[email protected]

[Triangle andToo]

What a Troo assinine comment. Triangle doesn't understand your use of the word "doorstep", how about "doormat". Anyway, "THE CARDINALS"????????? Drawing 3 million fans a year. Comparing our Billiken coverage Too the coverage of the Cardinals, the Rams, or even the Blues is just assinine. Maybe if our Billikens had made the NCAA's 3-4-5 years in a row and then had a bad year (not a bad decade) - the coverage would be better.

so it goes

[billiken_roy]

not directed at you too just convienent place to continue the discussion.

i dont think anyone expects equal or even near coverage as the local pro sports teams, especially during their respective seasons. however, even after the season is over, there is far far more coverage of the prosports teams than what is necessary.

the one that makes no sense to me is the justification it is ok to cut the billiken coverage due to poor performance but starks admits the post continued to give the illini and mi$$ouri weekly coverage with multiple stories each week for each game. i quote from an e-mail mr starks sent me yesterday:

"When Mizzou began the year ranked in the Top 25, we increased our coverage during the week. And we kept our coverage of Illini football to a few stories during the week because they never jumped out to a strong start."

i had suggested that the post could be updating fans on recruiting, starks wrote back the following:

"Durando has had several recruiting stories about who SLU is trying to land. And Stu, along with Bernie Miklasz, has done feature detailing why it is difficult for SLU to recruit the type of players they need to compete with other elite teams in Conference-USA."

now we all follow the billikens very closely. can anyone pinpoint the story he is talking about? i have no clue who the billikens are still chasing but according to starks, stu informed us.

i asked him why they havent put more pressure on officials at slu to discuss the arena progress and speak with boosters and name names about why no action. starks replied:

"Stu has done this story as well. I'm sure you understand that if there is nothing new to report, then we're not going to manufacture a story. And we've said that the arena is at a standstill because they still are raising funds. It's that simple.

We've talked to boosters as part of other stories examining the program. If you know of boosters who will really say something about this on the record, please pass along their names. We'd love to talk to them. The boosters we've talked to (and there have been plenty) aren't willing to give substantive answers on this."

so today, i sent a hello larry e-mail to starks again to discuss the above nonsense. i hope everyone continues to write as well. dont use it all up every day. just send him a couple of thoughts a day if we all do that i am sure larry will really look forward to opening his e-mails daily.

[AlumniFan]

What do you know, if anything, about Lee? I've never heard of it. Do you know what other papers they own? I would think that Post employees would prefer a smaller owner to a larger owner just because of the bureaucracy you have to endure with huge companies (I know, I live it every day). Are you betting on Gannett because they have deeper pockets or is their another reason? Any other thoughts?

Thanks!!

[bonwich]

From yesterday's W$J article:

"Lee Enterprises, Davenport, Iowa, also is a heartland newspaper company, with assets that include the Quad-City Times in Davenport and the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota. Lee has been looking for midsize papers in the Midwest, but some in the industry think that Pulitzer might be too big for Lee to swallow."

And from the W$J's online profile of NYSE: LEE

"Lee Enterprises, Incorporated, directly, and through its ownership of associated companies, publishes 44 daily newspapers in 18 states and nearly 200 weekly, classified and specialty publications, along with associated online services. More than 70% of its revenue is derived from advertising. Lee has five major categories of advertising revenue: retail advertising, national advertising, classified advertising, niche publications and online advertising. After advertising, circulation is its largest source of revenue. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2004 (fiscal 2004), daily circulation of newspapers owned in both 2003 and 2002, as measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), decreased 0.1% and Sunday circulation increased 0.5%. Lee also offers commercial printing services. Lee also owns 81% of an Internet service company (Townnews.com), which provides Web infrastructure for more than 800 small daily and weekly newspapers and shoppers."

Current market cap: Roughly $2.0B

Web site: http://www.lee.net/

I'm betting on Gannett because of 1) Lee's lack of large properties; 2) Occam's razor. (The two flies in the ointment are joint-ownership [TV/radio/print] regulations that haven't been fixed yet and the possibility that one of the "investment groups" also mentioned in both the W$J and today's P-D is actually a method for some but not all of the Pulitzers to cash out of their stock, leaving other Pulitzers still among the P-D ownership.)

And I was advancing a variant of your small owner/large owner theory in the newsroom yesterday.

[huzzah]

The sale is a rumor until the Post says it is for sale. "Strategic alternatives" leaves the door open. The WSJ articles are better than what they have been replaced with. What can make the Post distinctive from news via the internet is coverage of local sports. The Post, realizing this has kept the sports dept. at a top level. Therefore, to not cover the Bills or send a reporter to the Southern Miss game is not good for them and violates their own corporate strategy. Stu would fly to the game free on the school plane, so the Post could have covered this game for less than $600. Insignificant in terms of their total expenses. The article today in the Post gives some arguments on why Gannet(USA Today) is not a slam dunk on becoming the new owner, if the paper is sold. Judging from the Indianapolis and Honolulu papers I hope USA Today(Gannet) does not acquire ownership. Stu represents a fixed cost, so he could have written a game day article of the Southern Miss game @ minimal cost. However, the Post has not covered home town stories on business topics well either, so we share neglect w/ others. The Post raised their dividend, but in other areas seem to be tightening up.

[bonwich]

I see your interpretation of the language parallels that of the kid from Mizzou.

"In response to news reports, Pulitzer Inc. (NYSE: PTZ) today confirmed that the Company is currently engaged in the process of exploring a range of strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value, including a possible sale of the company. No formal decisions have been made and no agreements have been reached at this time. There can be no assurances that any particular alternative will be pursued or that any transaction will occur, or on what terms."

This, by the way, was what Pulitzer put out as a corporate press release. Yep, it's a "rumor."

If you go to or went to SLU, you also might want to check in with one of the professors regarding journalistic ethics:

"Stu would fly to the game free on the school plane,"

(None of this, by the way, is meant to contradict the assertion that both Bills coverage and business coverage could improve.)

[tseugnekillib]

joe,

do you know, or can you find out, if the Cardinals and Rams beat writers fly on team chartered flights? If so, can I assume the P-D re-imburses the respective teams? thanks.

[bonwich]

I can certainly ask. I can also quote the P-D ethics policy when I get back to the office on Monday.

[bonwich]

This from an indirect source (i.e. a sports person but not someone who works a beat or is an editor): In general they don't fly on the team plane. An exception is hockey, where sometimes it's very difficult to fly commercial efficiently in and out of the hockey cities. Whenever they do fly on team charters, however, they reimburse the team for the cost of the flight.

I'll keep nosing around for a more direct confirmation that this is how things work, but that's what I have today.

[huzzah]

Thank you for your comments. I consulted Webster and I believe I am correct. Therefore, I stand by my prior comments. Regarding the trip, I think it can be made for $600. I just flew to Lafayette LA for $185 RT. Southwest flies to NO, as do other airlines, so I think the trip can be made for $200. Throw in a hotel, which I assume would be in NO, and that is an additional $135-150. It will include breakfast, so Stu has plenty of wiggle room prior to reaching $600. In terms of overall expenditures made by the Post, this is a practical trip. If the Post can raise their dividend, they can afford this trip. The point of my prior post was that the trip was feasible. Whether the trip is free on not may be relevant in terms of journalistic ethics, but this is not germane to the conversation. My point is Stu should have went on the trip and the Post can afford the trip. The WSJ ran an article today and it sounds like a sale is in the works, but not necessarily to Gannet. It seems like the Pulitzers wish to retain some form of ownership. Since this is a Billiken Board, not a PD board, I will refrain from further comments. Its only ethical.