Ex-Mrs. New Jersey Sentenced To Year In Jail

For the talent competition, she did a bouncing routine.

LOL. Even our beauty queens end up in jail.

Speaking of the Star-Ledger, from what I can gather, this memo went out to all Star-Ledger employees yesterday.

Too funny watching these papers die.

And the fake argument that all of democracy hinges on its survival (I mean, who will report on the local town council?).....

Adapt or die.

Most live with this.

That "journalists" are begging for a "bailout" from the Gov. just adds to the fun. (And tell me again how one becomes a journalist? Hired by a big paper? Schooling? State license? Or, wait. That's right, you simply call yourself a journalist....)

(Meanwhile, someone will figure out how to make money delivering the news as these old media types take a cheer to the good 'ol days......)

With all due repsect, Prof, journalism is a real profession with a real degree(s) required. And. just like in any other profession, there are good ones and there are bad ones.

That being said, I disagree with the Ledger's "business plan." Why not cut out the Saturday paper? That's probably the least read edition anyway, at least for now. This way they'll be able to salvage some of the employee bennies and such.

As far as advertisers go, now is the time to get your name out there when your competition is cutting back. When the receission's over, whose name will people remember?

Some papers (The NYT, Boston Globe, and Washington Post to name three) are hoping the Kindle DX will boost subscriptions because the daily paper can be downloaded in about 60 seconds from anywhere a 3G network exists.

(Who'da thunk it?)

One becomes a journalist the same way one becomes a filmmaker, Prof.

Exactly jerseygurl, one simple calls themselves a journalist, or a filmmaker. Or a screenwriter. Or an artist. Or a "designer".......

There are plenty of jobs that, unlike say, motherhood, one does not need to actually have done the thing to call themselves a purveyor of it.

(And while one can get a "degree" in journalism, do you think all the 21year-old graduating next week are journalists?)

In order to be taken seriously though, one actually has to make a film that is seen by someone other than one's own parents, or write articles that get published.

Moreover, some of us are filmmakers because we've made films.

But so have some 3rd graders.

They are filmmakers too. (And some are very good.)

Will journalists allow for the writer of the 3rd grade school paper to be called journalists?

...... Understand, for a group who goes out of their way to make sure that "non-professional" (read: those not paid by papers) are called: Citizen-Journalists, I don't think they would agree that the 3rd grader is a journalist.

A student journalist perhaps.

Kinda like how Mr. Potter views that Baristas---- not "real" journalists.... Citizen-journalist who are really parasites....

But Prof, don't you think that can be said about ANY job? What about all the 21 yos graduating from accounting schools? Are they all accountants? Or teachers, lawyers, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers? Why single out journalists?

I disagree.

Must one have to "screen" the film to be a filmmaker?

Must one be "published" to be a journalist?

If I make music at home.

Am I not a musician?

Not sure the "distribution" of ones work makes it more real than its creation.

If a tree falls in the woods....

Understand, most of the professions you list require a state license.

I cannot be a "teacher" without a state sanction.

Or a beautician.

So, if a 21-year-old graduates in a field that doesn't require anything more than hanging out his or her shingle, then they get to call themselves whatever that profession is.

But since there is NO license or sanctioning for journalist AND the web has allowed for almost anyone to "publish" I think that's all you need to be called a journalist.

(You might not be a good one, but you are one. Likewise, many who've graduated with degrees are not very good....)

You're not really a writer unless you have readers, prof, as the Fleet Street guys I used to know always maintained after two or three belts.

That said, there are an awful lot of bad writers out there, with both degrees and readers. This construct-of-intent seems almost (I'm not quite sure) unique to journalism.

But the Star-Ledger is at least the sum of its parts: the sports stats, the comics, the movie timetables, et al. All in one place, whatever the talent level of the writers and editors which surround it (a level I admittedly have always found pretty low at the Ledger). Do you really have the time and inclination to go to 50 different web sites to locate all this information? Even to find out if Macy's is having a sale this weekend?

Well, you may soon have a chance to find out. But as someone who in fact spent some years at a newspaper industry trade association, I can add that newspapers in fact had PLENTY of "advance warning" over this current state of affairs. Around 20 years worth in fact. Yet their mindset was to completely ignore the Biblical warnings (as in the story of Joseph) that the lean years invariably follow the fat ones. In that sense, even if in that sense alone, newspapers are just now getting exactly what they've long deserved.

Having spent several years working for the Star-Ledger back in the 70's, I will always have a soft spot for the paper. Still, even back then, I saw the writing on the wall. As a proud and dutiful employee, I tried to make a difference. Nevertheless, no matter how much I lobbied management to make some smart changes, most of my complaints went unanswered. For instance, I thought Prince Valiant did not belong in the Sunday comics section. Did anyone care what I had to say? No. Perhaps it was because I was just a lowly paperboy, and all anyone really was concerned about was getting their paper delivered promptly and dry. And yes, I still consider myself a journalist.

Saturday morning is an appropriate time to discuss eliminating the Saturday paper.

Yes, it is the least read day of the week. And that is why people with bad news to deliver prefer to do so on Friday afternoon.

For example.

To say nothing of the media's willingness to downplay the story by buying deep inside the least read issue of the week.

Please note; I LOVE my NY Times in the morning. As I've stated here too many times, my day is made when I see the blue plastic on the west lawn of my palatial Upper Montclair Estate. And on those days (2 last week) when the paper is late, my day quickly goes down hill.

That said.

It's a dying form.

This is no different than the music business.

The question is how will we get news.

Not whether or not news will be gathered.

There's money to be made here..... Who wants it?

Actually, it is different from the music biz in at least one respect:

Musicians (good ones, & if they have the stomach for it) can still generate income from live performances.

Who's gonna pay to watch a journalist do anything live?

Good Point. Very true.

I guess the question is, is there a journalist I would pay to read? Sadly, the answer is no.

Although musicians still make money selling music, not just performing live.

Not nearly as much as say, the Eagles in 1977 (BACK UP THE BRINKS TRUCK!!!!), but some.

Regardless, I still find great joy in watching journalist asking the Gov for a handout.

prof, earlier you mentioned that one of the great joys in your life is the NY TIMES delivered to your estate.

Yet you say that there are no journalists you'd pay to read.

You ARE paying to read the TIMES journalists, unless you're stealing that paper.

For me, I like the whole idea of getting the papers, reading through them, etc. But then I do understand that I'm in the minority, and that it is really an "old" thing to do so.

But I take no joy in watching industries die out and people losing their jobs.

Not too hard to understand.

I read the paper.

If the paper goes away, I won't be purchasing the articles ad hoc.

Therefore, I won't pay for any single article by any single journalist.

It is only it the form of a paper, where ALL the articles are together that I find value.

Value I'm willing to pay for.

As for joy, that the news folks- owners, reporter and delivery alike- failed to realize that theirs was a dying industry and did nothing to stop it, while it makes me sad, as I said above: adapt or die.

(And the usual show of arrogance of those-- See Mr. Potter on that CBS Morning show-- does make it delicious....)

I feel the same way about the legacy American Car industry (not to be confused with those "American-built" cars by non-American companies).