The Post-Gazette: Where Praise is Due

After a couple of weeks away, I spent the better part of a day over the weekend catching up on what happened in Pittsburgh while I was gone, and given that I am just that old, I did it using primitive tools: I read two weeks' worth of the Post-Gazette, on paper.

I didn't learn a lot, which is no doubt due to the fact that not much happened in Pittsburgh over the last two weeks. I'll have a post or two to come on The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, or The Embarrassments of Pittsburgh Leadership, but on the whole, as Forrest Gump might have said, Pittsburgh is as Pittsburgh does. Sean Hamill and the New York Times wrote up yet another Pittsburgh-is-a-pretty-nice-place piece that could have been published six months or a year ago.

Some of what I didn't learn, I worried, had to do with the ever-dwindling lack of local content in the newspaper itself. So I was enormously and pleasantly surprised to read not just one but two pieces of first-rate PG journalism in the last couple of days.

First, the Post-Gazette has once again unleashed ace investigative reporters Patricia Sabatini and Len Boselovic on Mylan, this time focusing on what may be dangerous and illegal manufacturing practices at the generic drug maker. The initial story appeared on Sunday; that story had an immediate impact in Washington DC. Followup reporting alone should justify the cost of a subscription over the next several weeks.

Second, PG vet Mackenzie Carpenter wrote a delightful feature yesterday on the independent presses that are turning Pittsburgh into a literary "mecca," which the Post-Gazette indulged by placing it, and some great art, on the front page. This is exactly the sort of coverage of an under-publicized but important local community that the PG and other "traditional" media can do far better than volunteer/citizen media can. Reading it yesterday morning made my whole day brighter.

The story isn't immune to the little quibbles that come with any big feature. The story focused on the city, but there are independent presses out in the suburbs, too, such as Mt. Lebanon's Paper Street Press. And I was tantalized by this phrase -- "Despite the damage wreaked on the printed word by the Internet,...." I'm guessing that there was more to that part of the story, but it was lost in editing. As this Times story notes, the Internet is far from the only cause of current trouble in publishing paradise.

Still, that's two big PG wins that welcomed me back, so thanks! But on to the next. Soon enough, thousands of activists will be descending on Pittsburgh in a major conference to debate the future of the world, and then in September, the G20 will be here. (The major conference, of course, is NetRoots Nation.) And there is that business about The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight yet to come, and more about IntoPittsburgh, a return to the Manifesto for a New Pittsburgh, and some news about entrepreneurship. Did I mention that Denzel may be coming to town? The film business here is limping, but it has a heartbeat, and that has to be a good thing.

Too bad we can't say the same thing about the Pirates.

Appreciating Your Patience

I've been away for a while and won't be back for a couple more weeks. Thanks for your patience during the light-to-zero blogging weeks of summer, and stay tuned for new material in August.

More Tech-Burgh rankings

Just looking at this now... but last month the Milken Institute came out with a report that ranks Pittsburgh 46th among regions as a technology pole. Ho hum. Not top 10 or even 20... but not 300. Also not much movement in recent years it looks like. For more see:

North America’s High-Tech Economy: The Geography of Knowledge-Based Industries

Helping Nurses

Over the weekend I had some interesting conversations with local nurses about the quality of care, and nursing care in particular, at local health behemoth UPMC Health Systems.

This morning, I read that new PA legislation took effect last week that bans mandatory overtime for nurses. That sounds like a win for both nurses and patients.

For all of the region's current pride about "eds and meds" driving the new Pittsburgh economy, and for all of the related celebration of regional "innovation" (on the one hand), and for all of the bleating about the sheer scale and wealth of UPMC (on the other hand), I don't read much about UPMC and innovation, especially in health care administration.

That's not a surprise. If UPMC is a monopolist, then as a monopolist it has little reason to innovate.

But that failure to innovate -- the fact that the Pennsylvania Legislature (no model of innovation itself!) intervened to force a change in practices -- is a disappointment.

Maybe I've missed an important story. Is that right? I've dealt with UPMC as a provider and insurance carrier for many years. The care has been fine, but the administration has been mediocre. I had a lot of contact with Kaiser Permanent in Northern California before I moved to Pittsburgh, and I was (and am) impressed with how that organization was run. Here and there, most recently in The New Yorker, I read stories that hold Kaiser up as something of a model of an efficient health care enterprise that delivers high quality care. Am I right that UPMC is a laggard on the first part of that equation, at least?

I'd rather be shown to be wrong.

Pittsburgh Social and Business Entrepreneurs - Near and Far

Two links of interest from Austin, Texas - a place that just doesn't look or act like Pittsburgh, but that is full of interesting people and a lot of great music.

"Learning from the Town of Steel," a blog post from back in May about some great not-for-profit resources and organizations that Pittsburgh has - and that Austin envies. Not all of the observations hit equally close to the mark, but it is always interesting to reflect on our assets from the perspective of a true outsider.

"Capital Factory," an Austin-based start-up accelerator (thanks for the link, Jia) that's interesting because of the free stuff that gets offered to portfolio companies:

Free basic IT infrastructure for email, website set up and hosted on Google Apps
Free office space at Tech Ranch Austin or co-working space at Conjunctured
$1,500 in free hosting from Rackspace, Mosso, Slicehost, and JungleDisk
Free company formation and legal documents by Wilson Sonsini
Free brand development and logo (if needed) by Clutch Creative
Free help with your financial plan from vcfo and The Accounting Group
Free banking from Square One Bank
Free recruiting support by American Workforce
Free press support from Porter Novelli
Free presentation training
Free software from Microsoft BizSpark

Quibble with the details ("there's no such thing as a free lunch"), but on the whole this represents an impressive amount of partnering with local professional services firms, and an impressive amount of investment on their part in local entrepreneurs.

Is there any comparable program for entrepreneurs in Pittsburgh -- one that offers free stuff, especially free, top-drawer legal advice, as part of the deal? None comes to mind, but maybe I've missed something.