Every publication makes mistakes, now and again — Oops! Local paper files "Attempted murder charge dismissed" under Entertainment pic.twitter.com/CZgNeUZtgZ — John Adams (@DailyAdams) March 12, 2014
Press
Press
Local Printing-Press Consolidation
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Daily Union and Good Morning Advertiser will use the Bliss Communications press: The change, effective Monday, Feb. 10, will end 131 years of printing the newspaper in Fort Atkinson and result in the layoff of approximately 20 employees…. Other changes will include a slight reduction in the page size, as well as an altered…
New Media, Press
Early Front-Runner: Worst Blog Post of 2014
by JOHN ADAMS •
The year’s just started, but we’ve an early, strong candidate for the worst blog post of 2014. Over at the Gazette, while working a white-collar job as editorialist and blogger in blue-collar Janesville, Greg Peck has a 1.7.14 entry entitled, My job is “stressful”? Well no kidding. Blogger Peck writes that a study…
New Media, New Whitewater, Politics, Press
What the ‘Shock of Inclusion’ Means Locally
by JOHN ADAMS •
I posted yesterday on Clay Shirky’s Shock of Inclusion and New Roles for News in the Fabric of Society, published in 2010 and just as relevant today. His essay isn’t about local media especially, but his observations are useful to assess both local news and politics. Shirky writes about the collapse of a pipeline…
New Media, Press
Shirky’s ‘Shock of Inclusion’
by JOHN ADAMS •
In 2010, Clay Shirky (then at Harvard, now at NYU) wrote about the changing nature of the news business, in a concise, insightful essay entitled, The Shock of Inclusion and New Roles for News in the Fabric of Society. It’s well-regarded and so has been oft-cited. These four calendar years later, it’s still the…
City, Local Government, Press
An Enduring Value of Local News
by JOHN ADAMS •
One of the pleasures of reading local press accounts of a meeting in Whitewater is that through those stories one sees how local insiders want to be portrayed. It’s as close to an official’s Dear Diary entry as one is likely to find. Readers will discover clues to the concerns, preoccupations, and worries of…
Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government, Press
The Gazette‘s Laughable, Damage-Control Editorial
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s an editorial at the Gazette today (http://gazettextra.com/article/20131122/ARTICLES/131129885/1034) predictably praising continued funding for Janesville’s transit bus to Whitewater. That there’s a bit of crowing in the editorial is unsurprising, but it’s more telling that it’s an error-prone essay that makes basic mistakes about Whitewater’s politics, and omits – perhaps intentionally – a description of the…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Press
Whitewater as a Youthful Town
by JOHN ADAMS •
Animals, Cats, Press, Weird Tales
Chicago Tribune Accidentally Puts Cat Photo on Homepage
by JOHN ADAMS •
Freedom of Speech, Local Government, New Media, Press
Local News
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a paywall up at Janesville’s GazetteXtra.com, with some content available for free, but much more local news now behind a paywall. I’ve no idea whether their effort will be a success, and the best one can say is that it will be tough going. Everyone at the paper surely sees that. In the end,…
Press
The Rolled-Up Newspaper
by JOHN ADAMS •
I was in a Whitewater establishment on Saturday, one that has hundreds of customers a day. On a counter easily visible to patrons sat a two-day-old newspaper, still unrolled and fastened with a rubber band just as when it had been first delivered. Perhaps someone only delivered Thursday’s paper on Saturday, or – alternatively –…
Government Spending, Local Government, Planning, Press
About that story on Whitewater’s East Gateway Proposal: What’s Missing?
by JOHN ADAMS •
On Tuesday afternoon, Whitewater’s officials held an informational meeting about a proposed public-works beautification project on the east side of the city. It’s not a new idea; those following politics in town for more than a few years would have heard about earlier discussions along these lines. On Wednesday, the Daily Union published a thousand-word…
Anderson, Cartoons & Comics, Government Spending, Local Government, Press
Details
by JOHN ADAMS •
Local Government, Open Government, Press, Public Records
Biting the Hand That Fed Him
by JOHN ADAMS •
Janesville City Manager Eric Levitt has decamped to Simi Valley, California. Readers will recall that Mr. Levitt touted the supposed benefits of a Generac-supporting ‘Innovation Express’ bus costing hundreds of thousands in public money. He kindly visited Whitewater last budget season to ask Whitewater taxpayers to kick in for a private company’s needs. (See, Whitewater’s…