InkBlots

Retired Sun Herald publisher Roland Weeks, credited with persuading divergent Mississippi Coast communities to speak in one regional development voice, is the 2008 recipient of the Capt. William Harris Hardy Founder’s Day Award…Ed Nichols, who recently took the reins of the Clarksdale Press-Register as publisher, has assumed the same duties for the Greenville Delta Democrat Times. Both papers are owned by Jackson-based Emmerich group. Nichols succeeds John Clark in Greenville.

There have been doubters ever since Packers star quarterback Brett Favre announced his retirement last month.  And after his interview in The Sun Herald, those doubters have reason to feel validated.

Asked whether he would return should the Packers be hit with injuries, the 38-year-old told the newspaper, “It would be hard to pass up, I guess. But three months from now, say that presents itself, I may say, you know what, I’m so glad I made that decision. I’m feeling very comfortable in what I’m doing and my decision.”

ALSO: The AP splits hairs over the location of The Sun-Herald.

MEANWHILE: What about Deuce?

Round-the-clock blogging, a text message blinking and yet another flash of video on YouTube has obviously sped communication up to a dizzying pace. Never mind the content. So says the seasoned Sid Salter (how’s that for alliteration) to a group of political science majors at Mississippi State.

The Newseum, the “world’s most interactive museum,” is scheduled to open April 11. The facility cost $450 million and spreads across seven levels and 250,000 square feet of exhibit space; it houses 15 theaters, including one where audiences experience “4-D time-travel.” The Newseum is nonprofit and privately financed.

“We ran out of room at the old Newseum,” explained Charles Overby, a former editor of Gannett newspapers in Florida, Tennessee and Mississippi and the CEO of the Newseum. The original Newseum was attracting about a half-million visitors a year, needed to expand and couldn’t find room nearby.

“Our mission is to educate as many people as possible about the First Amendment,” he said. “We decided to move to fish where the fish are” in an ideal location, in sight of the Capitol and Supreme Court.

Friday’s twisters wreaked havoc with the traditional print cycle at the Vicksburg Post, which missed publication for Saturday. PDFs of the Saturday pages were made available online and the actual printed copies surfaced the next day, stuffed inside the Sunday edition.

The Clarion-Ledger got quotes from the requisite rubberneckers and eyewitnesses, but this time committed their observations to video, not just print.

In what hardly could be considered newsworthy, Congressional Quarterly has declared Mississippi least livable among states — again. And somehow life goes on.

Rounding out the bottom of the barrel are the usual suspects: Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina. Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana are not asking for a recount.

Single-copy sales of The Meridian Star have been unusually profitable recently — profitable, that is, for the thieves who are stealing the 15,000-circulation daily’s newsracks.

In the past three weeks, someone or some gang has stolen 11 Meridian Star racks, as well as a number of USA Today honor boxes. Most of the newsracks have been recovered, with their change boxes missing, the Star reported Friday in an article by staff writer Brian Livingston.

Charles G. Smith, who may have been best known for his stints as an editor at The Clarion-Ledger and The Clinton News, died Wednesday at the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center from complications associated with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83.

Lloyd Gray, editor of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo puts Greg Davis’ win over Glenn McCullough in the Republican run-off for the First Congressional District into perspective: “If the district had been 22 counties instead of 23, McCullough would have won in a blowout. He got 62.7 percent of the vote outside of DeSoto County. Problem was, the DeSoto vote was almost one-third of the total districtwide, and Davis held a 6,334-vote margin in his home county.”

From Editor and Publisher: The first issue of the new Monroe County Journal will hit newsstands April 9, according to officials with Journal Publishing Company.

During the past month, interim general manager Charlie Langford and the staff in the Amory and Aberdeen offices have been working to bring together the merged product, Tupelo-based Journal Publishing CEO Billy Crews said.