When truth is merely relative

Trib's Facts ‘obit’ highlights huge dilemma

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The eloquently written obituary admired a lifetime of achievement that ultimately was doomed to fail in a modern culture which appears to value the loudest, most insistent voices over mere details such as fact or truth.

The obituary published online Thursday was written by Chicago Tribune reporter Rex W. Huppke about the life and times of Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012.

The impetus for Huppke’s sad report was the claim by U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., that as many as 81 of his fellow members of the U.S. House are communists. That, Huppke writes, was the fatal blow to Facts.

Crashes, consequences, providence and newspapers

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The headlights of the approaching vehicle were all wrong.

Frank and I were headed back to the dorm from a state park near Winona, Minn., when I first saw the headlights moving around the curve. But they were jumping up and down erratically, and then they began to spin.

Pew report notes key weaknesses

March 5 study highlights obstacles to change

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I have been dying for the time over the past week to sit down to write about the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism report about the newspaper industry’s search for a new business model. The report was released Monday and was the subject of a couple of excellent analyses by Poynter.org writers Rick Edmonds and Andrew Beaujon.

Industry’s past mistakes still live

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News always has been a tough business. There was a time when it was not unheard of for the hawkers at one publication to sabotage — whether by theft or by force — the sales of another.

Fistfights among newsboys were not unheard of, and scoop-hungry reporters once were known to bribe police and other officials for news tips, sometimes even for access to crime scenes.

Pondering passing seasons

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The chill in the air deepened as Tuesday passed from middle age to the twilight of its short, dull life.

Over the course of a miserable, wet day that alternated from rain to drizzle to just damp and chilly, a multihued carpet of leaves grew thick and slick on the sidewalks and streets, likewise smothering cars, rooftops and lawns.

Time out to mark a milestone

Happy 50^th anniversary, Guy and Pat Schreck

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I’ve dedicated this blog to writing about some tough times of late, but also, I think, trying to maintain a degree of optimism about the future of this profession I’ve called my vocation for nearly 28 years.

Today I take a break to celebrate, albeit from a distance — 1,203 miles, to be as precise as Google maps can be. I am in Elgin, Ill., and Lisa, the woman I married, has driven all those miles with our five children to be with her parents, Guy and Pat Schreck, on this very special day, Aug. 5, 2011.

More lessons from Main Street

You can't write a blog post suggesting a radical approach to revitalizing an industry without expecting some flack, and yet several days after suggesting that the national Main Street Program's four-point approach to bringing new life to downtowns also might work well for the newspaper industry, I have yet to hear a single response.

Not even a “Ted, what were you thinking?”

That surprises me for several reasons, not the least being that my March 23 post (“Lessons for newspapers from Main Street”) was the third most-read of my blog posts, behind “When your best ain't good enough,” which actually was my second most-read post since I started this blog on Dec. 14 My first post, “First stunned, then pain and grief,” in which I chronicled my layoff, continues to be the best-read post I've ever had.

I am grateful to you who jump on to read my posts. “Laid off at 51: Seeking joy in change” has been far more successful than I would have expected just in terms of page views over the past three months or so.

But it can be difficult to gauge impact. Few people add their own comments to my individual posts, fewer still send e-mails with their thoughts. And I'm surprised that at least a few copy editors haven't written to point out the typos that occur from time to time (any editor worth his salt will admit that perhaps the biggest challenge is editing his own work because he knows what he was trying to write and therefore is likely to skate right past mistakes without recognizing them).

Lessons for newspapers from Main Street

Over my years as a journalist, I've covered many events, both as a reporter and as an editor, that resonated within me, personally.

That was true again on Tuesday night as I covered a meeting at which the Downtown Neighborhood Association in Elgin, Ill., gathered with residents and business representatives to continue their look at ways of revitalizing the city's downtown, including battling the lingering perceptions some have about the area and how to combat them.

It occurs to me that what this group is trying to address has interesting parallels that newspaper industry leaders might pause to consider.

In this case, no news is still bad news for newspapers

This week, what most of the journalist world already knew was coming, and what many print journalists dreaded, arrived with little fanfare although perhaps to some it sounds a lot like that other shoe everybody's always saying is going to fall.

More people in 2010 said they got their news online rather than from newspapers. And, also last year, more advertising dollars went to the Internet than to newspapers, a clear reminder that if the industry does not hurry and catch up on the new business model it should have started shaping 10 years ago, it will go the way of the dodo bird.

That might not be a bad thing. Journalists will still be out there but will have to find other ways of plying their trade if their employers are not.

Addendum on the digital miscues of newspapers

A former colleague commented on my last posting about a blog post by Clay Shirky that I found enlightening. I still believe many in the industry simply failed to recognize we were on the verge of a sea change in terms of the Internet. Many journalists -- editors and reporters -- viewed the Internet as a threat -- who would want to buy newspapers if we were giving away the information online?

Yet at the same time, these journalists were delighted, sometimes amazed, at the versatility of what was becoming a technological tool as a part of their very jobs -- for address or phone number checking, for quickly getting map directions to a fire or shooting.

But Shirky adds a deeper perspective, looking inside the industry's ivory towers.

He points out that industry power brokers did see the train coming, as it were, and set up a variety of plans to address the issue. But each of these missteps failed.

Clay Shirky's perspective, posted in March 2009 and titled "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable," is well worth reading. Thanks mdominis for adding the link to your comment on my last post.