Hold the Mayo

This is not the happiest of mornings for venerable Star Tribune sports columnist Sid Hartman.
The headline of the column that landed on my doorstep this morning was a typically smug Hartman harangue, “Wolves wanted Mayo all along.” His Sidness lectured his naive press corps colleagues:
The media got fooled into thinking the [...]

Strib TV debuts

As you ponder the future of journalism (and you know you do!), consider this:
The Star Tribune (the content of which was published exclusively on dead trees as recently as perhaps about 10 years ago) now features original video content front and center — literally — on startribune.com.
Photographers who have traditionally taken (gasp!) photographs are now [...]

Kersten’s questions

My first contact with the story of the TIZA charter school and questions about its religious activities was this headline on Strib columnist Katherine Kersten’s blog: “Should Katherine Kersten get the ax?“
Kersten wrote a column about the school: “Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) — named for the Muslim general who conquered medieval Spain — is [...]

Dirty Laundering Through Blogs

In the old days if a political candidate or party official wanted to attack their opponent, they usually had to do it directly and be accountable for it. One way the proliferation of political blogs has changed campaigns is that politicos no longer have to air dirty laundry themselves. They can hand it [...]

Parker Hughes’ Reputation: Ads Giveth, Poor PR Taketh Away

Poof. In 2000, the Parker Hughes Cancer Center burst onto Minnesota’s medical scene. Millions were spent on a saturation ad campaign that assured Minnesotans that this organization none of us has ever heard of was one of the leading cancer centers in the world. Minnesotans bit hard, and the Center grew by [...]

Dearth of Despair On Douglas’s Doppler

WCCO-TV refugee Paul Douglas penned the most gracious goodbye I’ve ever seen from an unceremoniously fired newsie. This is from Sunday’s Strib weather blurb:
Yes, stuff happens. The truth? I was making too much money at a time when local TV news isn’t nearly as profitable as it was even five years ago. [...]

Strib Gets Bent

The Star Tribune’s Tony Kennedy deserves some love for his story pointing out the bent I35W bridge gusset plates in photos that apparently were in the hands of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) five years prior to the I35W bridge collapse.
In mid-January of this year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that flawed [...]

Phased Gas Tax Increase Gives Legs To A Damaging Story

When you face an inevitably controversial story, every strategic communications counselor worth their salt will tell you the same thing: Manage the initial bad story as best you can, but, more importantly, do all you can to halt or limit subsequent follow-up stories. Reason: More damaging stories usually means more reputation damage.
Everyone [...]