HCDP Has New Executive Director

Caleb Faux is taking over the reins from Chandra Yungbluth who left to work for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Question of the Day

Ok, I'll dare to put a question out there. What topics do people want the blog to include, that are not being posted, or not posted enough? Be gentle, keep the 7th grade humor to a minimum, please.

Death of the Arts Section at the Enquirer?

This morning I got an unsigned email which describes the tearing apart of arts/media/culture criticism at the Enquirer. Here is the email in its entirety:

Yesterday, on the 19th floor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, a room of arts critics (including theater critic Jackie Demaline, classical music critic Janelle Gelfand, art critic Sara Pearce, entertainment reporter Jim Knippenberg media critic John Kiesewetter, former arts editor Pam Fisher and food critic Polly Campbell) along with features writers were told they will be pulled off arts beat to staff phones on the Saturday general assignment reporting desk.

Apparently, one body is as good as another in the new "Info Center" reich over at Third and Elm -- although it seems counterintuitive in Gannett's penny pinching culture to stick high priced talent (several old timers rumored to be at six figures) manning the phones on one of the worst news days of the week -- not exactly fiscally savvy.

Oddly, this news comes just days before Enquirer publisher Margaret Buchanan kicks off the citywide Fine Arts Fund drive Sunday as its chair.

Shortly after arriving in Cincinnati, Buchanan took a spot on the symphony board and launching a new Sunday Arts section, promising better arts coverage to a disgruntled arts community.

If today's Enquirer is any indication, looks like a snow job: less arts coverage, but complete sledding hill lists in Cincinnati and diagrams for making snowmen.

Please keep in mind this is one writer's opinion and I have no confirmation of anything in this email. For those on the inside there are enough details to determine if this is authentic. I find it very credible for the simple fact that the issue at hand is a detail on how the inner workings of the newspaper happens. This is clearly someone with knowledge of the Enquirer.

Printing this email is not a great journalistic act, but it is a reasonable act for a blogger. Is this just another sign that the Enquirer is abandoning content creation in favor of press release publications? Will this act affect the many blogs on the Enquirer?

Drive Home Contest

A free pat on the back goes to the person who had the longest (in time) drive home last night in the snow. Mine was about 2.5 hours.

What If Bronson is Delusional?

Peter Bronson is living in lala land. It is just not worth my time to rebut his ignorance in his column, but I had to make people away that there are still people living with the delusions that Iraq can be "won", that "the terrorists" in Iraq are trying to kill "us", and that Dick Cheney is 'right' about Iraq. The facts are that Iraq is lost. The terrorists in Iraq want the US out and are fighting the Shia, they are not out to invade the USA. They don't threaten us, never did. Finally, Cheney is just a bad shot.

Panic Sightings

I can report first hand that the White Death is starting to fall up in Mason. At this point I haven't seen any soccer moms desperately making their way to buy milk, bread, toothpaste, and the most essential mayonnaise. What snow storm is complete with out Extra Mayo?

UPDATE: The Enquirer's website has the full snow coverage overload.

Speak to the Enquirer

The Enquirer has adopted a message board like tool that allows for feed back on all stories, editiorials, and letters to the editor. In the manner they use it, does it really add a value to the reader or to their publication? Will this just be a way to yell at people? I would guess they are going to use a filter or monitor to edit out the spam and 'rude' comments. I'll be posting on the story above about my post here to see if they really want interaction or not.