New Times R.I.P.

So here's another update about New Times that Bob Rucker can get pissed off about.

I've been telling you about a seismic shift in New Times philosophy, away from the glory days of Steve Moss and Tom Fulks to this new feel-good, warm-and-fuzzy Ryan Miller approach.

This is being confirmed by an unlikely source -- New Times advertising staff! Yep, apparently they're going around town with their new mantra, telling prospective advertisers, "We don't do investigative reporting anymore. We only do 'event coverage.'"

Event coverage? This is what I'm hearing from business owners.

So rest easy, Wade McKinney. Sleep tight, Tom O'Malley. Don't give it a second thought, Dave Romero. Do whatever you want, Jerry Lenthall. New Times no longer cares (unless you have an event to promote. Well, THEN . . . . .).

Just remember that we're talking about the paper of Steve Moss. And Tom Fulks. And Rick Jackoway. And Coleen Bondy. And Sarah Christie. And Anne McMahon. And Jeff McMahon. And Steve Jones. And Dan Blackburn. And King Harris. And Abraham Hyatt. And, yes, Karen Velie. Reporters who busted their ass to give us the rest of the story that the Tribune couldn't or wouldn't bother with.

Steve Moss always backed his reporters. Ryan Miller? He skipped out early on a radio interview on KVEC while one of his reporters was sitting there being reamed unfairly by local public officials. Steve would have put those jokers in their place. Ryan? Hemming and hawing and looking at his watch.

Those halycon days are gone, my friends. But, hey, we've got that great cover story this week, comparing "The Nativity Story" to "Passion of the Christ."

Meanwhile, over in San Luis cemetery, Steve Moss is definitely rolling over in his grave and puking up all over the place.

Turning Off the Lights at Air America

These are excerpts from an article in today's N.Y. Times underscoring the challenges facing Air America:

"At Air America, business and politics always mixed, and that was the problem, critics contend. Begun with an onslaught of publicity in spring 2004 as an alternative to right-wing talk radio, the network is given some of the credit by its supporters for having helped achieve the Democrats’ Congressional election victory in November.

Detractors label the liberal network’s programming as combative, one-note and emotional. At least its business dealings seem to fit that last description. Even before Air America and its corporate parent, Piquant L.L.C., sought bankruptcy protection on Oct. 13, its management was engulfed in a series of financial crises. The search for new investors and managers has been marred by infighting among those who want the network to succeed, according to people in the organization.

In recent weeks, Air America, which has its headquarters in New York and reaches about 2.4 million listeners weekly, has suffered the defection of a handful of its more than 80 affiliated stations and soon faces the likely departure of its most visible host, Al Franken, even as it cobbles together a plan to emerge from Chapter 11.

A possible solution surfaced on Friday. Douglas Kreeger, an initial investor and former chief executive who stabilized the network in its early months, said in a telephone interview that there is “a signed letter of intent” for a new group to take over the network and that he is “likely” to be a part. The lead equity position would be taken by Terence F. Kelly, of Madison, Wis., also an Air America investor from the beginning and a former board chairman.

Mr. Kelly said in a separate interview that the investor group included a new strategic media partner he declined to name, and both men would not predict when a deal might come to fruition.

“Any number of things can happen,” Mr. Kreeger said.

This is only the latest twist in the short but contentious history of Air America. At the root of its problems, some critics and competitors say, has been an inability to negotiate a middle path between its political mission and its business.

“It’s my feeling that they really put this together without broadcasters,” said Stuart Krane, a former ABC Radio executive who is the president of Product First, which owns the program of a liberal talk-show host, Ed Schultz. “If you have a healthy business, then your agenda will be put forth.”

Air America ran into financial trouble within days of its appearance on March 31, 2004, when it turned out that its original chairman, Evan Cohen, did not have the backing he said he did. Weeks later, Mr. Kelly, a former owner of Midwest radio and television stations, stepped in to take charge of the board. At the end of 2004, he ceded the chairmanship to a new investor, Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks.

Some people at Air America assert that, under Mr. Glaser and the team he put in place, the network was top-heavy with management, inept at selling ads, unwilling to make program compromises that veered from the liberal message and overstaffed with more than 100 employees when two dozen would have sufficed.

“What they did for $45 million they could have done for $10 million,” said Sheldon Drobny, an investor with a contentious relationship with the network. Mr. Drobny and his wife, Anita, longtime Democratic activists, are credited with the idea for Air America.

The network has run through a stream of operational executives. Danny Goldberg, a music executive who served as chief for about a year before leaving in April 2006, said the problem was “a big gap between the ambitions of the company and the funding available to accomplish those ambitions.”

“There was no way to manage around that gap,” he said. “Either lower your expectations or raise more money. No one wanted to change the ambitions.”

Faced with constant money woes, the board considered a takeover by the Democracy Alliance, a loose group of moneyed progressives, including George Soros, who had pooled resources to support projects they considered worthy. But the group ultimately rejected the appeal, because “Air America needed to do certain things to make it a more attractive business,” Mr. Kreeger said.

Late in August, the network lost its lease with WLIB in New York and switched to a weaker station, WWRL 1600. Some liberals blamed Product First, which was negotiating its own WLIB deal. It later fell through.

“We just saw WLIB as something we might own and do very well with,” Mr. Krane said. “There was never any nefarious plot here.”

Late in September, the Drobnys tried to buy Air America for $2.5 million, but the deal fell apart because, Mr. Drobny says, the terms were changed. He said he would have had to put the money into Piquant’s operating account, where it could have been tapped by creditors, instead of into a shielded holding company.

As for the bankruptcy filing, which came after a creditor, MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting, sought to freeze company accounts, Mr. Klestadt said the board decided a Chapter 11 proceeding “would be the best way to maximize the value of the assets.”

Some affiliates have grown weary. In recent weeks, an affiliate in the Quad Cities market of western Illinois and eastern Iowa switched its programming to Christmas music, and stations owned by Clear Channel in Boston, Cincinnati and Madison announced plans to bail out.

Moreover, Jerry Springer just ended his Air America-syndicated radio show, which never gained a wide audience. Mr. Franken has been telling associates that he is likely to run for the Senate from Minnesota.

Mr. Franken, who is on a U.S.O. tour of Iraq and Afghanistan and says he is owed $360,750 by the network, declined requests for comment. Through Air America’s spokeswoman, he said, that “although I do not know the specific details about A.A.R.’s progress through the Chapter 11 restructuring process, I was pleased to hear that they had received a letter of intent from a prospective buyer.” He added his hope “that the network’s ownership situation and financing difficulties will be resolved while I am away.”

When he returns, he faces competition from an unexpected source: Product First’s Ed Schultz, who went on the air in January 2004, three months before Air America. Last week, Mr. Schultz’s program moved to a live broadcast against Mr. Franken’s.

Mr. Franken “gave visibility to the format, but at the end of the day, you’d better be selling a commercial,” Mr. Schultz said. “You have to run it like a business.”

Mr. Franken said he was “pleased to welcome Ed Shultz as a direct competitor.”

“Ed’s success,” he added, “is proof of the vitality of the progressive talk format. I consider Ed a friend — unless he starts beating me in the ratings, at which point I plan to downgrade him to acquaintance.”

New Times Gets Religion

I suspect some dramatic editorial changes are underway at what has been the Alternative Paper of Record in this community for 20 years. New Times has had a pretty rocky period these last 18 months, starting with the sad death of founder Steve Moss, the uncertainty surrounding possible new owners, the whole controversy involving the meth story, the departure of King Harris as Managing Editor, declining circulation, etc.

Now it seems there is a staff revolt simmering under the surface and it just may boil over in the next few weeks as key members of the newsroom decide to move on.

The problem seems to be twofold. First, publisher Bob Rucker wants New Times to be more upbeat, softer in tone and less controversial, a vision shared by Ryan Miller, the wet-behind-the-ears editor who is still finding his editorial voice with the paper.

Apparently the voice Ryan is listening to most belongs to God. No kidding. A devout Christian, Miller is apparently being guided by a higher authority in putting out the newspaper week after week. Stories alleging a serial rapist on the loose in San Luis Obispo and reports of major FEMA violations by Atascadero are being scrapped in favor of this Thursday's cover story . . . .wait for it . . . . .A COMPARISON BETWEEN 'THE NATIVITY STORY" AND "PASSION OF THE CHRIST."

I'm not kidding! That's the cover story scheduled for this week by the weekly alternative paper.

Look, I believe in religious tolerance and support the right of anyone to follow the god of their choice -- or not. But leave it at the door, pal. Ryan apparently has trouble doing that, often openly consulting his pastor for advice in running the newspaper. Holy shit! Now you know why "The Shredder" has been so very, very bland these last few months. Ryan writes the Shredder, but he refuses to go after people. Oh, except for women in his own newsroom. About seven or eight female staffers complained to Rucker about Ryan's supposed condescending behavior. Rucker's alleged response to each woman, "You're the only one who feels this way."

Which helps explain why, insiders are suggesting, circulation is down at New Times. Papers are being left in the stacks at a record rate, a point obviously denied by Rucker.

So if you want to pray for something -- try this. Pray that God speaks to Ryan Miller and tells him to knock it off. Tell Ryan to go back and read back issues of the paper, back when New Times stood for something and was the champion of the underdog.

Can't wait to see that cover story on Thursday. Personally, I think it's New Times who could use the guidance from the Three Wise Men.