
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.
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The Local Scene
The Virtual Local Rag?
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.
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 ...
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 ...
By DAVID MCCUMBER
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/
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.

