We bid farewell to reporter Jerod Clapp and survey the prospects for his replacement.

Spell check was the first line item up for pruning.

I must apologize to blog readers for failing to recognize Jerod Clapp as he moves from the News and Tribune to whatever is next for him.

I can remember Jerod interviewing me about the Public House for the IU Southeast school newspaper, and that's been a few (?) years ago. Most recently he was the newspaper's "education beat" reporter. We disagreed on occasion, but these tended to be civil, and his diligence and professionalism always have been noteworthy. Congratulations, and all the best to Jerod.

We turn now to News and Tribune publisher Bill Hanson's stirring, heartfelt goodbye to a reporter who served him for so very long.

Hey, NAC's kind sorta into the journalism thing, too, so the Green Mouse nosed around and came up with this insider scoop:

"There's a hiring freeze at Community Newspaper Holdings. Word is that fourth-quarter numbers were so bad, there'll be no hiring through the first quarter of 2017. This means there likely won't be a replacement for Jerod Clapp until Derby season, at the earliest."

This is a wonderful Christmas present for Bruce Hibbard and Jeff Gahan, isn't it? Fewer reporters means less sunshine, and less sunshine means more wiggle room.

And wiggle they will.

334 days later, the News and Tribune finally explains: New Albany was screwed for almost a year so the paper can "redefine" its approach. Thanks, Bill. May we have another?

In short, New Albany went 334 days without a beat reporter so the chain paper could hire a particular reporter to specialize in business, and concurrently, seize an opportunity to "redefine" its approach to community coverage by eliminating the concept of "beat reporter" entirely.

Instead, there'll be five broad areas embracing the geographical coverage area: Business/Economic Development (Grady); Education (Clapp); Crime (DePompei); Lifestyle/Health (Rickert); and Government (Beilman).

That's right. Crime, which continues to decline nationwide, merits its own reporter, perhaps because a proper understanding of reality television demands it.

Here's the introduction to the reporter Bill Hanson waited a year to hire:

Grady joins News and Tribune staff as business reporter; Indy Star fellow, former intern completes news team, by Elizabeth Beilman

And here's the editor's explanation for why all this is happening, in which she seems to suggest that it's a waste of time to cover meetings; of course, if we've learned anything at NAC these past few years, it's that the most obscure appointed boards meeting at the worst possible times tend to be the ones making the sort of decisions that impact citizens the most.

But let's not allow that to stand in the way of entertainment.

DUNCAN: Redefining our approach to news, by Susan Duncan.

On the positive side, Duncan's explanation of these changes suggests that Chris Morris now serves only as assistant editor, and this constitutes addition by subtraction. Surely he can't defend the status quo as vigorously now.

In spite of the secrecy and subterfuge, and setting aside my doubts, I'm willing to give this new approach a chance. It's possible that this approach evens the playing field with regard to Floyd and Clark County coverage, and if so, I'll applaud it. This will be difficult, given River Ridge envy, but it is possible. Perhaps the previous era of editorial narcolepsy finally will be surmounted.

However, it won't be forgotten how badly Bill Hanson played this hand since September of 2015.

Hanson screwed New Albany for 333 days without comment or public explanation. He is a putz, and the next time he mounts the podium to accept a community service award, a cream pie should be aimed squarely at his face.

I volunteer for the job. Someone's got to speak for us, right?

C-J does the impossible by immediately hiring a new Indiana reporter. 320 days later, the News and Tribune can't say the same.

It fairly boggles the mind. The Courier-Journal has managed to hire a new Southern Indiana reporter in a matter of days.

Madeleine Winer hired as CJ Indiana reporter

Meanwhile in New Gahania, the Green Mouse has been told that the debut of CNHI Jeffersonville's 11-months-delayed New Albany beat reporter will be August 22.

If so, the duration of the gap will prove to have been an even eleven months, during which the paper's shrinking violet management has consistently hewed a passive-aggressive path as to the rationale for it negligence, claiming first that reporters are hard to find; second, that it has been the intention all along to hire last year's intern; third, it's in no way harmful to deprive an entire city of in-depth coverage during this length of time; and fourth, that they'll simply not discuss such matters publicly.

But what does Bill Hanson care? He lives in Sellersburg, right?

Iamhoosier said it best on Facebook.

The N and T has always tried to make us believe that they are our "local" paper.

Really?

It's been 311 days since New Albany had a beat reporter, but the News and Tribune seeks an expeditor.

Perhaps Nic Cage is available, but we know you're curious.

An expeditor is someone who facilitates a process. It is a position or role found within project management, construction, purchasing and production control.

Blah blah fucking blah.

The next time Bill Hanson rises from his seat at a fluff banquet to claim victory for the depth and reach of his CNHI franchise's new coverage, isn't it pie-in-the-face time?

News and Tribune celebrates 250 days of payroll savings by ignoring New Albany.

Wouldn't you love to know how much money is transferred by the City Of New Albany to the paper for what amounts to "Gahan for State Senate" ads?

It's probably a nice revenue stream for a paper that doesn't have a reporter on staff to ask questions about how the City of New Albany spends other sums.

Shall we go FOIA-ing?

Bill Hanson, bring this 9-year-old reporter to New Albany -- only if Eastside, 1Si and CNHI agree, of course.

Note the byline.

Staff (aged 36) and agencies

Send her this way, please.

Nine-year-old US reporter defiant after critics say 'go back to playing with dolls' (The Guardian)

Hilde Lysiak, whose coverage of a suspected murder in Pennsylvania prompted outrage from some locals, says her age won’t stop her from ‘doing a great story’

On Tuesday, Hilde responded to the criticism.

“It kind of gets me angry because, just because I’m nine doesn’t mean I can’t do a great story,” she said. “It doesn’t mean I can’t be a reporter.”

In a video posted on her website she said: “I know this makes some of you uncomfortable, and I know some of you just want me to sit down and be quiet because I’m nine.

“But if you want me to stop covering news, then you get off your computer and do something about the news. There, is that cute enough for you?”

In the video she read some of the negative comments aloud, including: “I am disgusted that this cute little girl thinks she is a real journalist. What happened to tea parties?” and “Nine-year-old girls should be playing with dolls, not trying to be reporters.”

Wearing a badge reading “I love free speech”, she giggled as she read out the comment: “You are nine fucking years old. Seriously, what the fuck is going on?”

10 Days In ... cooking school?

As an aside, I'll be live blogging the next New Albany city council meeting on April 4.

You know, news and shit.

February 28, 2016

154 days since we had a News and Tribune reporter in New Albany, but look: Cooking School! In Jeffersonville!

Dear Bill Hanson: Put down that colander, give NA some equality, or just change the damn name back to Evening News.

Last week:

154 days since we had a News and Tribune reporter in New Albany, but look: Cooking School! In Jeffersonville!

Make that 163 days.

It's quite possible that the length of last evening's meeting prevented the News and Tribune's reporter of record from filing the story to meet deadline.

But exactly who was the newspaper's reporter last evening?

Analysis: Gahan and the rental ordinance, or the emasculation of the once-powerful Oz.

Neither Jerod Clapp nor Chris Morris was in attendance. A few tweets sneaked into the newspaper's primary Twitter feed, and it finally occurred to me that Jenna Esarey, a local free-lancer, likely was providing coverage.

Let's reprise: The News and Tribune was down a city beat reporter throughout the conclusion of the 2015 New Albany election cycle.

There hasn't been a New Albany-centric columnist since Matt Nash left to run for council.

On most days, the ratio of Clark-to-Floyd articles is 60% -- and I'm likely being charitable.

Recently, every ounce of the newspaper's vigor seems devoted to touting its self-aggrandizing cooking school in Jeffersonville (how very ... something), even as ...

Chef Gina Brown offers all-ages friendly cooking class (Insider Louisville)

... in New Albany.

Finally, when it came to one of the most important city council meetings of the year, who was out there digging out the rental property ordinance for all (pro or con) to see, pointing to the mayor's unprecedented statement yesterday, and live tweeting the meeting last night?

That's right: NA Confidential, a mere pro bono blog.

I'm not tooting my own trumpet, just spewing a few facts. This situation has long since become an embarrassment.

Is Bill Hanson still publisher? Why not level with us, Bill? Are you beholden to directives from 'Bama? Waiting for the journalism schools to disgorge a few freshly graduated (read: acceptably salaried) newbies? None of the above?

The newspaper is quick to let us know when it receives an award. Unfortunately, the current prize is a Golden Raspberry -- and the newspaper is the proud recipient.

If you can't do any better than this, then please just change the name back to Jeffersonville Evening News -- you know, fair advertising and all that.

On Joseph Mitchell and the "grammar of hard facts."

The book is Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of the New Yorker, by Thomas Kunkel, and in honesty, my attention was snagged by the very phrase "grammar of hard facts."

As tactile newspapers continue their decline (or evolution, as some would suggest), will this old-school reportorial stereotype become even more entrenched in mythology -- or will we be too busy with user-generated ephemera to care?

Joseph Mitchell of the New Yorker: The grammar of hard facts (The Economist)

... Researching a story, Mitchell could spend whole days on the bus, taking notes on what he saw out of the window, or wandering around a cemetery to identify the weeds that grew there. Mitchell, wrote one critic, could “achieve the same effects with the grammar of hard facts that Dickens achieved with the rhetoric of imagination.” He came to be widely imitated. Calvin Trillin dedicated one of his books “to the New Yorker reporter who set the standard—Joseph Mitchell.”