Media Reporter

The possibility exists that Ray Zauber’s Oak Cliff Tribune may have some competition in the near future. Reports are circulating within the journalism community that Colin McCoy, former editor of the Dallas Express, is trying to 3tart up a printing company across the Trinity. His plan is to provide the printing press and encourage someone to start up a weekly that is oriented to the black community. He would also like a companion paper that is pointed to the readers served by the Tribune. If he is successful, he could go a long way toward undercutting the Tribune and also the Times Herald, which is strong in that part of the city.



Reports are that KDFW-TV is contemplating a magazine format news and features show similar to CBS’s “60 Minutes” and NBC’s “Weekend” shows. A number of local broadcasters have been auditioning for the commentator’s job. It will most likely fill the 6:30 – 7 p.m. slot on weekdays (it’s now filled with Laurel and Hardy movies), and probably will complement the station’s already successful “Four Country Reporter” and “Young. Four Country” programs.



The traditional Neiman-Marcus half-page advertisement that has occupied the front of the local news section of the Dallas News for the last 30 or 40 years has recently undergone a change. Terry Walsh, managing editor of the paper, informed reporters and editors in a memo that N-M will be conducting “experimentation” with their advertising and that a full page will become available for news columns. The ad has occupied the half-page position six days a week – the local news section is full page on Sundays. The Times Herald discarded half-page ads on the fronts of their various sections several years ago. N-M Vice President Tom Alexander said the tests will be made during the month of June, and that following the test the advertisement will again return on a regular basis. “It’s nothing earth-shaking,” Alexander said.

The Times Herald appears to be setting a trend amongAmerican newspapers – hiring high-priced reportorial talent while many major papers are laying off reporters (DenverPost) or dying in the economic squeeze (Fort Worth Press).Among the people coming in for the Herald is HughAynesworth, former Houston bureau chief for Newsweek, who will function as an investigative reporter. Aynesworth,when he was at the Dallas News, secured part of the diaryof Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of John F. Kennedy.The Herald is also drawing reporters and editors from the Detroit Free Press, the Washington Star and the Associated Press, as well as several local journalists.