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Blog Archives September, 2008
It Needs Work
Submitted by Al Diamon on Mon, 09/29/2008 - 11:40am.Swap slop: How’s the new story-swapping arrangement among the Bangor Daily News, the Portland Press Herald, the Lewiston Sun Journal, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel working? After one week, it’s difficult to say. The article-sharing deal has given readers
A Mall Moves. So Do Moose. But a Bond Doesn't.
Submitted by Al Diamon on Mon, 09/29/2008 - 10:47am.There weren’t any earthquakes in Maine this past week. No tidal waves. Hurricane Kyle brushed the down-east coast, but it wasn’t as if it made any permanent alterations in the topography.
So, I’m not sure what natural force was to blame for this headline in the Sept. 24 Lewiston Sun Journal:
“Auburn
New Face at Statehouse News Service
Submitted by Al Diamon on Thu, 09/25/2008 - 6:52pm.Christopher Cousins, the city editor of the Times Record in Brunswick, will become the new reporter for the one-person Statehouse News Service. Cousins replaces Victoria Wallack, who is leaving at the end
Story-Swap Story Tells Only Part of the Story
Submitted by Al Diamon on Tue, 09/23/2008 - 7:39am.What wasn’t said: Maine’s largest dailies are locked in a fierce fight with the Associated Press. But readers would have little idea of that from a Sept. 20 story that ran in the Portland Press Herald, Bangor Daily News, Lewiston Sun Journal, Waterville’s
Put Your Hands in the Air and Scream
Submitted by Al Diamon on Mon, 09/22/2008 - 7:06am.You must be at least this tall to read this article.
Do not stand up while reading.
Not responsible for objects left between paragraphs.
Every third or fourth sentence should be disregarded as a blatant fabrication.
You’ve been warned.
We’ll begin with a gradual climb, not too steep, not too high. Attendance at Acadia National Park was up this year over 2007, reaching 2.2 million visitors.
That’s
No More Associated Press?
Submitted by Al Diamon on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 7:08pm.Dis-Associated: The tension between Maine’s major daily newspapers and the Associated Press is mounting. According to an informed source in the industry, the Portland
We're All Nuts
Submitted by Al Diamon on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 4:40pm.Tinfoil on the windows. Check.
Shotgun by the front door. Check.
Encryption devices on the phone, computer and TV. Check.
Just getting ready for another day in Maine, the 12th most neurotic state in the nation, according to Perspectives on Psychological Science.
The magazine’s online survey of over 3,500 Mainers indicated we’re unfriendly, untrusting, ill-behaved
Wallack Walks Away
Submitted by Al Diamon on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 8:31am.Victoria abdicates: Victoria Wallack is calling it quits. The respected, veteran reporter who runs the one-person Statehouse News Service, is leaving journalism at the end of September to become the director of communications for the Maine School Management Association.
Wallack’s
How Good Was Caldwell's 'Get'?
Submitted by Al Diamon on Fri, 09/12/2008 - 10:42pm.Rob hobnobs: Rob Caldwell, co-host of WCSH-TV’s and WLBZ-TV’s magazine show “207,” scored a “get” (industry talk for an interview with a sought-after figure) on Sept. 10, when he
Buyouts at WGME?
Submitted by Al Diamon on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 6:15pm.Been on the job too long: WGME-TV in Portland may be offering buyouts to longtime staffers. According to a knowledgeable source outside the station, Channel 13 is offering early retirement deals to employees who joined the station before Dec. 31, 1999.
News director Robb Atkinson
Gone: the Boys of Summer and the Girls of Charlie Summers
Submitted by Al Diamon on Mon, 09/08/2008 - 6:19am.I am not bitter about the just-concluded season of the Portland Sea Dogs. It doesn’t bother me that Bryce Cox took the mound for the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox in the eighth inning of the Sept. 5 playoff game against the Trenton Thunder and pitched like he was wearing a blindfold.
When he walked in the tying run, that wasn’t me booing.
An inning later, Dogs reliever Miguel Asencio loaded the bases before hitting a batter to plate the go-ahead run.
That
Irving Looks at Blethen
Submitted by Al Diamon on Fri, 09/05/2008 - 6:00am.On Sept. 3 and 4, representatives of Brunswick News Inc. toured the Portland Press Herald’s facilities, prompting speculation that the Canadian company is interested in buying the Blethen Maine Newspapers. Blethen is trying to sell its Maine holdings, which include dailies in Portland, Augusta
"The Political Edge" Needs Sharpening
Submitted by Al Diamon on Wed, 09/03/2008 - 7:50pm.Needs honing: On Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. I turned on the TV to check out the first edition of WGME-TV’s “News 13 at Seven: The Political Edge.”
Well, not really.
I’d already had enough politics for one day, so I watched the Red Sox game. But I recorded
The Sunday Telegram: Great or Just Late?
Submitted by Al Diamon on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 7:27pm.Raise praise: How wonderful was the Maine Sunday Telegram’s long, long story on Aug. 31 on the terrible financial mistakes the Portland School Department made in negotiating a new pay scale for teachers?
It was “riveting.”
Bad News for Mill Workers
Submitted by Al Diamon on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 10:27am.It was not a good week for people who work in Maine’s paper industry. On Aug. 25, Wausau Paper announced it was permanently closing one of its two machines at the Otis mill in Jay. Nearly 150 of the 235 people employed there will lose their jobs by the end of the year.
