For a small but increasing number of Americans, the song “Pull Your Pants Up!” by gospel rap artist Dooney “Da Priest” is not just a song.
“It’s a movement,” the rapper told The Clarion-Ledger last week after the release of his new album “Pull Your Pants Up!”
Mulling Brett Favre’s “will he-won’t he” reconsideration of retirement:
In his later life, his students knew him as “Wild Bill,” their journalism professor.
But those who knew Bill Sorrels from his newspaper days remember a dedicated journalist who worked some of the biggest stories at The Memphis Commercial Appeal and, later, as editor of The Evansville Press from 1977-1983. The longtime journalist also worked a tour at West Point’s Daily Times Leader in the late 40s and early 50s.
Sorrels died Saturday at the age of 83.
Ed Darling has been named editor and publisher of the Mississippi Business Journal, returning to the state after an absence of nearly 12 years. He previously served as publisher of the Natchez Democrat for several years before moving to The Meridian Star as publisher in 1996. He then spent a decade as publisher of The Cullman Times in Alabama.
Mississippi mentioned only in passing here, but the entry on this Swiss blog on the rise (return? reemergence?) of Refrigerator Journalism is worth the read:
“As we take our weekly look at what newspapers are doing to fit into the new business models pressed upon them by publishers, a new term has popped up – refrigerator journalism – that reminds editors that a newspaper can never be too local…”
From the San Francisco Chronicle: “Speculation that Toyota Motor Corp. might build Prius hybrids in the Bay Area appeared to unravel Thursday when the company announced plans to start Prius production at a Toyota plant already under construction in Mississippi.”
Journal Publishing Co., publisher of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, has acquired the Southern Sentinel in Ripley and the Southern Advocate in Ashland.
The Sentinel, published twice weekly, has served Ripley and Tippah County since 1879 and the Advocate, published weekly, has served Ashland and Benton County since 1904.
“I’m excited about the change,” said Tim Watson, publisher for both newspapers. “We have a talented staff, as evidenced by the 27 editorial awards the Sentinel and Advocate won in this year’s Mississippi Press Association Better Newspaper Contest, and the 30 MPA advertising awards the two papers won this year.”
The deal comes two years after the Ripley, Ashland and now-defunct Southaven Press were sold to Family Publishing Group. Specifics of the transaction were not disclosed in the DJ article.
J.D. Schwalm, whose photographs spoke thousands of words to readers of The Clarion-Ledger over the past 24 years, died late Thursday afternoon at Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland after a 15-month battle with cancer. He was 53.
The newspaper’s editorial board memorialized the photographer in Saturday’s edition: “Schwalm was an old-school journalist who was absolutely fearless in pursuit of a story. But what made his photographs unforgettable was Schwalm’s reliable decency and humanity.”
E&P reports: The Times-Picayune of New Orleans has eliminated most of its circulation in…Mississippi, according to Circulation Director Phil Ehrhardt, who said the cutback amounts to some 3,000 subscription and single-copy sales.
Brian Perry writes in his column for the Madison County Journal: “My libertarian streak opposes government secrecy, but advocates personal privacy. So where do we draw the line between individual privacy (including government employees) and the public’s right to know?
“One extreme says there is no line. Government time; government computer; government e-mail means an employee paid by the taxpayers of Mississippi should expect no privacy in their e-mail or communications and all are subject to an open records request.
“Another extreme says there is a privacy wall. Government employees presume their e-mails are private communications and they should not be subject to review from their colleagues, their bosses, the press, or any other Big Brother.”
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