Articles about Media
SMU Athletics Is Running Up Quite a Deficit
SMU is trying to get back into the Big Time: big-name football coach, big-name basketball coach, a new athletic conference that doesn’t include any high schools. But that isn’t cheap. Over the last seven years, the athletic department has lost more than $113 million. (It apparently has something to do with a lack of TV money and with people not going to football games.) Since Steve Orsini took over as athletic director in 2006, the athletic department has lost an average of $18.6 million per year, nearly double the median deficit run up by all the other FBS schools, according to this excellent piece of student journalism. It’s even more impressive work considering how not-transparent the school has been with the budget figures.
Dallas Morning News Paywall Attracts 49,000 Paying Subscribers
Me, I don’t think that’s anything to sneeze at. Also, 91,000 of their 225,000 daily print subscribers have signed up in one form or another.
Is it an economic model that works? No, of course it isn’t. But it may be a transition toward an economic model that works. That model certainly won’t pay the costs of a 300+ person newsroom, but it may over time allow the newspaper to transform into a leaner, smarter local reporting service.
Two Quick Questions About the Kern Wildenthal Exposé, Ctd.
I asked two questions yesterday morning about the DMN’s epic Kern Wildenthal story. Yesterday afternoon, Jim Schutze answered them. Schutze was actually answering a third question: why did it take the paper seven months to publish its story, once it was finished? The answer he came up with: Robert Decherd, chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of A.H. Belo Corporation. He is why the story overlooks an important detail about Wildenthal. He is why, the day after the story published, it didn’t appear on the paper’s homepage. He is why it took seven months to get the thing into print.
Robert Decherd and Kern Wildenthal are bosom buddies. Decherd did everything he could to protect to his friend. The News editors and reporters went above and beyond to get the story into print. The reason that story is 6,300 words long? I think it’s a middle finger to Decherd.
“Oh, you want more detail about the trip to New Zealand? We’ll give you more detail. And you want us to make sure we square away our facts on that trip to Nice? We’ll give you facts.”
Like that. Pow!
“Yu Is My Homeboy” Shirts Back On Sale
I’ll admit it. When I first heard about the “Yu Is My Homeboy” shirts, I kind of wanted one. (Probably not as much as I wanted this hat, after seeing the movie Bernie, but that’s a different matter.) The shirts are the work of shirt entrepreneur Eric Vaughan, who also brought us was inspired by the “Dirk Is My Homeboy.” I was disappointed when I read here and here that the Yu shirts were no longer for sale. But I just went to the web site and tried to order one. And it appears to have worked. So, I guess you should get them while you still can.
How the EPA Lost a Big Battle in Texas
A few weeks ago I mentioned the fact that the EPA had settled what looked like a landmark case with the fracking industry in Texas, a case involving a Parker County man who could shoot fire from his garden hose. At the time, it sounded like there was probably a lot more to the story. Well, the Dallas Observer’s cover story this week, “Fire in the Hole,” gets at the rest of the story. Spoiler alert: fans of the EPA will not be pleased.
Nicholson to Replace Wilonsky at Dallas Observer
A D Magazine-People Newspapers joint investigation has revealed that the Dallas Observer has hired a replacement for Robert Wilonsky. The new editor of Unfair Park is none other than Eric Nicholson, a.k.a. Jim Schutze’s journalism hero. I gave Eric his first job out of UTD, so this news has me feeling like a proud papa. Since he left Preston Hollow People in the summer of 2010, Eric has been a reporter for the Texarkana Gazette. Now he gets to return to Dallas and unleash his reporting skills on the big city again. Congrats, dude.
Backpage Defends Prostitution Ads on Nightline
For the first time, executives at Village Voice Media (which owns the Dallas Observer) and the Dallas-based Backpage.com have allowed outsiders to watch the screening process used for their prostitution ads. Liz McDougall, the new in-house counsel for Backpage (she used to work for Craigslist) allowed cameras from Nightline into a screening room in an undisclosed location (probably Phoenix) where both an automated key word-catch system and real live employees monitor each ad before it goes up.
The report, which features two women who were trafficked underage using Backpage and several officials who want to see the escort section of Backpage shut down, also includes a sophisticated defense of the ads. While classified ads likes those on Backpage make both buying and selling sex easier, McDougall argues, Backpage can also be part of the solution, working with police and investigators to put human traffickers in prison.
Of course, it’s more complicated than either side wants to admit. Yes, online advertising makes it safer for the women (and men) who voluntarily sell themselves — and, everyone agrees, these people are responsible for the majority of Backpage prostitution ads. But the marketplace, an “open casbah” one politician calls it, also makes the industry easier and more profitable for pimps.
Vote For the Best Sports, Arts, and Media in Dallas
Our Best of Big D Readers’ Choice: Culture voting has begun.
Who’s the best sports star in Dallas? Who’s the best TV broadcaster? What’s the best performing arts venue? What’s Dallas’ best local landmark? Weigh in on these and other questions once a day through May 6.
Jim Schutze’s Class Envy Gets the Best of Him
I’ve been waiting to comment on this post by Jim Schutze about the problem at Museum Tower. Before I said anything, I wanted our story to publish so that you, dear reader, would understand what’s happening to the Nasher — and so that you could fully appreciate Schutze’s spectacular failure to grasp an important issue. After the Morning News broke the story about the light and heat reflecting off Museum Tower and onto the Nasher, he called the matter “a rich kids art fight.” As in:
On this day when the national economy is still on life support, Texas schools are sinking into Dickensian poverty and the city can’t afford sewers, our city’s one and only, sole and lonely daily newspaper, The Dallas Morning News, gifts us with a big front-page story about a battle between a sculpture garden and a shiny new office-tower over … glare. …
In The New York Times today there’s a story about how teachers in Texas are working 12 extra hours a week unpaid and having to do janitorial duties because of the education funding cuts forced through the last session of the Legislature by Governor Rick Parry and the Texas Tealiban.
Lots of people who aren’t even in education are putting up with the same kind of crap in life. The rich get richer and the rest of us get hosed. So what else is new? At least we’ve got an art fight going.
Why do rich people care so much about art? These are mostly money wonks who have devoted their lives to things like debentures. They’ve got about as much art in them as they have gills.
It’s something about buying class. People in America can’t just get rich and let it go at that. As soon as they get their hands on some loot, they have to start trying to convince the rest of us that they’re British aristocrats. Who has time to wonder why? It’s how it is.
If I understand him, Schutze is saying, first, that the Morning News shouldn’t cover this story because there are more serious issues, such as education funding, that need to be addressed. To which I would say: then the Morning News shouldn’t cover education funding as long as Omar al Bashir is running an ethnic cleansing campaign in Sudan.
Best of Big D Readers’ Choice: Culture Voting Starts Monday, April 23
We’ve got a new addition to our annual Readers’ Choice poll. This year, we’re going to ask you to vote for your favorite notable locals from the realms of sports, the arts, and the media. As with our previous rounds, you’ll be able to participate once a day on your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
The poll starts Monday and will run through May 6. We’ve nominated a list of finalists in each category, but write-ins will be welcome. The winners will be noted in the August 2012 issue of D Magazine.
To get started in planning your votes, take the jump to see the list of questions to be answered on the ballot.
Your Reading Assignment for Today: Texas Monthly on George W. Bush’s “Lost Year”
I don’t want to hear any bellyaching. Yes, the story is 10,331 words long. Yes, it will take you more than two minutes to read. Try to concentrate. This is important.
In the May issue of Texas Monthly, you’ll find a story titled “Truth or Consequences” about Dan Rather’s infamous report on George W. Bush’s Air National Guard. As the magazine says: “Joe Hagan [the writer] finally gets to the bottom of the greatest untold story in modern Texas politics, with exclusive, never-before-seen details that shed fresh light on who was right, who was wrong, and what really happened.” The story, which runs right through Dallas, delivers. My favorite moment: an explanation as to why Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court. There is no way that seeing this in print can make Miers happy.
When They Make a Comedy About Your Murdered Aunt
Because we haven’t mentioned movies enough today, I want to direct your attention to this essay in the New York Times, about what it’s like to have one of your family’s darkest moments turned into a dark comedy. In 1998, Texas Monthly’s Skip Hollandsworth, writer extraordinaire (and sometimes Glamour contributor), penned this unbelievable crime story, about a gay funeral home director in Carthage who first befriended then killed one of the richest, meanest women in town. This year, that story has been turned into the movie Bernie, starring Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine. The Times essay looks at what this experience has been like for the family of the murdered woman. (A little unpleasant, it turns out, but overall not so bad. Plus, apparently Skip gives a personal tour of the set.) Also, there’s already been talk of turning Bernie into a Broadway musical.
The Prophecies of Glenn Beck
The May issue of Vanity Fair has an interesting article about Glenn Beck’s move to Dallas and his exodus from the mainstream, and how, in many ways, he is bigger than ever. From Todd S. Purdum’s piece:
“He is, in fact, busier than ever, and perhaps more influential than ever, with some 10 million radio listeners a week; a nonprofit venture called Mercury One, which aims to fix America ‘one town at a time’ by connecting volunteers with organizations that need manpower; a patriotic line of American-made logo-wear called 1791 (for the year the first 10 amendments to the Constitution were ratified); a reality series, Independence U.S.A., about a family preparing to live off the grid in rural Pennsylvania; and a new weeknight Web TV show that made its debut last fall and landed him on The Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Digital Power 50′ list of the most significant Internet figures, along with such unlikely bedfellows as Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg. To his paying acolytes Beck sends out daily e-mail updates with subject lines such as ‘Michelle Obama insults troops, tells fit soldiers what to eat’ and ‘Catholics Ready to Battle Obama.’ The new Web-based TV channel launched with about a quarter-million subscribers (now up to 300,000), each paying between $5 and $10 a month for access, generating annual revenues that some experts believe could eventually top $100 million.”
Along with the story, VF released this nifty quiz, in which you can guess at whether a quote is from Glenn Beck’s prose or a crazy subway pamphlet.
WFAA Channel 8 Gets Punk’d
This screen shot was sent in by an alert FrontBurnervian who noticed that WFAA Channel 8 used a fake tornado picture on its newscast last night. In fact, it’s a pretty famous fake tornado picture that has been making the rounds for years. The story on the station’s website is accompanied by unrelated video. Hard to imagine that when management learned of the mistake they decided to put up video of a news story out of WHAS in Louisville, Kentucky.
In any case, as our alert FBvian says, “I know WFAA is increasingly interested in exclusive, amateur photos and video. This one didn’t pan out, though.”
In Praise of the Dallas Observer’s Cheap Bastard
This week’s cover story in the Dallas Observer is “The Cheap Bastard’s Guide To Eating Like a Total Cheap Bastard in Dallas.” It is the first Observer cover story in a long time (or at least that I can recall) that feels to me like it’s actually alternative. Reading it doesn’t feel like homework. Alice Laussade (aka the Cheap Bastard) is a clever, profane writer. The accompanying illustrations and sidebars are quite funny. There’s a Venn diagram explaining kimchee fries. At the intersection of the two circles is, of course, kimchee fries. The left circle is “angels boning,” and the right circle is “a thousand meerkat smiles.” Yes, please. More of this. Maybe not every single week but certainly more often.
Note: you really need to pick up a hard copy of the paper. For one thing, the online version doesn’t even offer the intro to the story. Nor does it feature the Venn diagrams and other silly sidebars.
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