{"id":17,"date":"2008-03-26T15:42:05","date_gmt":"2008-03-26T20:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17"},"modified":"2008-03-28T08:36:14","modified_gmt":"2008-03-28T15:36:14","slug":"tale-of-two-publishers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17","title":{"rendered":"Tale of Two Publishers"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Ever since Dave Mitchell,<\/a> the curmudgeonly, Pulitzer-winning <\/a>editor of the Point Reyes Light<\/a> sold the weekly newspaper in 2005 to Robert Plotkin, a Columbia<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> J-school grad and former deputy D.A., the new publisher has been making news<\/a> as much as he\u2019s been publishing it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>The big complaint from the locals was that Plotkin was a disengaged auslander more interested in self-aggrandizement than covering the prosaic doings of local news and, more irritating, not publishing letters to the paper as freely as his predecessor.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, Plotkin and Mitchell had a post-sale philosophical falling out that end up in court complete with restraining orders.<\/p>\n

In response, the unhappy former readers did what hardly anyone<\/strong> is doing these days \u2013 launched a new newspaper, the weekly West Marin Citizen<\/a>. Its publisher is Joel Hack (above), who had run a smaller paper up the coast in Bolinas (best known for being the scene of Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s The Birds<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n

The two papers look quite different. The Light reflects its ambitions for glory with a more professional design and some high-falutin\u2019 writing by the grad school interns Plotkin entices with dreams of being the next Didion or McPhee. The Citizen is rougher, its pictures more snapshot-like and its writing, well, uneven but still informative.<\/p>\n

I got an assignment to photograph both publishers<\/strong> for a local magazine<\/a>, which was going to print a version<\/a> of a Columbia Journalism Review story<\/a> done by Jonathan Rowe<\/a>, a writer from West Marin.<\/p>\n

The two men couldn\u2019t have been more different.<\/p>\n

Hack invited me out to go on his weekly rounds of delivery and collection on my first phone call. Plotkin quizzed me repeatedly about the story and about my concept for the photo. \u201cWhat\u2019s your vision?\u201d he asked. It took several more calls but he agreed to the photograph only if I did it in a location of his choice and not show any other parts of the paper\u2019s newsroom, which he said were under reconstruction. Done.<\/p>\n

I met Hack first and he fit the description offered by the writer: \u201c\u2026 he looks a little like a Joel Hack.\u201d<\/strong> We talked a bit and as he began pulling papers out of the trunk of his car to deliver to stores around town, I began shooting.<\/p>\n

The light was full-on sunshine, but I made some nice images with him sitting on the edge of the trunk surrounded by papers. We walked. I shot, but the shadows were terrible. We did the post office, a grocery story and a book store. In the latter, I got some nice frames of him lit by the front window counting money. I had something we could use, but nothing with pop.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Hack says he\u2019s got to go. We\u2019ve been together about 20 minutes and I had been thinking we\u2019d have an hour. One more shot, I tell him, something out on the street. I tell him to get an armload of papers. Then I grab a light stand and an SB800,<\/strong> put a Pocket Wizard on it and have him stand across from local landmark bar with the sun to his back. I shoot 10 or 12 frames and we\u2019re done. That\u2019s the shot the magazine used (1\/250, F10, ISO 100).<\/p>\n


\nPlotkin\u2019s office is down the street, so I pack of up bag of lights and stands. At the paper, he leads me up a steep set of stairs to an attic office with angled ceilings so low there\u2019s no room to raise and umbrella. There is a skylight, but the light in the room is dim and without a strobe I\u2019d have to shoot at 1\/30 wide open. I set up a couple of SB800s, one flagged, the other snooted on either side of him and start bouncing the light off things \u2013 a wall, a refector, etc.<\/p>\n

To complicate things, Plotkin has constructed a \u201cset\u201d he wants to be photographed in<\/strong> front of, an artfully arranged group of artifacts and posters that I suppose he believes conveys who he is. He\u2019s got a good eye, though and I like the way it looks. But after 15 minutes of shooting from various angles (and even squeezing an umbrella in very low), I still can\u2019t get the framing and the light to work together, so I move him around and remove some of the stuff.<\/p>\n

I turn off one of the lights, come in tight and tell him to hold still (and tell me not to shake). Then I made the shot (1\/60, 5.6 ISO 400). The flash is not doing much more than adding some highlight and warmth to his face.<\/p>\n

In the end, I’m pleased with the results. I’m learning to make good shots more quickly<\/strong>, a continual challenge for most of my assignments, for many of which I have no more than 15 or 20 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since Dave Mitchell, the curmudgeonly, Pulitzer-winning editor of the Point Reyes Light sold the weekly newspaper in 2005 to Robert Plotkin, a Columbia J-school grad and former deputy D.A., the new publisher has been making news as much as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,11],"tags":[22,20,23,18,25,19,24,21],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-the-job","category-portraits","tag-community-journalism","tag-joel-hack","tag-marin-county","tag-point-reyes-light","tag-point-reyes-station","tag-robert-plotkin","tag-west-marin","tag-west-marin-citizen"],"yoast_head":"\nTale of Two Publishers - Tim Porter's Second Draft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tale of Two Publishers - Tim Porter's Second Draft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever since Dave Mitchell, the curmudgeonly, Pulitzer-winning editor of the Point Reyes Light sold the weekly newspaper in 2005 to Robert Plotkin, a Columbia J-school grad and former deputy D.A., the new publisher has been making news as much as … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tim Porter's Second Draft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/timporterphotography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-26T20:42:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-03-28T15:36:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/HackJoel_79.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Porter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Porter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17\",\"name\":\"Tale of Two Publishers - Tim Porter's Second Draft\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/HackJoel_79.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-26T20:42:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-03-28T15:36:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#\/schema\/person\/efd6f6b05808f784091b582e4231621d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/HackJoel_79.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/HackJoel_79.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tale of Two Publishers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/\",\"name\":\"Tim Porter's Second Draft\",\"description\":\"Photography, Books, Journalism & Other Curiosities\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#\/schema\/person\/efd6f6b05808f784091b582e4231621d\",\"name\":\"Tim Porter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/964890359b5d3b9d2229d81cf1c545c03e5f2c1369af8c0b1cc43e74b6b4abef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/964890359b5d3b9d2229d81cf1c545c03e5f2c1369af8c0b1cc43e74b6b4abef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Porter\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tale of Two Publishers - Tim Porter's Second Draft","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tale of Two Publishers - Tim Porter's Second Draft","og_description":"Ever since Dave Mitchell, the curmudgeonly, Pulitzer-winning editor of the Point Reyes Light sold the weekly newspaper in 2005 to Robert Plotkin, a Columbia J-school grad and former deputy D.A., the new publisher has been making news as much as … Continue reading →","og_url":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17","og_site_name":"Tim Porter's Second Draft","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/timporterphotography","article_published_time":"2008-03-26T20:42:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-03-28T15:36:14+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/HackJoel_79.jpg"}],"author":"Tim Porter","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Porter","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17","url":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17","name":"Tale of Two Publishers - Tim Porter's Second Draft","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/HackJoel_79.jpg","datePublished":"2008-03-26T20:42:05+00:00","dateModified":"2008-03-28T15:36:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#\/schema\/person\/efd6f6b05808f784091b582e4231621d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/HackJoel_79.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/HackJoel_79.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=17#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tale of Two Publishers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/","name":"Tim Porter's Second Draft","description":"Photography, Books, Journalism & Other Curiosities","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#\/schema\/person\/efd6f6b05808f784091b582e4231621d","name":"Tim Porter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/964890359b5d3b9d2229d81cf1c545c03e5f2c1369af8c0b1cc43e74b6b4abef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/964890359b5d3b9d2229d81cf1c545c03e5f2c1369af8c0b1cc43e74b6b4abef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Porter"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.timporter.com"],"url":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}