September 6

The Southwest Riverside County papers unwind with a soft local section after dealing with school test scores a day before. Burgin wrote about an Elsinore Council man who was renting a car with campaign funds, Gupta updates readers about good news in the school district world, and the UT tells me where to go buy a home.
If you haven't been eaten by those bobcats in Canyon Lake then you can read more about my observations.

BREAKING NEWS

A former colleague called me about a memo sent out. So I went to the corporate Web site and lo and behold this is here.
From my understanding this isn't enough and the news section of some of these papers are going to get hit with lay-offs. That's the rumor I hear.

Voluntary Severance Program Is Completed
DALLAS, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A. H. Belo Corporation (NYSE: AHC) said today that the voluntary severance offer (VSO) extended to the Company's newspaper employees in July has been completed. Overall, 413 employees will leave the company under the VSO -- 270 at The Dallas Morning News, 23 at The Providence Journal, and 120 at The Press-Enterprise. The total cost of the VSO is approximately $11.2 million, the majority of which will be expensed in the third quarter.
In addition, an involuntary reduction in force will be completed by mid-to-late October to achieve the necessary remaining workforce reductions. The expense related to the reduction in force is estimated at $2.4 million and will be recorded in the fourth quarter. The reduction in force is limited to the news, production, customer retention call center, and Al Dia departments at The Dallas Morning News; the news, consumer sales, packaging and production departments (excluding pressroom) at The Press-Enterprise; and, the news, editorial, advertising and promotion departments, subject to contractual obligations, at The Providence Journal.
The combined workforce reductions are expected to result in a savings of more than $29 million on an annualized basis.
Robert W. Decherd, chairman, president and Chief Executive Officer, said, "These job actions are part of a restructuring of our newspaper operations that accelerates the allocation of resources to promising new print and online products while focusing our workforce on A. H. Belo's local content creation and sales capabilities. We greatly appreciate the dedication and service of all A. H. Belo employees who are leaving the Company under the voluntary severance program. I'm confident that we're taking the right steps to realign our resources to meet consumer and advertiser needs while maintaining the exceptional quality of A. H. Belo's journalistic products."
A copy of the letter sent to operating company employees today by Jim Moroney, executive vice president of A. H. Belo and Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of The Dallas Morning News is available at http://www.ahbelo.com/invest.

Look for a new lay out soon.

I am currently negotiating to bring on someone to also critique Riverside proper and the San Bernardino papers. These will link to another blog. I also will link the southwest riverside county and san diego blogs to another section to make reading a little easier.

Bloodletting

As someone who was once in the business I still maintain my contacts. Per conversations with one of them over some beers this reporter let it slip that the Press Enterprise should be paring its staffing back by next week.
I have some of the names of people who streamed into the office to meet with the el jefes. I will hold onto those a few days although some of them will be shocking and some will make us newspaper readers sad.
In other news, don't go drinking with someone if you start telling secrets while drunk.

Sept. 3

The CAL
A pretty bland section today.
Nelsy Rodriguez had the vote on the initiatives in Murrieta. The PE didn’t even staff it. The PE forgot to do a few things, including the Temecula bicyclist killed.
The Cal had it. While it’s not shaking news both stories needed to run.
Okay I ran across the PE’s story on the bicyclist but its on the Web site not in the paper. Big Snafu there. Doesn’t that seem to happen more and more these days? As a writer who uses the Internet a lot I think most papers are using Web sites the wrong way but I’m not here to pontificate – nope, my job is to be a journalism teacher.

The sole story I found interesting was Rani Gupta’s on how much Temecula school district pays for sports.
It’s ridiculous how much parents are required to pay. After all, these teams usually do bring in a profit. The entire school funding system is broken. I say blow it up and let monkeys redo it. They can’t do any worse than our politicians.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/09/02/news/californian/temecula/zca512e6d366fd0f2882574b90013bc18.txt

Oh yeah. How many times is the Cal going to write about Tap Dancing Dads? Over and under at 10. Place your bets.

On a better note, I forgot to give Aaron Claverie much kudos for his panhandle story. Here Mr. Aaron Burgin here is your butt. Claverie just handed it to you.
I griped about how Burgin’s story lacked any actual person who would be affected. I think Mr. Claverie reads my site because he went out and did actual journalism. You are to be commended sir.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/08/29/news/californian/lake_elsinore/z1836853c4bc25dc8882574ac006bc1e2.txt

The PE

Not much difference from the PE. The local section has a nice picture from a non-staff photographer. The story is short and funny – bobcats are in town. And who else wrote this little brite that put a smile on my face: Sarah Burge.
People reading this must think I favor Burge. You can’t favor brilliance.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_sbobcat03.3df7b63.html

Sonja Bjelland and Gene Ghiotto continued on with a story about Nazario asking for his job back with the Riverside Police Department. The lede should be way better than it is. It reads like a copy editor got his/her hands on it.
A former Riverside police officer acquitted of war crimes can apply to be an officer again, officials say.
But the city is in a hiring freeze, so it is unclear when he could actually start, said Chris Lanzillo, president of the Riverside Police Officers Association.
Why not lede with this guy’s walk to the police department? Isn’t that more exciting? More thrilling? Instead we get the words “Officials say” in the lede.
Newspapers are losing readers because good writing is disappearing. Reporters need to fight for better ledes and editors need to let them run.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_N_nazario03.49fcf85.html

The rest of the PE is relatively boring on the Local section. Jeff Horseman wrote about an upcoming fundraiser and a Pechanga Council guy dying in Denver. John Asbury continues his good work covering the Chris Kanton case.

The UT
The UT wrote a story where a state investigator slammed SDG&E for failing to take care of their powerlines leading to the Fallbrook Fire. Will the PUC act on this? Beats me but don’t the utility companies look slimy.
Intably recommended the utilities commission make special note of SDG&E's lack of cooperation and issue a separate order clarifying that utilities must “provide immediate access to witnesses, sites or any other evidence requested” by regulators.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080903-9999-1n3puc.html

Might Be Moving

The site might be shifting to another page for technical reasons. I will provide information and the link on here if it happens.

Weekend Wrap Up

Nice weekend to pick up your local newspaper
Let’s start with the PE, which does better regional news than local news on the weekends.
First off – Kudos to Leslie Berkman who writes the most important article of the region and one that other papers have been too ditzy to do. It’s about house cheaters. These are the people who buy homes although they own a home, so they can get a newer home at a cheaper price. Then they let that first home go into foreclosure. There is also another scam using relatives to buy a short sale home then handing over the deed to the original owner. Amazing stuff. She has people and realtors saying they understand and that they are just taking advantage of the market. This cop who is doing this should be fired. It’s illegal and it’s cheaters like this who got us into the foreclosure crisis in the first place because it seems the motto continues to be: everyone else is doing it why can’t I.
http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_News_Local_S_cheaters31.45b183a.html

Tammy McCoy sifted through some court documents to come up with another nugget of information on this alleged Murrieta murderer.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_E_jarka02.49205d9.html
Do these murderers not watch Law & Order? I don’t see how people can still back this guy. As the French would say “He is as guilty as sin.” Wait. He is allegedly as guilty as sin.

Gail Wesson covers an issue I find interesting – those animal hoarders. I can never get enough stories of reporters trying to describe what the reasoning is behind hoarding. I still would have like Ms. Wesson to interview that cat throwing lady from The Simpsons. That would also make great video.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_W_hoarding02.4920b45.html

Aaron Burgin redeemed himself a bit. Anytime you can get dwarves in the lede you got yourself a reader. Nice to see what out of the box ideas candidates are doing for publicity.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/lakeelsinore/stories/PE_News_Local_S_playdate30.476a1f2.html

There were some other good stories but alas there are too many to jot down.
Saturday was a great day for the PE in beating the CAL. Julissa McKinnon had a great centerpiece of dogs in Menifee. Jeff Horseman broke news that a power plant is being proposed near French Valley.

The CAL
John Hall wrote an interesting story about Murrieta residents helping out with foreclosed lawns. The real question I have is why is John Hall doing this? http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/08/30/news/californian/murrieta/z64ef6febb449abf8882574b4000727e7.txt

The Cal also did a story about summer season. It made for a nice photo even though a story wasn’t needed with it.

Please don’t get me started on the Cal’s Cyberbullying press release. First off, this issue is as old as camera phones so why continue to harp on it. Second off, this little package makes for a nice spread advertisement for the cyberalert software. I wonder how much cut the paper gets for subscriptions to this software? What went through the minds of the editors to think that this really was a good idea. Because it’s not. It makes newspapers seem biased and unprofessional.
Thanks for the black eye on the industry. I won’t even link the stories because the Web Site doesn’t deserve the hits.

Let us now play a game called compare two simple stories from Cal Reporter Nelsy Rodriguez to one from PE reporter Rocky Salmon.
This is a story basically on a report to City Council about three initiatives to limit spending and term limits. It’s amazing how these two come up with differing points on what’s the most important issue.
The Cal’s Lede (rest of the story is here)
A city-commissioned report on the possible effects of three initiatives that have qualified to go before the public for a vote indicated that one ordinance would put the city at a great disadvantage to employ qualified staff members and another could prevent lower-income residents from running for office.
The report, produced by Management Partners Inc., a San Jose consulting firm, will be the focus of a discussion at Tuesday's City Council meeting. After the three initiatives qualified for a public vote by receiving more than 3,700 signatures of Murrieta registered voters, the council voted to spend nearly $22,000 on the report before deciding how to proceed with the initiatives.

I am not a fan of big words. And Nelsy’s story is littered with words and phrases that she should have been changed to her own voice: “market share”, “it would not be a financially sound practice to base a salary or compensation package on an arbitrary income that fluctuates with the market,” Electorate, “Cap”…it goes on and on. Tip to reporters. Use your own words please because we are simple-minded readers who didn’t become lawyers for a reason.

The PE’s story is here
The lede is: Two initiatives aimed at limiting pay for Murrieta City Council members and higher-ranking city officials are littered with enough legal problems that, if they passed, could end up in court, the city attorney said.
On Tuesday night, the City Council will decide whether to adopt three initiatives without an election or send all three to a November 2010 general election. Council members had voted for further studies by city staff and a legal consultant after questions were raised about the legality of two of the initiatives.
The legal concerns were raised in a city attorney's letter and a consultant's study of the three initiatives.

Which story do you like better? While Mr. Salmon’s story was much more terrible than Ms. Rodriguez’s last week I’m giving the leg up to Mr. Salmon. The story is way shorter, complex words and legalese have been taken out and paraphrased and the first graf actually tells me why I care. Because those initiatives if passed would cost us taxpayers more money in more court fees.
That’s not saying Mr. Salmon’s story was the cream of the crop or Pulitzer material. But it’s definitely the lesser of two evils.

The UT
Why run this story about cities cutting services? Isn’t Tanya Mannes a little behind the 8-ball here? This information came out months ago and to run it now is silly. Way to be about 10 months behind your news Mannes.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080902-9999-1m2sales.html

Good take on the lights that appear during concerts. And by lights I mean Pineapple Express.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080901-9999-1m1weed.html?imw=Y&lid=mostpopular