[Imc] meeting notes 10-8-00

[p-riism]

My annoyance with the Octopus is twofold.  First, as far as I can tell, the 
only way in which the paper comes close to being an "alternative weekly," as 
they call themselves,is in their opinion pieces and choice of cartoons.  But 
opinions are cheap ($60 a column, I believe), and easily written off ("Oh, 
that Estabrook, he sure knows how to stir things up.")  But journalism is 
time-consuming, usually requiring that you have journalists on staff, and is 
harder to write off because it purports to make claims of fact. What "news" 
the Octopus does run tends to be rehashed wire stuff.  Yes, there is the 
occasional good story, but they are far outnumbered by any number of puff 
pieces ("Wow! There's a new bar in Downtown Champaign!  Let's put it on the 
cover and make it our lead story!").  Oh, but I think those Smirnoff and Kool 
ads must be for alternative vodka and cigarettes.

There are some good and talented people working for the Octopus, but I think 
the fundamental running of the place prevents them from doing a better job.  
To whit:

Secondly, the Octopus is not locally owned--the owner is Yesse communications 
(though I think they changed their name, but you couldn't tell since it's 
nowhere to be found in the publication itself) out of Bloomington, IN.  They 
also own the Illinois Times in Springfield and the weekly in Iowa City, 
amongst others.  By itself, this is not entirely awful, but what I understand 
of their management practices demonstrates the lack of any real investment in 
the community this company has and how it only looks at these papers as cash 
cows.

For example, the Octopus is now editorless, running under the helm of two 
"co-editors."  As I'm told, the last two editors were fired by the parent 
company with little notice--they were escorted out of the building by 
management given a minimum of time to collect their shit and go.  The editor 
before these two was Paul Young, the founder, who got fired as a result of the 
controversial, yet shoddily researched (and nearly libelous, though we'll 
never know due to a sealed out of court settlement) stories in ye olde 
Octopus.

I'll admit that the Octopus has shown promise over the years, but it's 
potential I don't think has ever been come close to fulfilled.  At best it's 
an entertainment weekly, which serves a function, but nothing "alternative" to 
the DI or News-Gazzette, really.

As a final commment, I'm frankly a little sick of the tendency (not one I 
witness here with the IMC folks) to cry over institutions that once either 
showed or fulfilled promise, but that no longer do.  The Octopus being one 
locally, and nationally, the Pacifica foundation being the other.  While the 
assets and reach of such things or the sense of loss are not to be dimissed, 
I'm not a fan of throwing good efforts after bad.  That's why I'm interested 
in the IMC, as a way to create something, using patterns and methods already 
at work elsewhere, rather than try and save something falling apart.

There is a time and place for saving institutions, but they have to be open to 
the influence of new blood. When it's a privately held for-profit weekly, or a 
national network with a board that cuts off its members from the governance 
process, what're the real odds for change?

--Paul

>===== Original Message From dyoung at pobox.com =====
>The Octopus makes me lose hair. Something must be done.
>
>I am curious what it is the Octopus is doing wrong that particularly
>irks people. I wonder what folks think is going on behind the scenes
>that the paper appalls them more and more frequently.
>
>Dave
>
>On Sun, Oct 08, 2000 at 04:32:50PM -0500, Arun Bhalla wrote:
>>
>> > Separately, I am very interested in the idea of eventually putting
>> > together an independent newspaper to offer a real non-corporate
>> > alternative to the Octopus. We could use advertisements in such a
>> > paper to raise funds.
>>
>> I think at this point I know 5-10 people who are fed up with the Octopus 
and
>> possibly interested in working on an independent paper.  I don't know how
>> much time each person can offer -- probably very little -- or what the 
critical
>> mass for a paper would be, but it would be great to get this going.
>>
>> Arun
>>
>>
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