Grist in the rumor mill

Brian Lambert's latest "reporting" over at the Rake is raising a few eyebrows around here. Regarding former Stribber Joel Kramer's nascent online journalism venture, Mr. Lambert says he's "told by sources who asked not to be identified, includes some kind of partnering arrangement with various local publishing entities, possibly including the community journalism site, TC Daily Planet, The Rake, and Minnesota Public Radio."

Well, that seems to be news around here. I'm not saying such talks absolutely couldn't be occurring. This is a big company with a lot of tentacles, and I'm certainly not privy to everything that's going on. But checking with folks who'd most likely be involved in such a venture turned up a bunch of denials.

Bill: The MPR angle was apparently brought up somewhere somehow in Kramer's conversations with his potential staff. They are unclear what if anything it means. I think I've said, repeatedly, that I have no idea what is really going with any "alliance". Kramer declined to comment. Mr. Kling I was told was out of the office when I posted the piece.

More significant I think is whether Kramer's business model -- his target audience and perhaps his news orientation -- overlaps with MPR's well-established RADIO audience. Whether Kramer has any kind of agreement/understanding with MPR is beside the point if both MPR and he are working the same customer base.

Brian, thanks for the explanation. As you can imagine, there's plenty of professional interest in Mr. Kramer's venture around here.