Archive for February, 2012
Susanna Barrett, mom of 5-year-old Isabella Barrett, alleges that The Huffington Post, TMZ.com and The Daily Mail reported that her daughter was gyrating in a New York nightclub while singing Im Sexy and I Know It. Bad taste in songs aside, video footage of the youngster shows her actually sitting down during the taping. Barrett accuses the media in question of sexualizing her little girl and attests that it may put her in danger.
Toddlers Tiaras
The Toddlers Tiaras show, which debuted on the TLC network in 2009, features young girls as they compete in beauty pageants. Each episode features three different girls and follows their lives as they prepare for a contest. Each show highlights the enormous preparation that goes into a pageant, from routine and dance practice, multiple dresses and costumes, spray tans, fake fingernails, false teeth, glamorous makeup and elaborate grown-up hairstyles.
The popular show is currently in its fourth season. The shows popularity stems from genuine interest in what can be described as a train-wreck appeal — maybe we just cant bear to look away. The girls featured are sometimes subjected to questionable parenting and are almost all consumed with winning, being the prettiest and focused on being better than everyone else.
Growing up too fast
Many complain that the show, and the pageant lifestyle itself, encourages girls to grow up too early and sends the wrong message. Becky, mom of one, believes that Toddlers Tiaras is way out of bounds. My 4-year-old wears age-appropriate clothing because I buy it for her and thats what shes supposed to wear at 4. Not makeup, spray tans, hairspray and the likes of this rubbish. I also wouldnt let my 4-year-old sing Im Sexy and I Know It.
Outrageous lawsuit
Some parents think Barrett is off her rocker for filing the lawsuit. Tara, mother of one, shared, In my opinion, the mere act of entering these pageants and then going so far as to exploit the girls on national television is downright appalling. The parents need to take responsibility for their own decisions, and look to themselves instead of the media when placing blame for sexualizing their children.
Shes right, in a way
Others think that Barrett is right and has a leg to stand on regarding her claim. Amanda from California isnt a huge fan of the show but agrees that the publications went too far. I dont think that anyone needs to take it a step further by claiming a child is gyrating, she explained. Pedophiles dont need any help and I think the moms right when she says it may make her daughter more of a target.
Let a kid be a kid
It is tempting to let your little one share her beauty with the world through pageants, but its another issue altogether to let her be exploited for her looks. As Tara says, The sole purpose of tabloid magazines, e-zines, and television shows is to drum up revenue by creating controversy. Keeping your little one off their radar may be the best way to avoid being exploited altogether.
More on parenting girls
Girls need sports, too!
Boost your teen girls self confidence
Where are the modest bathing suits for girls?
Chinese Vice President and presumed leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping is visiting the United States this week. From the increased US militarization of the Asia-Pacific region to China’s human rights record, newspapers across the globe are chiming in with their opinions and expectations for this high-profile visit. Here are a sample of six:
Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, has been named the 2011 Champion Man Of the Year.
The Award is being conferred on him by the Board of Directors and Management of Champion Newspapers Limited (CNL) due to the governors giant strides in the state since 2009 he was sworn in as the helmsman of the Heart Beat of the Nation.
Governor Oshiomhole, who had already confirmed the acceptance of the Award, is the second Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Governor to be given the Award, the first being the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, was Champion Man Of The Year 2010..
The transformation of Edo State in the last three years of Oshiomhole administration cannot be overlooked as it has touched the lives of the people in the state through numerous people-oriented policies and programmes that cut across every area of development.
Just few days ago, his government, recognizing the role of the private sector in the development of agriculture, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Vietnamese farmers on rice production in the state. He believes that Nigeria does not have any business importing food to feed the people.
Since 2009, Oshiomholes administration has awarded over 109 developmental projects in the state. While some have been completed and commissioned, some are ongoing.
Due to his administrations giant strides in every sector of the economy- education, roads, health, agriculture, etc; the people of the state have been expressing support for his second term ambition to enable them reap more dividends of democracy from the peoples Governor.
Recently, the people of Weppa Wanno Kingdom in Etsako East Local Government Area of the State have endorsed Oshiomhole for a second term in office.
Giving their endorsement during a visit to the Governor in Benin City, the delegation led by His Royal Highness, Dr George Oshiapi Egabor, Okumagbe of Weppa Wanno said their decision was informed by the Governors performance in all areas of development in the state.
The royal father had said on behalf of the high-powered delegation to Oshiomhole: Your performance in all areas of development in the state has excelled any comparison by the way you working on very difficult terrains which no other governments in the past dared to do.
In the area of education a lot of schools which used to be eyesores and virtually inhabitable for students have been transformed into edifices. The people of Weppa Wanno have decided to give you every support to sail easily to your second tenure in the 2012 elections.
They have asked me therefore to openly inform you that Your Excellency has been wholeheartedly endorsed by the Weppa Wanno people as the executive Governor of Edo State come 2012 elections. It is our fervent prayer that you return to Edo State Government House in 2012 so that our hopes and aspirations can be realized.
The governments data protection regulator has told the Leveson inquiry he has no evidence that newspapers are still breaking the law by obtaining private information about individuals illegally.
In frequently robust exchanges on Thursday, the information commissioner, Christopher Graham, rejected arguments that he should be more proactive and launch a fresh investigation into newspaper practices. This follows the revelation at the inquiry last week that Express Newspapers had continued to use a company linked to Steve Whittamore, a private investigator who pleaded guilty to illegally trading private information on behalf of a range of newspapers, until 2010.
Graham said his office was flat out on other issues such as breaches of privacy in the health and financial sectors.
He told Lord Justice Leveson he did not see the justification for another press investigation when newspapers had already told him they were no longer engaged in illegal activities using the likes of Whittamore.
I dont think we are going to get very far if we apply a scattergun approach and just go around checking different websites and different inquiry agents on the off-chance they might be breaking the law, Graham said. I have got enough work to do looking at people where there is a suggestion of breaking the law.
When repeatedly challenged as to why the Information Commissioners Office was not more interested in newspaper practices, he said: We are absolutely flat out on a whole range of issues, whether its car insurance or cases of information security in the health services, in local government … you are not dealing with a complacent regulator who cant be bothered.
Graham added that his predecessor as information commissioner had alerted the country to Whittamores activities in 2006 through the What Price Privacy? and What Price Privacy Now? reports.
We are in an Alice in Wonderland meets Catch 22 world when the information commissioner, having sounded the alarm, then is asked by the inquiry to find out what is going on, he said.
He added that his big concern now was to get the penalties for illegally accessing private information increased – at the moment the courts were only fining people £100 for breaches.
Graham said this means people working in the DVLA or in the health sector had no disincentive not to pass on information for money, because the courts and society treated the offence as no worse than pinching the office stationery.
He added that if the newspapers are now the models of rectitude, they should get out of the way and drop their opposition to his campaign for stiffer sanctions including custodial sentences.
Graham had sometimes heated exchanges with Rhodri Davies, the counsel acting on behalf of News International at the inquiry.
In response to Daviess questioning, Graham said: Im not looking to jail lots of people. I cant imagine that a journalist going about his or her business with a proper story and a good public interest reason for doing it would be in any trouble with the ICO or with the courts. But I want to deal with the problem of the courts being limited to fines and then dealing with people who are of limited means and can only be fined about £100.
Davies put it to him that the way forward might be to exempt from the threat of a prison sentence anyone whose acting for the special purposes of journalism, artistic or literary matters.
At this point Graham expressed his frustration, asking: How much of a good deal do you guys want?
He said to Davies: Excuse me, sir, for being heated about this, but you fought everyone to a standstill back in 2006/07. You did it again in 2009/10. Youve got so many privileges and exemptions. Its perfectly possible for a journalist to do a decent job legally.
He added that it sounded to him as if the representatives of the press want to be somehow above the law.
Graham, a former journalist, said the press can do their job well enough without breaking the law and while an occasional use of the dark arts might be needed there were laws to justify this. He pleaded with the press to get out of the way of stiffer sanctions.
Yes, OK, you sometimes have to apply the dark arts to get the story, and then youre accountable for it. And if youre really in trouble, thats the mitigation that you put to the court. But we cant keep having more and more carve-outs and reductions and special cases.
Representatives of Google also gave evidence to the inquiry on Thursday, defending its privacy policies and saying it complied with the law in relation to defamation and privacy. Requests to remove content were taken seriously and it always did so when presented with a court order.
Daphne Keller, Googles legal director, said the company had acceded to 65 requests to remove content between January and June last year in the UK. The single biggest category was national security, but matters of privacy also featured strongly.
She added that Google had no switch to flick or button to press to remove content and it relies on users identifying websites with offending content.
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NORMALLY it is the press that hounds celebrities, politicians and judges, not the other way round. But for the past three months a public inquiry led by Lord Justice Leveson, an appeal-court judge, has pulped the British newspaper industry. A parade of people–some famous, some not–have told of ill-treatment at the hands of reporters and photographers. A normally aggressive press has been cowed.
The inquiry began following the revelation that the News of the World, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, had illegally accessed messages left on the mobile phone of a girl who turned out to have been murdered. But it has gone far beyond that narrow outrage. Lord Justice Leveson has heard of a young woman driven to suicide; of people accusing their families of spilling their secrets when in fact their phone messages were being listened to; of a mother (Joanne Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” books) opening her five-year-old daughter’s school bag to find a note from a journalist inside.
STRASBURG, Va. – After nearly 80 years of publication under the continuous ownership of the E. Earl Keister family, The Ogden Newspapers Inc. has been selected to acquire The Northern Virginia Daily and nvdaily.com, editor John F. Horan Jr. announced Friday.
Ogden is a family-owned Wheeling, W.Va.,-based newspaper group with 40 daily newspapers now in 12 states.
Robert M. Nutting, CEO of The Ogden Newspapers Inc., was introduced to The Northern Virginia Daily staff Friday as an agreement in principle to purchase the newspaper was reached.
My family, which has been in the newspaper business since 1890, is honored to be chosen to publish The Northern Virginia Daily and its website, Nutting said.
We are thrilled for our company to gain additional presence in this historic and beautiful section of Virginia and look forward to continuing the eight-decade tradition of The Northern Virginia Daily in providing an excellent daily newspaper both in print and online to serve the communities in Shenandoah, Warren, Frederick and Page counties, the fourth-generation newspaper owner said.
Ogden has owned The Journal in Martinsburg, W.Va., since the 1920s. It also owns the Shepherdstown Chronicle weekly newspaper in the West Virginia Eastern Panhandle.
We are pleased to acquire such a well-respected and award-winning newspaper, Nutting said. The Northern Virginia Daily won the Virginia Press Associations prestigious News Sweepstakes award 11 consecutive years and 20 times in the last 23 years. Thats very impressive.
Nutting said his company is committed to provide additional resources to enhance the tools used by the excellent people at The Northern Virginia Daily to help them produce an even better newspaper in the future.
We are a good company with very high expectations for our newspapers. We are extremely proud of The Journal in Martinsburg, which has won the General Excellence designation in the West Virginia Newspaper Associations Better Newspaper Contest 10 of the last 12 years and eight consecutive years, Nutting said.
Craig Bartoldson, publisher of The Journal, said the acquisition of The Northern Virginia Daily adds to Ogden Newspapers presence in the region and offers an exciting opportunity for the two outstanding publications to work together.
Both men said the acquisition shows the continuing value of newspapers and of Ogden Newspapers commitment to the industry.
We are most excited about acquiring The Northern Virginia Daily because I believe it accurately demonstrates our complete faith in the future of newspapers, Nutting said. We are committed to the printed newspaper and know newspapers continue to be the best source for news and advertising in every community we serve. We are also well positioned for the growth of online news and advertising. I am pleased to see that nvdaily.com is a valuable, relevant and robust information source for this region.
The website averages 179,000 unique visitors and more than 1 million page views per month and is the leading online source for news and information in the market, Nutting said.
We want our newspapers to be strong, active, community-minded, locally edited newspapers, Nutting said. We encourage our editors and publishers to participate and to take leading roles in civic and community activities. We intend to present a balanced and complete news coverage, which we hope will be of interest and service to our readers throughout our circulation area.
Nutting and his brother, William O. Bill Nutting, are leaders in the newspaper industry. Bob Nutting is incoming vice chairman of the Newspaper Association of America and Bill Nutting is the sitting president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.
Details of the transaction were not announced, but it is expected that the sale will close on Feb. 29 and Ogden will become the owners effective March 1.
On March 26, 1912, E. Earl Keister purchased his first newspaper, the Strasburg News and made several other weekly newspaper acquisitions in the region until Sept. 15, 1932, when he consolidated four newspapers into the first edition of The Northern Virginia Daily. The building which currently houses the newspapers main operations was built in 1922 and was added onto in 1935. Additions to the building and renovations were made again in 1987.
E. Earl Keister died in 1972 and his eldest son, William E. Keister, succeeded him as publisher. Horan became editor and general manager in 1977.
The Ogden Newspapers Inc. is a fourth-generation newspaper company founded by HC Ogden in 1890 in Wheeling and is owned by his descendents, the Nutting Family. It now owns newspapers in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, North Dakota, Florida and Hawaii.
Ogden also publishes telephone directories in several markets across the country, including the EZ to Use Directory for Winchester/Northern Shenandoah Valley.
The Nutting family also owns Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania and has controlling interest in the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball Franchise.
See:
Research Works Act HR3699:
The Private Publishing Tail Trying To Wag The Public Research Dog, Yet Again
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/867-guid.html
EXCERPT:
The US Research Works Act (HR3699): No Federal agency may adopt, implement, maintain, continue, or otherwise engage in any policy, program, or other activity that — (1) causes, permits, or authorizes network dissemination of any private-sector research work without the prior consent of the publisher of such work; or (2) requires that any actual or prospective author, or the employer of such an actual or prospective author, assent to network dissemination of a private-sector research work.
Translation and Comments:
If public tax money is used to fund research, that research becomes private research once a publisher adds value to it by managing the peer review.
[Comment: Researchers do the peer review for the publisher for free, just as researchers give their papers to the publisher for free, together with the exclusive right to sell subscriptions to it, on-paper and online, seeking and receiving no fee or royalty in return].
Since that public research has thereby been transformed into private research, and the publishers property, the government that funded it with public tax money should not be allowed to require the funded author to make it accessible for free online for those users who cannot afford subscription access.
[Comment: The authors sole purpose in doing and publishing the research, without seeking any fee or royalties, is so that all potential users can access, use and build upon it, in further research and applications, to the benefit of the public that funded it; this is also the sole purpose for which public tax money is used to fund research.]
HR 3699 misunderstands the secondary, service role that peer-reviewed research journal publishing plays in US research and development and its (public) funding.
It is a huge miscalculation to weigh the potential gains or losses from providing or not providing open access to publicly funded research in terms of gains or losses to the publishing industry: Lost or delayed research progress mean losses to the growth and productivity of both basic research and the vast Ramp;D industry in all fields, and hence losses to the US economy as a whole.
What needs to be done about public access to peer-reviewed scholarly publications resulting from federally funded research?
The minimum policy is for all US federal funders to mandate (require), as a condition for receiving public funding for research, that: (i) the fundees revised, accepted refereed final draft of (ii) all refereed journal articles resulting from the funded research must be (iii) deposited immediately upon acceptance for publication (iv) in the fundees institutional repository, with (v) access to the deposit made free for all (OA) immediately (no OA embargo) wherever possible (over 60% of journals already endorse immediate gratis OA self-archiving), and at the latest after a 6-month embargo on OA.
It is the above policy that HR3699 is attempting to make illegal…
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/867-guid.html
Digital activity encompassing websites, e-zines, email, mobile applications and video now accounts for 37% of the industry, an increase of 22% since 2007 and 32% since 2005. On the basis of these trends, digital is expected to overtake print as a share of total by 2013. To reinforce this assertion, website revenues have grown rapidly and are up 65%, while e-zines have risen by 165% since the last report in 2007. Despite this rebalance of channels, print is still very much viewed as an essential part of the content marketing mix moving forward.
The ever increasing levels of convergence have played strongly to content marketings strengths, with more clients choosing to supplement their offerings with multi-channel content – a clear example of this being Googles decision to launch a print title earlier this year. In terms of sectors, retail continues to dominate accounting for 23% of total content initiatives. In terms of the print sector, B2B customer magazines have experienced the most growth rising from a 4% share three years ago to 16% today.
This was also reflected in the digital space, with B2B showing a significant 13% rise from 4% to 17%. B2B magazines move to become the second most prolific content sector followed by charities and financial services. Utilities and the public sector experienced the biggest drop in terms of share over the last three years but are still the fifth largest content marketing sector. Travel, leisure and automotive take sixth, seventh and eighth place respectively.
Other Key Facts:
Print
Circulation:
- Average circulation of customer magazines exceeds that of consumer magazines and customer titles account for 10 of the top 20 ABC audited magazines by circulation
- 5% of titles have a circulation of one million or more
- 14% of customer magazines have a circulation larger than 250,000
- 50% of titles have a circulation of 50,000 or less, which reinforces the trend for tighter targeting and increased segmentation of audiences
Frequency:
- The most popular publishing frequency is quarterly accounting for almost one in four titles
Pagination:
- Despite the recession publications have not been trimmed, demonstrating brands commitment to engaging content. Pagination has either stayed the same or increased for 75% of magazines. Only 6% have reported a decline (the remaining 19% account for new titles)
- The average pagination is between 31 and 48 pages
Distribution:
- Post continues to be the most widely used method of distribution at just under 60% of titles. This is a substantial increase on 2007 figures which showed that post was only used by a third of titles
- In-store distribution (12%) is the second most popular distribution method
International:
- One in five customer magazines created by UK content providers are distributed internationally
Digital
Reach:
- Digital reach is now extensive with a user total of 41.2 million, averaging 1.1 million visits per digital title per month
Frequency:
- A third of website based content is updated daily, indicating marketers commitment to keeping content fresh and up-to-date. This also reflects findings from APA commissioned YouGov research in 2010, which showed that consumers wanted new content daily from their favourite brands
- Email is being used very selectively with 60% of brands sending out no more than six content-driven emails per year
- The most common e-zine frequency is three to five times per year
- Smartphone formats and apps are expected to be the growth digital channel moving forwards
Bob Carruth, advertising director of the Capital Press, has been promoted to general manager of the East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald.
The new general manager will be responsible for the advertising department as well as other marketing activities at the newspapers, said EO publisher Tom Brown in making the announcement.
“We are delighted to have Bob join our team,” he said. “He brings a long history of success and experience in managing advertising departments and helping our customers market their products and services.”
Capital Press, based in Salem, is a regional agricultural publication owned by the East Oregonian Publishing Company, as are the EO and Hermiston Herald.
Carruth replaces Bill Marcum, who left the EO in January to become manager of the Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce in Washington State. Carruth began work Monday.
“Although his departure from our sister newspaper is a real loss for the Capital Press, we are thrilled that Bob is joining us at the East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald,” said Kathryn Brown, associate publisher of the EO and Herald.
“His experience in newspaper and online advertising and marketing, plus his focus on customer service, will benefit our newspapers as well as local businesses that depend on advertising for their success.”
Carruth has been a leader in the newspaper industry since 1984, when he began work in advertising sales at the Idaho Press Tribune in Nampa. He has been advertising director for a number of newspapers during his career including Emmett, Idaho; Moses Lake, Wash.; Kalispell, Mont.; Huron, SD; Sioux City, Iowa; Oceanside, Calif.; Albany and Corvallis, Ore.
He was promoted to increasingly larger newspapers by the Hagadone Corp., located in Idaho, and then by Lee Enterprises based in Iowa. He joined the Capital Press in 2010.
“I am pleased to have someone with Bob’s proven experience join us in Eastern Oregon,” Tom Brown said. “I am confident that his roots in our part of the state and time with the region’s leading agricultural publication will be valuable for our customers.”
Carruth grew up in Bend, graduated from high school in Vale, and attended Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario. He and his wife, Gloria, have three grown children. Gloria was raised on a cattle ranch near Adrian.
“I am very privileged to have been offered the opportunity to work with the East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald,” Carruth said. “I am also excited about getting involved in the communities we serve and pleased to have the opportunity to build upon what the EO and Herald have already accomplished.”
Carruth was on the board of the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce and active in the Albany Rotary Club. He has also been on the board of a child care center, past president of a Lion’s Club and coached youth basketball. He is currently on the board of the Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation.
“I look forward to working with the staff to provide legendary customer service for those who depend on us to deliver results: our customers,” Carruth said.
This story originally appeared in East Oregonian.
copy; 2012 East Oregonian
A scholastic book edited by forest ecologist Dominick DellaSala of Talent is included in the annual academic excellence list by Choice magazine, one of the nations premier review journals.
The 336-page book, Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World: Ecology and Conservation, is in the Outstanding Academic Title list published in the January issue of Choice.
Based in Middletown, Conn., Choice has been a leading review journal for scholarly publications for more than 45 years and the leading North American source for reviews of new scholarly books and electronic resources.
The book, in which DellaSala also was a principal writer, was among 629 included in the list that spans 54 disciplines. However, 7,263 books were reviewed out of the more than 25,000 submitted, according to Irving E. Rockwood, the editor and publisher.
Published by Island Press, the book was the only one to receive the Choice award for academic excellence in 2011. DellaSala brought together more than 30 forest scientists from around the world to describe the ecology, conservation and threats to temperate rainforests from Australia to the Oregon and California coastal ranges.
Eloquently written, this valuable compendium should be enjoyed and pondered by a diverse audience ranging from students to policymakers, reviewer LM Nagel of Michigan Technological University wrote of the book in a Choice review last year.
This worldwide vision makes the imperative need for preservation of these rain forests compelling, he added. Summing up: Highly recommended.
The Choice award will help focus attention on the globes vanishing temperate rainforests, said DellaSala, 54, the chief scientist and president of the Ashland-based Geos Institute.
Its great to get that kind of recognition, he said. The intention of the book is to shine the global spotlight on these rainforests.
We want to inspire people to start thinking about these temperate rainforests because they are one of a kind, he added. We could lose them in this generation. … Im doing this for my young daughter and her generation.
Temperate rainforests are found in many nontropical locations around the globe, including far western Oregon, he said, noting that includes the old-growth stands on the western portion of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
There are only four places on the plant Alaska, British Columbia, Chile and Tasmania where intact coastal rainforests remain, said DellaSala, who became interested in the nontropical rainforests while spending two research seasons on Prince Wales Island in Alaska, where giant Sitka spruce were being felled.
Australia has decided to do only restoration forestry in Tasmania, he said. If we want to change, we can change. It just takes the political will and recognition of the values at risk. Im encouraged about that.
Last year, DellaSala was a keynote speaker at rainforest conferences from Alaska to New Zealand, in recognition of the United Nations-declared International Year of Forests. He has been invited to talk at similar conferences in Scotland and Russia later this year.
While rainforests around the globe are at a crisis, there is growing awareness that these forests cleanse the air we breathe, purify our drinking water and allow us to connect with nature, he said.
Paul Fattig is a reporter for the Mail Tribune. He can be reached at 541-776-4496 or email him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.