D

Chief David Kunkle Hearts Eric Celeste

Remember when Eric Celeste used to work here? Those were good times, eh? That was back when he was a journalist and did journalism. Now, as we’ve reported in this space, he’s a finger-gun-shooting salesman. So it took me down memory lane when a FrontBurnervian passed along a link to an Unfair Park story about Chief David Kunkle’s retirement, in which he said:

“One thing I was going to tell the media, to give them tomorrow, by the way, is the article in the September 2004 of the Observer written by Eric Celeste. Because a lot of the people who cover us don’t understand the history and environment I came into in 2004. That article does a good job talking about internal politics and external issues affecting the department.”

It pains me to post this.

Leading Off (11/20/09): Patently Unfair Media Criticism Edition

1. The Dallas Observer’s Sam Merten nearly derailed the entire City Hall corruption case.

2. Some people would say that the appearance of the word “some” in a headline is a sure sign of a newspaper covering for a thin local angle on a national story.

3. If a fire breaks out in east Fort Worth, and NBC5 isn’t there to provide “team coverage,” does anybody care?

How FrontBurner Was Born

And Pegasus News, Unfair Park, Huffington Post, etc, etc.

Dallas Thinks it Looks Good in Skinny Jeans

According to a new report, a good number of the fat people of our fair city don’t think there’s anything wrong with them:

The study, based on survey data collected in Dallas, found that one in 10 participants — all of whom were classified as obese — were satisfied with their body size and didn’t think they needed to lose a few.

“That is a sizeable percentage who don’t understand they are overweight and believe they are healthy,” said lead researcher Tiffany Powell, a cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

What’s Happened to FrontBurner?

Are you serious? You clowns generated only four posts today? I used to check in on this blog fourteen, seventeen times a day. I loved it! But now you’re only putting up four posts per day? Everything used to be so much better. When Roger Staubach played for the Cowboys, they were better. Mark Aguirre? Mavs were better. Mrs. Baird’s? Bread was better. You guys need to get a handle on your scene over there on FrontBurner. Unreal.

Rod Dreher on Journalists and Religion

The DMN’s Rod Dreher has penned a great column about Islamic fanaticism, including this part which concludes with my nomination for Sentence of the Week:

That routine is, alas, not alien to American Muslim leaders with whom I’ve clashed since. They obfuscate what they really believe and try to intimidate critics into silence with accusations of bigotry. They cannily understand that’s kryptonite to many journalists, who find Baptists scarier than Wahhabists.

David Hopkins to Author New Comic for Quick

David Hopkins writes the comic we run every other month in the magazine called Souvenir of Dallas (it’s drawn by Paul Milligan). He brings news that he’ll now be doing a comic for Quick, too. Congrats, friend. (And I’ve already informed he that he got our readership number wrong in that post. With a circulation of 65,500 and 6.45 readers per copy, we get about 422,000 readers every month. So there.)

Behind the Scenes at D Magazine

Today has been filled with meetings. Apparently 2010 is right around the corner. We’ve been meeting extensively about this fact. Spreadsheets have been involved. And, in one case, lunch at Stephan Pyles (mini review: food was excellent, service was friendly but uneven). So I was thrilled to stumble upon actual work being done in the hallway, as evidenced by this photo. On the table lay an argyle sock. Spider Monkey had her lens trained on it. D Home art director Jamie Laubhan-Oliver was ministering to the sock, fluffing it just so. An actual editorial magazine shoot! Something that would produce an image that would be printed on a real, live magazine page! (As opposed to all this worrying about 2010, which, as far as I can tell, mainly produces receipts from Stephan Pyles and more data on Wick’s ADD-shortened tolerance for meetings.) I congratulated my co-workers on their fine work. Then I unfocused Spider Monkey’s camera, flattened the sock, and stormed off to another meeting.

Update: Spider Monkey tells me the picture of the sock was “scrapped.”

How Much Money Will Super Bowl XLV Bring?

I was a little confused in reading today’s Dallas Morning News story wherein Super Bowl XLV Host Committee CEO Bill Lively says the North Texas game will have a record impact, but declined to give a figure.

Lively gave us a figure just a few weeks ago: About $500 million.

Granted, the host committee hasn’t yet released any findings of the official economic impact study that it commissioned. So Lively’s number is probably just him doing what he needs to do at this point:  boost expectations. He’s optimistic that North Texas will come in higher than the record take for Arizona in 2008.

Of course some sports economists cast doubt on any estimates in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

New Pub Ups The Ante For ‘Best Workplaces’

Competition is good. It keeps you on your toes; it forces you to do better. The Dallas Business Journal might be thinking about this today, after yesterday’s Dallas Morning News debuted a new annual magazine called Top 100 Places To Work 2009. The inaugural, 44-page DMN product ranked local companies based on six criteria; The Richards Group came in No. 1. The DBJ may be feeling the heat because, for eight years, it’s had the “best workplace” field to itself here with an annual publication called Best Places To Work In The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

The scoring for both publications is handled by an outside firm: Kansas-based Quantum Market Research for the DBJ; Pennsylvania-based Workplace Dynamics LLC for the DMN. One interesting difference is that The News invites a select group of companies to participate while, under the DBJ rules, companies nominate themselves. And curiously, the DMN’s No. 2-ranked company–Southwest Airlines–hasn’t shown up on the DBJ rankings for years. But, one thing’s for sure. The opportunities for company bragging rights–”We’re the best;” “No, we are!”–just doubled around here.

UPDATE: I misunderstood her meaning when Cheryl Hall explained in the Sunday magazine: “The News and Workplace Dynamics invited more than 1,100 companies to participate in our inaugural Top 100. We at the newspaper don’t know which businesses entered.” The DMN says that any and all companies here were eligible to be nominated and to participate.

Express-News Undercut by Front-Page Ad

I have no particular objection to running unobtrusive front-page ads on newspapers. I’d prefer that they remain confined to a small strip across the bottom, but I know that with some papers trying anything and everything to remain afloat, there’s going to be experimentation. The local Star Community Newspapers group has even been floating ads in the center of the front page, above the fold and surrounded by content.

But can we all agree that today’s San Antonio Express-News front is just awful? Maybe papers should set some sort of guideline. Something that says ads will be omitted from the front when they’re running a two-line, six-column head?  Or when the lead story has a major body count?

Doc Gallagher Has History With Financial Regulators

Sorry we didn’t have this up last week, before “Doc” Gallagher was one of the featured speakers at the Jewish Community Center of Dallas’ Senior Expo.

But if you saw him there, or you’re planning to attend one of his free sessions this month at Sonny Bryan’s in Richardson, Golden Corral in North Richland Hills, or the Highland Park Cafeteria in Dallas, you might want to check out this piece from the latest D CEO.

One aspect of the story that didn’t make it into the final piece, because of space considerations, is that much of the marketing of “the Money Doctor” (who buys time weekly Saturday mornings on KAAM-AM 770) is aimed at senior citizens. He’s appeared on the cover of Mature Texan (with Ebby Halliday), for instance. And he’s done  shows on topics like the dangers of nursing homes, in addition to warning his listeners about the dangers of working with “Big Broker.”

He’s absolutely right that you’ve got to be careful from whom you take financial advice.

Great Interview With Former DMN Photographer Damon Winter

You may remember New York Times photographer Damon Winter’s work from his shots of President Obama during the campaign. (They did win Winter a Pulitzer after all.) I didn’t know until I read his interview with the blog Too Much Chocolate that he actually got his start at the Dallas Morning News. Worth a read — unless you’ve already checked it out, which is possible, since I’ve seen this link retweeted about 50 times today.

Texas Tribune Launches (Yawn)

It is unfair to review a restaurant the day it opens, and the same applies to new platforms in journalism.  But today’s unveiling of the state-wide news site headquartered in Austin confirms some of my suspicions about the concept. To sum it up: I don’t care about El Paso or Tyler or most of what else goes on in the state. That’s why I don’t stay umbillically attached all day to the Texas AP wire. And that’s why at first glance this new boy on the block leaves me unimpressed.

(more…)

Emily Ramshaw Hearts FrontBurner

The Texas Tribune launched today. I’m sure all you political wonks have already bookmarked it. An alert FBvian pointed out to me that former DMNer Emily Ramshaw lists among her favorite blogs our humble outpost here. We’re tickled. Just as tickled as we are by the clear homage that Evan Smith has paid to D Magazine with the artwork that accompanies one of their first lead stories. On the left, the first issue of D Magazine, in 1974. On the right, the Texas Tribune. (Yeah, yeah. I know. We weren’t the first to do it. Just funnin’.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…)

News Circ Down 22% — and That’s Good News

A FrontBurnervian alerts me to this Editor & Publisher circulation report, which shows the News down big-time. Why do I think that’s good news? If you raise prices 30-40% and lose 22% of your subscribers as a result, you’ve gained. The old model was to do whatever poissible to get readers in order to charge advertisers more. The new model is to make money on circulation, serve fewer readers, and deliver a core, committed audience to advertisers. The News is doing what it needs to do.