Oregon Media Insiders

Promoted verbatim from comments by an Anonymous Source:

The Tribune is moving to a once-a-week Thursday print edition and a daily web paper. It announced the change with a self-congratulatory article this morning; once you wade through the back-patting you find this:

In moving to a once a week print newspaper and online daily, we will employ fewer people in some departments.

We fully expect that there will be those who will criticize our strategy. Through the years, we have routinely been scorned by some, including bloggers who are prone to vitriolic negativity. Other comments may come from competitors such as Willamette Week – which makes a practice of throwing stones at us and others, but rarely praise.

Last October, our company launched a strategic plan that called for doubling readership of our 18 print newspapers over the next three to five years. At the same time, we called for rapid Web growth and investments and a media balance that equally utilized Web and print distribution.

In an era of advancing sustainability and increased Web innovation, we are pleased to announce the advent of an even earlier next round of innovative journalism with a continued commitment to grow and invest in the readership of print journalism.

Lynn again: Have I said anything mean about the Trib? YOU guys have. I don't think I have. I sincerely hope they make it, and have since they went live.

Word is that the Portland Tribune is axing all its regular freelance contributors at the end of the month--columnists, lifestyle and arts writers, and other freelance contributors. Regular staff will pick up the slack. The Portland Life section is already down one writer, not to be replaced.

One freelancer grumbles that management overhead at the paper is still pretty top-heavy:

Granted, Pamplin's cut a lot of fat since the days when you could count some 15 "editors" on the Tribune masthead. But it still seems that maintaining high management salaries (including 13 ad reps, when poor ad revenue is the reason for staff cuts) while overworking the lower-paid hourly writers isn't the way to engender employee morale, even if it does save some money.

No Ross Island for you!

In a letter delivered to Mayor Tom Potter's office this morning, [Ross Island Sand and Gravel CEO and Portland Trib publisher Robert] Pamplin says he is done talking about donating any of Ross Island to Portland. He says the city has taken too long to respond to his offer and that he never offered to donate the entire island, despite what former Mayor Vera Katz, Commissioner Erik Sten and others recall his aides saying. He also says his family has "been subjected to mean-spirited, untruthful and misleading articles in The Oregonian." ...

Peter Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian, said, "With all respect, Dr. Pamplin is engaging in a classic case of shooting the messenger. The paper's reporting on Ross Island has been honest, truthful and in depth."

The Lake Oswego Review is losing Lee van der Voo to the Trib. She's the replacement for Jacob Quinn Sanders, who left for more southerly climes and a daily paper gig. My correspondent tells me she is the first Trib hire to come from the CNI papers also owned by Pamplin. Her beat looks to be mostly City Hall; Nick Budnick will be moving to the cop beat. She should start in the next few weeks.

Today's memo from Trib executive editor Dwight Jaynes:

Everyone,

Today we're announcing an exciting new partnership that promises to benefit our company of newspapers in many ways. We're now aligned with Fox 12 (KPTV), which is going to give the Portland Tribune and many of its reporters a great deal of additional exposure in the marketplace, as well as provide even more muscle in reporting and investigating the news. I couldn't be more excited, considering the outstanding ratings Fox 12 draws for both its newscasts and its prized morning show, Good Day Oregon -- and the caliber of its reporters. It is a group that works extremely hard and takes its responsibility to the community seriously. We will soon have the opportunity to use Fox 12's video on our web site, as well as share stories and special projects on their air and our paper. There is even active discussion of the station getting a camera in our newsroom soon. Most of all, though, we'll share a passion for seeking out and reporting news. Here is the note Patrick McCreery, the Fox 12 news director, sent to his staff today:

I am very happy to announce the formation of a new news partnership with the Portland Tribune and their 17 suburban publications. This is a significant opportunity for Fox 12 viewers. We have not had the chance to share content with a local newspaper which I believe will broaden and strengthen our coverage. This will be a mutually beneficial partnership as we share content, ideas, resources and branding. Our newsrooms will communicate daily working on both quick turn stories as well as longer form investigations. I believe a Fox 12/Portland Tribune partnership makes sense because we have both proven that you don‚t have to be the biggest to be the best!

Patrick McCreery
News Director
KPTV Fox 12

We're already Portland's best and most trusted source of local news. This partnership ensures our stories will soon get even more exposure, which they richly deserve. The result will be that the Portland Tribune and the CNI papers will continue to grow in quality and stature.

I'm curious about what the "best and most trusted source," uh, source is. I wonder what the metric is. I'm not questioning it per se, I'm just curious.

As for the partnership, I've seen some inklings of it already on 12 so this doesn't take me completely by surprise.

I hear that reporter Jacob Quinn Sanders is leaving the Portland Trib for a gig at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock. Should be gone in a month or so.

...according to the Inland Press Association. No press releases out either at IPA or the Trib yet, but I'm told Dwight Jaynes made the announcement in the newsroom yesterday at the paper's sixth birthday party, replete with champagne, cake and pizza.

Update: The story at the Trib.

Today's "Sources Say" column in the Trib has a brief blurb on the O's examination of its sports section's relationship with the Blazers--extraordinary because they've gone outside the paper not just to write the piece but also to edit it. The short bit points to sportwriter Henry Abbott's blog True Hoop and his interview with freelancer Craig Lancaster, who was recently in town talking to all sides and then some:

"It's definitely not an ombudsman-type piece," [Lancaster] explains. "It's not even an investigation. Because there's really nothing to investigate. It's just a whole lot of he said, she said. It's really more of an examination of what has gone on. Things had gotten bad enough that the Oregonian thought they ought to explain. But they can't do that directly, because they have a dog in this fight. So they asked me to do it. And they have given me no direction. I think they have made an effort to be independent. Of course, you can never be totally independent, but I have told everybody that I have asked to talk about this story that I intend to be independent. All I can really ask is that they take my word for it. I understand that they will be hiring an independent editor to edit the story. It will go to the sports desk merely to get a headline and be flowed onto the sports page. Mark Hester, the sports editor, won't see it before it runs."

"As for my relationship with John Canzano, we did overlap at the Mercury News for a few months. I was assistant sports editor, which meant preparing the weekend editions. I was not his editor. I did not work with him closely, other than copyediting a few stories on deadline. Certainly, I've got my own basic feelings about him. But he's pretty well known. It would be hard to find someone who was blind to everything he has done--and if you could find that person, I'm not sure they'd have the perspective to take on this story. It's not like we're old friends, though. We have swapped e-mails a handful of times... In my life, I have had as many dinners with John Canzano as I have had with [Blazer Vice President of Communications] Art Sasse: one."

Is anyone else as confused as I am about why this story is being written? Granted, I don't follow sports except tangentially, but still.

The good news: LocalNewsDaily.com and Pamplin's other papers now have RSS feeds--not just for the sites as a whole, but also for specific sections. This is very good news; RSS feed availability means you know you're in the information business, not the TV business or the newspaper business or the radio business.

The bad news: The only one I've found that's currently working is Phil Stanford's.

But. They just rolled these out. I expect they'll be tweaking them toot sweet. Check OMI's aggregator for a wide selection of local feeds, including the new Pamplin ones.

UPDATE: I may have found the problem. Strangely, it may be one of case, and I say strangely because usually case doesn't matter in web addresses. The broken feed items are structured like so:

http://www.portlandtribune.com/News/story.php?story_id=11593127841725740...

...which, if you click, will give you a 404 as of this writing. But THIS:

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=11593127841725740...

works, and correctly goes to the story identified in the feed. The only difference is in the case of the letter "N" in "news." So this should be a quick fix for the Trib webmaster.

UPDATE 2: And indeed it was a quick fix; not 15 minutes after I told the webmaster the problem he wrote back and said it was a mistake he introduced whilst tinkering with the code. I wish I could say that had never happened to me. All fixed now.

Yay! More RSS!

Boy, what's in the tequila over in Blogtown? They've been feisty lately. Today, the O's Spencer Heinz gets it in the chops for tardy coverage of the riverfront trail detour.