Rupert, 5 friends control 90% of news

In 1983, 50 companies gave Americans their news.

Today, SIX corporations and the billionaires who control them provide 90% of the news, including Fox News’ “fair and balanced” drivel from Rupert Murdoch’s kingdom.

If this doesn’t scare the pants off you, then you don’t care about democracy.

The only thing that hasn’t escaped the clutches of the plutocracy is the social media, where the word gets out without being filtered by a few billionaires’ agendas.

Within minutes after something newsworthy happens, it’s all over social media.

The billionaires probably are working on a way to control Facebook and Twitter posts.

80 billionaires have as much wealth as half the people on Earth combined.

This can’t be good for democracy. Kings never had it so good.

And some people want to elect a trash-talking billionaire as the next President. So he can have his 6 friends join him in eviscerating what's left of the middle class.

While newspapers struggle, these media firms are awash in money

American media companies with bulging capitalization purses:

Vice (the company, not the bad habits) is at $2.5 billion, including $500,000 from the Knight Foundation.

Israeli-originated Outbrain, a content recommendation/native advertising company, plans a $1 billion capitalization next year.

Vox's total is $385 million.

Buzzfeed’s total is $850 million.

Market capitalizations among the traditional media companies, by comparison:

McClatchy — $337 million (considerably less than Vox).

Tribune Publishing — $584 million (more than Vox, less than Buzzfeed).

New York Times Co. — $1.93 billion (roughly twice Outbrain but not as big as Vice).

Time Inc. — $2.55 billion (still a little more than Vice).

Continuing the staff slash-and-burn of traditional media companies, the New York Times did a buyout deal  last week with 60-plus news staffers and will add some layoffs to reach a staff reduction goal of 100. 

To read the article, click on http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/304659/capital-is-flowing-like-water-to-media-companies-of-a-certain-kind/

If you’re watching TV, you must be older

The older you are the more likely you are to watch TV.

The median age of a broadcast or cable viewer is 44.4 years old, a 6 percent increase in age from four years earlier. For the major broadcast network shows, its 53.9 years. For CBS, the sanctuary of the elderly, it’s 58.7.

Television viewers are aging 5% faster than the U.S. population.

Live television viewing was down 13 percent for all ages except for viewers 55 years and older, who are steadily watching their shows at their scheduled broadcast time.

To read the entire Washington Post article, click on http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2014/09/05/tv-is-increasingly-for

-old-people/?hpid=z15

Will a few determine what the many read, watch & think?

If Comcast and Time Warner Cable and 21st Century Fox and Time Warner merge, America could be on its way to a handful of companies deciding what its citizens read, watch and think.

That’s the warning in James B. Stewart’s Business Day article.

Think about it:  

In 1983, 50 companies owned 90 percent of the media consumed by Americans. By 2012, six companies controlled that 90 percent.

The top six studios account for 85 percent of theatrical film revenue. Fox and Warner Bros. lead the way with 19% (Fox) and 17% (Warner).

In television, five producers account for 85 percent of the market.

To read the entire Business Day article by James B. Stewart, click on

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/business/a-21st-century-fox-time-warner-merger-would-narrow-already-dwindling-competition.html?_r=0

Gen. McChrystal reporter dies in car crash

Michael Hastings

BuzzFeed journalist and author Michael Hastings, 33, died Tuesday in a Los Angeles car crash.

Hastings gained national attention in 2010 after exposing inflammatory comments made by Gen. Stanley McChrystal about President Barack Obama and the civilian leadership of the military.

A witness said he saw Hastings speeding down the road in his car when it jackknifed, slammed into a tree, and burst into flames.

Sun-Times eliminates photography department

The Chicago Sun-Times laid off all 28 full-time photography department staffers. Said 1982 Pulitzer-winning photographer John White, who has been on the newspaper for 44 years: “It was as if they pushed a button and deleted a whole culture of photojournalism.”

Reporters, free-lance photographers and ordinary citizens will provide the paper’s photos.

The banishment of the entire photography department was announced at the second meeting called by the newspaper’s new managers.

Chicago-based Wrapports, led by Chicago millionaire Michael Ferro, bought the Sun-Times and its 40 suburban affiliates in December 2011. 

The Sun-Times outscourced its printing in 2011.

To read two articles on the razing of the photography department, click on http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/215016/john-white-on-sun-times-layoffs-it-was-as-if-they-pushed-a-button-and-deleted-a-whole-culture/ and http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130530/NEWS06/130539987/chicago-sun-times-cuts-entire-photography-staff

Instagrams a way to connect with readers & viewers

Instagrams are a way for the media to interact with customers by sending photos to and from each other.

It helps connect with readers and viewers and provides news feeds and, in one case, helped an investigative reporter check on a Texas Congressman’s fundraiser at a Utah ski resort.

The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, NBC News, Baltimore Sun, ProPublica and Chicago Sun-Times representatives are quoted in the article by Meena Thiruvengadam in Poynter.com.

To read the article, click on http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/digital-strategies/214435/instagram-for-newsrooms-a-community-tool-a-reporting-tool-a-source-of-web-content/

Writers' pay scale slumping

The Internet is a game-changer in so many ways.

For example, even experienced writers no longer are paid for their Internet stories what they once made for their printed articles. Some outlets pay nothing to some writers nowadays. Experienced writers are competing with mom bloggers in an ever-expanding universe of people typing words.

Writes Kelly McBride of Poynter.org: “ When everything had to be published on paper, the hole was finite, the profit margins substantial, and the process for finding content more discerning. Now the amount of space to be filled is infinite, profit margins are miniscule and the process for finding content is like running on a hamster wheel.”

The publishers have an almost unbeatable hand against individual writers, experienced or not.

To read McBride’s article, click on http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/everyday-ethics/206394/everyone-gets-asked-to-write-for-free-some-people-say-yes/

Sale of Chicago Tribune, L. A. Times explored

 Tribune Co. has hired investment bankers to advise the media company on the potential sale of its newspaper publishing unit.

The company announced that it has retained JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Evercore Partners to assess whether to sell the division that includes the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and six other daily newspapers.

The bankers will analyze bids from suitors, but their hiring does not necessarily mean that the assets would be sold.

"There is a lot of interest in our newspapers, which we haven't solicited," Gary Weitman, a Tribune spokesman, said in a statement. "Hiring outside financial advisors will help us determine whether that interest is credible, allow us to consider all of our options, and fulfill our fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders and employees."

Tribune hopes to sell the newspaper group intact instead of selling each paper individually, according to a person familiar with the matter.


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Who's watching the liars?

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      COMMENTARY

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By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)

Jonah Lehrer fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in his book about creativity.

Liane Membis made up sources in the Wall Street Journal.

Paresh Jha phonied material in at least 25 articles in the New Canaan News in Connecticut, including one that won first place in the state's writing awards. 

A photojournalist made up elements of a weekly photo essay for the Sun-Times Media’s suburban newspapers.

In these days of bare-bones staffs, isn’t anyone watching the store?

In the 1960s there was a Cincinnati sportswriter who copied material from his competitors. Irritated by this, another Cincy sportswriter typed “(Player’s name) will be out indefinitely with a broken ankle” as the story-stealer looked over his shoulder. The lazy sportswriter wrote that in a story for his newspaper. Later, he had to explain why he wrote something that never happened.

Cincinnati Reds Manager Birdie Tebbetts, asked for his opinion on a specific situation, quipped: “I don’t know what I said. (The lazy sportswriter) hasn’t made up my quote yet.”

Making up quotes and sources, or even relying on untrustworthy sources, used to be taboo.

Have newspapers – scrambling to survive, let alone thrive -- forgotten to watch the store and keep their reporters honest, even though it takes time, money and eternal vigilance?

In this age of the Internet when a kid in his grandmother’s basement can make up stuff that gets a million hits and is viewed as creditable by too many readers, have newspapers forgotten that trust and accuracy are cornerstones of responsible journalism?  

For the Poynter.org story about writers making up “facts” and “sources,” click on http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/regret-the-error/183384/how-to-detect-when-a-young-writers-sloppy-habits-could-signal-far-worse/