R.I. Federal Judge Allows Journos to Live-Tweet Sentencing Hearing; Court System Remains Intact

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United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island Chief Judge William E. Smith this week allowed journalists for the first time to use cellphones and other electronic devices to live-Tweet the sentencing of a criminal case, the Providence Journal reported today.

Judge Smith permitted social media coverage of the sentencing of Joseph A. Caramadre, a  politically connected philanthropist who received a six-year jail term and was ordered to pay millions in restitution for orchestrating an investment scheme that victimized terminally ill individuals.

The high-profile sentencing hearing became a one-time exception to the court's antiquated local rules that proscribe the use of such devices in court.

Laying Less Cable

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Cable television viewership declined at the three largest cable networks, according to the Huffington Post, citing a report in Variety.

Fox News Channel remained the alpha dog among its competitors, but experienced a 13 percent drop in its prime time audience compared to a year ago, according to Variety. Likewise, MSNBC was off 29 percent and CNN 15 percent.  HLN actually showed a 21 percent gain over its 2012 audience.

With 2014 being an election year, polarized voters are likely to boost their favorite cable news network ratings.

Ingwerson Takes the Helm of Christian Science Monitor Next Month

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After 14 years as managing editor of The Christian Science Monitor, Marshall Ingwerson will become editor next month, the Associated Press reported today.

John Yemma, a former Boston Globe and Dallas Morning News reporter who has been the Monitor's editor since 2008, is stepping down to concentrate on writing, the AP article stated.  Before becoming managing editor of the 105-year-old Monitor, which became digital-only in April 2009, Ingwerson was, at various times,  the paper's correspondent in Moscow, Miami, Washington and Los Angeles.

I Post Huckabee?

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The plug is being pulled on the radio talk show of  former GOP Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, but Mediaite.com today reports the failed GOP presidential candidate may be taking a page from Arianna Huffington.

Mediaite cites a Craigslist ad looking for reporters to provide content for the Huckabee Post, which the ad claims has offices in New York and Washington DC. Huckabee has not commented on the possible news aggregate site, but has expressed interest in the 2016 presidential race. Huckabee has trouble separating church from state at times, so "TUOL" suspects he's keeping an eye on the current Pope should that position become available.

NPR Banks $17m in Grant Money--That's a Lot of Tote Bags

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National Public Radio today will announce $17 million in grants, the lion's share of which NPR will devote to financing a new Web and mobile platform, the New York Times reported today.

Roughly $10 million in grants will go toward creating, according to NPR, a "seamless local-national listening platform." Sources for the grant money include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the John & James Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Wallace Foundation, the Times article noted.

Because the grants are for specific projects, they will not affect NPR's $6 million deficit that is expected to prompt a 10 percent staff reduction in 2014 (see "TUOL" post 9/13/13).

Los Angeles Register Daily Newspaper to Debut in 2014

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A seven-day daily newspaper focused on Los Angeles local news, the Los Angeles Register, will debut in 2014, the Orange County Register ("OCR") reported yesterday.

Owner Aaron Kushner, whose 2100 Trust LLC purchased Freedom Communications Inc. in July 2012, boosted the OCR staff by 200, to provide local LA coverage  to challenge The Los Angeles Times. The OCR article said the Register also plans to unveil LA-area community weeklies next year.

Report: NY Observer Redesign Smokes Salmon-Colored Paper Stock

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Advertisers are currently getting a peek at the redesigned The New Observer weekly newspaper that is supposed to hit newsstands in February 2014, but Capitalnewyork.com this week spilled the beans that the new Observer will jettison its distinctive salmon-colored paper.

The Observer, which each Wednesday covers Gotham City's media, politics, publishing, entertainment, real estate and cultural scene, also will debut a new logo and return to a tabloid format that it boasted in 2006, before returning to a broadsheet format two years ago, according to the Capitalnewyork article.  The Observer, which has been around since 1987, is also expected to add "arts" and "style" sub-sections in its new design format.

It remains to be seen whether the paper's upscale readership rebels at the changeover from salmon to white paper by swimming upstream to another publication. Maybe white type on a Beluga caviar-black paper might appease readers.

The Red Bulletin: Something to Read After Energy Drink 'Gives You Wings'

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Whenever the hard-working staff of "TUOL" has a hankering for a refreshing cold can of taurine and glucuronolactone, we reach for Red Bull, the 26-year-old energy drink developed in Austria by the Red Bull GmbH company.

Like everyone else, we knew that 35 billion cans of the energy elixir have been consumed in more than 165 countries, but "TUOL" was surprised to learn, courtesy of Folio magazine (www.Foliomag.com), that the company's six-year-old magazine, The Red Bulletin, has a circulation of 2.7 million, is printed in five languages, and is available by subscription and on newstands.

The magazine, which also has a Web site and an app, is a stellar example of what industry types call "brand journalism." Published by the energy drink's media arm, Red Bull Media House, the magazine resembles other lifestyle periodicals. A recent issue, for example, included the following articles: "Actor Eric Bana discusses his vintage car fetish," "An interview with one of the developers of the new Call to Duty Game," and "Formula One driver rides one of the world's oldest motorcycles."

Compelling reading. Unfortunately, when the staff of "TUOL" slakes its thirst with caffeine-laced Red Bull, we can't sit still long enough to read a magazine.

GOP Reps. Fear FCC Study Effort to Reintroduce Fairness Doctrine

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The Federal Communications Commission's $900,000 study, "Multi-Market Study of Critical Needs," is drawing fire from Republican legislators who are concerned that the agency is laying the groundwork for reintroducing the Fairness Doctrine, Ad Week reported today.

The Fairness Doctrine, which was implemented by the FCC in 1949, was derided by the agency in 1987 as an unconstitutional infringement on the free press and expunged from the books two years ago (see "TUOL" post 8/24/11). The doctrine was aimed at airing conflicting views about controversial issues and required broadcasters to provide time for a response to personal attacks levied by the broadcasters.

The FCC study that has solons on edge intends to examine how tv stations choose news stories and how the news is produced and prioritized, according to the Ad Week article. Acquiring that data for analytic purposes would involve interviewing journalists about factors that affect their story selection and delving into their news philosophy.

Critics of the study view this as a blatant attempt to influence journalists' political speech. Newly appointed FCC chair Tom Wheeler has until January 10, 2014, to respond to questions posed by the GOP lawmakers, Ad Week reported, including why the study is confined only to the Columbia, South Carolina, market rather than tv markets of varying sizes and geographic locations.

BU J-School Snags NY Times Media Columnist David Carr for Newly Endowed Professorship

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The Boston Globe reported today that The New York Times' prominent media columnist David Carr will join Boston University's College of Communication ("COM") in January as a professor in a newly endowed chair devoted to exploring business models to sustain journalism in a digital age.

Carr will continue to write his Times column, but will teach one course a semester at COM where he will spend two days a week, according to the Globe article. Carr will be a non-tenured professor of the practice on a contract with COM. Tom Menino, Boston's Mayor the past two decades, also will be joining BU's faculty next year in a similar arrangement.

The new professorship was endowed by a $1.66 million gift from BU alum, trustee and Bloomberg Media Group CEO Andrew Lack, with BU trustee Alan Leventhal kicking in more than $830,000.  Among other courses, Carr will teach media criticism.

It will be intriguing to see how the outspoken Carr adjusts to academia, given that he wrote in a March 31, 2013 column: "Having seen many journalism programs up close, I can say that most are escalators to nowhere."

The hard-working staff of "TUOL" just completed his 16th year of teaching Media Law at COM.

'Scripps-y' Gets Newsy

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Columbia, Missouri-based Newsy, the five-year-old digital video news platform founded by CEO Jim Spencer, has been acquired in a $35 million cash deal by media conglomerate E.W. Scripps Co., TechCrunch.com reports.

The Cincinnati-based Scripps, which owns 19 tv stations and 14 newspapers in 13 markets, added Newsy as a subsidiary to add a digital video component to its stable. Spencer and Newsy's 35 full-time and part-time staffers will continue to work out of Columbia, according to TechCrunch.

9th Cir. Judges Ready for Their Close Up? En Banc Hearings Live-Streamed Starting Today

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The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was scheduled today to become the first appellate court in the nation to live stream all of its en banc hearings on its Website, the Los Angeles Times reported recently.

Although en banc hearings involving the court's chief judge and 10 other jurists amount to about 20 cases heard by the court annually, video streaming marks progress in the eyes of free press advocates who believe the First Amendment and Sixth Amendment of the Constitution should open all federal courts, including the Supreme Court, to video recording.

Most appellate court cases are decided by three-judge panels. The Times article last week noted the scheduled inaugural video streamed case concerned law enforcement officials collecting and storing arrestees' DNA profiles, even where charges against individuals subsequently dropped.

2013 Can't End Soon Enough for AOL: Editor-in-Chief Said Soon to Be Out the Door

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Seven months after AOL haled her arrival, Editor-in-Chief Cyndi Stivers is on her way out, according to an article in the New York Post.

No official word from AOL, according to the Post, about Stivers, who left a position as editor of the Columbia Journalism Review to join AOL (see "TUOL" post 5/13/13). Her departure would  be a blow to AOL, which this year eliminated 40 percent of its hyperlocal news AOL Patch editorial staff (see "TUOL" post 8/19/13) and reduced the number of Patch sites from 900 to 14, the Post reported.

Judge Denies Access to Jurors' Twitter Accounts in Arias Sentencing Phase

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Maricopa County (Ariz.) Superior Court Judge Sherry K. Stephens this week denied a request by attorneys for convicted killer Jody Arias to compel jurors to divulge their Twitter account information, Phoenix-based ABC15.com reported.

Arias was convicted last May for the 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, but the jury was unable to agree on sentencing, prompting a retrial on the sentencing phase in the case in which the state is seeking the death penalty.

Defense counsel asked Judge Stephens for the jurors' Twitter account information so that their tweets could be monitored to ensure no discussion of the case outside of the courtroom. The prosecution opposed the move as invasive of the jurors' right to privacy.

Judge Stephens ruled there was no basis to order the data revealed absent a credible allegation of juror misconduct.

Media Groups Knock Harsh Media Law Passed By Kenya National Assembly

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Press groups and free speech advocates have voiced concern about an Information & Communications Bill enacted by Kenya's National Assembly and backed by the African nation's president Uhuru Kenyatta, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

The measure creates tribunals to hear complaints against reporters and media groups. Journalists are worreid about the deterrent effect of the harsh fines that may be levied for breaching the journalists' code of conduct, which could reach 500,000 shillings ($5,776)  for individual reporters and a maximum 20 million shillings ($231,244) for media companies, according to the Bloomberg article.

The Kenya Editors Guild is weighing a court challenge to the law.

9th Cir. Trademark Ruling Favors 'The Great Pretender'

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The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this week in Herb Reed Enterprises LLC v. Florida Entertainment Management Inc. (Case No. 12-16868) reversed a Nevada trial court ruling that barred vocalists from using the name of '50s & '60s powerhouse R & B group, The Platters, without permission.

The three-judge appellate panel reversed and remanded the trial court's injunction in the trademark infringement suit, holding: "the likelihood of irreparable harm must be established--rather than presumed as under prior 9th Circuit precedent--by a plaintiff seeking injunctive relief in the trademark context."

The original Platters, featuring Herb Reed, Tony Williams, Paul Robi, David Lynch and Zola Taylor, churned out numerous hits suitably descriptive of the present litigation, including Only You, I'm Sorry, Helpless, You're Making a Mistake and It Isn't Right.  Band Manager Buck Ram assumed the rights to The Platters name in the late '50s under an entity called Five Platters Inc., the 9th Circuit decision noted, which in 2009 were transferred to the defendant company owned by Larry Marshak.

Lawsuits challenging the ownership rights of The Platters name were brought in California and New York reached opposite conclusions, with the former siding with original band member plaintiffs and the latter concluding Five Platters Inc. ("FPI") was the legitimate trademark holder before the FEMI acquired the rights.

FPI sued Herb Reed in Florida in the '80s and the case settled, with Reed retaining the right to perform under the name Herb Reed and The Platters. After his death, Reed's company was granted an injunction by a Nevada court that agreed FPI's use of The Platters was confusing to consumers eager to see Herb Reed and The Platters.

In overturning the injunction, the 9th Circ. cited two recent Supreme Court decisions that concentrated on the "likelihood of irreparable harm" standard. So much for The Platters' 1959 hit's claim: One in a Million.

Time Staffers Miffed at Old Lang's Sign-Off & Payout

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A 15-month job tenure yields a $19 million payout over four years. Nice work if you can get it.

Staffers at Time, Inc., however, are not happy that Laura Lang, hired in 2012 as CEO of the company for a four-year term, but who announced her intended departure in March 2013, is netting a sweet payout, according to a column in today's New York Post.

The Post piece reports that Lang, who oversaw layoffs of 500 employees and a salary freeze (see "TUOL" posts 1/11/13 & 1/31/13), received a $1 million salary in 2012--her one full year on the job--and close to $1 million for her brief stay this year.  With stock value and bonus, her 2012 earnings reached $7.6 million. Additionally, the Post reported she received a $2.5 million separation bonus this year, and is expected to reap a $2.3 million "transaction bonus" next year over the splitting off of Time, Inc. from Time Warner, which mostly was overseen by Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes.

Lang announced in March she would step down as soon as a replacement was found, which was in August, though her contract carried through last month. Meanwhile, according to the Post, Time, Inc. managers lost their stock option grants with the Time Warner spinoffs.

Well, at least some people are finding magazine journalism profitable nowadays.

Two Prominent New England Dailies on the Block

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Autumn in New England and the leaves--and daily newspapers--continue to fall.

If you have oodles of cash on hand and a slight masochistic streak, you might contact Stevens, a privately held independent financial services firm, and put in a bid for The Providence Journal, which the Rhode Island Public Radio Website (www.ripr.org) reports is for sale.

ProJo's owner, Dallas-based A.H. Belo, which doled out $1.5 billion in 1997 to purchase the Providence daily and its associated tv stations, is looking to unload ProJo, so that it can focus its attention on its core market in Big D, according to the RIPR post.

Meanwhile, last week John Henry, gazillionaire owner of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Globe, told staffers at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette--New England's third-largest daily--that he was looking for an interested local party to purchase the T & G, which was part of Henry's  $70 million Globe acquisition from the New York Times (see "TUOL" post 8/6/13).  The Times paid $296 million for the T & G in 2000, which it folded into its New England Media Group, along with the Globe.

Couldn't have been too comforting for Worcester editorial staffers to read Henry's October 27 letter in the Globe titled "Why I Bought the Globe" that failed to even mention his T& G acquisition. No potential buyers have stepped forward, though Gatehouse Media, Inc., freshly emerged from a structured Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is rumored to be interested.

Cuomo Vadis?

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Media circles were all abuzz yesterday when CNN New Day host Chris Cuomo interviewed his bro, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, about Sunday's tragic Metro-North train derailment, according to a story in today's New York Times.

Conflict of interest, wailed some media types who watched the six-minute interview, arguing that journalists can't objectively cover family members. No attempt to deceive viewers, countered defenders of the interview, who considered the kerfuffle much ado about nothing.

For his part, Chris Cuomo said he would not interview Andrew for a political story, but saw no problem soliciting information from him about the train disaster. As for the ethics-sensitive staff of "TUOL," we can't wait for TLC to air a reality show featuring Chris, Andrew and most essential, papa Mario. They can call it Cuomo Esta Ustad?--it's got to be more insightful than Honey Boo-Boo.

UPDATE: In Sun-Times Darkroom, A Positive Development

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In a deal negotiated by the Chicago Newspaper Guild, the Chicago Sun-Times will reinstate four photographers and pay $2,000 in severance to each photojournalist it canned earlier this year who agrees to waive his or her right to sue the tabloid daily over being sacked, Romanesko.com reported today.

In a cost-cutting move, the Sun-Times shuttered its 28-member photo department in May (see "TUOL" post 5/30/13) and has been illustrating stories with file photos, wire pictures and images snapped by reporters. The four shutterbugs who were rehired may be assigned to any one of the Sun-Times five newspaper units, according to the Romanesko post.