Frank Williams, retired Supreme Court chief justice, went on the radio and television yesterday and spoke with the Associated Press in a bid to squelch talk of an inappropriate relationship with his former driver and her daughter. The notable exception in his media tour: the Providence Journal.

The paper reported that Williams wanted veto power over the reporter who would sit down with him.

I've written a cover story for today's Phoenix on a topic that has fascinated me for years: the lifestyle center. It is a faux Main Street - essentially the mall, gone outdoors - that raises all sorts of interesting questions about public and private space.

With the real Main Street in decline, can we really form community in a place built around brand identity? Is there something odd about living in a condo above the Gap with a view of Cold Stone Creamery? Should we be concerned that the new public square doesn't allow for anti-war protest or, even, skateboarding? Or should we be embracing a walkable, green space in the heart of sprawling suburbia?

The chatter around the ProJo in recent weeks was that finances at the paper's Dallas-based parent company, A.H. Belo, might brighten a wee bit with the third-quarter earnings report. Those numbers were released today and, well, they could've been worse. From the Providence Business News:

DALLAS – The Providence Journal’s parent company, A.

Tom Heslin, executive editor of the Providence Journal, opened his speech before Common Cause Rhode Island last night with an amusing tale of his first reporting job at the York County Coast Star newspaper in Maine and spoke of a small abbreviation that appeared on the front of the broadsheet: THWTB. It stood, he said, for "The Hard Way's The Best."

The ProJo's long promised new design is unveiled today. And it is, in this observer's estimation, a success. Clean and sharp. It will, no doubt, provoke some grumbling from long-time readers. But they will adjust.

The larger significance of the redesign: the new look reflects the much more dramatic changes at the paper over the last year - heavy layoffs and a reordering of the paper to focus on short bursts of local news.

Amid fears that yesterday's news of plummeting circulation numbers at the ProJo could lead to more layoffs, this little tidbit in Providence Business News:

PROVIDENCE – The round of layoffs that took place last week at one of The Providence Journal’s sister newspapers was an isolated event and not part of a companywide round of job cuts, a top executive at the papers’ parent company said Wednesday.

The ProJo's daily circulation dropped 17.3 percent in the last year, as circulation at papers nationwide dropped an average of 10.6 percent, according to new numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

It was, according to the Wall Street Journal, the sharpest drop in more than a decade for the industry, as the faltering economy and the broader migration of advertising from print to the web continue to pummel print journalism.

Word from the New York Times that the newspaper will cut 100 newsroom jobs by the end of the year - through buyouts and, if necessary, layoffs.

Times executives, who chopped 100 newsroom jobs in the spring of 2008, had predicted that they would not have to slice from the newsroom this year. But "hopes for a year-end turnaround in the newspaper business have faded," the Times writes.

The NAACP's outcry over a ProJo cartoon from this weekend that depicted Majority Leader Gordon Fox shining the shoes of Speaker William J. Murphy, depicted as a king ceding his throne to the heir apparent, was probably overdone.

The ProJo made a dumb mistake, here - Fox is half Cape Verdean and the paper should have realized the potential for offense - but the intent of the cartoon seemed clear.

More comings and goings at the ProJo. Scott MacKay over at WRNI reports today that the paper's long-time sports editor is leaving:

Arthur Martone, the Providence Journal's well-respected longtime sports editor, is leaving the newspaper to take a job at Comcast New England, the cable channel that broadcasts Boston Celtics games and is expanding its sports web site coverage.

ProJo State House reporter Cynthia Needham is leaving her post to work as the paper's chief economics reporter, according to newsroom sources. Needham will be filling a hole left by the departure of Ben Gedan, who left the paper a few months ago to study international relations.

Needham's new job, which focuses on economic development, should allow her to tap connections at the State House, where government and economics intersect.

The Providence Journal has long been reluctant to offer up its journalists for appearances on radio and television. The unofficial policy was flawed from the start. Better to spread your brand and get the public familiar with your star reporters and columnists. But the ProJo, so dominant in the local market, could afford to be overly proprietary.

There, at the end of the Projo's piece on House Speaker William J. Murphy's decision to step down from his post after 2010 and endorse Majority leader Gordon Fox as his successor, is this note:

Murphy commented after a report about his Capriccio dinner announcement surfaced on the RIFuture.org blog.

It was a small acknowledgment of a new reality.

You be the judge. From the Associated Press:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Newspapers may have finally stopped — or at least slowed — their harrowing descent into a financial abyss after three years of plunging revenues, crumbling stock prices and shrinking staffs.

The latest glimmer of hope came Tuesday when Gannett Co., the largest U.

A couple notes on today's ProJo. The paper has a solid piece on the suicide of New Jersey financier and philanthropist Finn Caspersen at his summer home in Westerly, Rhode Island. But the ProJo is late to the story. Caspersen died on Monday and The Star-Ledger in New Jersey had a full story on him by Tuesday evening. This is the sort of piece that the more fully staffed paper of a year ago, with a South County bureau in place, probably would have turned around more quickly.