Ordway’s odd way: The late Bob Ganley knew how to deal with reporters and columnists with whom he disagreed. Ganley, Portland’s city manager from 1986 until his unexpected death in 2000, called up the errant journalists or confronted them face to face, and told them exactly why he didn’t like what they’d written.

Then, he got over it.

Author Stephen King held a news conference on August 23 to announce that he’d hired former Green Party politico Pat LaMarche to co-host a new morning show on his “progressive” talk stations WZON (620 AM and 103.1 FM) in Bangor. 

Bob’s in: The Portland Daily Sun seemed a little startled and uncomfortable with the sudden decision on August 19 of columnist Bob Higgins to run for mayor. In an August 20 story by staff writer David Carkhuff, the free daily paper devoted two paragraphs to making it clear it had nothing to do with Higgins’ candidacy:

Into the wilderness: MaineToday Media Washington bureau chief Jonathan “National Treasure” Riskind made one of his rare trips to Maine on August 18 to cover the visit of U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

Sort of.

The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is about to become a bigger factor in the state’s journalism community. On August 15, the center announced it had secured a grant for $100,000 from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. That money plus an earlier $25,000 grant from the Nicholas B.

We’re so good: It was a week for self-congratulations among the state’s news-gathering organizations. They’re all proud of themselves for not being fooled by a short video produced by a conservative activist that allegedly shows a Maine Department of Health and Human Services worker trying to help someone posing as a drug dealer to sign up for Medicaid.

These days, when a newspaper announces staffing changes, it usually means layoffs, cutbacks and reductions. The Bangor Daily News appears to be the exception to that trend.

Wrong numbers: The Audit Bureau of Circulations has warned the Times Leader, a daily newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to stop claiming its circulation is higher than it actually is. The Times Leader is owned by Richard Connor, who is also the majority owner of MaineToday Media, the parent company of the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal, and Morning Sentinel.

The last of the “old” Portland ratings: The Arbitron ratings for the Portland market for spring 2011 have been released, and although the company hasn’t made them available to anyone except its subscribers, stations that did well aren’t shy about leaking the results. These numbers represent the final book for the Portland market as currently constituted. Starting this fall, the survey area will be expanded from just Cumberland County to Cumberland, Androscoggin, Oxford, Sagadahoc and northern York counties.

Why would somebody in Honduras care if a person in Maine didn’t receive the morning newspaper?

Because they’re getting paid to care, of course.