Tribune's Zell: 'I'm Your Viagra!'

[Ed Padgett]

> Words of Chairman Sam
> Sam Zell to L.A. Times: Watch Porn at Your Desk, But Don't Piss All Over the Office!
> Tribune May Print Journal Editions

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Facing Up to Reality

• Palm Beach Post will no longer make online an afterthought
• Downie isn't shaken by news of another round of buyouts
• About 20 Capital Times newsroom jobs will be eliminated
• Editor: This is a necessary step if we're going to remain relevant
• Is It Too Late for Yahoo?

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What will Andre 3000 Shake It Like Now?

It was a wonder in its time: A camera that spat out photos that developed themselves in a few minutes as you watched. You got to see them where and when you took them, not a week later when the prints came back from the drugstore.

But in a day when nearly every cellphone has a digital camera in it, “instant” photography long ago stopped being instant enough for most people. So today, the inevitable end of an era came: Polaroid is getting out of the Polaroid business. [Click for MORE]

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Yet Another Reality Check

• All the bad news about the newspaper biz in one NYT story
• WP buyouts may be discussed at "expanded staff meeting"
• McClatchy may end up writing off half of the $4.4B it paid for KR
• Zell's promised Tribune streamlining begins with HR layoffs
• Zell doesn't surprise during his meeting with LAT staffers

And some good news...

• Museum about the news industry scheduled to open April 11

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Capital Times to Become an Internet Newspaper

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WSJ Returns to 6-Column Front Page

Talking Biz News points out that the Wall Street Journal front page changed from a 5-column format back to a 6-column format this Monday:

The Wall Street Journal, which has had a five-column front since a redesign that was unveiled at the beginning of 2007, has returned to a six-column front page.

The change took effect on Monday.

Here is a statement from the paper:

"The Journal decided to add a sixth column to the front page to provide editors design flexibility and slightly increase the amount of real estate dedicated to the major stories of the day. The previous five-column paper wasn't as flexible and tended to limit the layout options available to editors. [Click for MORE]

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Assignment for Feb. 11

Continue to review the contents of the AP Stylebook.

Read Chapter 20 in the text.

---

The newsroom ethics policy of the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore., includes:

Because of our community's concern about youth crime, we will name juveniles age 15 or older charged with a violent crime. We will consider naming juveniles younger than 15 or those of any age charged with non-violent crimes in certain newsworthy circumstances.

Before identifying the victim of a crime without their consent, consider any further harm that the naming of a victim might do. In routine, minor crime stories, we will typically not name victims. In higher profile stories, we typically will. In the case of sex crimes and those involving juvenile victims, we will not identify the victim without consent. We will withhold exact addresses of residences, unless there is a compelling reason to print them.

In light of that, click on these links and also read:

• Taking Back a Fact
• Identifying Juveniles
• Doing Ethics: Ask Good Questions to Make Good Ethical Decisions
• Should the news media reveal the name of a juvenile murder suspect before the police have charged him?
• Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics
• Juvenile Justice

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Uh, Oh...

No Voting Equipment at one California Polling Place

As voting got under way in the hotly contested California primaries, an official at one Los Angeles polling station complained he had not received the proper equipment on Tuesday.

Bernie Cade, the electoral inspector at the Westside Jewish Community Center, said the equipment hadn’t arrived, hours after polls opened.

Cade said he had not received voting machines or the ink that goes in them for any of the seven booths in the polling station. [Click for MORE}

Some voters encounter locked doors and other delays
as they turn out for the state's pivotal primary

At least two Los Angeles-area polling places were shuttered this morning when voters showed up to cast their ballots, and other polling sites reported long lines and scattered glitches, though county election officials described today's vote as going relatively smoothly.

Californians are turning out today -- possibly in large numbers -- to choose presidential nominees and decide the fate of seven ballot propositions and numerous local issues. [Click for MORE]

Los Angeles = Voting Problems Everywhere?

From LAist.com:
We're getting reports of problems from readers, writers and the media. John Ennis, one of the founders of Video the Vote, gave LAist this update. Most of the confusion today is over people who are not registered as Democrat or Republican who want to vote in the primaries. The issue might be that they moved and they thought they were up to date. If you are a non-partisan voter, all you have to do is go to either a Democratic or Republican voting booth. Other than a few precincts not opening on time, Ennis says things seem to be running smooth, but it's early in the day he warned. To report a bad voting experience, call Video the Vote at 866-OUR-VOTE

Here are some other comments we've heard around the interwebs ... [Click for MORE]

> Poll Screw-Ups: Snow, 'Invisible Ink' and Missing Ballots

> Calif. Nonpartisan Voters Report Trouble At Polls

> Some Ballot Trouble for Independents in California

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California Primary Election Results

Click for results

• Ventura County Recorder
• Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder / County Clerk
• California Secretary of State

Presidential primaries for the Democratic and American Independent parties are open, which means that voters in those parties and those who are registered as "decline to state" can cast ballots in them. All of the other primaries, including the Republican primary, are closed, so only registered party members can vote.

Independent voters who want to vote in the Democratic primary must ask poll workers for Democratic ballots.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. today.

In Los Angeles County, absentee ballots must be returned to the county registrar-recorder or a polling place before 8p.m. In Ventura County, ballots can also be delivered to the Elections Division office at 800 S. Victoria Ave. in Ventura.

To find your polling place in L.A. County and view a sample ballot, go to www.lavote.net/locator. In Ventura County, find your voting location by visiting http://recorder.countyofventura.org/elections.htm and click on Polling Places.

For other questions, call 800-815-2666 (Los Angeles County only) or 562-466-1310.

For candidate profiles, descriptions and arguments for and against state and local ballot measures, go to www.smartvoter.org.

To find out which voting system your county uses - and how to use it - go to www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting_systems/ca_map_counties3.html.

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Sam Zell Drops the "F-Bomb"

The new owner of the Tribune Co. doesn't like a question from one of his journalists at the Orlando Sentinel.



[Click for MORE]
[And even MORE]

> Challenge authority, if you dare
> Video of Tribune CEO's profanity stirs controversy
> Honeymoon may be ending for Tribune Co.
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Chicago Sun-Times Media Group Up for Sale

Sun-Times Media Group Inc. said Monday it is up for sale and open to a deal that will reward shareholders while securing the future of its Chicago-area newspapers and Web sites.

The company's chief executive officer, Cyrus Freidheim Jr., said the board agreed to explore a sale because several key management initiatives are well under way. In recent weeks, the owner of the Chicago Sun-Times has trimmed $50 million in annual costs, more than 10 percent of its overhead, and last spring settled a tax liability with Canadian authorities.

He said the company would consider all alternatives, including partnerships and the sale of individual assets. But Freidheim said an overarching concern is a transaction that would free the company from the "baggage" of convicted former owner Conrad Black and make it a stronger competitor. [Click for MORE]

> Sun-Times editorial page editor resigns

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Mad Magazine Uses Pulitzer Winners to Tweak Bush

The “usual gang of idiots,” as the editorial staff of Mad magazine lovingly describes itself, produces cultural and political parody every month. For the next issue, however, the gang has recruited some very special help.

“Why George W. Bush Is in Favor of Global Warming,” a two-page spread that the magazine calls an exposé, has been illustrated by 10 Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonists.

The artists include Mike Peters, who won the Pulitzer in 1981 for his work in The Dayton Daily News in Ohio, and Matt Davies, who won in 2004 for The Journal News of White Plains. [Click for MORE]

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Google Works to Torpedo Microsoft Bid for Yahoo

Standing between a marriage of Microsoft and Yahoo may be the technology behemoth that has continually outsmarted them: Google.

In an unusually aggressive effort to prevent Microsoft from moving forward with its $44.6 billion hostile bid for Yahoo, Google emerged over the weekend with plans to play the role of spoiler.

Publicly, Google came out against the deal, contending in a statement that the pairing, proposed by Microsoft on Friday in the form of a hostile offer, would pose threats to competition that need to be examined by policy makers around the world.

Privately, Google, seeing the potential deal as a direct attack, went much further. Its chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, placed a call to Yahoo’s chief, Jerry Yang, offering the company’s help in fending off Microsoft, possibly in the form of a partnership between the companies, people briefed on the call said. [Click for MORE]

> For Silicon Valley, Microsoft's Yahoo bid isn't quite Armageddon

> News Corp says "No Yahoo Bid"

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