McClatchy Co., the second-largest U.S. newspaper publisher, reported higher earnings for its third quarter Tuesday as it absorbed 20 newspapers from Knight Ridder Inc., which it acquired in June. McClatchy, which is based in Sacramento, Calif., reported earnings of $51.8 million for the three months ending Sept. 24 from $38.6 million a year ago.
In Mississippi, McClatchy owns The Sun Herald on the Gulf Coast.
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Writes Clarion-Ledger executive editor Ronnie Agnew in a recent column:
At The Clarion-Ledger, we’ve tried mightily to offer local news that connects with our readership, always putting our First Amendment responsibilities first and using this powerful newspaper to give voice to people who feel their voice doesn’t matter.
One of the best things about our local news efforts is that the ideas often don’t come from us, but from you…
Consider this an invitation to help us out. It took some newspapers a long time to learn that community participation in the newsgathering process is smart. This newspaper, one that has long understood the importance of community, will be going much deeper into that area soon. Stay tuned for that.
Ivan V. Anderson Jr., president and CEO of Evening Post Publishing Co. in Charleston, S.C., was elected as president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.
Todd H. Carpenter, president and chief operating officer of Boone Newspapers, was named to the board to represent Mississippi.
When the national press returned on the first anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina forever changed life from Mobile to New Orleans, they found a much different Mississippi than the one they left.
“We got handed a big lemon during Katrina, and I think the Coast is making really good lemonade out of it,” said Steve Richer of Mississippi Beyond Katrina.
Richer gave thumbs up to the Philadelphia Inquirer, among others.
Amy Worden, staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and staff photographer Larry Kesterson acquired much perspective from seeing the destruction firsthand when they volunteered to help at the Sun Herald the week Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
After all they had seen here, the two lobbied their editors to include Mississippi stories in the Inquirer’s anniversary package.
“We felt it was important to cover Mississippi fairly on the anniversary,” Worden said. “It was a struggle. Even in our own newspaper there were editors who said nobody cares about Mississippi. It was our job to make them care.”
A pair of reporters for the Delmarva Daily Times primes the “Wal-Mart will ruin our city” pump one more time. But it does include an interesting statistic from the Magnolia State: Mississippi food stores lost 17 percent of sales by the fifth year after a Wal-Mart Supercenter came into the market; retailers lost 9 percent.
Chancery Judge Denise Owens ordered the City of Jackson to pay nearly $13,000 in fees to cover more than half of The Clarion-Ledger’s legal costs in its lawsuit against the City Clerk’s office, City Council members and Mayor Frank Melton.
But just hours after Owens’ ruling, Melton vowed to fight what he called “irrelevant” records requests recently made by the newspaper.
Read the open records judgment
Clarion-Ledger Perspective Editor Sid Salter writes: In 1993, Harkey was inducted into the Mississippi Press Association’s Hall of Fame some eight years after it was established. Even at the induction ceremony during a summer MPA convention weekend, Harkey groused about how he was treated in the 1960s. Time had not salved the hurt, nor did the olive branch of the MPA’s highest honor. He still wondered aloud why more Mississippi journalists had not stood with him against racism and segregationist blather back in the day…
Sun Herald political writer Geoff Pender: “He showed courage at a time when it was terribly important for some journalistic voices to speak out,” said pioneering civil rights journalist Bill Minor. “There were very few at that time. Ira was one of the few…”
The Associated Press via Editor & Publisher: Mr. Harkey’s editorials were recognized by the Pulitzer Prize administrators as courageous support for the processes of law and reason during the desegregation crisis of 1962, in which federal marshals and troops were needed to quell rioting that threatened to prevent James Meredith from becoming the first black student at Ole Miss…
Clarion-Ledger editorial board: In newspaper columns, editorials, books and from the podium as a professor, Harkey’s name was synonymous with the highest ideals of journalism - speaking the truth, telling it like it is, pulling no punches, letting the readers decide.
Broadcasting pioneer/maverick/geezer Ted Turner, 67, never one to mince words, says newspapers are done for and will die when he does. To that we say “live long and prosper, Ted.”
Weekly Mississippi Link, with a circulation of about 3,000, has won the right to publish the City of Jackson’s public notices (the politically correct term for what those of us in the biz know as “legals”) after a protracted struggle with The Clarion-Ledger that began when Mayor Frank Melton vetoed the city council’s original decision to use the small newspaper rather than the large daily. The Jackson Advocate also bid on the right to publish the notices, which mean thousands of dollars in revenue for the winning newspaper.
Editor and Publisher, via The Associated Press, has picked up on the controversy generated by the sex column Pillow Talk, appearing in The Student Printz newspaper at the University of Southern Mississippi.
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