A new Christian online magazine, The Sword, made its debut last week. Marie Sutton, a freelance writer and public relations consultant, is behind the publication.
She discussed her new venture with us by e-mail.
MOB: How long has the Sword been in the works? Why online? Will there be a print version?
Sutton: Actually, I left the Birmingham News to start the print version in 2003. It was a glossy mag and was well received, but I had to put it to bed after running out of money. I tell people, “I had the vision, but not the provision.”
I have been wanting to bring the book back and found the web would be more cost-effective. I do ultimately plan a print version, but it won’t be for at least a year.
MOB: What is the mission of the publication?
Sutton: The mission is to inform, instruct and inspire Birmingham’s Body of Christ. Our goal is to be the source for Birmingham’s Christian news and views.
MOB: Why did you decide to launch it?
Sutton: I decided to launch it because I feel there is a hole when it comes to Christian news and views. There is not one central source for calendar items, stories, etc. about Birmingham’s Body of Christ.
Also, I have a passion for sharing stories that will inspire but also rebuke, if necessary, my fellow believers so that we can be everything God wants us to be.
A new Birmingham-focused news and comedy show debuted in April called “View of the City.” Hosted by comedian and artist Christopher Davis, the weekly half-hour satirical program features interviews, reports and miscellaneous segments on current events, newsmakers and oddities.
The program airs at 6 p.m. Sundays on Charter Cable channel 21 and online on the official site. But you can watch the first two episodes below.
Birmingham Business Journal, Birmingham News, Shelby County Reporter win multiple awards
The Alabama Press Association named its winners in the 2010 Better Newspaper Contest. The South Carolina Press Association judged 2,525 entries from 64 newspapers.
The Birmingham News and the Shelby County Reporter won for overall General Excellence in their respective divisions.
The awards ceremony takes place June 5 in Orange Beach.
Listed below are winners from the Birmingham area. The complete list is available online.
Former Birmingham Weekly columnist unveils political news site today
Kyle Whitmire, former Birmingham Weekly columnist, has started blogging for his own news site, The Second Front. He plans to cover political news and public policy as part of Weld, a yet-to-be launched local news site.
Whitmire talked about his new operation via e-mail earlier today.
MOB: What is Second Front?
Whitmire: It’s a niche-specific blog covering political culture and public affairs important to Birmingham.
MOB: How does it relate to Weld?
Whitmire: Back in the day, Southern Progress used to have test kitchens. I was always kind of jealous of that. I suppose you can say it’s a sort of test kitchen where I get to cook and hopefully not make too big of a mess.
Already some tech-savvy friends have figured out what platform The Second Front is built on, so that will be out there soon. But that’s as good a hint as you’re going to get.
There’s something behind Door No. 3, but I can’t tell you what it is yet.
MOB: What can readers expect?
Whitmire: The focus of The Second Front is politics and public policy.
As a journalism model, The Second Front will follow the lead of The Daily Beast, Slate and many other new media startups. The site will have original content, both reporting and analysis. It will have a great deal of curation, links to pertinent stories from around the web. It will provide context when it can. And it will leverage social media to reach the largest possible audience in ways that are most useful to individual users. [The Second Front on Twitter / Facebook]
I’ve committed myself to waking up a 6 a.m. every day to compile the Frontlines, links to today’s most important stories. I’m not a morning person, so that’s not going to be a lot of fun.
I’m going to spend a lot of time in public meetings, sifting through public documents and nosing around other people’s business. All of this is much the same as I did at Birmingham Weekly, only I want to explore the blog as a new form. I don’t have to fit whatever I’m writing into a 1,000-word hole anymore.
MOB: Will it be free? Subscription? Ad supported? Something else?
Whitmire: I’ll have to dive deep into some jargon and minutia, but I think it’s important to understand the nature of the problems first.
The CPM [cost-per-thousand impressions] advertising model will not support local public affairs journalism.
To make matters worse, users are adopting “ad blindness.” Either they use ad-blocking plugins in their browsers, or they just ignore the ads altogether. As a consequence, online display advertising has a lousy ROI for the advertisers.
The other fallback option has been a subscription model, but subscription-based services do only one thing well: Prevent mass reader migrations away from print. It’s a good way to mitigate the problem, but it doesn’t solve the problem. What’s more, it goes to the Clay Shirky Principle: “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” If your job is to distribute news, you can’t do that by keeping it away from people.
What are the answers?
For the moment, I’ll have to neglect the specifics. Sorry, but that has to stay behind Door No. 3. I can share a few basic principles:
The digital marking solution should enhance the user’s experience, not disrupt it.
Users should be able to distinguish online marketing from other content, but the medium must not treat that message as if it’s radioactive or otherwise marginalize the sponsor.
Digital marketing should be clearly labeled but be treated as an equal citizen in the medium’s space.
Finally, digital marketing should be native to the Internet, and not simply an appropriation of print or broadcast forms, which we have now.
There is hope on the horizon in the form of geotagging and location-aware ads. Other kinds of micro-targeting will soon be practical. In the meantime, there are some low-tech methods to achieve the same ends, and I hope everyone will get to see them soon at The Second Front.
Why did you decide to do this site?
Whitmire: I love journalism and probably couldn’t do anything else. It has given me a front row seat to history.
The day Eric Robert Rudolph bombed the clinic on Southside, I got to get as close as the police would allow. The day they brought him back to Birmingham, I was there for that as well. I got to sit close enough in the courtroom that I could hear the chains between his feet and see his collarbone protruding against his skin.
I was there the day Richard Scrushy was acquitted and I was there the day he was convicted.
And then, of course, there was Langford. I got to cover Langford for one paper or another for nearly 10 years. It’s incredibly interesting work.
But it’s also very important work. I believe there is a reason the right to do what I do is codified in the First Amendment of the Constitution. Good journalism is a prerequisite for a healthy society. And that’s what troubles me.
While I’ve been a professional witness to history, I’ve also seen what’s happening to the media. When covering Rudolph or Scrushy, I had to fight and scrap with other reporters for stories. In contrast, all it took to prove Langford was not a legal resident of Birmingham was to pull his homestead exemption at the tax assessor’s office. No one else did that.
I’m proud of the work we did at the Weekly, but some of those scoops we got were just too easy. This never would have been the case were the (Birmingham) Post-Herald still alive.
I’m doing this because I love journalism and I love the adventure it allows me. But I’m also trying to save the Fourth Estate.
Compared to waking up at 6 a.m., that part should be easy.
Alabama Public Television won a $3,000 My Source Education Innovation Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for “Flying Over Alabama: The Whooping Crane Story,” its online video on the migration of whooping cranes.
The award, one of 39 handed out in March in Washington to winning stations nationwide, recognizes public broadcasting stations that use pioneering approaches and emerging digital technologies to serve the educational needs of their communities on the air, online, at home and in the classroom.
Station puts anchorman on temporary leave, hides bio on website
Roy Hobbs, ABC 33/40’s weekend anchorman, is on temporary leave. The reason? A run-in with the law. Twice.
His first encounter, date unknown, was when a Birmingham police officer found him in Woodlawn with a prostitute, suspended driver’s license and no proof of insurance. Hobbs was let off with a warning.
The second encounter, Friday night, ended with an arrest. Police say they found Hobbs with crack and a crack pipe. He was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia. The arrest report also indicates he was under the influence of drugs at the time.
He was released Saturday morning on $800 bond.
Hobbs’ court date is May 10.
The station’s website removed him from the Talent Bios page, but has not removed his actual bio page. (Update: It has now been removed.)
Here’s his bio:
Roy Hobbs brings a wealth of experience to the weekend anchor desk at ABC 33/40. He is a veteran who has covered stories ranging from the Challenger disaster to the O.J. Simpson trial.
While Roy comes to Birmingham after a year as the morning anchor at the NBC affiliate in Kansas City, he has spent much of his career in the South and was eager to move to Birmingham. He previously anchored the No. 1 morning newscast during his three years in Nashville and he spent six years as the 5:00 anchor at the Fox affiliate in Atlanta. During that tenure, his newscast was one of the highest rated in the country.
Roy has received five Emmy Awards and numerous nominations. He is a longtime member of the National Association of Black Journalists and helped found the Houston chapter. He has also served as Vice President of the Nashville chapter and President of the Atlanta chapter.
In 2001 he joined a group of Black Journalists on a mission to Kenya to discuss freedom of the press at the invitation of East African Black Journalists and the Kenyan government.
Roy loves to be involved in the community by speaking to students at area schools as well as churches and other community groups. He has a large collection of comic books and records, enjoys movies and, of course, covering the news of the day.
His most recent column appeared Wednesday, but his Friday and Sunday columns didn’t run in their scheduled slots.
Is he on vacation? Did he take a buyout?
We asked Archibald and editor Tom Scarritt for comment; we received no reply.
Instead, MOBster Kyle Whitmire was kind enough to share a copy of Archibald’s most recent column, one that apparently will never run in the News. The column focuses on newsroom staffers who took buyouts and the recent economic troubles that plague most daily newspapers. Archibald notes that more than 500 years of reporting experience have walked out the door in just 2 years.
And the last time anyone saw Archibald in public? He was on a panel last Tuesday night at the Birmingham News for a Society of Professional Journalists event. The topic of discussion?
Journalism and ethics.
• • •
John Archibald: You have a right to know about News buyouts
It’s hard to look at Ginny MacDonald today and not hear the Neville Brothers in my head, singing their version of that old hymn, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
Undertaker, undertaker,
Won’t you please drive real slow?
That Miss Crazy, that you carry,
I sure hate to see her go.
I hate to see her go.
Plus, I want to see the bumper snicker on her hearse. What does it say?
Reports of her death have been greatly exacerbated.
No. Ginny Mac — Birmingham News transportation diva and Driver’s Side columnist — is not exactly dead. Not to you, anyway.
But today is her last day as a full-timer in the newsroom. She’ll keep writing a weekly column on Mondays, but no more front page stories from her about bridge collapses, speed traps or trooper madness.
Why do I tell you this? Because you buy the paper, most of you, and you know Ginny. You have a right to know that she, like so many experienced and trusted news gatherers, has taken a company buyout.
Today is a dark day at The News. It marks the last day not only for Ginny, but for health writer Anna Velasco. By May veteran political writer Tom Gordon — with more stored memory than an iPad — will be gone. So will young Erin Stock.
It’s not just a News thing, it’s a news thing. They tell us, in fact, that our readership is good and ad revenue is rebounding. But technology and economics have worn on profitability in all news operations. Ours is no exception.
But it hurts. In all, since buyouts were offered in 2008, The News has lost more than 500 years of reporting experience. Decorated reporter Dave Parks — who pretty much discovered “Gulf War Syndrome” — went. State editor Glenn Stephens, who could pilot a newsroom through a storm with an even keel, is gone. Food writer Jo Ellen O’Hara left us, as did outdoors writer Mike Bolton.
We’ve lost 32 people in the newsroom. Twenty were reporters, the real workhorses.
That may look small next to losses at the Raleigh News and Observer, which has seen its news staff fall from 250 to 115, or the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which cut 93 news staffers in one chunk last year. But it hurts.
If there is good news, it is that The News still has 125 people working to gather the news in Alabama’s largest newsroom.
Still, we mourn the losses to the News family. We mourn the loss to readers, to this community, to the republic.
As legendary editor Gene Roberts told a group of journalists last week in New York, journalism job cuts are more than economic news. They’re a matter of public interest.
“This not just a problem for journalism, this is a problem for democracy,” he said. “What a democratic society does not know, it cannot act upon.”
He is right. You need to know. Think of what you know of your government, and try to separate it from the news. Alabama’s most notable corruptions — Don Siegelman, Guy Hunt, Larry Langford, Jeff Germany, the 2-year college system — all started with reporters on the ground. Issues such as the county’s bond debt and crime in neighborhoods bubble to light in the press.
Those of us left in the newsroom will keep digging. For readers. For the republic. For ourselves, for Ginny and Dave and Anna.
We believe there will always be a need, and a market, for news.
There better be. News, as Roberts put it, is “democracy’s food.”
“If we are going to come up with solutions, then democratic society has to understand that there is a problem,” he said.
Occam’s RazR: “Is Birmingham Ready for an Online Newspaper?”
Capstone Report: “The News today is more interested in hiding the truth than reporting it.”
The Ben Franklin Follies: “I don’t believe a news enterprise committed to investigative reporting and quality journalism can produce profit margins that will satisfy Wall Street, hedge funds or institutional investors.”
• • •
Update: The Birmingham News did run Archibald’s status in the print edition. However, you can judge the progressive wording.
April 16: “John Archibald is taking a break.
His column will resume Wednesday.”
April 18: “John Archibald’s column will return soon.”
“I told them at that time that I’d try to make it work, and if not, I’d walk away from it. … I had been here for 11 hours and just couldn’t do it. I was angry.
“I don’t think it (not publishing the column) was a good call, but I understand the pressures (Scarritt is) under.”
Scarritt said,
“I believe strongly in the future of newspapers and the vital role they will play in our communities going forward. I believe there are ways to talk about our current challenges that recognize we do have a future.”
Over the Mountain Journal, a suburban Birmingham biweekly newspaper, has changed editors after 17 years.
Publisher Maury Wald laid off editor Cara Clark in March “due to the economic slump we’re continuing to struggle with.” The newspaper also laid off Lucy Merrill, features writer for 14 years.
On Monday, Laura McAlister began as the new editor of Over the Mountain Journal. McAlister, shown at left, formerly served as Web editor for the Birmingham Business Alliance and Birmingham Magazine.
Clark, shown at right, said by e-mail:
“As it was explained to me, (Over the Mountain Journal) has sustained revenue losses for many months now, and the publisher could no longer afford to pay my salary.
“With the newspaper industry suffering nationwide, it has been a concern, but our editorial staff (both of us) thought we had a strong enough niche in the community to keep things going. It was quite a surprise when we were told the situation.
“For me, it came at a time when I’d just returned from nearly a month-long embed with the troops in Afghanistan. I think it was time for a change, but a bit more preparation would have been helpful. Still, I hope to return to Afghanistan this summer. Meanwhile, I’m looking for work locally, as I’d just signed an apartment lease before the layoff.
“Being with the troops and experiencing life in Afghanistan was a long-time dream and life-changing experience. It taught me much about myself, including my ability to adapt to inhospitable circumstances in a war zone. I left at the end of December and returned near the end of January.”
Last week, editor Abigail Millwood and art director Lane Gregory resigned from Portico magazine, Media of Birmingham has learned.
Millwood announced her departure in an e-mail Friday. In a follow-up, she said she left to spend time with her son and pursue book ideas before attending law school in the fall.
Gregory left on March 29. Interviewed by e-mail, she cited differences with magazine president Harvey Bishop, who has not responded to requests for comment. Gregory is looking for freelance design work.
The Birmingham-based monthly publication, started in 2001, won Folio’s award for Best Regional Magazine in 2004 and 2005. No word on if or how the positions will be filled.
Update April 9: Thanks to our commenter Sam, we have confirmed that Portico’s sole account executive Katie Rochester has resigned, saying all three were overworked. She is currently looking for another job.
It’s unclear what Portico’s future is, given that no staff members are left, and Bishop has not responded to requests for comment.
Co-assistant managing editors Chuck Clark and Scott Walker are now co-managing editors, effective today. Clark oversees metro, business and features, while Walker oversees editing, production, photo, art and sports.
Welcome to Media of Birmingham, a news and information site about journalism, advertising, public relations, new media and marketing based in Birmingham, Ala. The site went online in 2006, and the group behind it was founded in 2003.
A new Christian online magazine, The Sword, made its debut last week. Marie Sutton, a freelance writer and public relations consultant, is behind the publication.
The 
He 
Roy Hobbs, ABC 33/40’s weekend anchorman, is on temporary leave. The reason? A 
Sort of.
On Monday, Laura McAlister began as the new editor of Over the Mountain Journal. McAlister, shown at left, formerly served as Web editor for the Birmingham Business Alliance and Birmingham Magazine.
Last week, editor Abigail Millwood and art director Lane Gregory resigned from 
Media of Birmingham 