Monday night media matters (updated: Guild votes yes!)

Apologies for the light posting the last few days; I've been visiting family in what some on the East Coast term "the Heartland." (Of course, it's usually better to explain these things in advance. Next time...)

I'm actually still there, but I wanted to offer some quick thoughts on recent/current developments before my return. Ergo:

--I'm going to predict a narrow "Yes" vote by the Boston Newspaper Guild when results are announced this evening. There's no shortage of opposition to the latest Times Co. contract proposal, but the pro-contract forces have been much more vocal in stating their case then they were last time. This, plus the Times Co.'s quick implementation of a 23 percent pay cut following the previous "No" vote, should be enough to tilt the balance. That's my guess, anyway.

--I too have serious misgivings about Melvin Miller's decision to keep the Bay State Banner alive via a loan from the city of Boston. That said, I also can't fault Miller for doing whatever it took to keep his publication alive. Should he have waited instead for the bailout effort led by Charles Ogletree to run its course? Maybe--but we don't know if that effort was going to succeed, or if Miller had second thoughts about a lessened role in the publication that would have resulted.

--Walter Cronkite's death obviously marks the end of an era, but I've been surprised at how many of my generational peers seem genuinely saddened by Cronkite's passing. For me--and I'm 36--Cronkite was always a figure from the past, albeit a titanic one. Peter Jennings' demise made me more emotional than Cronkite's. But maybe I'm an exception.

INSTANT UPDATE: Just checked Boston.com and learned that the Guild "decisively approved" the new contract proposal. The right choice, I think.