Another Veteran Ohio Journo Sent Packing By Gannett's Cincinnati Operation: Bengals Blogger Chick Ludwig Booted From Cincinnati.com

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Retired Dayton Daily News sportswriter Chick Ludwig -- who spent 12 years as that newspaper's Bengals beat writer -- has been sacked after a year at Cincinnati.com.  He wrote a popular blog (1.3 million page views) mostly about the NFL football team.  Ludwig said his contract wasn't renewed, apparently for economic reasons.  Ludwig spent 30 years with the Dayton Daily News and hooked up with Cincinnati.com last October.  Cincinnati.com is the Cincinnati Enquirer's companion website and is a property of Gannett Co., Inc. the giant media company that owns USA Today.  Gannet's stock was down $1.24, or 8.8%, Friday o n the New York Stock Exchange.  Investors were disappointed by the company's third quarter earnings report .  So adios, Chick, a Cincinnati native who appears to be yet another victim of Gannett, and the entire traditional media's, constant cost-cutting mode.

This is some of what Ludwig had to say about his departure, which he wrote on the blog.  He was classy and didn't offer sour grapes:

"The awesomeness, intensity and belligerence that marked 'Typing Away With Chick Ludwig' has come to an end.  I often use the term 'knifed' when a Cincinnati Bengals player gets terminated, released or waived. Now the time has come for 'The Chickster' to get knifed.  My contract is up, and I haven’t been renewed. The economy has claimed yet another victim. So this is my final entry for the Cincinnati.com Blog Network.

"I’d like to think my specialty is the written and spoken word. And all I ever wanted to do was offer opinion, insight and analysis on the Cincinnati Bengals, and bring a little levity to your day. Hopefully, 397 blog entries and 1.4 million page views are signs I made a dent, if not a smidgen of difference, in your daily life.  My immediate plan: Fire up a Hav-A-Tampa sweet jewel, sip a glass of Rolling Rock, take a nap and prep for my Sunday, Oct. 17, speech at the Maketewah Country Club Caddie Banquet (cocktails 5:30, dinner 6:30)."

By the way, The Chickster remains the Bengals correspondent for the Sporting News.

DHL Change In Planes Could Wallop Ohio: But It May Help Slumping Newspaper Industry

WILMINGTON, Ohio (TDB) -- Your local fishwrapper may start delivering fresh fish alongside the traditional print content that some people already find smelly. And it's all because of DHL. As many as 8,000 jobs may be lost in Clinton County and SW Ohio if DHL ends its air-freight express contract with with two carriers based in Wilmington. But a newspaper has seen an opening to generate some revenue as DHL shrinks -- it is going into the next-day parcel delivery service in the Rocky Mountains. It sounds like an idea that might catch on.

The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Col., which is owned by Dayton Daily News corporate parent Cox Enterprises Inc. says it already delivers daily newspapers, so adding packages shouldn't be too difficult. Across the U.S., newspapers are struggling economically as readers and advertisers flee to the Internet. The Daily Sentinel looks like the first to seize an opportunity presented by DHL's shift in business strategy. The newspaper trade journal Editor & Publisher has an account of the foray into a new line of business, and says staff has already been added and more hires are expected.

DHL has ended deliveries on Colorado's Western Slope, an area that includes Vail and Aspen. Daily Sentinel Publisher Alex Taylor explains:

"We have one of the most sophisticated on-time, early-delivery networks. It makes sense to let our business partners benefit from that . . . It's one of the things we do best. Sometimes when it's snowing or there's an ice storm, you may not get your mail, but you'll always get your newspaper. If people want to pay us to carry other things, too, there's no reason we shouldn't."

Cincinnati Enquirer Caught Covering Up News? Blackwell Case Blacked Out By Paper

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- If you read the Cincinnati Enquirer for news, you wouldn't know that Ken Blackwell's son is in a bit of a jam. The metro daily sells some 200,000 copies a day but couldn't find space for negative legal news out of the Ohio Supreme Court about the son of the 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate, who is also the son of the Cincinnati public school system's superintendent. No reporter produced a story; no editor seems to have demanded an article. There was a press release from the court. Ignored.

The Enquirer was scooped, and scooped big. Perhaps it was dozing. Or perhaps something more sinister occurred. Has it covered up a story that some editors recognized was important, but also would embarrass some politically connected Enquirer favorites?

There was a snippet in the paper's online political blog that linked to another publication's article. But the snippet's headline didn't even hint that somebody in the Blackwell clan's conduct was under a cloud and had been questioned as unethical. The Enquirer, of course, supported Blackwell over Democrat Ted Strickland in last fall's Ohio campaign for governor. Is it so enamored of the Blackwell name that it covers up news? Especially news about tests and exams -- which might be seen as reflecting somewhat negatively on Rosa Blackwell, a school administrator responsible for tests and exams. After all, her son was ensnared in a conflict about whether he had followed the rules on his state bar exam in Ohio.

While the story was blacked out from the Cincinnati morning daily's news pages, others were reporting what was up. The Dayton Daily News -- which is some 40 miles up I-75 from downtown Cincinnati -- even came up with audio of the Ohio Supreme Court's hearing regarding Blackwell's son. That indicates the Enquirer could have produced some kind of story even if it missed the court session. It could have transcribed the tape for the details -- or printed the transcript.

The political blogs in Ohio have been all over the Blackwell story, which has now become old news. But it's not old news in the pages of the Cincinnati Enquirer, where it never became news at all.

For years, there have been suspicions that the Enquirer, a unit the Gannett Co. Inc. publishing empire, is selective about what gets published. If it likes you or supports you, then the bad stuff gets censored, buried or blacked out. That was the way Pravda did it, too. This latest incident seems to add fuel to the suspicions -- this time there was a whiff of scandal around a politically connected family, the odor got into the wind, it made the news in Ohio. But it didn't make the Enquirer's pages. Bottomline: If you want to really know what's up with Cincinnati, you may have to start reading the newspaper in Dayton.