Friday, July 27, 2007

on hiatus

Well, folks, it's been a fun run, but one chapter of the Postmaster's life is about to close and a new one begin. We'll keep the NCP here for your perusal and – who knows? – perhaps be back. But for now, a long-overdue vacation is about to begin.

Ciao!
PM

Media incest, update – and redux! – and really, this must stop

From her former cohorts at the ER, news that the "wicked smart" Ashley Ramone is returning to KSLG where she'll join the er, awfully nice, Arcata Eye Scene Editor Jen Savage.

And, to connect the dots once again:

KSLG's Monica Topping writes an entertainment column for the T-S. (And dates "Humboldt County's youngest elected official" and a former, albeit briefly employed, Eye-staffer, Shane Brinton.) Way to rob the cradle, M!

The Journal editor, Hank Sims, has a talk show on one of Lost Coast Communication's other stations, KHUM.

Arcata Eye editor and publisher Kevin Hoover also sets loose Frank Zappa upon an unsuspecting population on KHUM, as well as serves up some mildly objectionable news features on both KHSU and KMUD.

The Fat Guys on Film, too big to remain confined by the pages of the T-S, broadcast on KSLG as well.

Eye photog extraordinaire Terrence McNally sings Judas Priest, while Fat Guy Chris Durant does a little Republican Duck Hunting.

Then you have the folks content to simply, oh, do good work. At least for a few more days.
The ever-vigilant Kevin Hoover has pointed out the following:

Jack Durham of the McKinleyville Press also does news for KHSU once a
week, as does Christine Sackey of the Humboldt Beacon.

Wendy Butler does Art Waves on KHSU.

Kevin and possibly Hank Sims do an occasional Friday Focus for KZPN
Bayside (JPR).
(While we at the NCP do not make a habit of encouraging vices – well, not all the time – we must insist you only listen to Wendy Butler interviewing artists after smoking copious amounts of the best weed you can get your hands on. Trust us, it's for the best.)
OK, one more, courtesy of Durant:

"James is in a band too. Anchorite and Mystic, they're playing all over the place in the next couple months. In fact we're playing together at Six Rivers Brewery, Aug. 11. Come on out and introduce yourself."
There.

Everyone loves the ER! (Especially the advertisers!)

At first we thought Judi Pollace had moved to Oregon! But, noooooooooooooo.

Just your run-of-the-mill confusion. Oregon, California, same diff.

Out in Oregon, the Eureka Reporter was born out of a web site started in August 2004. After six months, it began printing as a free weekly, and in January 2006 it went daily with a circulation of about 10,000.

The family-owned paper’s philosophy is that no one should have to pay for news about their community and that ad rates should be kept affordable so that small businesses can flourish.

“We’ve gone back to basics,” says Judi Pollace, publisher. “This is what a community newspaper was 100 years ago. We’re hyperlocal. That’s why everyone loves the paper.

By all indications the philosophy is working.

Bolstered by ad rates that are kept in line with circulation at $17 an inch, compared with the competition’s $27-an-inch rate, the Reporter’s ad sales are up. So is circulation, to 25,000. That puts it ahead of its paid competition at 19,000, after just two and one half years.

Take that, "competition" – ha!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Imagine this as a bouquet of flowers

Oh, how completely remiss of us to not point out that GFS is back! Regrettably, his brush with death did nothing to sharpen up his writing whatsoever.
"Eureka has way too many traffic collisions and, in my opinion, leading the intersections for the potential worst-case scenario is the haphazard Myrtle and Sixth Street 'intersection,' if it can even be called that."

I prefer to call it “the intersection designed by those oblivious to the realities of the road.

Yes, Glenn-o, we get that it's your opinion – hence the name attached to the column. Oh shucks, he is kinda cute when he's got a cause isn't he?
Besides, international policy-makers (you and I know them as "the deciders") can finally start moving ahead, now that Glenn's back!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Damn-near Dandy worthy



Juicy!
"Taking the stand in Judge David Higgs's courtroom, Par Ridder couldn't have looked more like a rich boarding-school kid. The 38-year-old publishing scion was decked out in country-club navy blue with a haircut that was square in every sense of the word.

"His counterpart, MediaNews CEO William Dean Singleton, a self-made media mogul from Graham, Texas, cracked wise with reporters in the gallery outside the courtroom. Shuffling on legs hobbled by multiple sclerosis, the 55-year-old was in town just to enjoy the show — and to watch Ridder squirm."

Media geeks*, enjoy!

*And yes, we include the NCP, of course.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Reporting on oneself is so rarely done gracefully #2

Really? Really? This is the best space-filler you could come up with? A feature on your own production?

Sigh. Sadly in character.

Fishwrap staffs bulking up?

The perenially understaffed print media outlets have been especially desperate of late -- even the limitless pockets of their owner haven't kept the folks at the movie set from feeling the pressure. So it is with pleasure that we look forward to the contributions of those new on the various teams.

New at The Journal: Japhet Weeks.

Bringing the freshness to the ER: Steve Spain.

Welcome.

In news of the other sort, Humboldt County's favorite young communist Democrat Shane Brinton has left the Eye before we could even address his presence there. Shane, we hardly knew ye!

Meanwhile, over at the T-S, with parent company MediaNews laying off staff left and right and left again, even the fat guys might start looking a bit lean.