Mother of Slain 9-Year-Old: Stop the Hatred

Roxanna Green, mother of the 9-year-old child who was shot and killed by a gunman in Arizona who was targeting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, said on MSNBC that she wanted the memory of her daughter Christina to live on.

"I just want her memory to live on, she's a face of hope, a face of change," Roxanna Green told MSNBC. "Stop the violence, stop the hatred."

Green spoke about how her daughter had been born on Sept. 11, 2001 and had been featured in a book called "Faces of Hope."

Chelstowski Named Publisher of Newsweek/Daily Beast

In another sign that the two organizations are ready to merger, Ray Chelstowski, a former publisher of Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, has been named publisher of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, reports Jeremy W. Peters of The New York Times.

Chelstowski is the  former publisher of Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly.

Peters offers this background in his report:

Under Mr. Chelstowski’s plan, the advertising sales staffs of Newsweek and The Daily Beast will eventually become one, and sales people will sell print and digital ads for both brands.

That could lead to further staff downsizing, but Mr. Chelstowski said it was premature to say whether there would be job cuts.

“Right now there are two separate sales staffs, two separate operations,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “I think the best way to go to market is in an integrated capacity.”

Since Barry Diller, whose IAC/InterActiveCorp started The Daily Beast, and Sidney Harman, who bought Newsweek late last year, agreed to merge operations in November, both organizations have been figuring out how to coexist. Newsweek will remain as a distinct magazine brand, while the Daily Beast Web site will become the vehicle for news online. Newsweek.com will no longer exist in its current form, and readers who type that address into their Web browsers will be redirected to DailyBeast.com.

Tina Brown, a former editor at The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, who was leading editorial operations at The Daily Beast, is now the editor of Newsweek as well.

Philly Inquirer’s Loeb Bounces Back to Washington Post as Local Editor

 Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli announced today that Vernon Loeb, Philadelphia Inquier's deputy managing editor/news, is returning to the Post as local editor.

Loeb's resume is a document of back-and-forth adventures betwen the two papers. Previously, he was a reporter for the Post. He started that stint in 1994 after leaving the Inquirer for the first time.

Romenesko posted the memo earlier today:

From: Marcus Brauchli

Sent: 01/05/2011 12:17 PM EST

To: NEWS

Subject: A New Local Editor

To the Staff:

We are pleased to announce that Vernon Loeb will be returning to The Post as Local Editor.

Vernon joins us from The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he has been deputy managing editor for news, overseeing the metro, business, health & science and national/foreign desks, as well as the newsroom’s interactions with Philly.com. It’s his second stint at the Inquirer, having previously covered the statehouse and City Hall and done a tour as a correspondent in Southeast Asia.



Loeb



The last time he decamped from Philadelphia, in 1994, it was also to The Post, where he covered the second round of Marion Barry as mayor, before moving to the National Staff to cover the CIA and the Pentagon. He left The Post after a decade to run California investigations for the Los Angeles Times.



Vernon is a tremendously talented, high-energy journalist, whose enthusiasm for what we do is infectious. In his new job, he will drive our coverage of the region, ensuring we are serving our readers, both print and digital, the smartest, freshest and most authoritative news and features on the issues that matter most to them. It’s a good match: this is a highly competitive market, and Vernon is an intensely competitive editor.

He will start on Feb. 1 and report to Liz Spayd.



As part of this transition, Senior Web Editor Jane Elizabeth and the PostLocal.com team will soon join the Local staff, with Jane spearheading Local digital initiatives and reporting to Vernon. Prior to joining the Post as Local Web News Editor a year ago, Jane was a senior editor at The Virginian-Pilot, supervising teams covering the military, politics and government, as well as medicine, health, environment, transportation, religion and consumer issues. At the Post, she has been instrumental in PostLocal.com’s growing success. This move, which will combine our Local content creation and web teams into one seamless operation, is aimed at ramping up our Local efforts across all platforms. David Marino-Nachison will continue to be Local Innovations Editor.

Vernon is married to Patricia Ford Loeb, a distinguished public and commercial radio reporter and editor. They have four children – one out of college, one in, and twins who are seniors in high school. Loeb has been known to run a marathon or two (54 actually, ed.) and is an ardent Phillies fan.



Please join us in welcoming Vernon back to the newsroom.

Marcus

Liz

Raju

Non-Union Workers in Gannett Unit Must Take One-Week Furlough in First Quarter

Gannett Co. told non-union workers of its U.S. Community Publishing Unit today that they will have to take a week off without pay in the first quarter of this year to avoid more layoffs as revenue continues to fall.

The furloughs will affect workers at the 81 community newspapers. They will not apply to Gannett's flagship newspaper, USA Today, or to the Detroit Free Press. There are a total of 17,000 employees working at the community newspapers.

In a memo issued earlier today and posted on Jim Hopkins' Gannett Blog, unit President Robert Dickey said that top line revenues "remain short of where they were a year ago." Dickey continued to say that the current economy made it necessary to implement the furloughs.

"This was, quite frankly, an option I had hoped we could avoid," he said in his memo.

The furloughs must be taken by March 27, and will include Dickey himself, the memo said. Gannett chief executive officer Craig Dubow and chief operating officer Gracia Martore will have their salaries reduced by a percentage equivalent to a week's furlough.

Russell Adams of The Wall Street Journal writes:

Like many other newspaper publishers, Gannett has slashed jobs and made many other cuts, including furloughs, in response to steep declines in advertising revenue over the past couple years. The company had about 35,000 employees at the end of 2009, down from nearly 50,000 three years earlier.

In the third quarter of last year, Gannett posted a 38% increase in profit helped by lower operating expenses. However, its newspaper business continued to drag down results. Publishing ad revenue fell 5.1% from a year earlier, a slight improvement over the 5.7% decline in the second quarter. Publishing ad revenue declined 28% in 2009.

"As we start the new year, we continue to see some improvement in revenue trends and reduced year-over-year revenue declines in U.S. Community Publishing," Mr. Dickey wrote. "This is no small accomplishment and I think you should take great pride in what you have achieved. Our top line revenues, however, while improving, remain short of where they were a year ago. This is compounded by a still challenging and uncertain economy, as well as increasing expenses."

A Dozen Incoming GOP Freshmen Switch From Tea Party to a Swank Beltway Party

Here's more evidence that once you are elected to Congress and you find yourself inside the Beltway that your brain just shuts off and you just don't get it.


Denham



At least 12 Republican congressmen-elect, six of whom are Tea Party members, are banding together to throw a swank party to celebrate their inauguration and raise funds at the plush W Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C. Performing at the event is country singer LeAnn Rimes, who is not a favorite among social conservatives because of her Twitter photos and other activities.

The event is sponsored by America’s New Majority, a political action committee formed by Rep.-elect Jeff Denham, R-Calif., whose goal is to raise funds.

Conservative blogger Matt Lewis reports that the cost to attend the event is "$2,500 a pop (for $50,000 you can become a "Platinum Sponsor" -- but that includes eight tickets, a "VIP lunch" and a "VIP suite" at the W hotel)."

Lewis also describes why Rimes might not be the best choice in the eyes of the socially conservative base:

But the price isn't the only thing raising eyebrows. Once thought of as "family friendly," Rimes has since added some new material to her resume. As Perez Hilton recently noted:

"LeAnn Rimes took to her Twitter to reveal some pics of herself ... as a Sexy Santa performing with the El Lay Gay Men's Christmas this past Sunday. And, of course, some with her man Eddie Cibrian!" Even before Rimes' tweet, she might have been an interesting pick for conservatives. As the New York Daily News reported in September:

"Once considered America's Sweetheart, LeAnn Rimes shocked fans when she admitted to cheating on her husband, Dean Sheremet.

. . . Rimes, now 28, admitted that she had an affair with actor Eddie Cibrian while they were shooting a Lifetime film back in 2008."

Here’s a list of all the participating members-elect, according to the Sunlight Foundation's "Party Time" site:

Jeff Denham, R-Calif.
Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn. (Tea Party)
Robert Dold, R-Ill. (Tea Party)
Renee Ellmers, R-N.C. (Tea Party)
Jeff Landry, R-La. (Tea Party)
Tom Marino, R-Pa.
Tom Reed, R-N.Y.
David Rivera, R-Fla.
Jon Runyan, R-N.J.
Steve Southerland, R-Fla. (Tea Party)
Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind. (Tea Party)
Kevin Yoder. R-Kan.

POLITICO's Kenneth P. Vogel and Marin Cogan report that "House Speaker-elect John Boehner, whose name was featured on the invitation, is nonetheless skipping the event."

Their report goes on to say that at least one GOP consultant is advising his clients to stay clear of these activities:

While at least 11 incoming Republican House members had signed up for the committee by Dec. 10, other freshman were discouraged from joining, said a pair of GOP fundraising consultants.

“We strongly recommended to our clients that they not take part in this,” said one consultant, who did not want to be identified discussing advice offered to members of Congress.

“It’s causing a buzz because it’s in direct contradiction to the image that leadership is trying to portray as a conference that wants to get down to business,” said the consultant, comparing the Rimes fundraiser to one thrown by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi when Democrats assumed the House majority in 2007.

That fundraiser – organized by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and featuring $1,000 ticket prices and performances by Tony Bennett and the remnants of The Grateful Dead – got some bad press and also sparked ill will among some of the lobbyists and political action committee managers who typically comprise the target demographic for high-dollar Washington fundraisers.

ESPN's Ron Franklin Pulled From Air After Calling Jeannine Edwards 'Sweetcakes,’ and ‘A–Hole’

One of my all-time favorite sports broadcasters is in a heap of trouble for his insensitive off-the-air remarks toward a female sideline reporter.

Ron Franklin was pulled from the air before Saturday's Fiesta Bowl after he called ESPN sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards "sweetcakes" during an off-air spat, according to the website SportsbyBrooks.com.

The website also reported today that "in an email to USA TODAY reporter Michael McCarthy, ESPN sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards confirmed today that ESPN colleague Ron Franklin called her an “a–hole” during a production meeting before the ESPN Chick-fil-A Bowl telecast last Friday."

Scheduled to work on the ESPN-TV broadcast of the Chick-fil-A Bowl Friday, Franklin and Edwards were part of a production meeting before the game that was also attended by ESPN announcers Ed Cunningham and Rod Gilmore. During the meeting, the subject of Gilmore’s wife Marie being elected Alameda (CA) mayor came up.

As Gilmore, Cunningham and Franklin discussed the subject, Edwards tried to join the conversation.

When she did, Franklin said to her, “Why don’t you leave this to the boys, sweetcakes.”

Edwards responded to Franklin by saying, “don’t call me sweetcakes, I don’t like being talked to like that.”

Franklin then said, “okay then, a–hole.”

After the meeting Edwards reported Franklin’s comments to ESPN management. Once ESPN college football coordinating producer Ed Placey confirmed Franklin’s comments to Edwards with Cunningham, ESPN executives made an attempt to pull Franklin off the Chick-fil-A Bowl broadcast the same day. Because of late notice, no replacement for Franklin was found and the longtime play-by-play announcer called the game - without incident - with Cunningham and Edwards.

With Edwards and Franklin scheduled to work together the next night in Arizona, top ESPN programming executives - including Norby Williamson and Mark Gross - were involved in the decision to pull Franklin off the Fiesta Bowl radio broadcast.

Dave Lamont filled in for Franklin.

When contacted, an ESPN representative could not comment on Franklin’s current status with the company.

Franklin signed a two-year contract with ESPN last July, with the deal calling for him to work 35 events for the network per year.

ESPM subsequently pulled Franklin from the game.

Mediaite: CNN's John Roberts to Join Fox News

CNN's John Roberts will join Fox News as senior national correspondent based in Atlanta and will be reporting on major domestic and international stories for the network, reports Colby Hall of Mediaite.

Some industry insiders are sure to see this as somewhat of a coup for Fox News, as Roberts will shore up the news side of FNC’s news programming. Anytime a news network can add an award winning journalist who has covered nearly every major news story of the last two decades for both CBS News and CNN. Some suggested that Roberts was poorly utilized at CNN hosting a morning news program, but Roberts did have some terrific reporting moments when he was brought out of the studio, namely while interviewing BP COO Doug Suttles, asking him “how he slept”?

It appears that Fox News will use Roberts in a similar vein, getting him out of the studio and reporting in the field on major news stories. Not only is this a win for FNC, but for fans of old school journalists as well.

NY Post: Newsweek/Daily Beast Merger Is Weeks Away

Newsweek owner Sidney Harman told New York Post's Keith J. Kelly that the long-awaited merger of the struggling news magazine and the Daily Beast will finally happen in mid-January.

Kelly writes this morning:

There was no word from Barry Diller, chairman of the InterActiveCorp/IAC side of the new joint venture, which owns the Daily Beast.

Most observers blame legal and paperwork delays, combined with the usual holiday slowdown rather than any serious snags that could derail the deal reached in early November.

That means Tina Brown, the Daily Beast editor-in-chief and former editor of The New Yorker and the much-hyped failure Talk Magazine, will have longer to wait before she can put her stamp on the newsweekly when she takes over the combined operations.

In the meantime, interim co-editors Dan Klaidman and Nisid Hajari have agreed to stick around until at least the end of January -- and possibly longer.

They have been running the magazine since Jon Meacham left in late August.