OMC: Your regular readers hopefully think you give everyone a fair shake, but have you heard any conspiracy theories, in both directions, about how your report on properties owned by Journal Communications, like WKTI, WTMJ, etc.? Are you censored or do you have free reign to say whatever you want? Has there ever been a time when someone has said, "That's our sister company, you can't write that?"

TC: First of all, I've never been censored in writing anything about the Journal Communications entities. Obviously, I'm read by a number of editors, and you know that if it's the company, they're going to look at it more closely. There have also been issues where I've had to write in some regard with the newspaper, and that's scrutinized. But no, no one has ever told me I couldn't write something about anybody. And I will say the conspiracy theorists, to this day, go both ways. If I write something positive about any of the Journal Broadcast entities, I'll get e-mails saying, "Oh, you're just a corporate stooge." If I write anything critical, I hear from inside Capitol Drive, "Oh, he just does this to prove that he's not a stooge."

OMC: Does the criticism just roll off now?

TC: Yeah, it has to. I've been doing this for a long time. Sometimes it makes me laugh.

OMC: You said that if there's a photo next to your story, it means that opinion is allowed. But it doesn't say that.

TC: There are a lot of things about newspapers that we never explain to readers.

OMC: But now you've got your blog, and you and I sat on the "blog summit" together, and none of us can honestly say we're experts about this new medium yet … But how do you differentiate between the blog, the hard news, the column, what's online, what's in print? How's this evolving media landscape changing your job?

TC: I think that for a column like mine, which is essentially a lot of bits of information, the blog format is perfect for it because a lot of times what I write evolves during the day. If there's a breaking news story, I'm doing updates on my blog about how the story is being covered. I can follow that story and how it unfolds. I can see the day when the column is an Internet entity like that, and it's always changing and always evolving as the news is evolving. That's a very different mindset from setting something down on concrete or on paper, which is the literary version of concrete, where you think the story is done. One of the parts about a column like I do is that it's never done. There are issues that are always evolving. In a way, it's sort of a pre-cursor to the Internet format.

OMC: So what I see on JSOnline is your column and is what will run in the newspaper, or has already run in the newspaper. But your blog on JSOnline is exclusive to the Web?

TC: Often, it's the notes to the next day's column. For example, in mid-May, the networks released their schedule. We just don't have space in the newspaper to run the whole schedule. I get them very early, and there are people who follow this stuff who want to know if their shows are canceled. I'm able to post the schedules and the networks' descriptions of their new shows right away, so that raw information is there. I would take all that information and boil that down to the lead item in my column. That's where the journalism comes in, making judgment calls about what you think is the most important. On a day like that, a blog is the rough notes of what the column will turn into.

OMC: Have your own media-watching habits changed over the years? Are you subscribing to podcasts and using the TMZ.com's, and sources that never used to exist?

TC: We talk constantly in the office about how we could have done our jobs 10 years ago when we didn't have these national resources. As you know, I do national and local stuff, and so the ability to keep up on the national stuff is key. We used to depend way more on the wires and network statements. Now we read and hear insider blogs on television shows. We can actually go to the source in a way that we couldn't before. I'm a religious (podcast subscriber) -- I mostly (listen to) professionally done podcasts. I (download) a lot of radio stuff, some BBC stuff, a little bit of entertainment stuff, as well. I try to walk an hour a day, so I always have an hour's worth of podcast material that I can listen to. I'd rather listen to that than listen to music. I'm learning something, and it's also entertaining to me.

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Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by piscesgirl_2 on June 27, 2007 at 1:41 p.m. (report)

Great interview! I really love reading Tim's articles and his blogs. I'm surprised you didn't ask him anything about his monthly chats.

Posted by hardgeminiguy on June 25, 2007 at 1:55 p.m. (report)

very good interview with in depth responses--thank-you! now, if only the journal/sentinel could become a great newspaper again as it was once ranked no.3 in the country 50 years ago. today, it is hardly worth reading and they wonder why readership is down. why must i have to get hard hitting news from a WEEKLY business journal when the journal/sentinel has a DAILY business section that, too, has badly deteriated--often down to only 2 pages. and get rid of the worthless, waste of time, pulse section. start spending resources on LOCAL NEWS. i, also, pick up ALL weekly/monthly papers for additional LOCAL news. the journal/sentinel needs major improvements if it is not going to keep losing readership. as a former eleven year co-owner, publisher of a newspaper, THE WISCONSIN LIGHT, i know something about what makes a newspaper work--and be a community treasure. thanks, mr. cuprisin--at least your column is local news! thank-you--jerry johnson

Posted by alba on June 25, 2007 at 12:07 p.m. (report)

Nice interview. I enjoy Cuprisin's insight in his columns.

Posted by wiboots on June 25, 2007 at 10:02 a.m. (report)

Andy: Great article. Tim, I enjoy reading your articles. Both of you keep up the good work you are doing for the community.