The Baltimore Sun is publishing a special edition to be distributed to New Orleans-area hotels this weekend. Sun spokesperson Renee Mutchnik told Poynter the edition will comprise the front and sports pages of the daily (Sunday's will include a special game day section). The paper is printing 3,000 copies of the paper Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Houma, La.

Plus: "When we win, not if, we will also have some on Monday," Mutchnik said. That edition will have 1,000 extra copies; Mutchnik said the Tribune-owned paper will be available to hotel guests even if they are not Ravens fans. (more...)

The Baltimore Sun


The Baltimore Sun turns 175 on Thursday; to celebrate, Director of Interactive Design Adam Marton has reconfigured its website to present today's news as it might have looked in the 19th century (one big difference: You'd be using Internet Explore to view it) and to show the news from May 17, 1837, Web-style: (more...)

The Baltimore Sun
Robert Embry Jr., who was reportedly part of an investors group thinking about buying the Sun in 2006, tells Gus Sentementes that the investors "would re-open the question" once the Tribune Co. exits bankruptcy. Embry also says people have approached his Abell Foundation with proposals to fund journalism startups, but none have appeared to be self-sustaining. || Related: Judge approves Lee Enterprises plan to exit bankruptcy (The Wall Street Journal)

Romenesko+ Memos | Baltimore Sun (Letter to Readers) | Baltimore Sun
The Sun tells readers that the paywall goes up October 10. "To encourage readers to sign up at launch, we will offer a special introductory rate of 99 cents for the first 4 weeks," says publisher Tim Ryan. "After that, digital-only subscribers will have a cost of $2.49 a week or $49.99 for 26 weeks. Print subscribers will receive a special reduced rate of 75 cents a week or $29.99 a year. Non-subscribers will have free access to 15 web pages a month. The Sun is the first Tribune paper to announce digital subscriptions. | Jay Hancock: The Sun will count links from social media and other websites as part of a user's monthly allotment of 15 views.

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Baltimore Sun
Legendary filmmaker John Waters says he's "amazed that The Baltimore Sun is letting Mike Sragow leave his position as main film writer" to take another yet-to-be disclosed assignment. "As a home delivery subscriber and a reader online when I am traveling, it is important for me to keep abreast of what is happening in my hometown of Baltimore and how local media responds," Waters writes in a letter to the Sun. He continues:

I don't read The Sun to discover how a film is received in Chicago, I read to see how it will play in Baltimore. Mr. Sragow is a first-rate critic with a national reputation who was brought to Baltimore with great fanfare, and the film-going community here has been well served in the past by his well written and intelligent, humorous, unpretentious take on movies, film festivals and the local Baltimore movie scene. Each month it seems his duties were lessened for reasons that were unfathomable to me, and now even his blog is being discontinued? What a stupid editorial decision and one that leaves the filmmaking community in Baltimore impoverished. Give Mr. Sragow back his position as film critic and blogger.

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to find out why Sragow's "My Life as a Movie Critic" series ended after just two parts last week. (It was was supposed to run all week.) I emailed Sragow and a Sun entertainment editor last Tuesday afternoon after Part 2 failed to go online. I wondered if the Sun had decided to pull the plug on the critic's reminiscences because of criticism of the paper in the comments below his post ("And The Sun gets even dimmer...") A very brief Part 2 was finally posted late Tuesday evening, and Sragow's "My Life" ended with that. "Where are Parts 3-5 of Mike's career chronicle?" a reader wrote in the comments section. I asked Sun entertainment editor Tim Swift that question earlier today -- he was on vacation last week when I first inquired -- and will post his response when/if it comes in.

Daily Record
The Tribune-owned Baltimore Sun told the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Wednesday that it wants to cut 20 to 25 positions, including 10 in the newsroom. The Sun aims to buy out two columnists, two critics, an editorial writer, two copy editors, two design editors and a photographer, according to Andrea K. Walker, a business reporter and newsroom chair for The Sun’s guild unit. The paper says this is its first buyout offer since 2008.

Towson Patch | BaltimoreSun.com
The Baltimore Sun's b, currently published Monday through Friday, becomes a weekly starting July 13. Launched in 2008, b will come out on Wednesdays -- the same day that Baltimore City Paper hits the streets. City Paper publisher Don Farley says of b: "Obviously cutting back to one issue is admitting it's a failure." Sun publisher Tim Ryan says b is relaunching its website "as a 24/7 Baltimore-focused website covering news, entertainment and pop culture."

This move acknowledges younger consumers’ media habits -- they go online repeatedly throughout the day. Leading up to the weekend, they invest more time looking for information in print and planning their free time. Changing our format better aligns with their routines.

Modeled after Chicago Tribune's RedEye, b's looser style took some getting used to in the Sun newsroom. An early issue had the cover hed, “DOUCHEBAG!: 56 ways to tell if you are one.” Editor Anne Tallent told colleagues who questioned the headline and story: “Douchebag means something different to you than it does to b readers. I understand that to each of you it sounds offensive, but to our readers it is a commonplace term to describe a particularly lame type of guy.”