Mn Monitor: Adios Boyd?
By Mitch Berg
A source with knowledge of the situation tells me there’s trouble brewing at the Minnesota Monitor.
>> we’re hearing minnesota monitor is in
>> trouble. Jim Boyd has quit and there is some
>> consternation among the writers.
Rumor has it that Boyd – whose much-ballyhooed entree to the Monitor was intended to be yet another coat of credibility (along with hiring Eric Black) onto an enterprise that employs some good writers, some ethical trainwrecks, and some well-meaning amateurs – is moving on to another regional online outlet. I’m working to confirm or spike the rumor.
The source also tells me that some local journalists are also upset in that nobody tells even potential employees exactly who it is that funds the Monitor. (While nobody has formally confirmed anything, the Monitor’s parent group, the Center for Independent Media, shared offices with George Soros’ “Media Matters for America” during their organizational gestation period. Nobody from the Monitor or the CIM has ever denied, after repeated direct requests, that Soros was the organizations’ sugardaddy).
The rumor (and it IS just a rumor at this point) continues that Boyd will be joining the MinnPost – the new online DFL PR organ news outlet run by Boyd’s former boss Joel Kramer. A source at the Post declined to comment and has kicked my request for an on-the-record comment up the chain of command.
More info as it becomes available.
UPDATE: Roger Buoen, the MinnPost’s Managing Editor, writes “we haven’t talked to Jim [Boyd] about writing for MinnPost”
November 12th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
[…] MNMon’s editor Paul Schmelzer responds to my email and the post below: Yes: Jim’s moving on. He took the Strib buyout this spring, helped us out with some very useful mentoring (a 10 hr/week gig) and now that he and his wife are moving full-time to their place in Grand Marais (this week), he decided he wanted to be retired, for real. I’ve really enjoyed working with him, but I definitely understand where he’s at. I hope he finds the time to write the occasional guest column for us, but, yes, by the end of the month he’ll be doing what retired northshore guys do, full-time. […]