The Cyrus Thing, What Makes Great TV? and New Reading Models

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of September 15, 2013


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

New Reading Models                                                                                          

I have been a fair bit of traveling recently and that means my beloved Nook Color is getting a workout.  One of the advantages of an e-book reader is that I can carry around not only things I really want to read but also things that I think I probably will be interested in.  One of those is a very ebook kind of book called “Ebooks and Self Publishing - A Conversation Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath”.  It’s actually the transcript of a live Google Docs discussion and for those of us interested in these kinds of things it is fascinating.  So imagine my joy when I got home and sat down to look for topics to find two ebook related stories waiting for me!

There are books that I would love to have on the Nook.  Roger Zelazny’s “Chronicles of Amber”, Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy, Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird”.  Books that I love to reread every couple years.  The problem is that building a new digital library is a huge expense for books I already own.  Well the folks at Amazon are looking at solving that problem.  Their newly announced Kindle Matchbooks program allows you to buy Kindle versions of paper books that you have purchased from Amazon.  There are two really cool things about this.  First it will cover any book you’ve purchased at Amazon going back to 1995 (which just happens to be the year they were founded).  The other thing is price.  Most of the ebooks will be priced between 99 cents and 2.99, some may even be free.  Curiously this is exactly the price range that the two guys in that book I read feel is the sweet spot for ebook sales.  It’s an interesting concept that actually makes a logical connection between the old and the new.  The first thought that came to mind was the video combo packs that combine Blu-rays, DVDs and, wait for it, digital versions.
The other story I think has great potential for an old line media.  The folks at Barnes and Noble have entered into a deal with UWire to be able to offer college newspapers on Nooks.  What I really like is that it gets an audience that has effectively given up on newspapers to start thinking about newspapers on their readers.  If you can get the future leaders of the nation in the habit of turning to their e-readers to get the daily news it might translate into a potential future for the rest of the newspaper industry.  As per usual it is NOT the industry itself that has figured this out but the thinkers outside the industry.

Which is exactly what would have been predicted by those two guys in that book I was reading.

What Makes Great TV?                                                                                     

Here’s a question that could make us all rich if we can just come up with the answer.  What makes compelling television?  What I mean by that is what needs to be done to create the kind of television that people will really want to watch?  It’s also called “appointment television”.  In the old days, you know like 2010, before you could watch television shows on the internet, most TV was appointment TV.  People would plan to be home at such and such a time on such and such a night to catch a show.

There is still some of that.  Most recently were the final episodes of AMC’s show “Breaking Bad” are shows that will have the shows fans glued to their seats.  Sure you could record it and time shift the program but the reality is that no one wants to miss really good TV.  That’s the compelling part.  You want to be able to talk about the show.

Now there are two things we do know about making compelling television.  First, that some people are already doing it.  The second is that plenty of other people don’t have a clue.  These are the people who need our help.

Now most commonly there are two ways for people who don’t really get it to try and fake their way to compelling programming.  The first is get as racy as possible.  It’s tough if you’re working on network TV because of the FCC regulations.  We’re seeing more and more cable channels seeing how far they can go.  A recent NPR story said that AMC actually has a limit on the number of times the “f-bomb” can be said.  In the end does that really create “Must See TV”?  Only in the short run.  The problem with relying on shock is that after a while the audience gets used to it and it’s not shocking anymore.  “Breaking Bad” has certainly been shocking in its run.  At the same time it has also offered memorable characters and great storylines.

The other way that folks try to create that special TV is to re-make the hits.  Steal ideas, do spin-offs and sequels.  If you pick the right ideas or follow the right characters from one show to the next.  So it’s interesting to note that now that “Breaking Bad” is ending its run the producers have to try and create some new compelling programming.

What are they doing?  Creating a sequel.

The Cyrus Thing                                                                                                      

I was really hoping that I could avoid this whole thing.  It’s stupid, and pointless and very much a tempest in a teapot.  I don’t care that it was the lead story on news outlets that should have known better the morning after it took place.  The fact that it is still managing to be news is astounding.  What’s worse is that by actually taking notice of it here I’m actually becoming one of those people who keep it high profile.

But it just won’t go away.

What is it?  It’s the Miley Cyrus...you groaned right there, didn’t you?  I don’t blame you.  It’s a stupid story about a stupid act.  

The latest bump up for this stupid story is an equally stupid story in USA Today in an interview with dowager rock queen Cher.  In the interview itself she pretty much trashes Miley.  Not because it was bad taste, let’s face it that’s a subject that Cher has no standing on, but because she thought it was badly done.  Once the story was published there was the inevitable backlash and Cher sort of backed away from her comments.

And that’s really the unfortunate part in my opinion.  Cher DOES have standing to discuss outrageous female stage performance.  That is almost certainly why McNewspaper asked her the question.  Sadly what Cher retreated to a “she’s pushing the envelope, being an artist” stance that smacks of PR timidity.

If what Cyrus did was in fact art somehow, and you can count me among those who find that concept dubious at best, then it ought to be able to stand up to scrutiny by people with expertise in that area.  That’s part of the whole process and always has been.
So by backing away from her criticism Cher is pretty much telling us that she realizes it’s more about the outrage than the art.

Which is, of course, what most of the rest of us realize from the outset.  So how do we fight back against the onslaught of these nonsense stories?  Two ways I think.  The first is follow the path Cher took before she lost her nerve.  Treat it like art and then take it apart.  It will become obvious quickly to the vast majority of people that’s it not worth the time and effort.

The second way?  What I wish I could have done from the beginning.

Just ignore it.  The stories die without sunlight.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

Late Night Revolution, Musberger Mess, When The News Is The News

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2012 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of January 14, 2013



My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

Late Night Revolution                                                                                               

You never want to jump to a conclusion but it looks like there may be something very interesting about to happen in late night TV.  Late night television has been one of the most astoundingly stable time periods in TV history.  First there was Steve Allen, the Jack Paar, then there was Johnny Carson.  And for 30 years that was pretty much it.  When Carson retired Jay Leno stepped up and David Letterman stepped up and a bunch of other guys tried to pick up the crumbs.  But it’s been Leno and Letterman holding down most of the late night audience.

The problem is that both of the top guys are getting old.  Leno is 63 and Letterman is 65.  And the question has to be who is the next king of late night?

It looked like Conan O’Brien might be that person.  Maybe it’s Jimmy Fallon.  Or maybe it’s Jimmy Kimmel.  Kimmel’s show on ABC got moved last week to the same time slot as both Leno and Letterman.  While Kimmel has been saying all the right things, like he thinks he’ll eventually settle into third place behind the two veteran hosts, the results of his first show in the competitive time slot have to have the big boys worried.

On the first night Kimmel finished in second place comfortably in front of Letterman, he finished the week with a couple of thirds and another second place finish.  But in the key 18-49 audience demographics Kimmel was a power.  He finished second the first night, tied Leno on the second night and easily out distanced the Tonight Show on the third night with growth in younger viewers every single night.

Now one week is way too small a sample size to be drawing any profound conclusions from but it’s well worth considering the potential that’s out there.  Over the last couple years the big boys have messed around (remember the whole Jay Leno to prime time catastrophe?) and that means there’s an opening that could be exploited by a smart, new, younger talent.  Someone like Jimmy Kimmel.

Kimmel is playing it smart.  He’s had the big name stars, he’s even teasing that he’ll finally pay off on a long running gag about having Matt Damon on the show.  And that’s exactly what he should be doing.

The hotshot young host says there will never be another king of late night like Carson.  He might be right.  But someone is going to be the new top dog.  That just might be him.

Musberger Mess                                                                                                          

It never ceases to astound me with all the REAL problems that exist in the world of the media when so much energy gets spent on a non-problem.  Like the tempest in a tea pot that erupted over comments made by ESPN sports commentator Brent Musberger.

In case you somehow missed all this let me offer a quick summary.  During the college football national championship game between Alabama and Notre Dame, where Musberger was one of the broadcast team, there came a moment when the camera found the family of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarren.  Sitting with the family was McCarren’s girlfriend, Katherine Webb, who also happens to be the current Miss Alabama.  Musberger commented on how good looking she was, noted that quarterbacks always seem to get the good looking girlfriends and recommended that young men should polish their football passing skills so they could get such good looking girlfriends too.  The whole thing took just over 30 seconds.  And the Mrs. Grundys of the Twitterverse promptly lost their minds.  ESPN displayed a complete lack of guts and apologized.

My question is - for what?

Let’s review the facts.  Miss Webb is by pretty much any contemporary standard a beautiful young woman.  And at least based on my experience quarterbacks DO tend to have good looking girlfriends.  Add to this the fact that not Miss Webb, her father OR her boyfriend were offended in any way shape or form.  They’ve all said so publicly.

Let’s also remember one other fact.  TV is about the picture.  And when a game gets as far out of hand as that did the director starts looking for other stories.  So there was exactly ZERO chance that they weren’t going to show the beauty queen girlfriend.

Did Musberger do anything wrong?  Yeah, he’s a 73 year man who came off as a little bit hummina, hummina, hummina because he went on past the first obvious comment.  He should be a little embarrassed.  His network should have said nothing.  And all those self appointed guardians of public morality, all the Mrs. Grundys of the world?  They need to go find something serious to worry about.

When The News Is The News

As a general rule there is one story that no news organization ever wants to have to report.  It’s the story when the news organization itself becomes the story.  Unless it’s crowing that you’ve won a Pulitzer Prize news organizations don’t want to be in the news.  Let’s face it, they know as well as we do that the vast majority of the news is when something bad happens.  And the mythology of the news biz is that all the bad stuff happens outside the newsroom.

That strange noise you just heard was every single person who has EVER worked in a newsroom snorting in derision at that last thought.

Never the less the Journal News, a newspaper serving the lower Hudson Valley, recently became the story when they ran article and accompanying map that showed the names and addresses of everyone in their region that had a legally registered gun.  Needless to say those folk did not appreciate the attention.  In fact some folks went so far as to threaten violence against the newspaper resulting in the paper hiring, ironically, armed guards to protect their building.

So what’s really the issue here?  Let’s review the facts.  The story ran shortly following the tragedy in Newtown.  In a time when gun violence, gun ownership, and gun regulation are major topics the question of how many legal guns are in the paper’s readership area is legitimate news.  The information they published was legally obtained from public records.
All of which has been met with a certain level of hysteria.  There are claims that gun owners were treated like sexual predators which seems a stretch to me or that they will be targeted by burglars.  White Plains police note that no such pattern has emerged.

So what then to say about the Journal News story?  I’m not sure I see the news value of printing the names of people involved in a perfectly legal activity.  There is a question of privacy.  While there may be a right to know about total numbers of guns or even areas of especially high concentrations the individual owners names strike me as an especially poor editorial decision.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

RIP Richard Zanuck, Wearing Technology and Learning the Ropes

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2012 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of July 16, 2012

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

Learning the Ropes

Once upon a time in the news biz you started at the bottom.  If you were new kid, the junior most member you got the police blotter calls.  Calling every police department in every dinky little burg in your paper’s coverage area and seeing who got arrested for what.  It’s boring, it’s tedious and you never get your name on the story.  That was always the holy grail of a reporter - the byline.

In this new age of news gathering the reporting staff is getting smaller and smaller.  Which means that there are fewer “cub reporters” to do the dirty work.  Newspapers are trying to find the best way to cut expenses without cutting too many corners.  And it doesn’t always work.

Recently there has been a bit of a hoo haw over the work of a company called Journatic.  The furor is over the fact that the company outsources some of their reporting (meaning that an employee in the Far East may be gathering information about Jamestown NY) and then providing the stories with fake bylines to make it look more local.

Now newspapers have always relied on outside news reporting services like The Associated Press, United Press International or Reuters.  But these were all for news OUTSIDE the local area.  The hometown paper was supposed to be the expert on its community, the definitive voice of information.  Journatic was originally intended to help small papers stay competitive.  The dismay has grown when it became obvious that major papers in cities like Houston, Chicago and San Francisco are using the service.

So what’s the real problem here?  There are ethical questions to be answered about using fake bylines.  At the bottom line there is nothing more important to a news outlet than it reputation.  Especially at a time when there is more and more stress on the industry it must do everything it can to maintain its credibility.  There is an importance to having reporters who part of the community they cover.  If only because if they get it wrong they will hear about at the corner bar or over lunch out and about.

I understand the need to keep costs down.  I also know that there was a benefit to making all those tedious calls in the old days.  You got to know the community you were reporting on. 

Wearing Technology

A couple times every year it seems like I come across an idea that just boggles my mind.  We’re talking shaking your head in disbelief kind of amazement.  Some times it’s a bad idea, sometimes its bad production and sometimes it’s just bad.

Let me ask you a question.  Have you ever been walking in public, could be at the mall, or on the sidewalk, and had someone bump into your or nearly bump into you because they were so absorbed in their smartphone?  Seems like it’s happening to me with increasing regularity.  People are so wrapped up in their own stuff that they just kind of lose track of the rest of us.  The world kind of fades away for them and suddenly they walk right into you.

Well I’m certain that the folks behind this next great idea will claim that they will help eliminate that problem.  I’m afraid they’re wrong.  The new idea that has me scratching my head is called “wearable technology”.  We’re not talking Walkmen or iPods here.  One of the first examples will be eyeglasses that will be able to project the World Wide Web onto the lens before your eyes.  If the possibility of even more distracted driving and walking doesn’t worry you then think about how much more data could be collected about where you go and what you do.  Integrated GPS is one of the items considered essential in most of these early designs.  Never being able to escape advertisers or the all seeing eye of data collection strikes me as several steps too far along the technology highway.

But that’s not the only idea headed our way in the form of wearable technology.  There are already patents secured on technology for clothing displays as well.  In other words whatever qualifies as obnoxious t-shirt art in your book would now have the ability to link to the web, update and maybe even offer sound to go with the video.  Imagine corporate logos that don’t just sit there but try to interact with consumers (otherwise known as your friends, family and co-workers) all from the comfort of your clothing.  That same technology is being looked at to be used on walls of buildings and carpets.  In such a world there would be no where to get away.  Look up, look down, look at each other.

If you remember the hyper advertising model of the movie Blade Runner you begin to get the idea.  And it’s an idea that I can live without.

R.I.P. Richard Zanuck

I figure that there are three kinds of movie folk - people who watch movies, then movie fans and finally movie geeks.  I fall somewhere between those second and third groups.  You probably need to have at least one foot in the movie geek world to register the death last week of Richard Zanuck.

Zanuck grew in Hollywood.  Like grew up on the back lots at 20th Century Fox.  His father was the last of the great movie moguls, Daryl Zanuck.  Zanuck the elder was the classic stereotype of the studio boss.  He was short, smoked cigars, chased after starlets and ran his studio as his personal kingdom.  Along the way he made some pretty great movies.  He also made some enemies.  For a while his son was one of them.

Richard Zanuck was everything his father wasn’t.  Quiet, intellectual and someone who respected the actors, directors and writers with whom he worked.  When his father returned to 20th Century Fox in 1962 after several years in Paris as an independent producer Richard was made the head of Production at the studio.  He was 28 years old.  He would rise to head the studio just a few years later but they were hard times for 20th Century Fox.  Hits like “Hello Dolly”, “M*A*S*H” and “Patton” were offset by too many flops.  In an internal power struggle Daryl Zanuck sacrificed his son in a failed attempt to maintain control.

In the end that may have been the best thing for the younger Zanuck.  With his friend David Brown they formed their own production company.  They took a chance on a little known director named Spielberg and a story about a big shark.  “Jaws” earned the duo their first Oscar nomination.  They would also earn one for 1982’s “The Verdict” and finally win for 1989’s “Driving Miss Daisy”.  Zanuck would be connected to other hit films including “Cocoon” plus a very successful partnership with Tim Burton that included “Big Fish”, “Sweeney Todd”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Dark Shadows”.

In the end Richard Zanuck is one of the last of Hollywood heyday generation.  He was born into the movies (his mother Virginia Zanuck was an actress who worked with Buster Keaton), he was raised around the movies and the movies were his entire life.  You may not have known his name but you certainly knew his work.  And that would probably have been enough for him.

Richard D. Zanuck was 77 years.  The exact same age as his father when he died.


Call that the View From the Phlipside.

View From the Phlipside - Future of Newspapers

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

I’ve been chronicling the battle for the future of the newspaper here for a couple of years now.  Most of the news has been bad as readership plummets, advertising sales goes with it and newspapers have been closed.  I’ve noted that I personally will miss the comfortable physical routine of reading the paper, which section you read first, how you hold and fold the paper to read it.  I’ve also noted the very serious repercussions to a free and open society if the great traditions of journalism that are the legacy of the newspaper are lost.  It is, I believe, one of the most important questions to be answered in the digital age.  How will we be informed?

So I’ve been encouraged over the last year to see at least a few of the print giants finally making a move to create a viable business model.  It’s possible that that grand old lady The New York Times might lead the way into the next era.  Or it could be the folks at the OC Register in Orange County California.

The OC Register is one of 27 daily papers and 8 TV stations owned by Freedom Communications.  In a bid to keep their properties rolling Freedom is looking at doing some innovative work with an app for the iPad that would include interactive stories and advertising all through the use of the HTML5 technology.

What that means for those of us less technologically oriented is that instead of having simple print versions we would be able to select aspects that interest us.  In an advertisement we would be able to make the image of the product rotate so we can see it from all sides.  They’re also looking at making sure that the experience of the app remains interesting even when you’re offline with the content.  

There’s one decision that they’ve made that I think I like a lot.  The overall presentation will retain the look of a newspaper.  The reason for that is simple familiarity.  Rupert Murdoch’s entry “The Daily” went with a different look and got trashed for it early on.  So far indications are that it hasn’t taken the world by storm.

If the folks at the OC Register learn their lessons well and take the best of the old to go with the bright and shiny new we might just see what the future of the newspaper looks like.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2011

View From the Phlipside - The Future for Newspapers

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

The steady tolling of the death knell for the newspaper as we know it continues.  The question has always been what happens next and a possible answer to that may be cresting the hill even as we speak.

The latest bad news for the current newspaper industry is that advertising sales online will surpass newspaper ads for the first time ever.  That's even if you include both print and online advertising of the newspapers together.  More advertising buyers are shifting their dollars to where they believe the eyeballs are and that's online.  The projection for 2011 is that online ads will generate just north of 28 billion dollars while total advertising, print and digital, for the newspaper industry will be only slightly more than 21 billion dollars.  2010 saw an almost 14 per cent increase in digital and just over an 8 percent drop in newspaper ads.  The weak economy seemed to hurry some advertisers out the door into the digital age and the economic upturn isn't seen as being all that kind to newspapers either.  None of this is much of a surprise to anyone it may simply be that we've passed the tipping point finally.

Which leaves the question of "What's next?".  A possible answer to that seems to be ready to debut on January 17 when News Corp.'s iPad newspaper "The Daily" debuts.    Of course it was supposed to debut last month so you may not want to hold your breath.  What exactly will "The Daily" bring us?  It will be a daily electronic newspaper that will cost you 99 cents a week to get.  It will make use of video and lots of other multi media stuff (as yet undefined) and maybe even some 3D effects.  I have no doubt that old time newspaper folk all over the country are turning up their noses.  At least those who still have jobs, for the moment.  It's not the way it used to be done, even if you define "the way it used to be done" as recently as the last decade.  The same pooh poohing was heard when USA Today arrived.  Since 1982 McNewspaper, as it was sneeringly named by its critics, has become the print newspaper with the widest circulation in the U.S.  There may be a lesson to be learned there.

I believe that the kind of journalism that the daily newspaper has been home to for several centuries is a vital part of the democratic process.  So while I have certain reservations about "The Daily" (namely it's parent corporation and the fact that it's chained to the iPad) I think it is a vital development in journalism and the news.

Journalists generally hate BEING the news.  Never the less this may be the most important day and story in journalism in any of our lifetimes.  It's not just a business story but has a profound effect on all our basic freedoms.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010

View From the Phlipside - Behind the Pay Wall I Go

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.

It was less than a month ago that I talked about the whole question of on-line ads, subscription services and pay walls as the mainstream print media try to figure out how to stay afloat in the new electronic media age. And I've talked before about the need for all of us to realize that we're going to have to start paying if we want to see the content continue. All of it very academic and intellectual. Till last week.

I grew up just outside Pittsburgh PA and even after 25 very happy years here in southwestern New York I'm a Pittsburgh boy at heart. So I regularly check the Pittsburgh Post Gazette web site. Especially for sports news. By far my favorite team are the sad and pitiful baseball Pirates. Post Gazette beat writer Dejan Kovacevic does a great job covering them and has a wonderful blog at the newspaper. Which in less than a month will move behind the pay wall at the PG. And yes my first reaction was negative.

Upon further review I realize that I need to grow up and face the facts. When the announcement was made lots of folks complained about having to pay for "free stuff". Let's get something straight, the stuff on the world wide web isn't free. Someone is paying for it. If they don't ask you pay that's their choice, not your right. For a business like the Post Gazette they need to make sure that the on-line content pays its own way. That's Business 101. Given that you get access to everything behind the pay wall for the low price of approximately 11 cents a day (less than $40 a year) that strikes me as a bargain.

In fact I rather like the approach that the Post Gazette is taking. With the PG+ service you get the extra sports stuff, news commentary, economics, some lifestyle stuff, interactive forums and some member bonus stuff. That's things like discounts with local Pittsburgh businesses, shows, dining, golf and more. Knowing that they would have to sell the concept the newspaper is trying their best to offer value. The business model isn't perfect (folks with subscriptions to the hard copy version still have to pay more for the on-line and they're not happy about that) but it's an intriguing place to start.

As of yet none of our local papers have moved toward the pay wall experiment. This question is still very much open as to how newspapers will be able to make money AND provide the level of coverage we expect. The only question for me is where I'll find the $35.88 it costs to stay plugged in to my home town.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010