Al Diamon
It’s Money That Matters
Financial pitfall: Thomas Cushing Munjoy is back to blogging about the follies of the Portland Press Herald’s management at a new online address.
The pseudonymous critic is raising some interesting points about the fiscal viability of the potential purchase of the paper by Maine Media Investments, the company formed by former U.S. Sen. William Cohen, developers Michael Liberty and Robert Baldacci and Pennsylvania newspaper publisher Richard Connor.
Munjoy cites the New York Times’ ill-advised purchase of the Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram in the 1990s – the parent company has since written off $1 billion from the value of those assets – as an indication that no sane creditor would put up the cash needed for MMI to buy Blethen’s Maine holdings, which include the Portland daily as well as the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.
What once might have worked, Munjoy writes, won’t work now.
“Back in the spring when [MMI] started sniffing around 390 Congress St., the PPH was still breathing,” he said. “On life support, for sure, but it still had a pulse. Today it is a rapidly decaying corpse in a rapidly decaying economy.”
I’m not quite so pessimistic, mostly because I don’t believe guys like Cohen, Liberty and Baldacci would commit so much time and effort to an enterprise with no hope of financial return. That sort of folly would be contrary to the way they’ve always operated, not to mention an assault on common sense.
That said, it’s still not clear how the potential new owners will avoid the heavy debt load that eventually dragged the Blethens down and forced them to sell.
Stay tuned.
(Those wishing for more insight into Munjoy’s thinking are urged to check out the interview with him on the Bollard’s Web site.)
Historical pitfall: George Smith, the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and a regular columnist in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, has been around long enough to know a lot of Maine political history.
And long enough to forget some of it, too, apparently.
In his Nov. 19 offering, Smith refers to Ed Muskie as “the long-shot first-ever Democratic governor of Maine.”
Another historical pitfall: There’s a curious omission in a Nov. 21 story in the Bangor Daily News on a speech given to the Rockland Rotary Club by David Morse.
According to the article, Morse is currently in charge of “advancement and new media” (whatever that means) at the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, but previously served as chief executive officer of Courier Publications in Rockland (where he made a deal with me to carry my weekly political column in some of Courier’s papers).
“When I left Courier, I looked at the challenges facing me and I looked at all the media,” Morse is quoted as telling the Rotarians. “What medium is the most important, and what medium can contribute the most to solving the problems of the state of Maine, now more than ever?”
Bangor Daily reporter George Chappell writes, “With that thought in mind, he then approached the Maine Public Broadcasting Network and got a job.”
Well, not exactly.
From 2003, shortly after he left Courier, until 2005, Morse ran Maine Community Publications, an unsuccessful attempt by the Blethen Maine Newspapers to set up a weekly newspaper empire. He didn’t get around to entering the problem-solving world of public broadcasting until 2007.
Morse’s motives in doing so may have been as altruistic as he claims, but his timing is way off.
Al Diamon can be e-mailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 in Permalink
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Reader Comments:
Hey Al,
A couple thoughts about your buddy Munjoy.
First, it's worth noting that while he posts anonymously, his new blog doesn't allow anonymous comments. What's good for the goose....?
Second, not to beat this whole pseudonym thing to death, his explanation for not using his real name last time around was some blather about how he's "known" to the the Blethens and they could make his or his friends' lives miserable if they knew who he was. Even if that were true ((which I highly doubt), the Blethens are all but out the door – yet still he hides behind his "munjoy" moniker. Perhaps, as a media watchdog, you should ask him why he's still afraid to come out into the open – like you – and face his audience.
I agree. The longer this T. Cushing Munjoy guy hides behind a fake name, the more he looks like nothing more that a loudmouth coward. I say sick the Media Mutt on HIM!!! Or does Mr. Diamon dare not take on the "new media?"
I've never known Al to fear the "new media," the "old media," the "middle media" or any other media. Really, I've never known Al to fear much at all. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for this "Munjoy" character. I'm sure he'd attack the Press Herald if the paper were to use anonymous sources, and here he is, hiding his true identity. Hiding like that may be OK if you're Batman, but if you're a second-rate (make that third-rate) media critic (and that's a third-rate critic of media, not a critic of third-rate media), that kind of hiding is just plain cowardly. If he wants credibility, he should crawl out of his spider hole. If, on the other hand, all he really wants to do is take cheap shots from the comfort of craven anonymity, he should keep hiding, keep gumming on, Mean Old Man style, about the kids messing up his yard.
- Joshua Weinstein
Actually, you can leave an anonymus post on the new Munjoy blog---as least you can as of Sat. a.m. Nov. 22. Not sure if that was true on Nov. 21.
Funny how the Media Mutt's not responding to any of this. What say, Mr. D?
Hey Josh,
What's happening? Where are you these days? Are you still in print? I'm not.
-- A.J. Higgins
The PPH is falling apart before our eyes. I have never seen such a demoralized and dispirited product. It would do everyone well if the Cohen group confessed what we all already know: that it cannot get financing in this environement and has to withdraw. That would allow the natural consequences (bankruptcy) to follow, and an opportunity for someone else to come in, pick up the PPH at auction, and rebuild. It does readers and employees no good to drag this out any longer. When there is no credit anywhere for even healthy concerns, the Cohen group needs to get out of the way.
Since you asked, Anonymous, I'm not a big fan of anyone hiding behind a pseudonym, unless that person has a pretty good reason. I think Munjoy has such a reason: the fear of retribution against his business associates. What's your excuse?
Al Diamon
Or so he tells you...are you telling us you know who he is? (My excuse is that I'll be eaten by Martians. I expect you to buy that too.)
I trust Al. If he says there's a good reason -- or excuse -- there probably is.
A.J. Higgins