Anyone else got it this morning?

MARCH 10, 2010 — Minnesota Sen. Al Franken has joined The Google Twin Ports Fiber Initiative by resurrecting his Duluth Answer Man clips.

Duluth’s campaign combines a fun and creative grassroots campaign with a very serious effort to build a strong business case for bringing Google Fiber to the Twin Ports.

The Duluth Answer Man campaign was produced in the mid 80s by the Duluth Convention and Visitors Bureau, known today as Visit Duluth. The series ran in the Twin Cites market as the summer tourism campaign for Duluth.

Some of you were in a discussion in February about what the UMD Journalists should name their online news organization.  Thank you for all of your suggestions!

We would like to announce our name and website!

We called it “Lake Voice” after an old French Newspaper in Duluth entitled “Voix du Lac.” We focus on community news.

Please check us out and feel free to give any feedback!

lakevoicenews.org

Check us out on Twitter! lakevoicenews

Become a fan on Facebook! Lake Voice News

Personally, I didn’t care much about the accuracy of Jeff Tweedy quotes in various media, but I believe I’ve found a media issue of the utmost importance to our society.

In the Duluth News Tribune’s report about Superior High School wrestler Nikola Bogojevic winning the state championship in his weight class, this paragraph jumped out at me:

Moments later he grabbed Superior coach Bill Gedde and put him in an airplane spin — made famous by professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper — to celebrate the title.

Since when did Roddy Piper make the airplane spin famous? I remember Mike Rotunda using it as his signature maneuver in the 1980s, but I don’t remember ever seeing Piper do it. I mean, I suppose it happened, but I just don’t associate that move with Piper.

Am I right here?

By the way, congratulations to Bogojevic for his victory, his awesome season, and most of all putting his coach in an airplane spin. That’s epic.

(The article below was originally posted to the Northern Worker blog at www.northernworker.wordpress.com)

by Adam Ritscher

On Thursday, February 25 about 80 members and supporters of the Lake Superior Newspaper Guild gathered in front of the Duluth News-Tribune offices for an informational picket. The Newspaper Guild represents the reporters and other workers at the DNT.

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What: Informational Picket

Who: Lake Superior News Guild and supporters

When: Thursday, Feb. 25, noon to one

Where: In front of the Duluth News Tribune, 424 W. 1st Street

Why: The members of the Lake Superior Newspaper Guild would be glad to take a pay cut, but what we want in exchange from the paper’s owners, Forum Communications, is protection of jobs. Instead of working with the Guild, however, the company continues to lay off workers and diminish the quality of the paper. Help us send a message to Forum management that the Guild is more than willing to sit down at the bargaining table to achieve the savings the company desires in exchange for saving jobs here in Duluth. Tell the company that what it’s done to your newspaper is wrong. If you value having a newspaper in Duluth, please come out and support us. If you can’t make it, feel free to send an email to Forum owner Bill Marcil at wmarcil@forumcomm.com to let him know you’re concerned about the paper and you support the Guild’s efforts.

Cover: Free!

So I know that the whole ripping on the Duluth News Tribune theme gets a bit tiresome. Yet this article compels some response from anyone who knows better than to accept as journalism a story about the New Tribune’s publisher speaking before the Duluth Chamber. Ironically, in this story, the reporter quotes the DNT’s publisher stating that “What we don’t have is less local news content.” Well, I suppose if this article and advertisements qualify, that may be the case. But the newspaper is not even close to being “better than it was a year ago.” Read the story and you might understand my utter confusion at how anyone could possibly consider this story to be newsworthy.

What happened?

The News Tribune laid off two employees today, including education reporter Sarah Horner.

Why?

It’s a long story. And I’ll preface it by saying that while this comes from someone on the union side of the fence, what follows are facts that I don’t believe the company would protest.

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Antique dealer sick of appraising Smurf collections.

The Onion just republished this 2002 story, which many of you may have missed eight years ago.

It’s been 10 years since the Ripsaw published the last of its monthly scandal sheets and converted to an “alternative newsweekly” format. Here’s a look back at the old monthly editions of Duluth’s most infamous rag.
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I am not a huge sports watcher. I like the Vikings, I appreciate the Twins and once in awhile I will watch a bit of the NCAA Men’s BB Tournament in March. But I do enjoy the Olympics. Especially the Winter Olympics. And I think part of the reason that I appreciate the winter games so much is that there are so many local athletes. I’ll admit, my favorite aspect of the “Miracle on Ice” game from (ouch) 30 years ago now is that so many Minnesotans played a role in that underdog-david-vs-goliath-come-from-behind-victory.

Here are a few lists of Minnesotans that are in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver from Bob Collins MPR NewsCut blog, and the Star Tribune, plus a cursory search of the NBC Winter Olympics web page. (more…)

I may be wrong (since I was busy inhaling my delicious popcorn), but I think there was an Olympic-team curler on Jay Leno who said he was a part-time bartender at the Duluth Curling Club.

This is a fascinating bit of locally-relevant information that needs to be followed up by confirmatory videos. And I’m not sure if “confirmatory” is an actual word, but it sounds good.

Have any of you noticed Duluth has a new broadcast TV station? Is anyone able to get decent reception of it?

Candace Renalls has the details (or lack thereof, though clearly not her fault) on the Duluth News Tribune’s Twin Ports Business Blog.

The station runs programming from the My Family TV network, which features “programming to entertain, educate and edify,” including “uplifting spiritual” shows. In other words, a bunch of preaching and paid programming with some Andy Griffith and Bonanza mixed in.

I thought that the “1000 foot shitters” was great but she may have topped it with “I am still stuck on the beaver!”

Good luck in Haiti. Miss you on the news!!

Jitterbug Julie Pearce is leaving the Northland’s NewsCenter. She says this will be her last weekend anchoring the newscasts.

Hello all, yes, the rumors are true… this weekend will be my last weekend as a news anchor for the NewsCenter. This has been a hard decision for me. I’ve been with the NewsCenter now for about 4 years. I work with some amazing people and have truly enjoyed my time there. The big bright studio lights, the cameras, and… deep connection to our community have been extremely rewarding and exciting.

from her facebook page.

After a couple of weeks doing nursing and helping people in Belize she came back and bought a one-way ticket to Haiti to do medical support for people there who have been devastated. (more…)

I was watching Paddle to the Sea (1966) by Bill Mason. The National Film Board of Canada just released 17 movies in HD on the Web. Very cool.

Well, I’ve been critical of this operation twice before now, might as well make it a trilogy since no one else pointed this other stuff out …

Northland's News Center Volunteers at Haiti Telethon

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I noticed last week that the DNT Attic has returned to the Duluth News Tribune site. After Andrew K. was let go the site was never quite as good, but I appreciated that they were at least updating it with new posts from time to time. They just started updating it again after four months of silence. However the posting from January 18th looks strangely familiar to something I’d read before. Coincidence?

Came here to post on this but I see dlhmn beat me to it with a comment on my earlier post Northland’s “News” Center?

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Two more high-ranking executives in local media are out of work. Duluth News Tribune Executive Editor Rob Karwath and Circulation Manager Tim McLoughlin were laid off today. This follows the firing on Monday of Julie Moravchik, who was news director at Fox 21 News.

Duluth News Tribune Publisher Ken Browell released this statement:

“Effective today the company has restructured management within the Editorial and Circulation Departments, resulting in the elimination of two management positions at the News Tribune. Executive Editor Rob Karwath and Circulation Manager Tim McLoughlin have been laid off. Both of these individuals have made significant contributions to the News Tribune during their careers. These were difficult business decisions. I will miss Rob and Tim both personally and professionally.”

I’m surprised there isn’t a conversation going on here about the firing of Fox 21 News Director Julie Moravchik. Is this just inside baseball media stuff? It seems there are a lot of people who have strong opinions about this. How much does TV journalism or journalists matter?

Zits comic – 11-06-09

Love isn’t posting your wife’s/girlfirend’s naked butt & sex organs on Youtube after she’s had a mishap? I think I’ve been doing it wrong all these years.

Here’s a really cool video showing one R&D company’s view of the future of e-readers. Having been in the publication design biz for years, I loved seeing somebody take the idea of an electronic magazine beyond the blog or web site format. Some of the stuff they do in here is really cool, and features the photography and art beautifully.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Somewhat related, I saw a few posts today speculating about the fabled Apple Tablet, what it will actually be, and whether it will be a disappointment or not. I was saving up for an iPod touch, but I think I’ll wait to see what shakes out from Steve Job’s announcement in a few weeks.

Kenny wishes you all a Happy Holiday!

After numerous comments on my “Merry F***ing Christmas” thread, I got a phone call from Chief Gordon Ramsey. He was most cordial and apologetic about my ticket and offered to take care of it in a manner amenable to me. So, I deleted the previous thread- and have a lot of respect for the power of this little ol’ PDD blog and for our DPD Chief. Kenny wishes you all a Happy Holiday (and he is still for sale).

Back in January 1997 I witnessed an unidentified flying object. It was very thrilling and exciting. I’ll never forget it.

It was early evening. I was on the Midway Road. The object appeared as a bright star but larger than other stars. Within seconds it shot down to about 20 or 30 feet above me. I couldn’t see the top of the UFO, but the bottom shined in glowing red, green, blue and other lights. It hovered above me with such beautiful colors, blowing in the night. Within 15 to 25 seconds, it shot out in the night. It was over Cloquet within about 10 seconds. Nothing manmade could ever fly that fast.

That was my first and only sighting. I firmly believe it was a message from God that someday the Scenic Railroad should park those coal cars somewhere else.  And also, Tim Pawlenty would make a really rotten governor, let alone President.

Who knows what the future holds; only God knows for sure.

Parked (?) train blocks view of Lake Superior from http://duluthdailyphoto.vox.com/

I thought this was intended as a temporary winter seawall.

But Duluth Daily photo (above) and later the Duluth News Tribune had some good coverage of this that straightened me out, apparently these coal cars are just being stored on those tracks, even though they do sit in a storm prone spot. Now, DNT’s Brandon Stahl writes that the train will be moved to Leif Ericson Park. (more…)

I called the Duluth News Tribune a couple of weeks ago to ask if I could give them some money. They said no.

Since then I’ve sent a couple of emails and made more phone calls. The poor folks in the circulation department think I’m a crank. I’m not. I just want to pay for the local news I consume.

I told them I don’t want a paper edition of the News Tribune any more. I told them I’m no longer willing to stuff pounds and pounds of newsprint and glossy ads into paper bags each week.

I don’t want you to bring the paper to my door, I told them, because I read the paper online now. I want to pay you for that, I said.

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I was looking through the Duluth reviews on yelp.com and things are looking sparse and outdated. There are precious few reviews from Duluthians, it’s mostly just weekend tourists. I know you all have strong opinions on the M&H, your dentist, the parking situation in Canal… so go post some reviews, add businesses you don’t see, and let’s make Duluth sound good! Or bad, whichever you prefer.

Just when PDD had gone a full month without a post specifically targeting the local daily newspaper, Business North coughs this up for us to share:

DNT Web ‘deep’ linking challenged

By the way, PDD has some further insight into local Web statistics, if you’re interested.