D

A.H. Belo Again Posts Positive Numbers, Ctd.

Even the News’s own headline writers follow the herd in missing the story about A.H. Belo’s quarterly results. The headline is correct but wrong — that is, it’s wrong if a headline is supposed to convey the real news in a story.

The real news is this: Belo’s newspapers — after years of misreading the media revolution, after a year of a freefall in advertising revenue, and after a desperate bid to stay in business by slashing costs — have stabilized. They have come up with a publishing model that works.

Here’s Daniel Gross over on Slate.com on how the model works. The key, as I have been saying for three years, is this:

But newspapers aren’t continuing to spend money as if it’s 2003 and hoping that Craigslist will disappear. No, they’re planning for survival by slashing costs sharply, trying to boost online advertising, and, here’s the clincher, making people pay more for the product. Print media is now in the process (belated, in my opinion) of finding a second large, potentially more stable, revenue base in addition to ads: subscriptions. The New York Times and many other papers have increased the price of the paper at the newsstand and for home delivery. When you raise the price of a product, you’re likely to lose a portion of your customer base. And while no newspaper likes to shed readers, some of the shrinkage in circulation is by design. If raising subscription costs by 11 percent causes 10 percent of customers to flee, a newspaper will find that its circulation revenues are stable while it saves a lot of money by manufacturing a smaller number of newspapers.

Rick Perry’s “Secret” Junket to Israel

CBS11 devoted more than 7 minutes last night to this Bennett Cunningham report on Rick Perry’s family excursion to Jerusalem, paid for by Israeli oil interests who have scored big in Texas.  The trip took place while Perry was announcing a reduction in travel by state employees and carried a taxpayer price tag of $70,000 — plus overtime — for Perry’s security detail (the Israelis don’t provide security?). The purpose of the trip was so that Perry could receive a “Defender of Jerusalem” award.

As for how secret the trip was, the News’s Christy Hoppe reported on it in August, so maybe it was only a secret to CBS11.  Hoppe further noted that Perry is an unusual recepient of such an award, since in 2006 he said he agreed that Jews and non-believers will be condemned to eternal damnation.

How Not To Buy Tickets to the Dallas Theater Center’s Midsummer’s Night Dream, Ctd.

Mark Hadley, the overworked and by-now-has-to-be-exhausted general manager of the Theater Center, responds:

Let me first apologize for the colossal runaround we put you through.  We have a number of fronts that we’re battling as we open this new building.  We’re trying to maintain an excellent level of customer service — and this includes the website and the ticketing operations, along with the onsite experiences related to parking, house management, concessions, and so forth.  This has, admittedly, been challenging during the transition.

 We revamped our website just this week to provide improved information about our productions and to make the ticket-buying process more effecient.  I take your note about more specific seating maps on the site so that customers can know better what they are buying.  I am aware that the AT&T PAC is revamping their website as well.

 I hope you can understand the enormities of the challenges that arise when two organizations try to coordinate their efforts on customer service — and one is moving into a brand new home (DTC) and the other is transitioning from a fundraising organization to a presenting and building management organization (AT&T PAC).

 Still, we have to do better.  And we will.  Give us a little a time — I guarantee we’ll get this right.

And, with an attitude like that, I know they will.

Knives Come Out for Texas Trib Launch

I am a proud founding member of the new Texas Tribune, the online state news service that starts up on Tuesday. I know FrontBurner looks forward to stealing a lot of their material while the ink is still fresh on the server. But some are not so happy, as this Austin Chronicle appraisal makes plain. I was especially interested to see that Evan Smith enjoys a higher salary than I do.  But then again, he’s Evan Smith and I’m not.

Least Surprising Photo Ever? Tim Rogers Lectures the Staff About Word Usage

The topic: "blond" vs. "blonde." The book: Garner's Modern American Usage, a copy of which was recently purchased for the office for just such an occasion. The pedantic person reading from it, and thus extending the conversation for far too long: Tim Rogers.

A.H. Belo Again Posts Positive Numbers

I’ve already complained about how the financial press reports corporate results. Again, A.H. Belo showed a negative net income (-$5.8 million), which will be the headline, and a positive operating profit (+$14.4 million), which will  barely be mentioned.  The market, at least, knows how to read the data, driving the stock price up 21% so far today. This reflects a new confidence in management’s turnaround strategy, which entails cutting circulation and raising prices, a move that drove a 11.8% increase in circ revenue this quarter. Nobody is of the woods yet, but that’s a healthy number.

Gary Kelly’s Costume: Dorothy From Oz

The Nuts About Southwest blog today answers  my question from yesterday: CEO Gary Kelly is off to see the wizard, and then presumably Milwaukee, where the airline is launching flights this weekend.

InsideCorner, R.I.P.

It really was magic. When we launched InsideCorner at the beginning of the baseball season, it was an opportunistic move made possible by the Morning News‘ shortsightedness. They had on their staff the best baseball beat writer in Texas, Evan Grant, and they decided to make him cover football (a move forced by their content-sharing agreement with the Star-Telegram). So, with the support of some visionary advertisers (Dr Pepper, Pappas Bros., Texas Rangers), we were able to make a home for Evan in our humble digital outpost. You know what happened after that: the Rangers had one of their best seasons in club history as a direct result of Evan’s comprehensive, insightful coverage (along with the fine work of Mike Hindman and Jeff Miller, it should be noted). Then, at the end of the baseball season, the News got its shortsighted vision corrected by ESPN and hired Evan back.

Meantime, we’d brought along some other writers to round out the coverage on InsideCorner, most notably Bob Sturm, he of Ticket fame. Bob broke down the Cowboys for us in the way that only he can. And Gina Miller of TXA 21 has been pitching in on the Mavs front. Zac and Eric threw up a few posts, too, from beyond the arc.

Here’s what we struggled with: we had this great baseball blog run by a full-time employee whose job was to feed and care for the thing more or less around the clock. Then we had this parentless sports blog that was getting passed around from babysitter to babysitter, each of whom gave the thing good care when they had the time but each of whom also had a full-time job (in Zac’s case, keeping Twitter in business; in Eric’s case, breaking necks and cashing checks; in Bob’s case, mediating on-air fights between his broadcasting partner and his producer on BaD Radio; in Gina’s case, keeping Derek Harper’s six-button suits in check on Mavs broadcasts; in Mike Hindman’s case, lawyering; in Jeff Miller’s case, writing books). This is no way to raise a child. A kid needs stability. Rules. An engaged parent.

So. We’ve decided to give our baby to a better home. Or, more accurately, we’ve decided to put the baby down. And not just for nap.

On Monday, we’re pulling the plug on InsideCorner. Its content will still live on the interubes should you ever want to search for a bit of information you remember reading, but there won’t be any links to it on our site. Thank you to everyone who was a part of the magic while it lasted. Thank you especially for your forbearance as we’ve figured out the right course of action.

God bless us all.

Dallas-Fort Worth 5th Strongest Metro Area

Using rankings set by Brookings Institution, BusinessWeek presents the 40 strongest U.S. metropolitan economies. We rank No. 5, given props for being “sprawling, vibrant, and diverse.”

But we’re behind two other Texas cities: San Antonio (No. 1) and Austin (No. 2). And we’re behind two other areas in our region of the country: Oklahoma City (No. 3) and Little Rock (No. 4)

KERA Seeks CFO Who’s Fun to be With

Also at last night’s World Affairs Council event, I ran into Mary Anne Alhadeff, the CEO of North Texas Public Broadcasting. She said she and her team are super-excited about the launch of their new radio station, KXT (91.7 FM), on Nov. 9.

But she had some disappointing news to share. The company’s CFO, Jason Daisey — whom I had the privilege of meeting in the course of reporting a story in the latest D CEO — had just left to move back east. She tried to convince him that he should stay to see the new station launched. But he said that for him closing the financial transaction that allowed KERA to purchase the new frequency earlier this year was the exciting part, “like the Super Bowl.”

Be warned, potential chief financial officers: you’ve got some big shoes to fill. According to Alhadeff, it’s difficult to find a numbers guy who is as much fun as Daisey was.

World Affairs Council Honors Dr. Kenneth Cooper

Last night SweetCharity and DallasDirt and I represented the D Empire at at the World Affairs Council’s H. Neil Mallon Award Dinner at the Fairmont. This year’s award recipient was Dr. Kenneth Cooper of the Cooper Aerobics Center. Lots of big shots in the room. I spotted Ross Perot, Tom Leppert, and Roger Staubach without really trying.  Lots of nice things were said by and about Dr. Cooper. Congratulations to him.

In the spirit of the evening, our table was like its own little United Nations. (more…)

Note to Woodall Rodgers Park Blog: Get to Blogging!

This weekend Woodall Rodgers will again be closed to demolish another bridge. We can watch this activity from our 21st-floor windows, high atop St. Paul Place. It’s been interesting. So this morning I checked in on Common Ground, the blog for the Woodall Park, to see what was what. Maybe some pics. I don’t know. But something.

We’re all struggling to do more with less. It’s hard to keep blog populated with good content when there are other matters demanding your attention. But the last post on Common Ground, as of 9:54 this morning, was from October 25, announcing that Woodall Rodgers had just reopened. Let’s go, people. Ask Fingers of Fury to help out, if necessary. I’m sure he could throw you a few words.

What Was Your Most Memorable Halloween Costume? Ctd.

Yesterday Zac asked you dear, sweet FrontBurnervians to answer the above question. One of the responses so tickled me that I thought I bring it out of the comments section. It is from “I Am Spartacus”:

1977. I was 6. Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) had come out that summer. Dad made an awesome R2D2 costume out of a paprika barrel (he worked for El Chico). It was spicy smelling but very cool, just hard to get up and down stairs.

How Not To Buy Tickets to the Dallas Theater Center’s Midsummer’s Night Dream

Based on a very strong recommendation from a certain 10-year-old, I decided to go to Midsummer Night’s Dream. So the easy thing to do — am I right? — was to go to the DTC website, pick my dates, pick my seats, and buy the tickets. On the seat selection page, there’s a neat little diagram that shows the different tiers (labelled as Area I, Area 2, etc.). This being my first time at the Wyly and having read how the layout changes from the production to production, I clicked on “best seats available.” Voila! Next page showed that I had tickets A104-A106. That was nice. Except that it didn’t tell me where A104-106 are. What does A represent?

(more…)

Leading Off (10/30/09)

1. The Highland Park Town Council doesn’t need any of your fancy studies, any of your new-fangled objective measures, or your pointy-headed cost-benefit analysis. They know the truth: Even looking at the possibility of maybe someday thinking about eventually enacting some sort of voluntary conservation ordinance to preserve houses in one of this area’s most historic neighborhoods, that alone will cause home values to plummet. Former Mayor Gifford Touchstone says so, and his word is good enough for them.

2. Dallas Police may need to review the finer points of the Lock, Take, Hide program after a SWAT supervisor’s vehicle was burgled. In related news, D CEO executive editor Glenn Hunter will no longer drive down North Fitzhugh Avenue.

3. Dallas attorney Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver in the R. Allen Stanford case, is looking to recover $1.5 billion for defrauded investors. The lawyer for the investors says Janvey’s plan is “something of a fantasy.” Discussion topic: Is it more or less of a fantasy than seeing a fleet of electric cars on the roads of North Texas next year?

Gerry Fraley Back at SportsDay

In case you missed it — and you probably did, since the Dallas Morning News has always treated him like a Hawaiian-shirt-favoring stepchild — Gerry Fraley is back with the paper, after three years or so filing copy in St. Louis. Always enjoyed his work, so it’s good to see him back.

What Was Your Most Memorable Halloween Costume?

We are hip-deep in the shipping of our December ish, so posting has sort of slowed to a standstill. And tomorrow, there will be a bunch of rugrats in the office stopping us down, looking for candy. So here is something to run out the shot clock: what was your most memorable Halloween costume? Myself, I’d have to pick “N/A” because I pretty much don’t have one, as I’m lazy and unimaginative when it comes to dressing up for Halloween. Unless you count when I was a kid and my mom made me dress as Uncle Sam, complete with cotton glued to my face. That whole thing was scarring in so many ways. Okay, yours in the comments.

People in Downtown Dallas and Surrounding Suburbs — Duck!

As Steve Earle sang, the rain came down.

A 10-Year-Old Reviews DTC’s Midsummer Night’s Dream

Last night, My Fair Lady and our 10-year-old son went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Wyly. This being the boy’s first official play (I don’t count Stomp), we weren’t sure whether or how much he’d dig it. So we gave him the option of decamping at halftime (as he refers to it). I was dreaming my own dreams by the time they returned last night (old man) and had to wait till breakfast to hear how it went.

He was blown away. We were late leaving the house for school because I couldn’t get him to shut up about the play long enough to eat his breakfast. There were Nerf guns involved in the production. And water guns! The actors ran into the audience, shot their weapons over the audience’s heads. I asked if he thought the play was funny, and he proceeded to re-create a funny scene for me (something was lost in translation apparently). My Fair Lady said she, too, had an absolute blast. At many points during the production, she said, she thought it couldn’t get any better — yet it did. The final scene actually brings the audience up onto the stage for a dance fest with the actors. All of which is to say: go see the play.

On the drive to school, I had the boy record a two-minute audio review. For your listening pleasure:

Pegasus News to Become Wired Local

I’ve done an atrocious job of following up on my post revealing that Pegasus News is soon set for its relaunch. I failed to check in to see if they posted a response, which they did last week.

So if you’re a devoted reader of Pegasus News, then the headline on this post isn’t news at all. The new name will be Wired Local.

Look, I was in on some of the early discussions when another hyperlocal site in town was planning a name change. There were a lot of bad ideas floating around the room. I mean really, really, really bad. And you can see for yourself what they settled on (after I’d left the company.) But, lord knows, I didn’t have any brilliant ideas of my own at the time.  Coming up with the right name is tough. Particularly when you have expansion to other markets in mind.

And that’s where the trouble comes. (more…)

Gary Kelly is D CEO’s 2009 CEO of the Year

We’ve been closely guarding the secret for weeks. Last night it was revealed. This morning you read the headline of this post, rendering my next statement redundant: Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines is the 2009 D CEO of the Year.

A crowd of more than 250 invited guests from the local business community descended upon the Collins Executive Education Center at SMU last night for the big announcement. Kelly said it’s been awhile since he received any kind of award. “I had to go all the way back to the third grade. In third grade, I was the Good Citizen of the Year.” (more…)

Leading Off (10/29/09)

1. I don’t have kids, so I don’t know how one goes about teaching the birds and the bees. However, I’m guessing that waking children in the middle of the night and showing them porn is not the way to go about it. But, apparently, that’s legal.

2. Since moving downtown, a couple co-workers have had some problems with vandals and their cars. We all know about Glenn’s fiasco. Another co-worker had her plates stolen while her car was at a West Village garage. Maybe these new security cameras in Uptown will bring peace of mind to anyone who parks there. If nothing else, they look pretty snazzy.

3. Tim told you about Newt Gingrich’s group awarding the owner of The Lodge with an “Entrepreneur of the Year” award. Well. Here’s the latest news on that. The award was revoked, and the entry fee money ($5,000) goes back to the owner, Dawn Rizos. Rizos has decided to take that money and donate it to an animal group in Celina. They’re naming it Newt’s Nook – A Home for Pit Bulls.

Behind the Scenes of a D Weddings Photo Shoot

Why am I at a D Weddings shoot? Because I like chihuahuas. And models.

T. Boone Pickens Buys Downtown YMCA

Boone clearly has too much money. An alert FBvian sends along this picture of the latest building he has bought. Oh, wait. Hang on. The Internet is talking to me. Oh! I see that Boone donated $5 million to the YMCA. Good on him. (Note to FTC: I work out at that YMCA. But I pay full price for my membership. And T. Boone Pickens and I have only gone on vacation together twice. So there.)

Leppert Attacks Cause of City Hall Corruption, Ctd.

Wick earlier promised to release the results of ethics reform vote. Now he’s tagged me in to keep you apprised. And the results are? Nothing yet. This morning, there was a motion to defer the vote until December 16. It failed 8 (Leppert, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, and council members Sheffie Kadane, Carolyn Davis, Linda Koop, Ron Natinsky, Delia Jasso and Jerry Allen) to 7 (Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano, council members Tennell Atkins, Vonciel Jones Hill, Angela Hunt, Dave Neumann, Steve Salazar, and Ann Margolin). This afternoon, there was a second motion, this time to reconsider the original vote against deferring. It was made by Jasso who, as noted, was originally on the side of “let’s do this today.” It also failed, this time 7-7 (Davis was not present ). And there’s your update.