Stone throwing — as predicted

Steve Clark was right about Willamette Week throwing stones at Clark's front page puff piece last week about his Portland Tribune going “daily” — on the web.

The Willies went wild with Clark's verbal dance about big changes at the Tribune, where he is president and publisher.

The contrast in tone speaks volumes about the two publications. One is comfortable with itself and where it is in the new Media World. “Smug” might be a better word.

The other is tentative, defensive and spin-prone.

If you read Willamette Week’s snide deconstruction of Clark’s “story,” you’ll figure out which is which.

None of which gets to the issues that both publications must face as print vanishes from the scene. I wrote about some of them in an earlier post.

On the web, every news site is just another URL that has to prove itself.

And pay for it.

For the record, I've bookmarked both sites. Which is more than I can say for The Oregonian, which still comes to my driveway. Old habits die hard.