I joined the Washington City Paper family this week, replacing the beloved Jule Banville, the recently departed asst. managing editor and D.C. brunch-culture-hater who was kind enough to leave in her office some very important things, such as an AP Stylebook, two dictionaries and a bottle of Tylenol. She left a rotten banana, too, but I think that was a mistake.

Please allow me to make this, my inaugural City Desk blog post, an introduction of sorts.

I come to you via reporting stints both near and far. Looking back, I’d have to say the highlight of my first journalism job, in 1995, was the time I asked a Prince George’s County public information officer out of gruff-cop central casting for an update on the condition of a homicide victim ("She's still dead!" he laughed, and then said it again for good measure, causing me to turn a shade of purple I have tried very hard to avoid since.).

Read More "Day Three at City Paper: Meet, Well, Me" »

Nice story today in the Baltimore Sun about the U of Maryland's plan to put a parking lot and maintenance sheds where there are now 15 acres of woods. Don't bother calling up the writer to give a compliment. They're on a byline strike today. The one-day protest is against Sun owners the Tribune Co., which recently laid off about one-third of their newsroom, mostly editors and bureau chiefs. Tribune's filed for Chapter 11 protection. Union rep Brent Jones tells the Washington Biz Journal injury's insulted because “[t]hese decisions were made without any discussions on alternative cost-saving methods.”

Read More "“By a Baltimore Sun Staff Writer”" »

OK, so just moments after the announcement of a groundbreaking content-sharing agreement between the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, here comes a memo from the Post 's top sports editor, Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, saying, hey, in practice, we don't have too much to share with our competitor.

I would abridge it and comment on it, but it speaks too majestically for itself:

As Bob's email indicates, we are entering into a new era of cooperation with the Baltimore Sun hat will allow us access to some of their content. While this is an important accord, in actuality we are unlikely to use it very often because our newshole, like that of the restof the newsroom, will shrink next year. As some of you have heard, our Orioles coverage has fallen victim to the budget knife and this agreement allows us to use the Sun's Orioles copy. But we'd be more likely to use the AP because we won't have room for a long Orioles gamer by the Sun. Another
one of our budget cuts, our local horse racing coverage, is in a similar position. It is also important to remember that we will we will continue to have fight-to-the-death competition between the papers on the all-important University of Maryland beat. And we have no plans to share content on the Anne Arundel and Howard high school sports fronts for the moment either.

We are planning a staff meeting to discuss these and other changes as we continue our evolution through these turbulent times. But we'll do that in early January. For now let's focus on everyone having a happy holiday, or as happy as it can be for those headed to Boise.

No pre-vacation slowdown at the Washington Post. Yesterday brought news of the resignation of dot-com chief Jim Brady. Today, a content-sharing arrangement with the Baltimore Sun. With both papers buffeted by contemporary media conditions, this move makes a lot of sense. Especially for the Sun: The last time I checked out its Metro section, it was a page-and-a-half long.

Here's the release on the matter:

WASHINGTON, D.C. / BALTIMORE, MD —December 23, 2008—The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun today announced that effective January 1, 2009 they will share selected stories, photos and news content with each other in order to better serve readers of both newspapers.

The Post and The Sun have agreed to share the newspapers’ day-to-day coverage of certain Maryland news and sports. In addition, The Post and The Sun may draw on each other's national, international and feature stories that are distributed by the LAT-WP News Service, to which both contribute. The exchanges will allow each paper to take advantage of the other’s strengths and expertise in specific subjects around the region and the world.

“We have great respect for The Baltimore Sun’s reporting and believe adding their expertise to our regional coverage will be very beneficial to our readers,” said Marcus Brauchli, Executive Editor, The Washington Post.

"The Washington Post is one of America's most respected news organizations, and adding its award-winning coverage of the federal government and national affairs to The Sun's pages will help make our paper even more relevant and comprehensive for readers," said Timothy A. Franklin, the editor of The Baltimore Sun.

J. Montgomery (Monty) Cook, who was named yesterday to take over Franklin’s position as Editor and Senior Vice President of The Baltimore Sun at the beginning of 2009, said, “Having worked in both newsrooms, I can say that this agreement makes readers of The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post the real winners. There's never been a more important time to provide greater access to quality reporting and writing to our readers and online audience."

As part of this accord, exclusive stories will not usually be shared, nor will coverage of such competitive subjects as Maryland state government and University of Maryland athletics.