Link: Brother from another mother

Hornet alumnus Frank Miller was published in this week's issue of the Sacramento News & Review.

Read "Bicycling: The power of one" to see Frank's contribution as a freelancer.

He's a man. ... He's a card player, gambler, scoundrel. You'd like him.

I had a good laugh after reading the Aug. 13 blog post by Sacramento News & Review Arts Editor Nick Miller at "Alt Sac". Miller, no relation, was pissed off by an SN&R review posted on Yelp by Midtown Monthly contributor Tony King. He goes into a fury in the comment section and participates in a back-and-forth with Midtown Monthly editor Tim Foster, who signs off as "omf."

Read "SN&R vs. Midtown Monthly on Yelp!" for more information.

Click here to read the reviews of the Sacramento News & Review at Yelp.

Click here to read the reviews of the Midtown Monthly at Yelp.




How's how I see it:

Tony K. is a little too self congratulatory of his own magazine in a separate Yelp review. Public reviews are not the place to defend the deadline of a monthly. Every publication has space to fill. You struggle to fill space when you're unprepared, reporters fail to meet deadlines or an article has serious holes. It sounds nostalgic to longingly talk about the pressure of busting your ass at the last minute. It actually speaks to a less professional atmosphere - where certain situations could have been avoided with better planning.

While Tony K. is quick to boast about Midtown Monthly, he's as quick to lay a dig into the Sacramento News & Review in the linked Yelp review. He criticizes the writers for involving themselves far too much in the stories and for being far too happy about what they produce.

"The problem with the Sacramento News and Review (besides it being a chain newspaper spread thin) is that it tries way too hard to be witty, snarky and edgy," King wrote. "Of course in doing so, the SN&R actually comes across as clueless, hollow and self-congratulatory."

The less first-person, the better. Too often, first-person articles put a reader further at a distance from the subject. They show how a simple reporter can be so close to someone who is newsworthy. It's supposed to propagate a sort of window to another person's life. Sometimes the perspective works, more often, I'm left thinking the article could have done without it. The perspective might be besides the point. I think Tony K. just doesn't like Sacramento News & Review Associate Arts Editor Josh Fernandez. He references him and his articles.

Tony K. doesn't stop with Fernandez. He hates the centerpiece designs, hates the feature subjects, hates the review section and hates the SAMMIES. (At least someone else thought that burrito feature was a bad idea.) He even makes an attempt to equate the newspaper to Starbucks. Sorry, three newspapers does not make a chain, a gaggle or a murder. Maybe he forgot that Midtown Monthly and Capitol Weekly are owned by the same company. I think.

The focus of Miller's fury launches some valid points, but he might be the wrong person to back them. Producing a weekly is more difficult than producing a monthly, and again, don't criticize self-congratulations when you are so quick to do it of yourself. If he were in a comparable position, working at a weekly, maybe his opinion would carry more weight. It's tough to tell whether he's been in Miller's position - the position of an editor at a weekly.

Foster stops by the comment section to point out "the whole 'competition' bit gets really old." I couldn't agree more. He is super even-tempered and brings about some solid points, after apologizing for the so-called free agent. Foster writes: "People piss on SNR because they expect more from it, or remember it a different way. they piss on it because they care." This is important. People spewing vile because they've seen better from SN&R and they'd wish it provided a better counterpart to the The Sacramento Bee.

And yes, I recognize many other people are just as angry with The Sacramento Bee and rightfully criticize the declining story production.

Miller goes off in the comment section, and its great. Each side volleys good arguments. I'd kind of like to meet Foster. I think Miller's the kind of guy who'll pound a couple of shots and then ask what you're having.

A truce was called without Miller going on as much of an attack as King.

He simply phoned Foster and hashed everything out.

Everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?

Alas, the flame war was put out.

(Side note: I'm pretty surprised by the amount of reviews of Midtown Monthly posted in August. There are 11 reviews this month. Someone must be e-mailing friends and telling them to battle. SN&R has six reviews this month too, with most of them following King's attack.)

Hurry up! Come with me! What are you waiting for?! Get in gear!

Alisa Zykova at the Editors Weblog posted a short story on Aug. 8 about a Philadelphia Inquirer edict to hold some stories until the articles have appeared in print first.

Read "US: Philadelphia Inquirer managing editor takes "backward" step?" for more information.

The memo can be found at Ponyter Online. Scroll down to the memos starting at Aug. 8, or search for "Philadelphia Inquirer adopts new online policy."



Managing Editor Mike Leary told his staff that the newspaper would publish some articles online first, including investigative reporting, enterprise, trend, news features and reviews.

"What that means is that we won't post those stories online until they're in print," Leary wrote.

I was surprised. Other bloggers were too.

"It’s disheartening to see a major newspaper go backward," Steve Outing wrote in a blog post titled "Don’t go backward, newspapers!".

Jeff Jarvis was far more negative in his blog post, "A stake through the heart of the has-been Inquirer".

"You are killing the paper," Jarvis wrote. "You might as well just burn the place down. You’re setting a match to it. This is insane. Even the slowest, most curmudgeonly, most backward in your dying, suffering industry would not be this stupid anymore. They know that the internet is the present and the future and the paper is the past. Protecting the past is no strategy for the future. It is suicide. It is murder. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

I had to include to the long quote. Such venom. Such passion. I love it.

Steve Yelvington was measured in his response and offered a counter-argument in his blog post, "What's wrong with the new Philly publication rule? Us and them". He wrote that by waiting for publication, a newspaper can build momentum for a story's release, "teasing" and "setting the stage," being the operative words.

Yelvington is most concerned with a publication giving priority to one medium over another.

"It's entirely possible that the print and online components might be completely different with some parts being print-only," Yelvington wrote. "But you can't do that if you regard one medium as yours and the other as theirs. And that's the real problem with the Leary's memo."

The memo scares me, yet it doesn't surprise me. I'm not sure how it will change how the newspaper operates after reading a Q&A with Executive Editor Chris Newsom at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

I think newspapers need to find appropriate publication times with all stories. I think a lot readers check out newspaper Web sites around noon and near bedtime. People seem to be more willing to sit with a longer article at these times. Holding investigative pieces wouldn't be out of step with reader trends.

I'm not so sure holding reviews is such a good idea. Then again, I'm not sure what the Philadelphia Inquirer reviews. Some reviews should be posted as soon as possible, like a television writer or a political column during campaign season. I could care less about CD reviews.

Enterprise, trend and news features can be published whenever. They often get pushed a couple of times. I don't see why one of these articles can't find life online first. If circumstances permit it, and the news environment calls for it, print it online first. Capitalize on the news environment. Don't be left looking like an ambulance chaser. Printing online can even alter the print edition, and even provide design elements by using reader comments or anecdotes.

It's common for newspapers to print stories about events at the end of the week. This isn't a problem for some, and it helps to have a snapshot of what's coming if you haven't made weekend plans. But it's a problem for people who want to plan ahead. I'm sure any of these features would be described as news features at the Philadelphia Inquirer and they may be published so late as to be considered irrelevant by some online readers.

Lost in the flurry about publication is that a newspaper needs to keep a steady steam of content coming to its the Web site. Links to daytime crime reports shouldn't bury investigative pieces. I also don't expect midnight and morning readers to care about a noon fire. Articles should be rotated appropriately on the front page. Newspapers need to get more bang for the buck. Nothing should go unread because its too hard to find on a Web site, or published too late.

I don't mind that The Sacramento Bee posts its daily stories online at midnight. I'm not bothered by it because the Web site regularly updates with other content.

On the other hand, its time consuming to check my RSS feed when the Sacramento News & Review posts its Thursday articles. I haven't clicked on the link from last week and its 52 links remain unchecked. Too much at once. I don't want to read everything at once, and, even if I bookmark some articles for later, many will go unread.

Newspapers: don't grasp at the old newspaper model. The Web is your friend. It provides a medium for more eyes than ever before. The print circulation numbers of the past are history. More papers distributed won't solve declining revenue. At the end of the day, that's what the memo was really about.

Instead, find ways to get users coming back to the Web site, and translate that Web time to increased revenue.

Thats what I'm trying to tell you, kid. It ain't there. It's been totally blown away.

I said in my first post that I would talk too much about where I work.

However, I didn't say I wouldn't talk about other people talking about my job.

Cosmo Garvin wrote a solid story about the effects of downsizing at The Sacramento Bee for the Aug. 7 issue of the Sacramento News & Review.

"The shrinking Bee - What the repackaged Bee means for local journalism" is a strong and critical piece. County government writer Ed Fletcher, water writer Matt Weiser, departing Capitol reporter Judy Lin and editor Melanie Sill are primary sources. A couple unnamed sources are used. The piece isn't the standard snarky jab; it's full of legitimate concerns.


I was surprised that Fletcher, the local union representative, was so vocal. I just didn't think current writers would be so open to speak to the other newspaper. He is worried that the newspaper won't provide the needed breadth of coverage and said some beats remain vacant. No energy writer. No health writer. Fletcher said that the newsroom has 28 fewer reporter than at this time last year. This number likely doesn't count the many student assistants and interns that no longer exist in the various departments. Sports clerks, news clerks and features interns were not replaced when the students left for other jobs or graduated from college.

I can't say much about the print redesign or the upcoming online redesign. I don't feel informed enough to comment. But I am worried about the quality of newspapers. The cuts seem to keep on coming, jobs openings are rare.

(I'm not claiming I know about more cuts within the newspaper. I don't. I just worry that they will. I mean to say that they keep coming as a comment about the industry as a whole. The summer has been rough.)

I think newspapers are pushing writers to work harder to meet the demands of a 24-hour news cycle. I worry about a breaking point. I worry about writers burning out. Writers have left The Bee and haven't been replaced. Journalists get paid squat, so reporters do the job because they love their beats and they like their coworkers. When journalism becomes more of a job than a passion, reporters look at the pay and say, "I can get paid better to do a job elsewhere."

Exit: Lisa Heyamoto. Stage: Europe.

“There’s increasing pressure to grind even harder. It used to be that you were asked to do a story by the end of the day,” Fletcher told SN&R. “Now we’re writing a draft for the Web, then maybe another draft for the Web, then writing a story by the end of the day.”

The multi-level story approach is a good idea, if implemented correctly. But I agree with Fletcher's point. The pressure is rising and the workers are stressing.

There's a line from The Dark Knight that keeps popping in my mind when I read about the newspaper industry:

"It's always darkest before the dawn."

I hope so.

On the horizon: I'm collecting a week's run of The Bee and will analyze the charges with daily blog posts, one issue per day with a full analysis at the end.

How you get so big, eating food of this kind?

The Sacramento News & Review:

I can’t say I read it for the articles.

I tend to pick up the weekly in search of events and occasionally read what the writers are saying about local music. Cosmo Garvin usually has some interesting thoughts on local politics.

But, I’m not here to blog about an overall assessment of SN&R. I’ll try to focus on three things:

Burritos. Cover girls. Rushed production.


The July 31, 2008 cover of SN&R featured two color-coordinated twins with burritos in hand. The brunette in the center smiles into the camera while holding the single-bite burrito.

The other brunette stares across her shoulder at her twin while holding her untarnished burrito. The visual intends to give off the impression that, just maybe, one burrito is better than the other, and that one of these women has found the Holy Grail. Go within the pages young traveler, er, reader.

These aren’t any ol’ cover girls; they’re bloggers Sarah and Rachel Campbell of TwinSoup.com. If you’re hip and connected to the midtown scene, you might know who they are, and you might think that you can trust that these bloggers might lead you to the best in local burritos.

(Side: The self-described “semi-retired scenester ‘it’ girls” write short posts about weekend events, boutiques, trendy wares and, sometimes, a note about something on the horizon. From the perspective a new reader, TwinSoup.com seems to be more like a bulletin board than an in-depth blog. The posts could use more detail and criticism.)

There has been a buzz surrounding these women and their blog. In same week that they appeared on the cover of SN&R, Sarah announced on July 29 that the blog would be a central part of the Fashion & Style section at News10.net. The two bloggers, she wrote, would also appear as guests on the locally-produced Sacramento & Co. Curiously, no mention was made of their cover appearance; no image of the cover posted onto the blog.

Back to the article, I’m pulled within the issue because of the cover and the headline:

“Burrito envy: Who’s got the BEST BURRITO in Sacramento — and how bad do you want it?”

The burrito piece is not what it seems. I expected a “top 10” presentation as seen in “best of” issues. Not so. The best is not within. The article provides no sidebar ranking burritos. No locations are provided in accompaniment of the 16 restaurants sprinkled throughout the article. The two-page, almost 1,900-word piece is a sea of text.

Sure, there’s a picture of a large burrito with a text-wrap above the beginning of the story. A couple of pull quotes loosen up the text. And, oh, three drop caps are used.

(Though I do like that the text wraps around the burrito. I hope that’s intentional. Burrito. Wrap. I shouldn't have to explain myself.)

Here’s what’s great. The TwinSoup bloggers didn’t write the piece. Freelance food critic Kate Washington didn’t write it either. The pictured burrito, from Azul Mexican Food and Tequila Bar at 1050 20th St., doesn’t come from one of the named restaurants. Something tells me the photographer was sent across the street on deadline to come up with some cover art.

The presentation seems like a rush job, and does a disservice to the writer. The other extended piece, "The 10 most awesomely bad moments of the Bush presidency", is also a list. It's tough showcase to an issue when neither feature has art that develops its own story and acts as more than something nice next to text. When all else fails, throw some pretty girls on the front. Sex sells.

Ben Russell, in what appears to be his first full-length article for SN&R, writes a story about his personal journey to find the best burrito in Sacramento. The beginning is colored with too much detail about the supposed history of the Mexican, or Texan, dish. Russell takes too long to get to what I want to know: what are the good burritos and where can they be found? In the end, I’m not too sure. He provides sufficient detail about the burritos throughout, yet he fails make a determination. “Some are good,” “there are some middling burritos” and "there are a few really bad burritos” is a pretty insufficient conclusion. I do like what he says about the burritos he has tried. It's just, isn't this supposed to be the search for the best?

Who is at fault?

• The presentation is misleading and certain elements could have been added to spotlight some places. There's no sidebars nor restaurant locations.

• Regardless of the presentation, the article is too long. The first 600 words tell too much history. The reader can be drawn in with less. I imagine many readers didn't continue reading past the first few paragraphs.

• The best history, of any, would have been the history of local burritos. What local restaurants have been around the longest and what charges have the owners seen in what is offered and what is asked for by consumers?
  

• The editors could have trimmed down the last 300 words. The author claims to have not had a great burrito. Then, tells the reader his definition of his ideal, great burrito at the end. It seems to be a mistake to say what you’ve been looking for after 1,300 words. We’re talking about burritos. Get to it.
  

I suppose the same could be the same for this blog. I’ve written about half as much text critical of a story about burritos. Enough said.

By the way: Juan In a Millions makes one hell of a super burrito.