The Solomon Scandals A Washington newspaper novel by David Rothman

15Jan/100

Bible of newspaper biz reincarnated under new owner, Duncan McIntosh

image Good news: Edi­tor & Pub­lisher, the bible of the news­pa­per busi­ness, is back from the dead and will be pub­lished by Dun­can McIn­tosh. Mark Fitzger­ald, an E&P vet­eran, is the new top edi­tor. Online report­ing has resumed, and a Feb­ru­ary issue will appear. Dun­can McIn­tosh is  a boat­ing mag­a­zine publisher—it also orga­nizes boat shows. Sep­a­rately and also on the pos­i­tive in the news­pa­per world:

–The Wash­ing­ton Post news­room staff will not par­tic­i­pate in single-sponsor con­fer­ence as a rule, at least when the topic relates to a company’s busi­ness, and there are other pol­icy improve­ments, such as a require­ment that the con­fer­ences with peo­ple in the news be on record. An uproar arose last year when the Post was invit­ing cor­po­ra­tions to spon­sor issues-related salons at the publisher’s house. The Solomon Scan­dals is in part about a cor­rupt and very imag­i­nary D.C. paper, and I would rather not see real life imi­tate me.

–Real estate adver­tis­ing is on the rise, at least slightly—which is good as long as news­pa­pers don’t let it influ­ence cov­er­age, as hap­pens in Scan­dals.

Papa Char­lie review update: Lookin’ like Sat­ur­day, tomor­row, and I’m expect­ing per­haps 1,500 words, much longer than I was think­ing originally.

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