Washington Times Announces Additional Changes to Become a 21st Century Multimedia Company

Changes include improved on-line presence, focused print edition and more exclusive news and commentary

WASHINGTON, DC - The Washington Times LLC today announced changes to refocus its position as a provider of vital information and insight to readers in the nation's capital, across the country and around the world. As with other news organizations in the United States, the company continues to reshape operations to keep pace with the dynamically changing economics of the news business.

"These changes will continue The Washington Times' transformation into a 21st century media company and reinforces its mission to provide an independent, alternative voice in the nation's capital," said President and Publisher Jonathan Slevin. "We have developed plans to secure our position and advance our vital role in an evolving media marketplace and through challenging economic times. A new Washington Times will continue to reach readers and more effectively earn new audiences via digital, broadcast, print and wireless media, well into the future.

"Changes at the Times are rooted in a rigorous business analysis applying sound and tested financial principles, and shaping plans informed by current marketplace realities," continued Slevin. "In this regard, the company is aggressively working to achieve efficiencies of scale that must include significant staff reduction of its 370 personnel."

Scheduled for incremental implementation between now and the first half of 2010, the changes announced include:

• News focused on strengths. The Washington Times news operation will operate in a highly focused manner, investing in Washington Times' well-established core strengths that include exclusive reporting and in-depth-news national political coverage, enterprise and investigative reporting, geo-strategic and national security news, and cultural coverage based on traditional values.

• Controlled-market local circulation. In the first quarter of 2010, the local print edition will be distributed at no cost in select areas, and home/office delivery will be offered at a premium price. No-cost distribution will focus on targeted audiences at influential branches of the federal government as well as at other key institutions. Single copy sales will continue through newspaper boxes and retailers at select locations. Current subscribers will also be offered their choice of subscriptions to Washington Times' digital editions and The Washington Times National Weekly.

• Digital news resources: The Company will expand the recently launched theconservatives.com, subscription-based e-briefings and other new digital information resources as part of its online strategy.

• Radio programming. The newspaper's 3-hour-a-day morning radio program, "America's Morning News," will continue to grow through its syndicated by Talk Radio Network. It currently airs in more than 70 markets nationwide.

• Partnerships. The Washington Times will work closely with its affiliate company, United Press International (UPI), to mutually benefit both organizations through collaboration in areas such as photography and online sales, as well as leveraging UPI's multi-lingual and international presence.

"The new Washington Times will continue to report Washington-focused news that other journalistic enterprises often overlook," said Slevin. "Fearless reporting, respect for American values, and crisply written editorials and columns will remain the centerpieces of our new strategy, and our content will continue to engage readers and viewers through a wide range of 21st century media."

The subtext of the Times story is that Obama is classless, and that he snubbed the GOP in his first state dinner. Even though he did actually invite Minority Leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, both of whom snubbed Obama by declining to attend. (He also invited Republican governor Bobby Jindal, who did attend. And Dick Lugar was there, for some reason. And Eric Cantor, who wasn't invited to the dinner, was invited to the pre-dinner reception.)

So it doesn't look like much of a snub to us, at all. But whatever—it is fair game for a basically openly conservative paper to publish a news story with a partisan premise, so long as it's factually accurate, which this one is.

Then, of course, Fox picks up on this breaking news. Suddenly, the headline switches from "Top Republican lawmakers not attending State Dinner" to "Top Republican Lawmakers Not Invited to Obama's First State Dinner."

"Top Republican lawmakers," taken literally, means Boehner and McConnell, who were invited, and chose not to attend.

But Fox doesn't even acknowledge that.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner won't be there; he's on Thanksgiving break and home in Ohio. His deputy, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, also didn't get an invitation to the dinner.

Cantor also didn't get an invitation? That's a weird word choice, considering that the guy named in the previous sentence did get an invite. But that fact is, weirdly, edited out.

This is why Fox is way more successful than the Moonie Times: a grown-up could read that Times story and, based on the facts presented in that story, end up disagreeing with its premise. In order to preclude that possibility, Fox just makes up the facts to suit the premise.

(Thanks to readers Ronald and James Allen for alerting us to this very instructional case-study in modern journalism.)

Richard Miniter, the editorial page editor of the Moonie Washington Times, is suing the paper for "being forced to attend a Unification Church mass wedding," and also because he says they made him work while he was sick, even though, according to TPM, "During a health scare earlier this year, Miniter was brought out of the newsroom on a stretcher." Who would have expected this at the Moonie Washington Times, of all places?


The (unprofitable) New York Daily News is investing $150 million in a new printing press . Buyers of print ads in the Daily News love it; everyone else thinks it is stupid.


Hey, Lou Dobbs is very interested in Bill O'Reilly's offer of a "semi-regular contributor" position on O'Reilly's show. Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs, together, on the same show. That would be something. Something evil.


Ah, here's a fourth item on this day of layoffs and only layoffs, as far as media "news" is concerned: Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni has named Hearst's Food Network Magazines as the Most Notable Launch of 2009. Americans can no longer tolerate any aspect of their daily reality that is unconnected to television. What an apocalyptic future we all face. Thanks, "Mr. Magazine."

The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church and King of Peace, owns the Washington Times, along with the UPI wire service, the New Yorker Hotel, a gun manufacturer, a large segment of the American sushi industry, and a couple members of congress.

Moon has always treasured the attention of American politicians, and he spent a lot of the '80s sucking up to Republicans. The Times was kinda like his New York Post, only if Rupert Murdoch literally thought he was Jesus.

But now, Moon is very old. And so he is handing over various bits of his church and his businesses to his many children. Apparently, a war between Moon's Harvard-educated sons Hyung-jin Moon (whom Moon appointed to run the church) and Hyun-jin "Preston" Moon (who controls the Times) led to Preston firing a bunch of Times executives (including the publisher) last Sunday, because they refused to back him in his fight with his brother.

The paper loses millions of dollars a year, but Moon never minded, as long as it fought communism and homosexuality in American society. But now Moon seems to think that maybe it is not serving its purpose:

That vision is of, among other things, an assertively right-wing newspaper that would stand up for family values — and remarks made in September by Rev. Moon, known simply as "Father" to church members, shows he thought the paper wasn't living up to its brief.

"The Washington Times has to take responsibility for people going to hell in America," he declared, referring to, among other sins, "homosexuality and lesbianism." And yet, at the same event at the church's East Garden estate in Westchester County, NY, Rev. Moon appeared to come back to his belief that the newspaper was a worthwhile endeavor.

The sermon, titled "Western People Are Different From Eastern People," is not entirely coherent. At one point Rev. Moon boasted that he is the "original ancestor" of the Times, asking "Did the CIA help with making the Washington Times? Did George Bush help with making the Washington Times?"

Times employees have no idea what is going on. There were armed guards at the offices the day the firings happened. The editor is expected to be fired any minute now. And soon there might not be a money-losing ultra-conservative crazy-person second daily newspaper in America's Capital, which would be a real shame.

Moon is 89 and he's finally passed the responsibilities of his cult of personality and media empire on to his many children. Running the Unification Church is hard work! New church religious director Hyung Jin Moon flirted with Buddhism in college (who didn't?), and to prove his faith to his father's church he had to endure a marathon session of 21,000 "full-body bows" last August.

You may have heard that Moon owns The Washington Times and UPI, but did you know he also owns The New Yorker Hotel and a gun manufacturer? It's true, and weird! The WT loved Moon's recent memoir, and their story on the mass wedding is full of hilarious quotes from Unification Church officials and information from official Unification Church websites.

Hyung Jin Moon, Mr. Schanker said, "is a young guy, he has a pure heart, he is the baby of the family. Sometimes the Rev. Moon has polarized people in how he's challenged religious authorities. But the children are loving, embracing, down-to-earth. They have a broad spiritual vision for building healthy families and spiritual communities."

Hyung Jin Moon, who attended Harvard University and Harvard Divinity School, is married to Yeon Ah Lee and has five children. Still influenced by his Buddhist studies at Harvard, he is skilled in martial arts and has written three books, according to the www.familyfed.org, the church's Web site.

Moon has also "polarized people" by poaching baby leopard sharks, controlling the American sushi industry, and proclaiming himself the King of America in lavish DC ceremonies attended by various former presidents and current members of congress.

South Carolina's The State used the state's open records law to obtain the e-mail, along with hundreds of others flying in and out of the governor's office as his staff frantically worked to figure out where he was last month.

Other e-mails released by the state include the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza asking Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer: "Dude, is everything OK?" after being told, preposterously, that Sanford's office wouldn't release details of his location for security reasons. Sawyer responded: "Yep. Slow news day." Reporters for Fox News and the Washington Times, naturally, assuring Sanford a friendly venue if he would speak to them first. Hey, if Stephen Colbert can do it, why can't they? A Fox News correspondent whom the paper doesn't name—nor did it post a copy of the e-mail—wrote:

Having known the Governor for years and even worked with him when he would host radio shows for me - I find this story and the media frenzy surrounding it to be absolutely ridiculous! Please give him my best.

Totally ridiculous.

[Via Talking Points Memo.]

Since the day Obama was sworn in conservatives have been grinding their teeth in anger over the fact that George W. Bush has done the gentlemanly ex-President thing and refrained from being critical of Obama. Now the Times, most recently in the news for running a photo of the Obama girls with a story about murdered children, has a story out tonight in which Bush takes some mildly critical swipes at Obama, a story that's been sitting on their webpage since at least midnight looking like it wasn't edited for proper punctuation before it was published and sent out for linkage. Below is a screen grab.


The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.


We're guessing that this is how the passage pictured should probably read:

"I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in," the former president said to applause from members of a local business group. "You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money."

Repeatedly in his hourlong speech and question-and-answer session, Mr. Bush said he would not directly criticize the new president, who has moved to take over financial institutions and several large corporations. Several times, however, he took direct aim at Obama policies as he defended his own during eight years in office.

"Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States," he said to huge cheers.

Mr. Bush weighed in on some of the most pressing issues of the day: the election in Iran, the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, and his administration's interrogation policies of terrorists held there and elsewhere. The former president has not commented on Mr. Obama's decision to ban enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, which the current president has called "off course and based on fear."

Seriously, what the hell is going on at the Times these days? Is ignorance of fancy computer programs to blame here, just as it supposedly was when they ran the photo of the Obama girls with the murdered schoolchildren story? Or have they laid off so many people that everything they do is computer generated?

Then again, a reader wrote in to say that the Times was recently advertising on Craigslist to fill a web producer position, which, well, probably solves the riddle.

UPDATE: (4:09AM) It appears as though someone at the Times has finally edited the piece.

Bush Takes Swipes at Obama Policies [Washington Times]

Fishbowl DC obtained an internal memo sent out today by Times' editor John Solomon:

From: John Solomon To: twtnews Sent: Mon, 18 May 2009 10:31:00 -0400 Subject: Accuracy and Fairness

Folks:

Accuracy, precision, fairness and balance are our essential
coins of credibility in the marketplace. As we expand our product line and our workload, we cannot allow these pillars of journalism to be compromised by shortcuts, sloppiness or deadlines. To ensure we all live up to the promise, I am instituting the following reforms effective immediately:

1) Any reporter or editor who makes an error in a story that requires a published correction must submit a letter to the Executive Editor and Managing Editor explaining the mistake and what corrective actions were taken. These letters will be placed in your permanent personnel file.

2) Any reporters or editors who submit stories or content without fair comment or adequate balance will have their stories bounced from the lineup until they are corrected.

3) All reporters who have had stories with published corrections in the last year and any editors who inserted errors into copy will be required to take a mandatory class on accuracy and precision to be held the first week of June and led by Carleton Bryant.

John

Interesting to see Solomon use the phrase "fairness and balance" as the hallmarks of his conservative paper's credibility. Though his efforts, if sincere, are to be applauded, it's hard not to recall how miserably certain other conservative media outlets have failed in this regard.

From the Office of Disciplinary Action at TWT High [Fishbowl DC]

It those damn fancy computers! And software! AAGGHH! Those things can be so dang confusing.

Greg Sargent contacted John Solomon, editor of the Times, for an explanation.

Solomon says that no human individual paired the pic with the story, that a technological foul-up was to blame, and that the paper is tweaking its photo selection software to make sure this doesn't happen again.

"The theme engine, through automation, grabbed a photo it thought was relevant, and attached it to the story," Solomon says, acknowledging that the photo had gone up without a person seeing it. "There was no editorial decision to run it. As soon as it was brought to our attention, we pulled it down."

Solomon also conceded that the automated system the paper has in place to pick photos doesn't have a tight enough screening process, and said steps were being taken to fix that.

"We regret that the technology has let us down in this case," he said, "and are working to make sure that the [photo] matches are more relevant in the future."

So apparently it was a computer software program, something probably commonly used within the industry to cut costs by eliminating the need for human labor, that deserves blame in this matter. Normally we'd be more than willing to accept this explanation without much hesitation, but considering that the newspaper committing the gaffe is the most conservative daily broadsheet in the country, it does cause one to question its legitimacy, sadly, if only for a moment. Perhaps some of you Gawker readers have some insight into this sort of photo software program used by newspapers. Please feel free to tell us if we need to call bullshit on the Times' explantion.

WashTimes Editor Solomon Regrets Foul-Up Over Pic Of Obama's Daughters [Greg Sargent]

The gaffe, if it can even be called that because it appears nearly impossible for this to have been an accident, appears to have been originally caught by the blog, No More Mister Nice Blog. The Times, which later pulled the photo from its story, makes no mention of the Obama girls anywhere in the piece, yet clearly identified them in the photo caption that ran with the story.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS The Obama daughters (above) - Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10 - attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. This school year 36 of the city's school children have been killed.

How the hell does something like this happen, even at the country's most conservative daily newspaper during a Democratic administration? Are there no humans with active souls, with warm blood pumping through their veins, around to man the ship over there?

Eric Boehlert at Media Matters chewed on this a bit earlier today.

Think about the specifics of today's case. The Obama children, of course, are not actually mentioned in the news story. But somebody at the WashTimes thought it made perfect sense to insert the image of the underage White House occupants into a story about murdered kids in Chicago.

And no, this was not an example of an unfortunate juxtaposition, where the the Obama girls photo was actually part of another, more innocuous story and because of a layout quirk simply appeared near the murdered-kids story. Instead, the Obama girls photo was specifically selected to accompany the article.

Here's an interesting side note to the story: Looking though the comments, it appears as though only one Times reader, commenting under the name "jiff," bothered to express outrage at the use of the photo.

"I am appalled that you put a picture of the President's children with this article. Please explain the reasoning behind this."

Say what you want about the politics of former Times editor-in-chief Wesley Pruden, and he was as radically conservative as they come, but I doubt there's any way horseshit like this would've happened under his watch.

Susan Orlean of the New Yorker deigned to contemplate Facebook's redesign.

BusinessWeek's Jon Fine caught up on year-old Viacom trivia. (Yes, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman's son works at Google. Duh.)

Washington Times Web columnist Amanda Carpenter wasted time on Twitter to announce she was not wasting time on Twitter.

Former Village Voice writer Tricia Romano began drinking early.

AFP correspondent Olivier Knox confessed to a mancrush on Wired editor Adam Rogers.

See something worth noting on Twitter? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

The Reverend Moon-owned Washington Times, a noted newspaper-of-the-working man, is of course shocked that a liberal who claims to like poor people would have these socialite leeches skulking around The People's House. We're shocked that he thought any of those not-long-for-this-media-environment mags would even be worthy of his attention.

Just about every single word of the Times "exclusive" is hilarious in a terribly hacky New York Post-for-beginners attempted class rage way, so you should probably just read the whole thing. Like it derisively calls someone "chic and soignee."

So! The editors of those three magazines went to the White House for a meeting about how the Obamas can get everyone in DC's "glittery social scene" to, who knows, lobby their congress members for health care reform, or something. Hypocrisy!

While publicly identifying with the nation's have-nots, the Obama administration has been cultivating the Beltway social elite behind the scenes.

But... why?

The White House is "identifying taste makers in order to help create grass-roots interest in some of the programs they are working on," said Washington Life's Michael Clements, who attended the meeting. "They wanted to introduce themselves. It was certainly a departure from previous administrations."

Haha Washington Life's Michael Clements, who attended the meeting, said "my magazine totally attracts taste-makers and I have the attention of the president PLEASE PLEASE ADVERTISE PLEASE."

The outreach to the luxury lifestyle glossies, which cater to the region's highest socioeconomic strata with knowing coverage of everything from the choicest real estate and most exclusive parties to the plushest resorts and spas, is not the only recent evidence that the Obama administration is eager to forge ties with the nation's social and style arbiters.

Because if you are a liberal president you can only hang out with coal miners, children from crumbling schools, and unemployed RV manufacturers.

And you know it's in everyone's interest here to pretend Washington has an interesting and glamorous "social scene" or whatever, but it really doesn't, it's a bunch of wonks and hacks and a million journalists and a couple rich old ladies and a lot of douchebags. So, thanks for the attempted "Washington lifestyle magazine credibility bailout" here, Mr. President, but nothing's gonna save "the Young and the Guest List."

Inhuman, caffeine-fueled Gizmodo blogging machine Matt Buchanan broke down.

ABC's John Berman resisted the urge to dance.

Sun Myung Moon employee Christina Bellantoni got told by a Congressional aide.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon producer Gavin Purcell was very, very tired.

Formerly important editorial person Bonnie Fuller failed at Twitter. (140 characters max, Bonnie — but don't worry, even Google's CEO got that wrong.)

Anyone else's tweets we should keep an eye on? Send us more Twitter usernames, please — or email us your favorite tweets.

Many things have changed since the Sun was founded: lead investor and Chicago Sun-Times owner Conrad Black went to jail, oil went above $100 a barrel, Israel went to war with Lebanon, Bill Buckley died and someone named "Julia Allison" gave birth to something called "microcelebrity," and the embarrassing unbridled jingoism unleashed by the events of September 11 greased the proverbial wheels of a prodigious bounty of lousy deals that would result mainly in death and disillusionment, the latter of which would eventually, mercifully, find itself directed at the Republican Party and the conservative movement that, in addition to God, granted it so much power. But here is what has not changed: conservatives do not really read, which is to say, of course conservatives read but not things that are like, long*, and those who do tend to compartmentalize the pastime as something rather far removed from their ideology, and if that's not the case, well, they would seem to be sufficiently alarmed by the defilement of their once-optimistic "movement" to be directing their information demands at suppliers of cruder, less ideologically-refined sources than the Sun. Of course, this is all blather and speculation; I am merely stating what I believe to be the nature of business conditions in the niche. But it is not just the Rupert Murdochs of the conservative media ideologically softening these days; the nuttycon Washington Times would seem to be on a bid to "mainstream" itself, while the talking heads and bloggingheads running such outlets as the National Review seem primarily to be brokering in new cute phrases: Sam's Club Republicans! The Sourpuss Vote! We've been Palinized!
We think you'll agree, if there's anything the industry needs right now, it's de-Palinization.

*Yeah, case in point: NONE of those guys actually read the Bible.

Subject: Style changes

All:

Here are some recent updates to TWT style.

1) Clinton will be the headline word for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

2) Gay is approved for copy and preferred over homosexual, except in clinical references or references to sexual activity.

3) The quotation marks will come off gay marriage (preferred over homosexual marriage).

4) Moderate is approved, but centrist is still allowed.

5) We will use illegal immigrants, not illegal aliens.

Thanks.

Patrick

"Time magazine has already come out to say their sources are still talking to them," Mr. Jones said yesterday. "We should watch whether the Plame case inspires prosecutors to start going after reporters in a wholesale way. We may also see more conditional anonymity now where journalists tell sources 'I'll protect you if I don't go to jail.'?"

There has been some source-related fallout this week, however. Andrew Krucoff, a Conde Nast researcher, was fired Tuesday for leaking an internal staff memo to Gawker, a Manhattan news and gossip Web log. He was escorted from the building.

Valerie Plame to Andrew Krucoff in 500 words. Now that's how you pad a story.

Lasting effect of Plame case on press murky [WT]

Earlier:
Media Bubble, Bursted: Krucoff Fired