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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

04/21/09 Bill Clark Of "Greenwich Gossip"Opines On David McCumber And The "Yellowich Time"

The Green Kitty Litter Liner, Also Known As The Rag, Or As Bill Clark Likes To Call It.....The Yellowich Time........

Can David McCumber Save the Local Rag?

In the revolving door of local newspaper management by the Hearst media chain, the Local Rag, aka Yellowwich Time, so known for the color of the journalism it has historically published, will have a new editor as of April 27. And for a change, it appears that he may be a winner.

David McCumber comes to Greenwich from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the venerable Left Coast newspaper that recently ceased to issue a printed version and became an online-only viritual newspaper. Although moving to the Local Rag sounds like a fairly substantial demotion to your scribe, he is nonetheless impressed with Mr. McCumber's resume, which includes being a published poet and author. "I'm not so much focused on dollars and cents but [sic] on good journalism," he is quoted as saying recently. Well, his grammar may be a bit weak, but the sentiment is laudable.

But can he save the Local Rag, with its motley staff of retreads and also-rans? Will he be able to get his underlings to start checking their facts and getting their stories straight, as it were? Your scribe wishes him well, but it's a little bit like trying to cleanse the Augean stables. There's an awful lot of horse manure still cluttering up the place.

Or, on the other hand, is Mr. McCumber here to preside over the transition of Yellowwich Time, too, into a virtual newspaper? Maybe he has been given a certain period of time in which to try to pull up its socks, after which he may be put in charge of cutting it off at the knees. Time will tell.


More From Bill Clark:


Please See Greenwich Roundup's Reort That Was Filed Yesterday:


And Today:


Here Is What Other Bloggers Have Had To Say:

The Daily Weekly - New Job for Ex-P-I Editor - Seattle Weekly
Former P-I Managing Editor David McCumber has landed on his feet in a new job with Hearst, the people who shut down the print edition of his former paper last month. McCumber is becoming editor of two Hearst newspapers in Connecticut, The Advocate of Stamford and the Greenwich Time, according to Editor & Publisher. He's also been named editorial director of Hearst's Connecticut Newspaper Group, which includes two dailies and six weekly newspapers.

McCumber was hoping one of his staff's final stories might show up on the winner's list of the 2009 Pulitzer Prizes announced today. No such luck.

The Las Vegas Sun won for public service for exposing a high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip, and The New York Times took home five prizes, one for breaking the call-girl scandal that destroyed Gov. Eliot Spitzer's political career. The Detroit Free Press won for local reporting for its coverage that brought down the city's mayor, sharing the prize with the East Valley Tribune of Arizona for its reporting on controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.....

The Pulse: McCumber named Hearst editor
David McCumber, former managing editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has been named editor of two of Hearst's Connecticut newspapers, The Advocate of Stamford and the Greenwich Time, as well as editorial director of its Connecticut ...

TheDay.com - McCumber named editor of 2 papers in Conn.
David McCumber also will become editorial director of Hearst's Connecticut Newspaper Group, which also includes the Connecticut Post, News-Times of Danbury, and Brooks Community Newspapers. Hearst President Steven Swartz says McCumber ...

The Question That Greenwich Newspaper Consumers Want Answered Is ...... Will The Greenwich Time Improve Under This New News Manager?


P-I MANAGING EDITOR
Who feared us? People in positions of power who abused that power. We've exposed hundreds of their kind, of the 19th, 20th and 21st century varieties.Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Local News - http://www.seattlepi.com/local/


WOW!!!

Lookout Greenwich Police Chief David Ridberg!!!!!

Now That Is An Editor With The Journalistic Balls

That Greenwich Has Needed For Decades.

While Many Fairfield County News Consummers Wondered If The Greenwich Time And It;s Sister Newspaper's Quality Would Improve The 600 Or So Hearst News Producers In The Local Area Wondered If There Could Be More Job Losses Under David McCumber.

Newspapers Need a New Business Model -- Seeking Alpha
Managing Editor David McCumber thinks the P-I will need to trim down from 181 employees to 40 with 20 in the newsroom and 20 selling ads. OUT WITH THE OLD. Old media such as magazines, book publishers and especially newspapers are ...SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page - http://seekingalpha.com/

But How Will Big Local Strories And Investigative Reports Get Produced With A Daily News Paper That Has Only 20 Reporters In The News Room?


Might investigative journalism be ready to be re-born at the grassroots?

Until recently, this question wasn't even asked much. If there was worry about what would happen to watchdog reporting with the decline of newspapers and other legacy media, it was expressed at the national level. It's why the launch of ProPublica,, the investigative journalism non-profit, got such acclaim, and now why many of us will be paying close attention to the establishment of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.

But look what's happening now at the community level. Last summer came the launch of Texas Watchdog, which got one-year foundation funding to play watchdog over state government and other Texas institutions. Two months ago Investigative Voice in Baltimore sprang to life.

Now David McCumber of the dear-departed Seattle Intelligencer is trying to rustle up funding for an investigative journalism site focusing on issues in the West. And a gang from the RIP Rocky Mountain News is aiming to launch InDenverTimes with the idea of making investigative work one of its centerpieces.

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