InkBlots

This one makes us a bit sad, to be sure: Jim Abbott, longtime publisher and editor of the Enterprise-Tocsin in Indianola, one of the state’s best weekly newspapers, is calling it quits in early 08. The Greenwood Commonwealth, his hometown newspaper, profiled Abbott in a Sunday feature.

It’s truly bizarre to consider: A former KKK grand wizard visited longtime Jackson Advocate publisher Charles Tisdale as the newspaperman lay on his deathbed earlier this year.

Apparently, a few readers of the Natchez Democrat assume many on the daily newspaper’s staff are imported from Alabama. Not true, writes Democrat editor Julie Finley, a Mississippi native.

Letter writer Jo Taylor, former president of the Mississippi School Board Association, takes the Scott County Times to the woodshed for editorializing about “hard-headed” members of the Forest School Board.

Franklin, TN-based Publishing Group of America, publishers of American Profile and Relish supplemental magazines will launch Spry for the health-and-fitness-conscious in late summer 08. It’s predecessors have garnered much attention, with Relish being singled out for distinction for its 2005 launch by Mr. Magazine Samir Husni.

Meanwhile, PGA has been acquired by a private equity firm. Jitters over the foundering housing and mortgage market have sent investors prospecting into good ole “traditional media” yet again.

Lloyd Gray of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal on the ascension of Gov. Mike Huckabee: “The former Arkansas governor - an ordained Baptist minister - has captured the fancy of religious conservatives not happy with any of the previously better known contenders. It’s primarily his cache’ with this group that has driven his rise, owing heavily to his unflinchingly anti-abortion and pro-traditional marriage positions.”

Wyatt Emmerich, publisher of The Northside Sun, on the Dickie Scruggs’ indictment: “Scruggs’ indictment is a real head scratcher. How could a smart man who has reportedly made a billion dollars in legal fees risk it all trying to bribe a local judge over a few measly millions?…If Scruggs is indeed worth a billion, as some experts conjecture, then the legal fee dispute involved no more than a few week’s interest on his billion.”

Charlie Mitchell, editor of The Vicksburg Post, is wondering the same thing: “Was it wealth that bred impatience? Is that the subtext on which a screenwriter will settle? Young lawyer. Zealous foe of corporate bigwigs. Gets rich, gets in a hurry, cuts a corner as he grows older and winds up facing prison, shamed for all time. Played by whom? Richard Gere? Tom Cruise?”