every level in the organization,'' Landsberg said in an e-mail to employees.

Remaining full-time employees earning between $25,000 and $50,000 a year will have their pay reduced 5 percent. For employees earning more than $50,000, the pay cut will be 10 percent.

Employees will also lose one week of pay this year through an unpaid furlough program.

As part of the cost cutting, The Miami Herald's presses will be converted to a 44-inch web format and the International Edition will cease publication.

Many of the jobs will happen through involuntary layoffs, but some employees will be offered the chance to voluntarily take severance packages. ''If enough employees do not take the voluntary option, then the work groups will be reduced either by function or according to least tenure, depending on the work group,'' Landsberg wrote.

The cuts are part of a national move by The Herald's owner, the McClatchy Co., to reduce costs as advertising revenue and circulation continue to decline, a trend that virtually all newspapers in the country are experiencing.

''The decisions about where to reduce jobs have been extremely difficult,'' Landsberg wrote to employees. ``Please know that we have done everything possible to minimize the impact of layoffs by identifying alternative means of saving expenses. . . . While there will be tightening of news pages on various days, we have worked hard to maintain our newspapers at the quality level our readers have come to expect.''

The press conversion is expected to save $2 million a year in newsprint.

Reader comments at:

http://www.miamiherald.com/101/story/944120.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1#Comments_Container

----------------------------------------

Came across this particular news online this morning, having already expected as much after having read TIME magazine's interesting piece over the weekend labeled, simply enough,

The 10 Most Endangered Newspapers in America

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1883785,00.html.

Naturally, the Herald actually made THAT Top Ten list, coming in at #3, right after the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, a newspaper whose D.C. Bureau I once had a good relationship with, and the Philly Daily News coming in at number one.

(Speaking of TIME magazine, did you know that TIME's Miami Bureau chief was from the capital of Hoosierland, Indianapolis? Oui!

Though he's a Wabash College grad, not an IU grad, Timothy Padgett is a damn good reporter, as almost any of his thoughtful analysis pieces, especially those on Latin America, like his recent ones on Cuba and Brazil prove in just a few sentences.

Tim really knows how to tell a story!

http://www.time.com/time/searchresults?N=0&Ntk=NoBody&Nty=1&Nr=OR(p_record_type:Article,p_record_type:blog,p_record_type:Other)&Ntt=Tim+Padgett

In the view of many people I know here in South Florida, including some veteran TV reporters and network correspondents, all of whom, like me, really want the Herald to be MUCH better than it is, i.e. assertive in ways that more closely resembled traditional notions of what a metro paper ought to be like, and what the Herald was like in the '70's and early ''80's, today marks the end of a very bad idea that lived longer than it had any right to.

That is, the Herald foolishly persisting for years in producing an international edition that you could buy in large South American cities, even after the advent of the internet.

It seemed to be a poorly thought-out, grand-fathered vanity project that might've served a legitimate purpose in the late '70's and early '80's, if you consider impressing foreign advertisers

and govt. officials legitimate, but which served none once every newspaper and public policy journal of consequence was online.

Especially when you are doing such a very poor job of covering local municipal govt. in your own area of the world, where, oh-by-the-way, 99.9% of your readers are.

To me, it only showed how truly desperate the Herald was to be STILL considered an international player of consequence, when the truth is, with the exception of someone like Tyler Bridges who I think is usually pretty good and often has unusual takes on a situation in Latin America- their international or Latin America correspondents are a shadow of what they were when I was growing-up down here, when the Herald really had a team of truly great correspondents, like Don Bohning.

(I can still remember reading his stories on the aftermath of the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana at my desk, my senior year of high school at NMBHS, before my first class started at 7 a.m., Fourth-year French with Pearl Chiari, a fabulous teacher who did so much for me and so many other students at NMB .)

Since I returned to South Florida from the DC area five years ago, the Herald was still running occasional print ads showing where you could purchase it in Caracas, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, et al, even while their Letters to the Editor was printing letters from longtime Herald subscribers who were VERY upset to discover the Herald would no longer be distributed in Palm Beach County.
So, you could buy the Herald in Argentina but not in Palm Beach?

Brilliant!

That certainly explains a lot, don't you think?

Late yesterday afternoon, while I was at Hollywood City Hall, waiting to go into the City Commission Chambers and hear the much-anticipated Bernard Zyscovich vision for Downtown Hollywood -which I'll be writing about very soon- I was reading the Business section of the New York Times.

The last article I read before heading in?

This one by Richard Perez-Pena headlined, McClatchy Plans to Cut 15% of Staff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/business/media/10mcclatchy.html

The very last sentence said simply, "McClatchy's stock, which traded above $60 a share before its offer for Knight-Ridder, closed Monday at 41 cents."

Nine cents less than a copy of the newspaper.

-----------------------------------

For more on the situation at the Herald, see what blogger Henry Gomez has to say over at Herald Watch at http://heraldwatch.blogspot.com/, and take a peek at what's cooking over at McClatchy Watch at http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/, both of which

I've always had as blog links on Hallandale Beach Blog and South Beach Hoosier.