Comparative Journalism

I first heard that Bobby Lowder was "retiring" from the bank he founded from a local TV report tonight at 6:00pm. Then several hours later, I went looking for a better story. From watching that first TV report, you would never know that Colonial Bank stock sold for .28 a share at one point this year, and that the company lost $88-Million in 2008. The Opelika-Auburn News had a somewhat better story (though not great, considering Lowder's importance to the Auburn University community. He remains on the Board of Trustees at AU til 2011.). The Wall Street Journal (calling Lowder "combative") had a better story (which you have to subscribe to in order to read from my link), but as of this posting, it was the Birmingham Business Journal that had (for me anyway) the right combination of facts to put the story in perspective. There was no significant blogger activity that I could find as of this posting. Of course it was a late in the day story, and I'm sure by morning there will be much more analysis.