Reply With QuoteSmart move for the DMN.
Is anyone interested in a job at the Observer?
Dallas Observer
Robert Wilonsky is Leaving the Observer for Something Called The Dallas Morning News
By Joe Tone
Mon., Feb. 20 2012
Yes, you read that correctly: Robert Wilonsky, the longtime editor of this blog, is going behind the paywall. Or maybe he's becoming the paywall. We can't be sure. But we know this: He's leaving the Observer for The Dallas Morning News, where he'll officially be known as the digital managing editor, charged with overseeing the paper's website.
Wilonsky, who's 43, recently celebrated his 20th anniversary with Village Voice Media, the Observer's parent company. Aside from a brief stint in Los Angeles, he spent all of those years in Dallas -- as a staff writer, as a music editor, as a film critic, as a pop-culture and sports columnist and as Unfair Park editor. Wilonsky is a famously tireless worker, and that ethic helped build this blog into one of the most read and respected alt-weekly blogs in the country. We're obviously sad to see him go, and we wish our offer of unlimited access to the office beer fridge was enough to change his mind. If only we'd invested in a fridge full of bourbon and photos of really old buildings.
Unfair Park will undoubtedly undergo some changes in the weeks and months to come, as we search for a new lieutenant and plan for the future. Blogs anchored by one person naturally take on the identity of that person; a new anchor means a new identity. But we'll keep moving, powered by the same original reporting, the same frivolity, and the same occasional shotgun blasts from Schutze. (You are still very unwelcome on his lawn.)
I understand The News will be along with a press release shortly, complete with quotes from Robert. I'm sure he'll show up in the comments here soon enough. So I'll just say this: When he told me about the offer last week, and when he resigned late Friday, he looked like shit. Hadn't slept in days, he said. Thought he'd grow old and die here. Or at least die here. He wanted to stay, but he had to go.
His last day here is Friday, March 2. Expect some link-heavy nostalgia. Until then, enjoy him while he's around, and tell your friends -- at least the industrious and amusing and willing-to-cap-the-occasional-knee journalist types -- to send their résumés and clips this way, with Unfair Park Editor in the subject line.
Now, about that bourbon.
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...rning_news.php
Smart move for the DMN.
I hate to admit it, but there has been a NOTICEABLE difference at the DMN since the move. Hopefully, the DO can get their bearings and get back on top. It was a very shrewd move for the DMN, though. Wilonsky has really cracked the whip on those reporters over there. The content is more timely and detailed than I have ever seen.
I'm hoping Wilonsky also overhauls the website itself.
Tighten the female dog!
Baby steps, I suppose. At least the content is worth "navigating" the site now.Originally Posted by AeroD
He has said that that's the plan, sooner rather than later.
I had fallen out of the habit of reading the DNM Dallas City Hall blog, but it's back in the rotation now.
"Navigating" is a good word for it. I still dislike the DMN website and the way they poorly attempt to use their content via newsstand and their app on my ipad. Still a long way to go, I wonder if they are even aware of it.
Something is seriously wrong with the technical infrastructure of the site. It takes way too long to move from page to page or even access the home page. I can accept some of the ads, but the ads should not be slowing down the process. Dallas Observer has the same issue. Both must be using some feature of the ads for extra clicking points, but likely did not buy enough servers or bandwidth to support the extra processing. I also wish DMN would have a separate entry point for subscribers that once you are in, no more checking. I suspect other delays are caused by system checking your status, story by story. Maybe it has to be that way by trying to do double duty with same web site.
The iPad reader is fine by layout, but it lacks one feature that you have to have: offline reading of the paper. Now it is just a glorified web page. Loading each story, one at a time, and not going back without downloading again, defeats the purpose. I have the NYT and WSJ on iPad. Each morning while getting ready to leave, I have the iPad "get" the morning papers. Even the local Advocate, in four different editions,figured this one out. It may be that they really do not believe in the electronic side and wish it would go away, bringing back lots of sales inserts printed on dead trees.
I keep reading about every 12 months that someone new is the EVP or SVP of digital this or electronic that over at Belo. Most of them seem to come out of marketing with none actually marketing a digital service, or at least a successful one. Everything smacks of doing it cheaper, just get something out there. Maybe this new hire will make a difference.
While people on forum disagree, I think the DMN is a very good paper worth a subscription, especially compared to the tripe I see and read when I travel. If they put their minds to it, they can deliver good stories. They have been fooling around for five years, wasting time, and yet still have plenty of opportunities.
I'm not sure what the problem is. I read the Dallas Morning News everyday on their iPad app, and I think it is one of the best designed experiences I've seen. The navigation is excellent!
(The actual paper, not a web-site)
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2012...-pegasus-news/
Belo is doing the right things to evolve the DMN from a newspaper into a news source. Hiring great in depth writers and reporters, charging for access to content, hiring (buying) an effective online distribution point for point source info.Posted by Sarah Blaskovich
DALLAS — The Dallas Morning News announced today that it has acquired Pegasus News (www.pegasusnews.com), an online news and information business serving Dallas-Fort Worth, from PanLocal Media LLC, a subsidiary of Archstream LLC of Dallas. The purchase further strengthens The Dallas Morning News’ position as the leading source of up-to-date local news and entertainment information.
Rich Alfano, general manager of The Dallas Morning News’ Arts and Entertainment business, said, “Pegasus News allows us to reach more consumers and strengthens our ability to provide the latest and most relevant information about places to visit, events, music and restaurants. Pegasus News’ hyperlocal data provides consumers with information on approximately 225,000 places, 5,000 events, 4,200 restaurants, 2,500 bands and Friday Night specials.”
Sarah Blaskovich, editor of Pegasus News, said, “By combining Pegasus News’ content and technology with The Dallas Morning News’ distribution, marketing and sales capabilities, we are creating new and exciting opportunities for Pegasus’ audiences and advertisers. It's an exciting time for digital news and information companies like Pegasus News, and we’re thrilled to be teaming up with the largest creator of proprietary local news and information in Dallas-Fort Worth.”
The next component for Belo to fuse into the news source is direct interaction with readers: a discussion forum instead of comments section.
When did Mitchell Schnurman leave the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to go to the Dallas Morning News?
http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/...ole-of-a-state
So, I wonder where this guy will end up! Here's a copy/paste quote from Celeste from Facebook comments:CL editor resigns to return to hot, humid hellhole of a state
by Thomas Wheatley Oct 2, 2012
Eric Celeste, who over the past year has guided Creative Loafing Atlanta and withstood countless barbs from irate commenters, is leaving the alt-weekly to return to Dallas.
...In addition to editing the paper, Celeste opined on living in an auto-oriented city without an automobile, Atlanta's homelessness issues, that little cable news network headquartered downtown, questioned the AJC's seven-month long expose into school testing irregularities, among other things.
...Celeste came to Atlanta last year from Dallas, where he's scribbled for and led various publications over the decades. He was the founding editor of The Met, an arts, culture and entertainment weekly in Dallas. worked as a features editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, served as associate editor of the Dallas Observer, editor in chief of Southwest Spirit — Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine — and managing editor and editorial strategist for Dallas' D Magazine.
...Celeste says "I don't have a full-time gig lined up."
...be moving back downtown ... I know of a few full-time gigs that make sense to discuss. But I'll be working for myself initially. I have an idea for a project that I might try to get off the ground starting in November, depending on how other discussions go.
http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/201...uremap-column/
funny:
Posted on November 7th, 2012 3:20pm by Tim Rogers
Filed under Media
Where to begin? Eric Celeste has quit too many things to list here (The Met, Star-Telegram, Observer, etc.). There isn’t enough internet. So let’s begin in April 2010. That’s when Eric, having already quit his spot as the managing editor of D Magazine, quit from a whole separate division of our company, D Custom. He went off to create his own consultancy thingabob called Three Treatments, whose highest-profile client was DA Craig Watkins’ reelection campaign. Eric quit that campaign in October 2010. Less than a year later, he quit Dallas, moving to Atlanta to become the editor in chief of Creative Loafing. He beat the over and stayed in Atlanta longer than a year but then quit Creative Loafing last month.
Now comes word that Eric is back in Dallas and hiring out his services, apparently, to anyone with a spare login who is willing to defend rapists. (Wow, even I think that was mean.) Starting Monday, Eric will write a daily column for CultureMap. The easiest way to describe that column would be to call it an adaptation of our own daily Leading Off post (which is fitting, because Eric created that concept for us). Sources did not disclose (or we weren’t sober enough to ask) what the title of this daily feature will be. But one thing we can say for certain: Eric will quit CultureMap. Just a matter of time.
If you doubt my powers of prognostication, here’s an exchange between me and Eric in the comments section to a July FrontBurner post about turmoil in the upper ranks at CultureMap:
Eric Celeste @ 1:23 pm on July 25, 2012: They just hired Teresa Gubbins, too. I dunno, Timmy, seems like a pretty solid enterprise. Good, smart people, most of whom hate you. I freaking love that business plan.
Tim Rogers @ 1:31 pm on July 25, 2012: When’s your first day?
Eric Celeste @ 1:44 pm on July 25, 2012: Weird thing: They said I don’t hate you *enough*.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks