At the annual dinner of the United Media Guild, in St. Louis on Jan. 27, a special tribute was given to Robert Douglas, a former respected St. Louis Post-Dispatch newsroom aide who died in December.
When Douglas and other clerks were forced to take early retirement in 2008, they had health insurance provided by the Post. But they lost it when the paper, and its corporate owner, Lee Enterprises, canceled it for Guild retirees.
Late in the 20th century college newspapers seemed to be weathering the newspaper industry’s financial downturn better than most professional dailies. That’s no longer the case.
The latest college paper to make death-rattle headlines is the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois in Champaign where movie critic alum Roger Ebert is helping raise money for the paper where he got his start.
Populist philosopher Will Rogers once said, “I’m not a member of any organized political party; I’m a Democrat.” This political season, though, it seems to be Republicans, not Democrats, feeding on their political young. Will’s likely turning in his grave in astonishment.
Will also said, “There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.” But would Will think that journalists this political season are being all that accurate in their truth-telling? Amid all the political horserace hoopla, are Americans instead being fed a media diet laced with indigestible half-truths?
Billionaire Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has purchased the Omaha World-Herald Co., the parent company of his hometown newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald. The deal, announced Nov. 30, includes $150 million in cash as well as the assumption of $50 million of debt.
The move comes on the heels of an announcement that another Midwest newspaper, The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, was acquired in October by the Anschutz Corp., owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz.
By now, most observers of the Republican presidential primary race have heard of Mitt Romney’s ties to Bain Capital, the alternative asset management and financial services company he helped co-found in 1984.
What those same observers may not realize is that Romney’s financial stake in Bain Capital just might give him a decided advantage on the radio airwaves in his quest for the GOP nomination.