Is the Boston Herald replacing Dean Johnson?

[donkelley@aol.com]

For many years Dean Johnson was a contributing reporter, not a full-time columnist, for the Herald.  Simultaneously he did restaurant reviews for the Lowell Sun and other papers.
 
Was there a connection between Dean's non-renewal and his ability to report on the media?  One could easily note that, as a radio reporter, Dean seemed knowledgable about stations in the rock world.  When it came to observations or comments about stations in the mainstream Pop world, however, he often appeared to be out of his element.        
 
A similar lack of knowledge about popular mainstream formats appears on a regular basis on this list.  How often have we read disparaging or clueless comments about a #1 station authored by someone who never bothers to listen to that station? 
 
I doubt that was the issue.  Dean's downfall was due to the state of the newspaper business.  The newspaper industry is facing far more severe challenges than radio.  For years research has shown that hardly anyone under 35 reads the newspaper, and it gets worse every day.  Is there anything that you'd find in a newspaper that you can't find online?
 
Given that, why would a newspaper not opt to pay for someone who can report on the media on a per-column basis?  The cost is probably a fraction of what they were paying Dean, and to the average reader the information is the same.  
 
When your numbers are falling you have to make some cuts.  That's what happened to Dean.
 
 
 
  
 
    
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Weil <kc1ih@mac.com>
To: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
Sent: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 19:14:20 -0400
Subject: Re: Is the Boston Herald replacing Dean Johnson?


At 04:54 PM 6/16/2005, Laurence Glavin wrote: 
 
> The media beat is tooimportant to be ignored, so they have to have > someone covering it. 
>Then why release Dean? (Apparently they didn't fire him, he took 
>a buyout) Maybe someone with a fresh perspective WHO WILL WORK FOR LESS! 
 
Is Dean qualified to report on all media, or is he strictly a radio and music reporter? I noticed today's Herald had a two page spread of media stories in the business section. Perhaps they want someone who will approach media from more of a business viewpoint. 
 
Larry Weil 
Lake Wobegone, NH