Al spoke in Knoxville once at a meeting of the East Tennessee Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. I'm pretty sure it was a Golden Presscards awards program, which recognizing outstanding journalism in East Tennessee. Then I heard him again at a national convention of SPJ. He kept his speeches short -- just like USA Today had short stories -- but always was open to questions and debate with his audience. Sorry to learn of his fall -- and then death.

Wasn't USA Today the first national newspaper, kind of a daily version of Time or Newsweek? Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have become that now.

USA Today has had a pernicious effect on newspapers. Based on the premise that print news had to ape broadcast news in order to survive in the TV age, it drove the dumbing down of the product.
And although learning to be succinct isn't a bad thing, the "tight and bright" mantra put a lot of good reporting on the chopping block.