Oct. 17, 2022

Connections is the theme for this week’s writing. My connection to people, places and things.

The People …

are Angela Lansbury and Alan Jackson. An unlikely pair, for some, but not for me.

Angela Lansbury

I’ve felt connected to Ms. Lansbury since 1973 when I saw her perform as Mama Rose in the musical “Gypsy” at the Piccadilly Theatre in London. She was incredible. I had no idea at the time, really, that she was a stage and film legend. But she became one for me on that magical night during my family trip to Europe. Then permanently in my mind a couple years later after my mother died because she looked so much like her, and my Mom was also a singer but chose teaching as a profession.

Because of that resemblance, I’ve always felt a special connection to Ms. Lansbury. And that link became stronger as the years went by when I’d catch one of her old movies on TV or when a stage still would come across my desk at the newspaper where I covered the entertainment beat, among others. But, I suppose, like so many people, it was her TV show “Murder, She Wrote,” that made the strongest connection because it brought her into my living room, on a regular basis.

Mom would have liked that show, I think, because she was always up for a good murder, mystery. And, I will confess in this writing, that it was that very show that gave me comfort over the couple years I worked out of town. Sitting there in my apartment, pining for my husband who was four hours away at our house and having a little pity-party for Leslie, I’d perk up when I’d see, “Murder, She Wrote” airing on the telly. It sounds so silly, I know, and could be a silly show. I know that, too. After all, I was a journalist and my husband a coroner. So, I knew full well the show’s plots did not exactly represent how investigations actually were conducted.

Still, that didn’t matter. I could forego the premise because in some ethereal way through Angela, I was spending time with my mother. I thought of telling her this, in a letter, about how much she meant to me, but never did. Thinking, I suppose, that it was childish. I’d never written a fan letter, so had no idea how really to do that. But, now of course, in the wake of her death, I wish I had. So, I’m saying to her, here and now …

Dear Ms. Lansbury, thank you for sharing your talent with the world and being there for me.

Alan Jackson

Now, Mr. Jackson came to my attention back in my concert reviewing days, somewhere in the 1990s (1993, to be exact, according to my files) when he was riding the charts, with “Midnight in Montgomery.” (I love those moody, story-telling songs in any style.) It was on his tour stop through Iowa, at Hilton Coliseum on the Iowa State campus in Ames. I think it was one of my first country concerts to be covering, so I didn’t really know what to expect. And when I took my place in front of the stage in photographer’s row, I just remember looking up and seeing legs – long, long legs. Yeah. That was pretty much a stand-out feature of the entire concert because his opening act was Billy Dean of “Somewhere in My Broken Heart” fame and both men were known as a “good-lookin,’ tall drink-o-water.”

I actually told Billy that when I met him years later, in 2012, out here in Wyoming, during his one-man-show tour. He’s adorable, by the way – a kind, sweet guy who made the interview fun and easy and turned out to be a lovely dinner date. Bonus! Yes, we ended up going out to dinner. The hook-up was simple -- he needed a ride and I had a car. And, you can bet we caused a stir walking into that hometown bar for a drink and burger. Then to top it off, I got front row seats to an intimate concert for which he sang his hits accompanied only by his guitar and shared stories of entertainers he’d worked with along the way, including Dolly Parton. But that’s a story for another day, as is Billy’s.

Back to Alan

Getting back to Alan Jackson. Watching him perform this week on the CMT Artist of the Year show as the Artist of a Lifetime award winner, dealing with what he described as a condition that impairs his mobility, made me think of that tall, handsome young man I saw on that stage, nearly 30 years ago. That “tall drink-o-water” with that wonderful, clear, resonant voice that reaches into your soul, a gift made clear with his song, “Where Were You” (When the World Stopped Turning) after 9-11.

I thought in that moment of listening to him sing on TV, that it's so hard to see how age affects us and alters the talents we’ve been given, especially when you’re dealing with a similar situation yourself. But, at the same time, I was so glad to see he was continuing to perform in whatever way he could. And that, serves as an inspiration for me and many others, I would imagine. So, I say, sing on, Alan, for as long as you can, for your sake and ours.

Places and Things

Now, as for the Places and Things, I’m talking about Iowa and magazines.

More specifically, the place is Des Moines, Iowa, where Meredith Publishing is located; and the magazines are Better Homes & Gardens and McCall’s. Here’s the back story. Just as I was researching who owned the copyright for McCall’s, I saw on TV that Chris Cuomo, the former ousted CNN correspondent, was on a network I didn’t recognize, one called NewsNation. What the heck is that, I wondered?  

So, you know me, I had to stop everything I was doing and look it up. Low and behold, I discovered that the network is owned by a company called Nexstar Media Group, which is said to be the largest TV station owners in the US, with nearly 200 stations. Well, that was news to me, and set me on a path of reading through a laborious account of buyouts, selloffs and mergers until I came across an Iowa connection that brought me out of my stupor.

Turns out back in 2016, Nexstar sold off KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, to Gray Television. Okay, I thought, here we go again. Who the heck is Gray Television? Better give it a click. Come to find out, Gray Television, now Gray Television/IAC, merged with Dotdash to form Dotdash Meredith. Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Who the hell is Dotdash; and WHHAAAHT? Meredith Publications sold out? NO! That can’t be true. (I’m really mad, now. I used to freelance for them, for Better Homes & Gardens.)

Turns out, it is true. Researching a little more, I discovered that Meredith sold to Gray Television/IAC at the end of 2021, the company that then merged with Dotdash to form Dotdash Meredith. YIKES! This is crazy-making. But does explain a few things, like why my latest Better Homes & Gardens magazine is squattier and has lost its glossy finish. They’re promoting it as “new and improved,” which is code for “cheaper.” Believe me, as a newspaper and magazine insider, I know. The smaller 11x21 sheets with a satin finish, folded, are less expensive. That’s a no brainer.

The Wrap

And, in the end of all this research (some 2-hours later) I found the good-old Des Moines Register to be the most helpful. The newspaper reports, in an article published in December of 2021, that what we need to know about Dotdash is that it’s a product of the publicly traded IAC (Interactive Corp.)’s 2012 acquisition of About.com. That website, according to the Register, is a New York Times-owned site where expert sources post answers to questions on a variety of subjects, and is owned by a former studio executive, Barry Diller. Oh, no, not again. Who the heck is that?

Well, Diller is described in several articles as a media mogul who as the head honcho at Dotdash Meredith has already killed several magazines acquired in the Meredith buyout. You can look those titles up. I’m exhausted. So, the message I got from all this is that it’s getting more and more difficult to figure out who owns our “news” outlets and that printed magazines, like newspapers, are on their way out. And, for this former journalist, that’s a tough pill to swallow.

So, after all this research, I still couldn’t find out who owns McCall’s. The last recorded owner I found was Meredith, and McCall’s is not listed on the Dotdash Meredith acquisitions list nor does it make the list of Meredith’s defunct publications. The trail dead-ended right there. At this point, I’m done looking. I’d say I’ve done my due-diligence, for copyright approval, and am moving on. That means, you can look for fashion illustrations, articles and photos in upcoming posts.