Jacob Resneck’s

SALZBURG, Austria � It�s t-shirt weather during the heart of winter in this Alpine city. The 6,470-foot peak of Untersberg rises up only a few miles from the city center, reminding this visitor that despite the balmy weather, the majestic Alps are not far. While snow-capped, it�s the only glimpse of snow I�ve yet to have in the first week of my stay in Austria.
It was not always so. Salzburgers tell how last year, more than a meter of snowpack collected on the streets this time of year. Outside the window, I see nothing but green.
The first day, I was introduced to one of the chief editors who gave me a rundown on the paper�s history. It�s a family-owned affair, controlled by the descendants of a pressman who was approached by a U.S. Army general after the Americans entered the city. The general had reportedly found the man in the pressroom and barked, �Who�s in charge here?� and when the pressman stepped forward, was ordered to begin printing a new newspaper to replace the Nazi organs that had been the only game in town since the Anschluss in 1938.

My command of German being limited, my usefulness to this newspaper has yet to be proved, though I�m working on it. I�ve spent most of my time doing research and trying to line up interviews for my own propaganda organ back home, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

I�m bivouacing in a small guesthouse on the edge of the city. The only thing between my lodgings and the newspaper is the Stiegl brewery which spews the wonderful smell of roasting hops and some of the best beer in Austria. When the director of the K�ratorium, one of the organizations that organized this junket, gave me directions he said, �You simply go around � I said around! � the Stiegl brewery��

So far I�ve been able to negotiate my way around the brewery without fail.The landlady seems friendly enough and I was thrilled when I was told she had a bicycle for my use. My enthusiasm dimmed a bit, when I saw it � a purple girls� bike about three sizes too small for me. Still, I cut a pretty imposing figure as I pedal the medieval stra�en and ga�en in the heart of the old city. It�s all in the facial expression; doesn�t matter what ya ride as long as ya get the Hell�s Angel grimace down pat.

Perhaps I give myself too much credit.
Jaco out

VIENNA, Austria – After a virtually sleepless flight across the Atlantic punctuated by crying babies, we touched down in Vienna’s international airport. I didn’t blame the wailing children one bit – after all, they are merely expressing (loudly) what the rest of us passengers feel inside. Because air travel sucks.

My in-flight companion and I only had one exchange. I accidentally knocked over his iPod while trying to close a tray-table he’d left ajar as we were taking off. He shot me a withering look as I mumbled a profuse apology; we didn’t speak – or so much shoot a glare at one another after that – which was just fine with me.

As the dozen hours wore on, my halting “Kann ich bitte noch eine Biere haben?” become more polished with each discarded can of Ottakringer lager. At least there is the stupefying effect of free alcohol in international airspace.

We touched down at 8 a.m. and were immediately spirited away to our first meeting. On no sleep, we met a Dr. Claus Raidl, a captain of the Austrian steel industry. As CEO of one of the largest steel firms, Böhler-Uddeholm, Raidl gave us an overview of the history of state-owned industries in his country. Having attended a year of high school in Massachusetts a stone’s throw from my mother’s hometown, his English was impeccable though my fellow American journalist did make an effort to use some German.

Following the second world war, we were told, Austria’s main industries were taken over by the state. This was a compromise reached by the competing Christian Conservatives and Social Democrats leaders – both of whom had plenty of time as concentration camp prisoners to hash out the details during the latter years of the war. The leftist socialists were realizing their dream of public control of industry, while the conservatives had made a realization that private concerns could easily be bought up by the Western powers (the United States controlling about half the world’s wealth at the end of the war).

Because many industries were nationalized, from 1945 to the 1980s when privatization began, Austria’s national economy was only as stable as its parliamentary coalitions. That’s because every time there was a change of power and new ministers installed, these leaders were free to meddle.

Austrian workers have a lot more protections than most countries. Wage increases are negotiated across the board and the role of the labor unions have a cemented supervisory role of the companies. Raidl said this arrangement has worked out well.

“When you treat them well,” he said of the rank-and-file workers, “they will run for you. It’s always in the interest of the company, you don’t have these unions that are driven by ideology.”

Of course the tradeoff with privatization, Raidl admitted, is that the country’s industries can be bought up by anyone with the cash to buy shares. But he was dismissive that “foreign ownership” had a significant meaning in the world of international finance.

On closing, I asked Mr. Raidl if he had any questions for us. He did. He asked how American workers felt about the mammoth disparity between chief executive’s salaries – continually on the rise – and that of the average workers, which has been stagnant at best in most industries.

American executives can fetch pay in the hundreds of millions. By comparison, Raidl said his salary (about 370,000 euros) is relatively high in his country. His steel company has an annual turnover of about 3.5 billion euros and 14,400 employees. An American executive of a similar sized company would be making money in the multiple millions.

I told him that there is a debate in the United States. But it’s mostly framed as a fight between the ownership (shareholders) and management (high executives) in a company.

“So it’s the rich verses the rich,” he said.

Yeah, exactly.

“In Austria, we will get a hug discussion on how a profit of a company is being distributed,” Raidl continued. “I think it’s unthinkable that my salary be doubled or that dividends go up a third and then fight with our employees over a 2.3 percent pay increase.”

He added: “Jack Welch of General Electric is a great man; but does he really need a $94 million salary?”

Good question, Claus.

FULL DISCLOSURE: After posting this, I learned that Herr Raidl is one of the sponsors of this Austrian-American journalism exchange I am participating in. My ethical radar (which only works sporadically) tells me I should make this clear. (20 Feb.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Politico is such a brand-new news organization, clutter hasn’t had a chance to pile up on the reporters’ desks. Each desk was tidy; I was horrified.

Three weeks into this venture, former Washington Post staffer of 21 years John Harris led us into a sleek conference room and began to pontificate on the state of national journalism today.

As Politico’s editor-in-chief, Harris is one of two Post staffers that jumped ship to found the paper as a free tabloid and website that covers the workings of Washington. Linked with a cable news television station that uses its reporters heavily for on-air commentary, the idea is a “synergy” between TV and print that’ll boost the fledging newspaper’s profile while offering up its hacks on air pundits-down-the-hall.

“So these reporters are like in-house outside correspondents,” I asked.

Exactly, the prim young woman in charge of this arrangement told me.

Harris explained to us why he decided to leave the Post. Conventional print newspapers are undergoing a painful transition at the moment, with layoffs and restructuring the norm to satisfy owners and investors.

It’s a “dramatic and traumatic” time for the world of conventional newspapers, he told us.

“I just didn’t want to be there for that,” he said of Post which has already laid off 10 percent of its newsroom and that he predicts should expect another round of bloodletting.

Co-founded with another Post staffer, Jim VanderHei, he said the idea was the seeded by a number of late-night conversations about what is and isn’t working in the stodgy world of mainstream print newspapers.

Harris began to tell us his story as he leaned back in his black leather chair at the head of the sleek conference table tucked in the bowels of the office safely insulated from the newsroom by the human resources and fianance departments. These offices were more spacious, more sterile and hummed with a quiet and forbidding sense of efficiency that only HR and finance can.

“I always get in trouble– I get quoted using these drug metaphors,” Harris said. “But we had a number of late-night ‘pass the bong conversations.” The result, he said, is the Politico which hopes to meld top talent from the Washington press corps with aggressive use of the internet and self-promotion through the cable news station.

While an ambitious undertaking, Harris and VanderHei have only been able to launch this experiment because of their partnership with financier Robert L. Allbritton who is on the masthead as publisher.

Responding to my question about the prospects of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects, I was told “it’s not an accident where she is.”

Harris, who covered the Clinton White House for six years and wrote a best-selling book on that presidency called “The Survivor,” praised the junior senator and former first lady as a formidable politician.

“She has gone from one of the most controversial politicians to one of the most disciplined,” he said. “I do think she’s at a disadvantage that there’s a real yearning to turn the page” in American politics.

He added: “The question is whether her awesome organizational capabilities are sufficient to overcome this fatigue.”

Should Sen. Clinton prevail in the 2008 election, Harris noted, this country will have only had two political dynasties – the Bush and Clinton families – at the nation’s held since 1991.

“Both families have quite awesome organizational machines,” Harris noted.

Staying in the vein of New York politicians running for high office, Harris was fairly dismissive of former NYC Mayor Rudolph Guiliani’s propect as a relatively social-liberal being nominated by the GOP. Former New York Governor, George Pataki, is even a longer shot, he said.

“How does a socially liberal conservative get nominated (by the Republican Pary); I don’t get it,” he said.

Full Disclosure: At the end of our visit, we were given Politico coffee mugs souvenir gifts (which without question influenced this glowing vignette).

Don’t ask me how or why, but the International Center for Journalists chose me as one of two American journalists to travel to Austria for a six-week placement with a major Austrian newspaper. My employer, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise was generous enough to grant me a leave of absence to work with the Salzburger Nachrichten in Salzburg.

The program, I am told, is two-fold: I will continue to write for the Enterprise; I will make myself as useful as an American with limited German-language skills can be to my host newspaper.

The journey begins with three days of meetings with U.S. and Austrian diplomats, journalists, academics who have been graciously meeting us and stuffing us with rich food at luxurious restaurants.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – “I hope you won’t think Salzburg too provincial, the Salzburger Nachrichten is a fine newspaper with many grand opportunities,” the Austrian ambassador said to me as two dozen journalists and diplomats clutched champagne flumes to a toast in my and three other journalists’ honor held at the ambassador’s palatial residence in Washington..

How did I get here? I keep pinching myself. But forgive me, I’m getting ahead of myself; allow me to start from the beginning.

****

It’s early Sunday morning. The taste of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival – a weekend punctuated by unbridled revelry and merriment – still lingered in my mouth as I arrived at the Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear. My mouth was dry from the previous night’s beer, my limbs ached from the dancing to Los Blancos upstairs at Waterhole # 3 and there was a faint odor of ordinance from Saturday evening’s impromptu fireworks program.

Arriving at the airport, I realized that I’d forgotten to write down the name of my hotel in Washington. Fortunately, the friendly staff at the airport let me use their office computer to retrieve my itinerary; otherwise, I would’ve been completely helpless when I arrived at Dulles Airport.

I’d never flown in such a small commercial aircraft. We could see down the aisle through the front window and watch the pilots struggle to keep the plane level despite a biting crosswind and flurries that blanketed the runway. I felt a pang of homesickness as we accelerated skyward and the plane turned its nose toward New England. Forty minutes later, we were in Boston – but it might as well have been a different world. The sun was shining brightly and crowds thronged Logan. I swallowed hard, I would be away from home for a long time.

Arriving in Washington, there was a flurry of introductions. The program is an exchange. Aside from myself, the program is sending a similarly young reporter from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel to Austria. She will be at Die Presse, a prestigious paper in Vienna. Sheila Lalwani, a 26-year-old native of Indiana, is a fast-talking fountain of exuberance that only the Midwest can produce. Multilingual in a number of languages from Europe and Asia Minor, she’s examining the role of minorities and immigrants in Austrian society today. Her blog is here.

The Austrian journalists are also an impressive bunch. Christoph Prantner, a 35-year-old foreign affairs reporter at Vienna’s Der Standard, Austria’s most left-leaning national newspaper, is being sent to USA Today’s Washington office. His cynical sense-of-humor is of the type that seems to unite journalists around the world no matter their national or cultural background.

Twenty-seven-year-old Michaela Roithmayr is bound for WCBS radio in New York City. Hailing from Life Radio, a regional radio station in Linz. She’s already got her blog a’blazing which I’ll link here. For some reason, she insists on writing in Austrian; the pictures are pretty, though.

Jaco out