Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Global Media Blockchain Alliance established in Hong Kong

The Global Media Blockchain Alliance has been set up in Hong Kong, Taiwanese newspaper China Times reported July 20, according to Bitcoin Exchange Guide.
TheGlobal Media Blockchain Summit was held in Hong Kong July 19. At the event, the alliance reflected on how the media plays a key and unique role in how the blockchain industry is understood and characterized by the public.
The Global Media Blockchain Alliance is composed of more 100 mainstream media outfits, according to the China Times. The Alliance plans to set up a gateway for new media to join, Bitcoin Exchange Guide reports.
Hong Kong is emerging as a leader in blockchain technology, Bitcoin Exchange Guide notes.
Business.com defines blockchain as a public, digital ledger, a record of new transactions or any other data. Blockchain is most closely associated with Bitcoin, but it has many uses, including contracts and preventing fraud, according to Business.com.

Patrick Soon-Shiong’s firm buys warehouse next to new LA Times building

NantWorks' $50M purchase in El Segundo comes a short time after paper shifted headquarters

By Natalie Hoberman | July 24, 2018 12:30PM

Patrick Soon-Shiong and the property at 2310 Imperial Highway.
The property could serve as an expansion of the Times building, according to one source. The newspaper recently shifted headquarters to El Segundo, and into a eight-story, 145,000-square-foot office building at 2300 Imperial Highway. 
Full article at The Real Deal

New York Times Store introduces make-your-own cookbook

The New York Times has introduced a customizable and personalized cookbook, allowing people to build their own book featuring the popular dinner recipes from NYT Cooking, The Times’s recipe site and kitchen companion.  
The Times is selling the cookbook exclusively at The New York Times Store.
Edited by Food editor Sam Sifton, NYT Cooking features curated recipe collections and more than 50 cooking guides aimed at making it easier for beginning and advanced home cooks to learn new skills.
“We’re delighted to offer readers a physical keepsake to live alongside NYT Cooking’s digital offering,” said Amanda Rottier, vice president of NYT Cooking, The New York Times. “A physical cookbook offers us a beautiful, tactile new way for readers to interact with our vast collection of recipes, while also allowing us to experiment with new revenue opportunities as we scale the NYT Cooking brand.”
The customizable NYT Cooking cookbook costs $35 for the soft cover version and $55 for the hard cover version. Times subscribers receive 15 percent off New York Times Store purchases.

Trump tariffs hurting small-town newspapers



Tariffs on newsprint coming from Canada has hurt printers’ bottom line and threatened the survival of small newspapers nationwide.


Variety: New York Post starts TV unit

The New York Post has started a new entertainment division to produce television, Variety reported.
TV producer Troy Searer has been brought on as president of New York Post Entertainment. The division will do scripted and unscripted material for cable, streaming, broadcast and emerging platforms, according to Variety.
Searer has produced series for A+E, VH1, TLC and Discovery.
“It’s a real opportunity,” Jesse Angelo, CEO and publisher of the Post, told Variety. “There is so much hunger for original television content for differentiated IP, for storytellers that have voice, and we have those things. We were able to show some success with ‘Page Six TV’ and show that we could swim in these waters, and we wanted to take it to the next level. We have a couple other deals in development, a couple other projects that we’re working on, and I just realized the time had come to get somebody to head up these efforts out of Los Angeles and take it to the next level.”
The move comes on the heels of the successful premiere in 2017 of Endemol Shine North America’s “Page Six TV,” based on the Post’s gossip section. The program, hosted by Bevy SmithVariety’s Elizabeth Wagmeister, and the Post’s Carlos Greer, has been re-upped for a second season.

Tuesday Morning in the Blogosphere

Los Angeles Times writer Bob Pool





Journalists Are at Risk Around the Globe - Washington Post

Why next week could be critical for U.S. newspapers - USA Today

These startups are trying to save your local newspapers - WSMV Nashville

You've heard of public TV. How about public newspapers? - Arkansas Times

Low-income people aren’t getting quality news and information - Nieman Lab

Maria Ressa on Facebook, Truth and the Crisis of Democracy - Editors Weblog

What advertising revenue tells us about the newspaper industry - Money Control

Digital startup Colorado Sun plans to cover the whole state in greater depth - Poynter

Reporters Without Borders and its Partners Launch Initiative to Fight Misinformation - EP

Newsroom employment dropped nearly a quarter, with greatest decline at newspapers - Pew


Reade Brower buys two Maine weeklies

Reade Brower has bought two weekly papers in Maine. The purchase comes on top of the six Maine dailies and numerous weeklies Brower already owns.
Brower has bought the Ellsworth American and the Mount Desert Islander from owner Alan Baker, the Ellsworth American reported. The deal closes Aug. 31. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“The Ellsworth American has a long legacy of excellence and the Mount Desert Islander complements that legacy, providing its own quality, award-winning journalism,” Brower said. “Who wouldn’t want them in the family?”
Together the two weeklies have 60 employees and a combined print circulation of nearly 13,000.
The Ellsworth American and Mount Desert Islander will remain independent operations and won’t join MaineToday Media or Sun Media Group, which include other papers Brower owns.

Today in Labor History

Labor History July 31st
Pirate pitcher Luis Tiant reads about the end of the strike
Members of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) went on strike. The strike lasted only two days, but inaugurated the NFLPA as a real union. The new agreement won the right for players to bargain through their own agents with the clubs, and minimum salaries were increased to $12,500 for rookies and $13,000 for veterans. Also, players’ pensions were improved and dental care was added to the players’ insurance plans. Players also gained the right to select representation on the league’s retirement board and the right to impartial arbitration for injury grievance. – 1970
A crippling fifty-day baseball player strike ended. The strike divided the season into two as owners adopted a split-season format with increased playoff participants. Purists were enraged, as several teams whose first-rate records somehow failed to qualify the for the postseason.  – 1981
The Great Shipyard Strike of 1999 ended after Steelworkers at Newport News Shipbuilding ratified a breakthrough agreement which nearly doubled pensions, increased security, ended inequality, and provided the highest wage increases in company and industry history to the nearly 10,000 workers at the yard. The strike lasted 15 weeks. – 1999

Monday, July 30, 2018

Casper Star-Tribune outsourcing printing

The Casper Star-Tribune is outsourcing its printing to the Adams Publishing Group in Cheyenne, according to a press release from the Casper News Guild. The Star-Tribune’s press will do its last run on Aug. 5., according to the Oil City News.
Around two dozen mail and pressroom workers, some 15 of them part-time, lost their jobs in the move, according to the guild. The workers were offered severance, the guild says.
Iowa-based Lee Enterprises owns the paper. Publisher Dale Bohren said the Casper press, which he said was technologically obsolete, will remain idle.

Monday Morning in the Blogosphere

Producing the Herald Examiner at the Los Angeles Times





Newspapers Face Another 10% Drop in Revenue - 24/7 Wall St.

Editorial: Hard times for US newspapers - The Providence Journal

Newspapers are very much alive in today's climate - Manhattan Mercury

Mirror parent slashes value of local newspapers by £150m - The Guardian

Former headquarters of The Record newspaper slated for demolition - North Jersey

Now on The Score, David Haugh aims to keep ‘strong voice’ in print - Robert Feder

You don't know what you've got 'til newspapers are gone - Baltimore Post-Examiner

Could digital media startups fill the vacuum left by community newspapers? - NBC News

New York Times publisher says he warned Trump about anti-media rhetoric - Chicago Tribune

Tariffs on Canadian newsprint could wipe out small-town newspapers - Nebraska Radio Network


North Carolina paper drops Sunday comics

The Robesonian (Lumberton, North Carolina) has dropped the Sunday comics, beginning with the July 28 edition, the paper reported.
According to the paper, it made the move because of the recent rise in newsprint prices, affected by the tariffs imposed on imports from Canada.
“This was a difficult decision,” said Denise Ward, publisher of The Robesonian. “We know and appreciate that some folks love their comics, but the cost is something we simply cannot absorb.”
Ward said the paper will add games and puzzles.
The daily comics, published in black and white, will still be included in the paper.

Today in Labor History

Labor History July 30th
Automobile tycoon and fascist Henry Ford was born on this date in Dearborn, Michigan. His introduction of the assembly line and other mass production techniques revolutionized profit-making not only by dramatically increasing worker productivity, and therefore reducing labor costs, but also by de-skilling the workforce and weakening the power of the workers. – 1863
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare Act, providing federally-funded health insurance for senior citizens. – 1964
Former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. Presumed dead, his body has never been found. Hoffa was a union activist with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) from a young age, and was an important regional figure with the union by his mid-twenties. By 1952, Hoffa had risen to national vice-president of the IBT, and served as the union’s general president between 1958 and 1971. He secured the first national agreement for teamsters’ rates in 1964. During his term as leader, Hoffa played a major role in the growth and development of the union which eventually became the largest (by membership) in the U.S. with over 1.5 million members at its peak. – 1975
United Airlines agreed to offer domestic-partner benefits to employees and retirees worldwide. – 1999

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Enjoy Unlimited Digital Access to trusted journalism on all your devices.

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Saturday Morning in the Blogosphere

Press Operators Wanted - Highland, Illinois

  • Job Type: Full-Time
  • Company: Dow Jones
  • Company Website: dowjones.jobs
  • City: Highland
  • State: Illinois

Description

Dow Jones, publisher of the world’s most trusted business news, is seeking an experienced double wide newspaper press operator at our printing center located in Highland, IL – 45 minutes east of St. Louis, MO.
For more information and to apply please visit dowjones.jobs or

Today in Labor History

Labor History July 28th
Women shoemakers in Lynn, Massachusetts created the Daughters of St. Crispin, the first national women’s labor union in the U.S. The union began with a strike of over a thousand female workers in 1860. By the end of 1869, it had a total of 24 local lodges across the U.S., the largest of which had over 400 members. Conventions of all the lodges were held annually in Massachusetts until 1872. The Name “Daughters of St. Crispin” was inspired by the contemporary men’s union of shoemakers, the order of the Knights of St. Crispin. Saint Crispin is the patron saint of cobblers, tanners, and leather workers. In 1870, a convention of the Daughters of St. Crispin unanimously adopted a resolution which demanded equal pay for doing the same work as men. – 1860
Harry Bridges was born in Australia. He came to America at age 19 and became a leader of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). In 1937 he led several chapters in forming a new union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), expanding membership to warehouse workers. He led the ILWU for the next 40 years. – 1901
A strike by Paterson, New Jersey silk workers for an eight-hour day and improved working conditions ended after six months, with the workers’ demands unmet. During the course of the strike, approximately 1,800 strikers were arrested, including Wobblie leaders Big Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. – 1913
General Douglas MacArthur, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower and their troops, burned down a shantytown occupied by unemployed veterans near the U.S. Capitol. 20,000 ex-servicemen had been camped out in the capital demanding a veterans’ bonus the government had promised but never given. Cavalry troops and tanks fired tear gas at veterans and their families and then set the buildings on fire. MacArthur and President Herbert Hoover said they had saved the nation from revolution. – 1932
Nine miners were rescued in Sommerset, Pennsylvania. after being trapped for 77 hours, 240 feet underground in the flooded Quecreek Mine. – 2002

Friday, July 27, 2018

Joe Scott & Associates, Inc - Offering re-manufactured mail-room equipment


is the leading supplier of used Post Press Equipment
for the Newspaper and Commercial Printing Industry.

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~Specializing in Muller Martini Inserters and Stitcher/Trimmers, Rima Stackers, Heidelberg/Harris Inserters, Stitcher/Trimmers and complete Newspaper Mailroom systems.

   
 


Always growing catalog of replacement parts for your Muller Martini equipment.


~JSA is the largest used Muller Martini Equipment and Rima Stacker Dealer in North America.
 
~Quipp has announced it will be ending servicing and parts manufacturing for the 300 and 350 Series Stackers. JSA will continue to support the Quipp 300 Stacker and Quipp 350 Stacker.

~JSA is a full service used equipment dealer with operations in an 80,000sq/ft. + "state of the art" facility with full machine shop on premises. 
~JSA can provide equipment “as is”, “refurbished” or “rebuilt”.
Joe Scott & Associates
1251 Specialty Drive
Fort Payne, AL 35968

Please contact us at:
256/997-9355 Telephone
256/997-9656 Fax
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E-Mail for information now.

 


Friday Afternoon in the Blogosphere

Volunteer opportunities available 




In the Philippines, a presidential spokesperson criticized Facebook - Inquirer

Jerusalem Post Fires Cartoonist Over Caricature Mocking Netanyahu - Haaretz

DOJ investigating if Sinclair, Tribune collude on TV ad sales - LA Business Journals

Twitter shares drop 14 percent after reporting declining monthly active users - CNBC

Audiences are shrinking for Hispanic- and black-oriented U.S. news media - Nieman Lab

National Press Club announces Emilio Gutiérrez's release in victory for press freedom - NPC

Production: Combining Our Print Product and Digital Offerings Will Guarantee Success - EP

Despite Ongoing Losses, John Henry Insists That The Boston Globe Is Not For Sale - WGBH



Apogee v11 latest workflow release from Agfa Graphics

Apogee v11 is the latest release of the Apogee workflow from Agfa Graphics. The version will be available starting Oct. 22, the company says.
Apogee v11 automates all prepress tasks and includes multi-product support to increase printing efficiency. Integration with PressTune supports Agfa Graphics’ ECO³ market approach focused on economy, ecology and extra convenience, according to the Belgium-based company.
Apogee v11 offers a mechanism to combine print jobs in an intelligent way to optimize press time, while also keeping track of the actual order, the company says. “This is a major step forward in production efficiency,” says Erik Peeters, global marketing manager Software Solutions. “Combining orders reduces plate changes and lowers production costs. As paper waste is significantly less, the ecological footprint decreases, too.”
Apogee WebApproval, an online portal that lets print buyers access their jobs for file upload and page approval, also got an update.
Apogee WebFlow is a new module that gives customer service representatives, press and finishing operators or others in a printing company access to prepress job data.
Version 11 from Apogee will be offered both as an on-premise and cloud solution. 

Today in Labor History

Labor History July 27th
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones with children and adults beginning their “Children’s Crusade”
William Sylvis (1828-1869), founder of the Iron Molders’ International Union and head of the Nation Labor Union, the first such organization in US history, died on this date. – 1869
Mother Jones gave her famous “The Wail of the Children” speech during the “March of the Mill Children.” The march began on July 7 in Philadelphia and ended at Teddy Roosevelt’s summer home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. They were demanding a 55 hour work week for children. – 1903
“After a long and weary march, with more miles to travel, we are on our way to see President Roosevelt at Oyster Bay. We will ask him to recommend the passage of a bill by congress to protect children against the greed of the manufacturer. We want him to hear the wail of the children, who never have a chance to go to school, but work from ten to eleven hours a day in the textile mills of Philadelphia, weaving the carpets that he and you walk on, and the curtains and clothes of the people.
Fifty years ago there was a cry against slavery and the men of the North gave up their lives to stop the selling of black children on the block. To-day the white child is sold for $2 a week, and even by his parents to the manufacturer’s.
Fifty years ago the black babies were sold C. O. D. To-day the white baby is sold to the manufacturer on the installment plan. He might die at his tasks and the manufacturer with the automobile and the yacht and the daughter who talks French to a poodle dog, as you can see any day at Twenty-third Street and Broadway when they roll by, could not afford to pay $2 a week for the child that might die, except on the present installment plan. What the President can do is to recommend a measure and send a message to Congress which will break the chains of the white children slaves.
He endorsed a bill for the expenditure of $45,000 to fill the stomach of a Prince who went gallivanting about the country. We will ask in the name of the aching hearts of these little ones that they be emancipated. I will tell the President that I saw men in Madison Square last night sleeping on the benches, and that the country can have no greatness while one unfortunate lies out at night without a bed to sleep on. I will tell him that the prosperity he boasts of is the prosperity of the rich wrung from the poor.
In Georgia where children work day and night in the cotton mills, they have just passed a bill to protect song birds. What about the little children from whom all song is gone?
The trouble is that the fellers in Washington don’t care. I saw them last winter pass three railroad bills in one hour, but when labor cries for aid for the little ones they turn their backs and will not listen to her. I asked a man in prison once how he happened to get there. He had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him that if he had stolen a railroad he could be a United States Senator. One hour of justice is worth an age of praying.
You are told that every American born male citizen has a chance of being President. I tell you that the hungry man without a bed in the park would sell his chance for a good square meal, and these little toilers, deformed, dwarfed in body, soul, and morality, with nothing but toil before them and no chance for schooling, don’t even have the dream that they might someday have a chance at the Presidential chair.
You see those monkeys in the cages. They are trying to teach them to talk. The monkeys are too wise, for they fear that then the manufacturers might buy them for slaves in their factories. In 1800 the workingmen had the advantage in percentage of the country’s wealth. To-day statistics at Washington show that with billions of wealth, the wage earners’ share is but 10 per cent. We are going to tell the President of these things. Tomorrow we meet in Madison Square and Thursday we start for Oyster Bay.”
United Mine Workers organizer Ginger Goodwin died. Goodwin was a migrant coal miner who found work in the Cumberland mines, arriving on Vancouver Island in late 1910. Goodwin was unhappy with the working conditions and management’s disregard of labor. Wanting change, Goodwin became an advocate for workers’ rights, organizing and promoting trade unions. Goodwin increased in stature to become a highly prominent leader in the labor movement but died suddenly under controversial circumstances that have not been settled to this day. It is widely believed that Goodwin was murdered in an attempt to stifle collective bargaining. His death inspired the 1918 Vancouver general strike on August 2, 1918, Canada’s first General Strike. – 1918

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Bakers buy East Washingtonian paper

Mike Tom has sold his 136-year-old East Washingtonian
(Pomeroy, Washington) weekly newspaper to neighboring publishers Loyal and Charlotte Baker. After 31 years of working in publishing, Tom, 69, is retiring with his wife, Galina, to his native Hawaii. 

The Bakers also publish the Dayton Chronicle (Washington state). Plans are to maintain offices in both communities, according to a press release from 
Gauger Media Service, a Washington-state media brokerage firm that represented the seller.

The Bakers have deep roots in the region. 
For the past four years, Charlotte Baker has served the family’s community newspaper as publisher and managing editor. Charlotte will continue filling those positions while Loyal focuses on advertising sales.

Veterans Resource Fair Tomorrow July 27th, 2018


‘It’s a Southern Thing’ draws views for Alabama Media Group

Alabama Media Group has garnered attention with “It’s a Southern Thing,” its new brand featuring funny videos about Southern Culture, Digiday reports.
The group’s offering has drawn than a million Facebook followers and a Facebook Watch show with an average of 19 million views per episode. It also has a website and online store.
“We wanted a series of brands that had a tighter voice, and started picking up on the fact that there was a real interest in light Southern humor,” Tom Bates, president of Alabama Media Group, told Digiday.
The material has caught on outside the South, with Los Angeles, New York among its top 10 in viewership.
Advance Publications owns Alabama Media Group.
The Southern humor offerings come from Red Clay Media, a 12-person startup division of Alabama Media Group, which publishes The Birmingham News, The Huntsville TimesMobile’s Press-Register and The Mississippi Press.

Home Delivery and Single Copy Managers Wanted

  • Job Type: Full-Time
  • Salary: Negotiable
  • Company: Houston Chronicle
  • Company Website: http://www.chron.com
  • Contact Name: Mike Houser
  • Contact email: Mike.Houser@Chron.com
  • Contact Phone: 713-362-7646
  • City: Houston
  • State: Texas
  • Country: United States
  • Zip/Postal Code: 77027


Description


The Houston Chronicle Circulation Team
The Hearst owned Houston Chronicle is expanding their circulation staff and now hiring experienced Home Delivery and Single Copy Managers. We serve the Houston and surrounding area and cover nearly 46,000 miles every day delivering multiple publications. The Houston Chronicle is looking for highly-motivated individuals who are seeking an opportunity to service customers at the 4th largest metro newspaper in the country. Both opportunities include the distribution of The Houston Chronicle, Alternate Publications and advertising inserts to homes and retail locations. Both positions are salary positions with compensation based on experience.

  • Home Delivery Service Manager

The Home Delivery Service Manager is a full-time management position in our circulation department that will be focused on customer experience. The candidate will work directly with our independent contractors to improve and sustain consumer service levels. Warehouse and operational management is a must. The candidate will have experience working with independent contractors, carriers and large distributors. We are looking for the candidate that puts our customers first and will be instrumental in launching service initiatives focused on improving consumer experience.

  • Single Copy Operations Manager


The Single Copy Operations Manager is a full-time management position in our circulation department. This position is responsible for creating and implementing operational and marketing strategies designed to maximize single copy revenue while maintaining distribution efficiency. The position will manage multiple independent contractors and interact with retailers. The candidate should have a background in single copy sales and a proven track record working with large distributors. The candidate will have the ability to successfully communicate within all levels of the organization and build upon relationships with key retailers in the market. The candidate will be responsible for draw, returns, audits and revenue.

  • Qualifications:
  • Customer focused
  • Microsoft Office: Excel, Word and Outlook.
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Experience managing independent contractors and conform to contract guidelines
  • Valid driver’s license proof of insurance and reliable vehicle
  • Early morning hours and flexible schedule

The Houston Chronicle provides a competitive and comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, life insurance and company matching 401k. The Houston Chronicle is an equal opportunity employer.
Interested: Call Mike Houser, VP/Circulation 713-362-7646 or Mike.Houser@Chron.com.