By Don Day
Continued economic weakness is hurting all forms of media across the country and in Idaho.With the downturn pinching revenue, radio companies are looking for ways to slash expenses and stay afloat.
In the Boise market alone, three of the four major radio groups have turned to layoffs, pay cuts and other measures.
Citadel Communications laid off a high-profile host at KZMG/Magic 93.1 and made a number of other staff changes.The group also cut pay for non-sales employees by 5 percent in … [Read more...]
Radio Stations face special challenges in down economy
March 30, 2010 by
President’s Column
March 30, 2010 by
Reporting still matters, and it always will
By Betsy Russell
Yes, this is a terrible time for our business. Newspapers are closing. Talented journalists are losing their jobs to layoffs, through no fault of their own, in all media.
What we do is threatened at a time when it perhaps matters the most – when people really need to know what’s going on, to understand how it affects their lives and livelihoods as our nation and state suffer through economic turmoil.
Reporting still matters, and it … [Read more...]
Idaho Falls paper drops its Monday print edition
March 30, 2010 by
Among the dramatic cutbacks seen at news outlets across Idaho amid the economic downturn was the Idaho Falls Post Register’s decision to drop its Monday print edition as of March 2. The paper has published seven days a week since 1996, when it added a Saturday edition. The decision to stop Monday publication – a day that’s often the thinnest paper of the week for many newspapers – is a sign of how far the cuts are reaching in Idaho’s newspaper business.
Here is an article by Post Register Publisher Roger Plothow … [Read more...]
Meet your IPC: Melissa McGrath
March 30, 2010 by
Interviewed by John Miller
Age: 25
College: degrees in Journalism and Government and Politics from University of Maryland, College Park, Go 'Terps!
Hometown: Grew up in Meridian (well, moved there when I was 9), and graduated from Eagle High School
Career Path: I interned a lot in college, at The Buffalo News (Washington bureau), Capital News Service (Washington, DC), and Frederick News-Post (Frederick, Md.) during college. I was hired at Idaho Statesman after I graduated in May 2005 and … [Read more...]
New faces join Statehouse press corps
March 30, 2010 by
By Melissa McGrath
Though the number of reporters covering Idaho’s Statehouse is about the same this year as last year, there’s been significant turnover, meaning a number of new faces. Full-time Statehouse reporters who have returned this year include Betsy Russell of the Spokesman-Review, John Miller of the Associated Press, Jared Hopkins of the Times-News and Dan Popkey of the Idaho Statesman.
Here is a brief look at some of the new reporters covering the Idaho Legislature this year:
Nick Draper, … [Read more...]
PR exec editor, Dean Miller let go
March 30, 2010 by
By Corey Taule
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the Post Register in Idaho Falls.
Post Register Publisher Roger Plothow fired Executive Editor Dean Miller on Feb. 18, citing a desire “to change the direction of the paper a little bit.”
A veteran of three decades in Idaho journalism, Miller began his career at the Twin Falls Times-News. He moved to the Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., where he manned the newspaper’s Sandpoint bureau and later its full-time office in Boise.
[Read more...]
Non-compete clauses raise big issues for broadcast journalists
March 30, 2010 by
By Joan Cartan-Hansen
What if moving to a new job meant you couldn"™t work for six months "“ or five years? That"™s the reality for many broadcast journalists.
Beth Saboe starts work well before most of us are out of bed, as a morning anchor and a producer/ reporter in Bozeman, Mont. Her day starts at about 3 a.m. and she generally finishes in the late afternoon- long hours, but Saboe loves what she does. She"™s a Montana native and wants to work in her home state.
When she started her first job, she made less than … [Read more...]
Reporters discuss their experience covering Duncan death penalty case
March 30, 2010 by
By Bethann Stewart
Joseph Duncan's appalling crimes made him one of Idaho's most notorious criminals, and three reporters who covered his federal death penalty sentencing hearing spoke publicly for the first time at a recent Idaho Press Club forum about the professional and personal challenges they had faced.
"As a 32-year-old crime reporter, you don't think you have any innocence left to lose, " said Rebecca Boone of the Associated Press. "This case was so singular in its horrendousness ... that it was hard to … [Read more...]
Media strands meld in new information age
March 30, 2010 by
Newsrooms try to adapt
By Melissa McGrath
If you're a reporter at the Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa, you no longer have to worry about fighting traffic to make it back to the newsroom and post that breaking news story -- or the photos to go along with it. Every reporter has been equipped with a laptop computer, digital camera, digital audio recorder and microphone so they can write, photograph and transmit on the spot.
It is all a part of the Press-Tribune becoming a 24/7 newsroom that is trying to keep up with … [Read more...]
Idaho newspaper closes after 127 years in Blaine County
March 30, 2010 by
The Sun Valley area, which long has had two competing weekly newspapers, is losing one, as the Wood River Journal ceases publication with its Oct. 22 edition.
Express Publishing Inc. of Ketchum, publisher of the rival Idaho Mountain Express and Guide, has purchased the assets of the Wood River Journal. The Express will continue to publish twice a week; the Wood River Journal name will now go on what previously was called the “Valley†section of the Wednesday editions of the Express.
The Express also has … [Read more...]
Meet your IPC
March 30, 2010 by
Member profile: Don Day, KTVB
By Sydney Sallabanks
"We are in for nothing but change," said Don Day, when asked about the future of the news industry. Day is digital media producer at KTVB News Group, Boise's NBC affiliate. Apart from a brief stint in Seattle, he's been keeping the station at the forefront of digital media since he graduated from high school in 1999.
Day says he can't remember a time when he wasn't fascinated by the news process. Eager to get involved, he simultaneously ran a newspaper and … [Read more...]
Media Moves
March 30, 2010 by
NEWSPAPER
IDAHO STATESMAN
The Statesman in September announced 15 layoffs, including six newsroom positions. Several other Statesman staffers have left in recent weeks. State government reporter Heath Druzin left to join Stars and Stripes in Germany. Feature writer Erin Ryan left to take a job with
Boise State University's communications department. Copy editor Vanessa Childers left to move back to her home in Ohio.
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Major layoffs at The Spokesman-Review were announced on Oct. 1, … [Read more...]
A Reporter’s Tale: To Iraq and back
March 30, 2010 by
Despite layoff, reporter follows Idaho military twins’ story to Iraq and back
By James Hagengruber
Along with photographer Brian Plonka, I began writing about the lives of twins Matthew and Robert Shipp in March of 2006. The Shipps, of Hauser Lake, Idaho, were seniors in high school and desperately wanted to join the U.S. Marines. They wanted to fight for their country. Brian and I desperately wanted to find a way to tackle the story of our generation: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
By following the stories of two … [Read more...]
President’s Column
March 30, 2010 by
Idaho media join together to push for open courts
By Betsy Russell News media organizations from across the state joined together this spring in an unprecedented effort to stand up for open court proceedings in one of the state’s most horrific criminal cases ever. Joseph Duncan already has admitted murdering three members of a North Idaho family in a bloody attack at the family’s home east of Coeur d’Alene, in order to kidnap and molest the family’s two youngest children. Only one little girl, then 8 years old, survived the ordeal; … [Read more...]
