MMMM # 575 --- The Blind Boys of Alabama, Comments at AL.COM & The (shrinking) NY Times

"When The Blind Boys started out, we weren't looking for any accolades, awards or nothing — we just wanted to get out there and sing gospel music. But since the accolades came, we were glad to get them!"

                                                                                       Jimmy Carter,
                                                                                       One of the two surviving founders.

     From an NPR interview about a new album by one of the best known music groups to emerge from Alabama.

   You can listen to tracks HERE. 

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     Dozens of important journalists are leaving The NY Times, accepting buyouts from the newspaper as it tries to become a leaner, i.e. less costly, firm. 

     The people at Poynter in Florida have compiled an ongoing list of the talent drain at the paper.

     Ironically, I just started subscribing to the Times, Sundays only, a throwback to the days in NY when I would buy one late on Saturday nights and spend part of Sunday morning with it. There is still great writing there, especially in the Sunday Magazine section, but I worry about the impact of the layoffs.

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The website of the three former largest daily newspapers in Alabama is revamping the "reader comments" feature that followed each story. They commonly began with a comment expressing sorrow (or joy) about the story and then quickly dissolved into name calling. I've been complaining about the AL.COM website for years, wondering aloud why the papers though it was a good idea to take the worst of talk-radio and attach it to their product. Longtime employees have agreed with that, in private. Now they changing the rules. 
   Read their explanation about the changes--and take their survey HERE. But I'll warn you that the folks who were bomb throwers will object to any change. As for me, I say go back to the letter to the editor mode in which real people were required to use their real names. Amazing how civil people are under that one restriction.







[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of www.timlennox.com, celebrating ten years online this Fall.]