By: E&P Staff In today's edition, journalists in Iraq continue to report after collegues were killed, questions over PNI's new owners, and a critic asks whether newspapers have fallen in love with long narratives about fatal illnesses and disfiguring ailments.
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Four Possible Bidders Today for 'Akron Beacon Journal' Bids to buy the Akron Beacon Journal are due today, and four companies are considered potential bidders. New York-based Advance Publications Inc., which owns The Plain Dealer, is expected to be one of the bidders. Others could include Black Press Ltd., a newspaper chain based in Vancouver, British Columbia; and two private equity firms, HM Capital Partners of Dallas and Yucaipa Cos. of Los Angeles.
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Journalists in Iraq Forge on After Attacks"Being a journalist used to be a badge of neutrality, which hopefully would get you safe passage from both sides. Now it's just the opposite," says Susan Bennett, who runs the Forum's memorial to journalists. A majority of the 71 were veteran journalists, "not young hotshots trying to make their reputations."
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Could Tribune Co. Buyback Be Insurance Against Sale Pressure?The plan was viewed in the market as an effort to inoculate the company against any shareholder push for Tribune to put itself on the market. "Probably lurking somewhere in the background is that this would help them, should there ever be a tender offer or pressure from institutional investors to put the company up for sale," said John Morton, a newspaper analyst and president of Morton Research Inc.
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New York 'Daily News' Executive OutIra Ellenthal, most recently the executive vice president, associate publisher of the Daily News, is out as of late last week. Earlier, he had been the CEO and group publisher of Zuckerman-owned magazines that included U.S. News & World Report, which Mort still owns, and Atlantic Monthly and Fast Company, which were sold separately to new owners. Sources say Ellenthal was blindsided by the development last week. He thought he was heading into a strategic planning meeting for the News on Thursday and was instead met by human resources people.
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Critic: Can We Talk About PNI's New Owners?"The Inquirer and Daily News have been acquired by a syndicate of local business executives and civic boosters," writes Dan Rottenberg. "Is this really cause for celebration, as the two newspapers and their new owners would have us believe? Does anyone recall the Inquirer?s disgrace under its last local civic booster owner, and its triumph under an out-of-towner?"
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'NY Times' Overboard on ID Theft?"We're losing the war on identity theft, implies the panicky above-the-fold headline on Page One of May 30's New York Times: 'Technology and Easy Credit Give Identity Thieves an Edge.'" notes Jack Shafer. "But the paper hypes the prevalence of ID theft completely out of proportion."
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Newspapers Obsessed With Sob Stories?"Ambitious newspaper narratives showcasing 'coping with adversity' themes are hardly a recent innovation," writes Stephanie Shapiro. "But the expanding role played by these narratives merits scrutiny, particularly in a climate in which news stories double as infotainment and in which the James Frey 'memoir' debacle highlighted the vanishing line between truth and fiction. When does a news story become less about providing information and more about manipulating emotions? When does it become more voyeuristic than revealing? At what point does an effort to elucidate slide hopelessly into pathos? And are such stories as much about reinforcing cultural and religious beliefs as about shedding light on medicine's triumphs and limitations?"
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Censoring MySpace an Illusion?"The mess of politicians, teachers, parents and other adults engaged in a feisty debate over the bill recently proposed by Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), the Deleting Online Predators Act, are perhaps asking the wrong question," writes Steven Barrie-Anthony. "It's not whether lawmakers should bar kids from accessing social networking websites but whether they can."
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Term Limits for Journos"The media should establish what amounts to term limits for staff journalists," writes Peter Osnos. "In the British diplomatic service, no matter how good or high ranking you are, at the age of sixty, you leave and begin a new career. From the moment you arrive, this is understood and, except in the rarest cases of political appointees as ambassadors, the rule is maintained. The result is a clear dividing line for which all are prepared, and while not everyone flourishes in a second professional life, the sting of being superannuated is reduced, if not altogether eliminated."
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