richardhowe.com

Now I do admit that I have a facebook “page” that a technology-savy niece created for me unasked - but I rarely if ever post or visit. I know very little about Facebook. Who might use this site? Is it all for and about individuals? Is it strickly personal? What type of communication tool is it? So as a member of the Democratic State Committee my interest was piqued  when the  Massachusetts Democratic Party announced in a recent Newsletter that they have opened a “group” on Facebook. The site has all kinds of information, postings, references, videos and photos. It appears that while little effort is made to keep the MDP blog-site current, the Facebook site is lively, current and active. I suggest that you take a look at the site. For some there are photos of local interest - numbers 11 thru 18 are Lowell-related. They are generally focussed on Niki Tsongas and her campaign events and include the Unity rally sponsored by Greater Lowell Area Democrats, the Bill Clinton event at the Auditorium and a downtown Lowell walking-tour with Governor Patrick. Check out: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2363482082

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I just sent a text message to Barack Obama’s campaign (“VP” to 62262) so now I’ll be one of the first to know who he selects to be his running mate.  That’s the prize you get for connecting with the campaign.  The reply message I received seconds after pressing “send” said “Welcome to Obama Mobile.  You will be one of the 1^st notified when the VP Candidate is selected.”  As soon as I get the word, I’ll pass it along to all of our loyal readers here on the blog.

Despite receiving the invitation to sign up several days ago, I initially decided against it figuring that I’d find out soon enough through some other means.  But today I read an oped column by Garrett Graff who was one of the web gurus involved in John Dean’s presidential campaign.  As Graff explains, “announcing Mr. Obama’s running mate by text message has little to do with proclaiming the selection and everything to do with getting out the vote on Election Day in November.”  As someone who has volunteered occasionally during the past ten years to do Get Out the Vote telephone calls leading up to and on election day, I immediately saw the benefit of a campaign being connected via text with tens of thousands of voters.  Between Caller ID, answering machines and busy families, it’s almost impossible to reach a receptive and responsive human being by calling a home telephone.  The recent flood of robocalls and the resulting disdain in which they are held by most telephone owners has further diluted the historical benefits of Get Out the Vote efforts.  And Graff cites an impressive statistic: 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 don’t even have a landline telephone.

This November, the majority of young people born in 1990 will be eligible to vote.  These are kids who mastered the computer before they could walk and are more at ease communicating via text message than by landline.  Anyone involved in politics who is not interested in learning more about the power of this technology as an electioneering tool is guaranteeing his own obsolescence. 

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Two weeks ago I wrote that the summertime-nastiness of the Lowell Sun would hasten the paper’s demise.  It’s obvious that I hit a nerve because Sun executives have spent the past 14 days obsessing over that opinion in the paper (last Saturday), on the radio (just yesterday) and in conversations with anyone who will listen.  Why would the upper-echelon of a major regional newspaper get so rattled by a single comment on a blog that’s read by 500 people per day?  Could it be that we’ve stumbled onto the truth?   

Recall that the Sun is owned by MediaNews Group and consider this:

•  Although MediaNews Group is a privately held corporation, it had always filed financial disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  That all changed on April 4, 2008, when MediaNews Group filed a Form 8-K with the Securities Exchange Commission, announcing that it had “ended its obligation to file reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on a voluntary basis.” 

• Then in mid-June, Standard & Poor’s lowered the corporate credit rating of MediaNews Group Inc to CCC which Editor and Publisher said was “deep in junk bond territory and just four notches above a default rating.”  

• At about the same time, Bloomberg.com reported “. . . MediaNews may end up in default as ad sales evaporate.”  

• Just this Friday, MediaNews Group sold a Connecticut daily and seven weekly papers to the Hearst chain.  The Connecticut Post has Dean Singleton (owner of MediaNews Group) saying that he sold the Connecticut papers to “shore up MediaNews Group’s balance sheet.”

Draw your own conclusions.

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I read the other day that I had “little or no understanding of the media business” so I decided to become better informed.  It didn’t take long to find some relevant material. 

For example, by reading “Newspapers Could Be Bargains, but Few Are Buying” on the website of the New York Times, I learned that in just this past year, there’s been a “sharp shift” to “a more pessimistic long-term view of the [newspaper] industry” and that the value of shares of many publicly traded newspapers have dropped “50 to 75 percent.”  With these steep declines in value, you’d think that someone would be buying up these bargains.  But even “the most avid buyers” such as Media News Group (the owner of the Lowell Sun) “are in no position to keep buying.” 

Alongside that story was a column lamenting the decline of The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper.  According to NYT business columnist David Carr, The Star-Ledger excels by living in two media worlds: By loading up on pictures and graphics while running a slick website, it’s squarely in the modern era, but it’s also a throwback to the days when the “most important story was the one just down the block.”  But The Star-Ledger has fallen upon hard times, losing $30 to $40 million a year due to “a familiar litany of ailments, including the cratering of classifieds, department store consolidation and the flight of ad dollars to the internet.”  So despite its online excellence and its emphasis on local coverage, The Star-Ledger’s future is bleak.

Well, that’s it for today’s lesson in newspaper economics.  What will tomorrow bring?

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I am convinced that the same person that has been advising the American Auto industry for the past twenty years is also advising Jim Ogonowski. “Bigger is better! Spend spend spend!”…Ogo just spent $552,000 of other people’s money launching his run for US Senator…well, that launch was about as successful as a North Korean missile.
Who is advising this man? He is a well respected veteran. He deserves better.
According to the Lowell Sun he spent it all. He left just $51.75 in the campaign account. That’s not even enough to fill a GM SUV. But lets look on the bright side of things or at least what Massachusetts Republican Party Spokesman Barney Keller thinks is a bright side…

Conventional wisdom says that Massachusetts is a blue state, so the fact that he was able to raise that amount of money in a short time shows that people believe a Republican can win,” Keller said (Lowell Sun).

You’re not serious are you, Barney? The guy didn’t even make it on the ballot. Maybe if people around him like you Barney, got real the guy would have a chance at getting his political future back on track.
Ogo spent $150,000 on TV ads, mailings etc, $80,000 on political consultants (lowell sun)…
What consulting? You call that consulting?… Jim, let’s take on a well financed incumbent US Senator and then after you lose to him 65% to 35%, we’ll say, look how close you came…and then you can run for president and lose again.
I feel bad for Ogonowski…I ask, who is advising this guy?
By the way I’m wondering…anyone know someone looking to buy a used Hummer, cheap?

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Through the years society has established many ways to judge a person…what he/she reads, what he/she says, how he/she acts. Today society needs to add another criteria, I call it the iPod factor…its the music a person stores on his/her iPod. Lets take a look at Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s iPod music (I got this information from a boston.com article titled What’s on Obama’s iPod). The Senator himself gives the best description of his music likes and dislikes…”I have pretty eclectic tastes” (don’t we all, senator?). Growing up Obama loved to listen to Elton John, Earth Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder and he still does today. He calls Steve Wonder his “musical hero” from the 70’s. Obama has 30 Bob Dylan songs on his iPod (hey, that’s more than me)…in fact the Senator says he especially likes to listen to Maggie’s Farm during campaign season (I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more). Like everyone else, Obama loves the Rolling Stones. He says “Gimme Shelter” is his favorite Mick Jagger song. And no iPod is complete without The Boss, Bruce Sprinsteen on it? (who, by the way is also supporting Obama for president) and then there is and Sherly Crow…In the Jazz area Obama puts Miles Davis first. When asked about rap, this is what the presumptive nominee sai…

I am troubled sometimes by the misogyny and materialism of a lot of rap lyrics, but I think the genius of the art form has shifted the culture and helped to desegregate music.

Wouldn’t it be great to ask John McCain “What’s on your iPod?”…or a better question might be “Have you ever heard of an iPod?”

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Today’s Lowell Sun has a front page headline (”Now playing: Sun videos on YouTube”) announcing that the newspaper has created its own channel on the popular video sharing site.  I might be missing something, but I can’t find the story anywhere on the Sun’s website, so here’s a summary:  The Sun channel will contain all SunCast videos (the twice weekly video newsmagazine) and all other videos created by Sun staffers. 

As readers of this blog are well aware, we frequently use YouTube videos here.  Some are produced by others, but others are our own.  Tony and I both have our own YouTube channels.  Please check them out - Tony’s channel - Dick’s channel.  For future reference, these links and more can be found on our Multimedia Page (see menu bar at top of screen).

Here’s a link to the Sun’s channel and here’s the most recent SunCast video:

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Welcome to the new look of richardhowe.com.  My earlier post explains why we had to make a sudden change, so please read that if you haven’t already done so.  I’ve found that things happen for a reason, however, so this forced change is really an opportunity to overhaul and update the appearance and functionality of this site.  Marie, Tony and I will continue to bring you the latest news and commentary on politics, but there have been many other things we’ve wanted to do but haven’t found the time to make them happen.  Now we have no choice, so in the end, this mix up should make this a more interesting, more useful site.  Please keep visiting.  (One of the things not yet added is the author’s name with each post, so for the time being, we’ll place the author’s name at the end of each post - Dick).

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The hosting service that is the physical home of this blog recently switched to new servers and software.  Supposedly the change happened about six weeks ago, so it seemed like the transition had been smooth.  But yesterday is when they actually made the switch and it did not go well.  The biggest problem was that our posts appeared in reverse order with the oldest showing up first.  Then, they had apparently copied the database back in mid-May, so the last month of posts wasn’t on the new server.  This same thing happened to Jackie Doherty’s blog several weeks ago.  Since Jackie and Margaret are still trying to rectify the issue, I decided to deactivate the old blog and start from scratch.  All the old posts have been saved and once this is stabilized, we’ll provide access to them in one way or another.  Rather than interupt the flow of current content, we’ll just keep writing as though nothing happened.  Thanks for your patience.

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