InkBlots

“Orbservations,” a ghost-hunting group, paid an April visit to The Merdian Star and conducted a study of the paranormal while inside the newspaper’s press room. Group members report capturing a strange orb of energy on camera. No word on if it was the infamous Specter of High Newsprint Prices or some less malevolent spirit.

On May 3, 2006, the U.S. Postal Service filed an omnibus rate case with the Postal Rate Commission. Although the average increase is about 8.5 percent, the rate increases vary among subclasses and within subclasses. Significantly, the Postal Service proposes to greatly increase the recognition in the rate design of cost differences due to shape.

Accordingly, parcels and flats will tend to see larger increases than letters. That poses the threat of big increases for periodicals and TMC products.

More on the rate increases. This article also includes a handy, downloadable postal rates chart.

Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, a Mississippi native, is getting a good bit of press since it was announced one of her co-hosts, Charlie Gibson, will depart the morning program in June to take the reins of ABC World News Tonight. Roberts joined the show as a newsreader in 2002 before being elevated last year to co-host alongside Gibson and Diane Sawyer.

Apparently, some of us need to be told these things. A few newspapers are picking up on the fervor from the national media on recent alligator attacks. The Clarion-Ledger has Bobby Cleveland on the beat, offering safety tips if you encounter such a critter. The Sun Herald’s Josh Berman reports the reptiles have the right of way.

Meanwhile, Bama’s conservation officials are considering making gator hunts legal.

For a skewed perspective, Fox commentator Mike Straka says more folks are killed by deer in Florida than by voracious reptiles.

Blogs are becoming ubiquitous on the Web. Even member newspapers are leading the way with a roster of blogs from staff contributors covering a variety topics. The Clarion-Ledger makes staff musings available readily on the front page of their Website and frequently references the blogs in the print edition. By far, their biggest blog beat is sports, but familiar names such as Sid Salter blog on politics, while Pamela Berry talks about health issues.
Editor Ronnie Agnew told us just last month that blog readership has surpassed expectations at the newspaper.

A July 2005 report in the Wall Street Journal gives us some background, and details the emerging acceptance of them at newspapers across the country.

Welcome to InkBlots, an informal discussion of the newspaper industry inside Mississippi and beyond. For those of you who aren’t familiar with me, I’m a career newspaper guy who started out in the production department of my hometown paper. I’ve worked as a reporter, editor and publisher and have recently joined our state press association as director of marketing.
I eat, sleep and breathe newspapers and still believe wholeheartedly in their relevance to readers and their uniquity as a source of information. No other medium delivers the content that we do to millions of readers in our state and the billions around the globe. Times may change, but the importance of what we do, whether printed in ink or transmitted electronically, does not.
What we hope to accomplish with this blog is establish a meaningful dialog about the industry, specifically in our state. Your contributions and input are welcome and encouraged.