We got an anonymous tip last night that succinctly read:

Globe Democrat laid off all employees because it ran out of money.

Hmm. Well the site is still up, and according to the St. Louis Beacon, the Globe Democrat has laid off three reporters and is “refocusing” on only certain sections of news. Namely sports and local politics.

The Beacon reported:

Dan Rositano, who resurrected the Globe-Democrat name and began publishing the news website on Dec. 8, said news reporters Brian Flinchpaugh, Steve Birmingham and Lisa Watson lost their jobs on Monday.

“These are extremely talented, wonderful people,” Rositano said. “I feel personally very blessed to know them. This is just a philosophical change in the way we run our media.

But we had to fire them because it turns out starting a “newspaper” when traditional media is at its lower point ever, turned out to not be a great idea. Lets be clear, just because the Globe-Democrat is a website doesn’t make it new media because from all accounts it is still run like an “old media” newspaper. I think they might actually even hand out those dusty old fedoras with a “press” card tucked in the band and we’re fairly certain someone that works there is named Bugsy.

“What we’re doing is taking a look at some of the strengths we have, some of the weaknesses and we’re reorganizing to move toward what the strengths will be.”

In addition to focusing on sports and political news, Rositano said the Globe-Democrat.com would be looking at its design and possibly changing the syndicated material it carries as well.

Look this is all fine but we think its pretty clear the actual truth falls in between the story the Globe Democrat fed the Beacon and our tipster. The ancient adage “When there’s smoke, there’s fire.” seems to apply here. You don’t “refocus” if everything is going great. You just don’t. When we’re out being awesome and banging 14 super-models, we don’t stop in the middle of the orgy and kick out 10 of them so we can “refocus” on the other 4. “Refocusing” is what someone would do if they were in a big fat girl orgy…something isn’t working…you 7 leave. Take your nachos with you.

According to Compete, globe-democrat.com got around 60k+ unique visitors in March, which isn’t horrible but quite a bit lower than other non-Post Dispatch news sources in the area, like the Riverfront Times. Below we have a graph over six months, from October to March of this year (Note that the Globe Democrat didn’t go live until December).

Look at the Globe Democrat site, you don’t see what you would think is any high-yeild ads on there and their comment to the Beacon about “possibly changing the syndicated material it carries” is telling. The STATS partnership is probably eating a small site like alive with either extremely high costs for their AP news articles or taking up valuable ad space with their own self-purchased ads.

To us this doesn’t seem at all like a “re-focusing” but more like a strip-down cost cutting measure to stay afloat, which only makes it harder to keep the lights on.

Good luck Globe Democrat. You let us know if you want to talk about you rebranding to become Punching Kitty’s Sports Section.

Oh one last thing. Maybe update that “staff” page when you get a chance.

Hey kids of Timberland High School, you remember this: You mess with the bull, you get the horns.

The staff of the school newspaper and free speech honks that live for things like this filed in to a Wentzville School Board meeting Thursday night to hear a discussion of whether the level of censorship being displayed by the Timberland High School principal was within “acceptable” levels.  Apparently the kids have been feeling a bit censored for some time now. Things like…

At issue, everything from a tattoo article pulled from the paper to yearbook photos deemed too risqué. Legally, it is the principal’s prerogative to make these calls.

No one is arguing that the principal has the last call in his school, and we aren’t going to get in to that here. This is really about letting the kids put their argument out there, be heard, and have a rational discussion about it. Hell, they even cared enough to start a blog about the subject, and just wanted to be heard by the school board.

…of course by the time all the people on the other side of the coin got done blathering about how censorship is good, time was up and the meeting was over. Go home. F*ck you kids.

Seriously. That’s what happened.

Inside the board meeting, public comment began. The first speakers supported the idea of extra review for budding journalists. And then, because of a time limit, public comment was over before the free speech group got its turn.

The group filed out of the meeting disappointed, angry and frustrated.

Nothing quiets a group of angry kids down like promising them to let them be heard and then say “Nevermind, all the adults talked up your whole turn.” I’m sure a fair and balanced argument like that will definitely make the school newspaper think twice about running stories about tattoos or bubblegum or penny whistles…whatever it is kids want to write about these days.

Now to be fair to the school board, they did decide to allow one member from the group to defend their side of the argument before the meeting was adjourned.  Well gee, don’t go out of your way or anything you assholes. How the hell is hours of people talking about one side of the argument and then at the last second, saying “Oh yeah, you wanted to say something for your side…hurry up though.” is a fair shake?Why bother even having the meeting?! Why not just tell the kids “Hey, guess what? We don’t give a crap about what you think.” That’s clearly the truth isn’t it? Did the board not know about the time limit? Could they not just say “This is your last speaker, we have to let the other side have their time.” Nope. They might as well just done that thing when you blow in to your thumb to “inflate” your middle finger at the kids while they let a bunch of people talk that came because they are pro-censorship.

Its also worth nothing that a KSDK film crew was there, and just before they left is when the board had a change of heart to let one…one…high school representative say their piece.  Ya think the kids would have even got that if the KSDK crew wasn’t there? Pfft. Please.

Here’s a tip kids. Screw that school paper. Give us a ring, and we’ll happily set you up with timberland.punchingkitty.com. Write about tattoos all you want. Seriously: 314-266-8477

via: KSDK

Update: The Stop THS Censorship blog now has a post up about their school board meeting experience.

That “other” St. Louis newspaper that closed its doors in 1986, before newspapers closing their doors was all the rage, is back…as a website.

Things looks good so far, and I really hope they do well since we need another strong news source in this town, but I do have a few questions:

1. They do know that their website doesn’t have to just look like a boring old newspaper right?  Don’t get me wrong, the newspaper look can be awesome, but this isn’t it.  If you want to do the newspaper thing look at this: www.instablog.org That’s how you do a newspaper website!

2. If GlobeDemocrat.com is a blog about the old Globe-Democrat newspaper and then the Globe-Democrat relaunches itself as a website, couldn’t they get that domain instead of using globe-democrat.com?  I mean, whats the point of the blog now anyway?

3. I’m sure their staff is pretty small, but I really hope they get more unique content than a few articles surrounded by news feed articles from STATS.  They will need some voices to make this thing go anywhere.

4. This page could use some work.

5. Their privacy policy has a few holes in it…normally this isn’t something I would really feel the need to check in to but…well…you know.

First we have this (emphasis mine):

Personally Identifiable Information collected by Globe-Democrat.com may also be used for other purposes including but not limited to site administration and troubleshooting. Certain third parties who provide technical support for the operation of our site (our Web hosting service and our newsletter provider, for example) may access such information.

…and then this…

As we continue to develop our business, we may sell, buy, merge or partner with other companies or businesses. In such transactions, user information may be among the transferred assets. We may also disclose your information in response to a court order, at other times when we believe we are reasonably required to do so by law, in connection with the collection of amounts you may owe to us, and/or whenever we deem it appropriate or necessary to give such information to law enforcement authorities. Please note we may not provide you with notice prior to disclosure in such cases.

I’m sure they mean well, and I’m not here to try and accuse them of things they haven’t yet done, but this thing is like swiss cheese.

6. Howard Balzer on sports?!  Ugh!  Really?  There wasn’t anyone else?!  If you wanted a jersey chaser to write for you there are lots of girls out there that are way more attractive with only a slight loss in writing acumen. …nice work picking up BJ Rains though.

The slow march of a former media giant towards death can be sad to watch…

Our source in the Post Dispatch tells us that the latest of the series of cost cutting measures is that all reporters, and even a few other positions, are losing their company paid cell phones.  To be fair, our source did say that they will be reimbursing the staff for personal phone use, but in something that’s just too good to make up, the paper did suggest that the staff add as many business numbers to their “calling circles”.

…also apparently there is a app that.  We hear it doesn’t do much though, it just allows them to upload their resume and it changes all references to “newspaper” to “blog” so they seem more hip and hire-able.

We never liked the idea of newspaper reporters with cell phones anyway.  How are they supposed to spill out of a courtroom or news conference and fight over the 3 phone booths with a cell phone?!  …also, think of all the damsel blood their would be all over the streets if Clark Kent had an iPhone but no place to change.

According to The Riverfront Times [Editor's Note: Who we are mad at them right now! Boo!] St. Louis’ only Gay/Lesbian/Transgender newspaper is shutting its doors until 2010.

Voice publisher and owner, Pam Schneider, tells Daily RFT that she decided to shutdown the paper for the rest of the year to concentrate on a redesign of the publication.

“It just made sense to take the time and money we need to focus on coming out in 2010 the way we want,” she says.

Too bad that its come to this, but good to hear they will be coming back in a few months, but haven’t they learned nothing from Cher?!  You aren’t supposed to pre-announce your return, you are just supposed to do it all of a sudden…with auto-tune.

[Editor's Note: Ok, we are over it now. We love the RFT.]

Last Friday evening, Pam Maples, the managing editor of the Post Dispatch “resigned” and with the timing and the surrounding details, it didn’t exactly add up to us, and we weren’t the only ones that thought so.  Yesterday, the plot thickened as Maples’ goodbye memo to the Post Dispatch staff was leaked to the Riverfront Times.

As a public service to our sexy readers, we will now translate the letter for you from BS to real talk.

Well, this is going to surprise a lot of you (OK, maybe all of you), but I haven’t found the words that adequately express what these three years have meant to me. I’ll just give it my best.

It sucks to be let go, but I can’t say that because they gave me more money to pretend I’m resigning.

You have impressed and challenged me with your commitment to this newspaper, to our journalism – no matter the platform – and to this community.

Thanks for minimizing your solitaire game when I walked by your desk.

Through waves of tremendous change and upheaval – sometimes exciting, sometimes scary – you have been firm and passionate about our journalism. When I think of all of the new things we’ve tried together – some to great success, others not so much, but worthwhile experiments nonetheless – I am struck by the courage and creativity many of you have shown.

I love you all…except the web department.  What is going on down there?   What’s with the weird green color?

I have seen you do things I would not have imagined two years ago.

Stupid f***ing internet!  Why did you have to ruin everything?!

I can’t say that I’ve loved every minute of my time here. In the face of economic realities, we’ve had to make some tough decisions and say goodbye to many talented colleagues.

Sadly, this time we had to say goodbye to me.   …f***ing internet.

In each dark time, I was moved by your compassion for each other and, frankly, for those of us responsible for making the decisions.

Eventually you all got numb to the constant threat of being let go and eventually prayed for death.

Now, I’ve decided it’s time for me, personally, to embrace change.

I got let go.

Sometimes, it’s just time to do something new.

Sometimes, they tell you that you can’t come back to work any more.

I’m not sure what’s next, but I’m eager to explore some new ideas and avenues and it’s likely those will involve journalism in some form.

Call me Huffington Post!

I am very fortunate to have worked with all of you, including a great group of senior newsroom leaders as well as some colleagues in other divisions who are passionate about supporting our journalism.

You’re next.

And then there is Arnie. My first week here, I discovered he doesn’t like long meetings. My second week, that he shares my intense aversion to snakes. I knew we were going to get along just fine. It turns out, working with Arnie has been way way better than just fine. Don’t be fooled by that just-a-guy-from-Cleveland-who-loves-the-Indians act. Arnie is one of the wisest people I know and his commitment to this newsroom is remarkable. You are very lucky to have him as your editor.

One time at a Christmas party, Arnie and I were really drunk and…well…nevermind.

Thank you again for an amazing three years. I am so proud of all that we have accomplished and I’m confident you will continue to do the very best and most meaningful journalism in this region. I will miss you, but I’ll just be a phone call or email away.

Tell your friends I need a job.  Is the internet hiring?

Pam

Pam