The 1951 New York Giants won the NL Pennant despite losing 11 in a row during the regular season. *** It’s only June and Cleveland Indians fans are already talking to themselves with such familiar refrains as” ``Haven’t we seen this movie before?” After beginning the season with a renewed... Continue reading

A couple reading at a popular summer vacation spot: Porchville, USA. *** Now that the punishing winds and deep snow drifts of the cold harsh unforgiving winter has given way to blue skies, green grass, with the scorching heat not far behind, many are beginning to make their summer plans.... Continue reading

Compliments of the L.A. Times' photography blog, Framework , comes a truly historic image of The Los Angeles-Times Richfield `Electric Newspaper' at the corner of 6th and Hill streets. This novel news bulletin service, one of the first in the United States, became a reality on October 12, 1931, when... Continue reading

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald on their honeymoon in 1920. ``Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning____ So we beat... Continue reading

Journalist and author Bill Steigerwald [See his website ]recently checked in to say he is doing well in another chapter of his life, away from the daily grind of newspaper reporting since retiring in March, 2009. After 30 years reporting for the Los Angeles Times in the 1980’s, the Pittsburgh... Continue reading

Silence is golden. Which really stinks, especially when you’re trying to find which U.S. dailies or news websites might have come away with a Pulitzer Prize this year? The finalists and winners for journalism’s top prize will be announced today, Monday, April 15th at 3:00 p.m. (ET). Winners will officially... Continue reading

Eight years ago today, believe it or not, The Plain Dealer editorial staff in Cleveland, Ohio, an Advance Publications paper, was uncorking a little of the bubbly and running victory laps around the newsroom after learning it had won its first Pulitzer Prize in over 50 years, when Connie Schultz... Continue reading

Caryle Murphy with her nephews at Yellowstone National Park Murphy interviewing Islamic scholar Ahmed Bin Baz in Jeddah *** Though no longer reporting for a major daily newspaper, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Caryle Murphy [See her personal website ]is still plying her trade both in the U.S. and abroad. Skeptical about... Continue reading

We have another first. Just think of the hundreds and hundreds of specialized dictionaries there are on the market. We have a ``Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English’’, a ``Dictionary of Obsolete English’’, a ``Dictionary of Catch Phrases’’, a ``Dictionary of Confusable Words’’, a ``Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of... Continue reading

Right in the thick of his bruising presidential campaign, with the election less than six months away, The Los Angeles Times photography blog, Framework, shared this truly historic snapshot of Harry Truman in June 14, 1948, posing with a gaggle of press photographers at Union Station, including staffers from The... Continue reading

A special thanks to the Los Angeles Times photography blog, Framework for sharing this snapshot of the their photography staff from 1941. The photo was originally published in the January, 1941 edition of ``Among Ourselves’’, the L.A. Times’ employee newspaper. For those astute newspaper historians-you're absolutely right- the camera doesn't... Continue reading

With baseball fans beginning to look at the countdown clock for the official start of opening day, fans are also taking a closer look at their respective teams' promotional schedule to see which games will offer giveaways and commemorative items, such as bobble heads, t-shirts, caps, etc., usually to the first 10-15,000 fans to pass through the gates. The way promotional items have become such a common fixture at major league ballparks, it's hard to imagine there was a time when giveaways were strictly unheard of. The game-changer came when Bill Veeck assumed ownership of the Cleveland Indians in 1946.... Continue reading

Compliments of the Los Angeles Times' photography blog, Framework , comes this delectable snapshot of Bertha Haffner-Ginger from 1914 conducting one of her cooking classes, appropriately named ``The Times’ School of Domestic Science,'' which were held at the L.A. Times. Haffner-Ginger landed at the Times' in 1912 to teach the... Continue reading

Since the 113 Congress officially opened for business in January, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), a public policy research arm of the United States Congress, recently issued a statistical breakdown on the new congress, covering everything from gender, religion, education, military service, and foreign birth. We can all rest easy knowing that if members of Congress go after each other’s throats during these heated sequestration talks, that there are 5 Peace Corps volunteers in the House who might be able to restore a sense of calm during the stormy sea of discontent. Even if peace and tranquility isn’t in the... Continue reading

It was most definitely a stunner. As we all know by now, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, the 264th successor to St. Peter, seemingly out of the clear blue sky, announced to the world he would be stepping down at the end of the month, citing failing health and insisting he was unable to perform up to the ability required by the office. Popes, like U.S. Supreme Court Justices and baseball commissioners aren’t supposed to retire, they’re supposed to run out the clock and just wait for Father Time to come knocking. So I couldn’t help but wonder if... Continue reading

It was nice to hear from the L.A. Times, who shared this historic photo with NewspaperAlum of their newsroom from December 10, 1941, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Los Angeles experienced its first World War II blackout. Times’ editors, however, were permitted to continue working with... Continue reading

Tom C. Harris (in 1923) as Copy Boy in the St Pete Times Newsroom. He claims to be wearing knickers in this photo. From Copy Boy, he rose to City Editor and by the age of 25, was named Managing Editor. He retired in 1968, after 45 years with the... Continue reading

Dallas Morning News around 1900. Fireside Desk and Fireplace in the room belonging to Col. A.H. Belo , the founder of Dallas Morning newspaper, along with business partner George Bannerman Dealey. Dallas Morning News newsroom from 1933 or 1934. From Left: Aaron Griffin, Police Reporter, John Rosenfeld, Amusements Editor, Wayne... Continue reading

A precursor to John King of CNN and the wizardry of his touch screen election map was a piece of chalk and a blackboard. Pictured here in November, 1962, is J.C. Todd chalking up the latest numbers in local races. The names were large enough for anyone in the Denver... Continue reading

In an annual tradition inaugurated sometime during the 1950s, the Cal marching band pays a visit to the San Francisco Chronicle’s newsroom during the week of The Big Game, when the California Golden Bears of the University of California, Berkeley and the Stanford Cardinal football team of Stanford University lock... Continue reading

Is that political commentator Jeff Greenfield, fresh out of college sitting at his desk? Of course not; why that's Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1969, possibly looking over one of his dazzling movie reviews. Was it ``Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’’, ``Midnight Cowboy’’ or maybe John Wayne's... Continue reading

Jack Nelson descending the steps of the Georgia Capitol circa 1960, the same year he won a Pulitzer. Nelson with Paul Duke (center), of Washington Week in Review, and Charlie McDowell, like Jack, a regular on the show. Nelson in China, on a trip with Ronald Reagan in 1984. *Photos... Continue reading

Photo Credit: Casey McNerthney, Seattle P-I Kristen Millares Young's editor, Chris Grygiel, at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (when it was still printing) dispatches his prize reporter to the streets, specifically at 1st and Pike/Pine, right by Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle on election night, November 4, 2008 for voter reaction... Continue reading

When the world turned upside down, like it did for so many journalists during the Great Recession, it’s nice to know that a dog is still man’s best friend. That certainly is the case for Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist John Woestendiek, who after 33 years in the newspaper industry, the last... Continue reading