Despite all of the ragging I have done on my hometown newspaper, the Advocate of late, and despite how I intend to keep voicing my displeasure with the direction it going under present management, until I see a positive change in the quality of their product.......I do not envy the owners' task of trying to make it both a more credible, reputable publication, or to keep the ledger printed in black ink each month. Despite the recent layoffs in the newsroom at the New York Times, and the constant number of newspaper closings and bankruptcy filings by other old dailies, I still am not hearing death throes from newspapers in general. What I am seeing and hearing though, is that the time for them to stop the bleeding and streamline their operations to a point that remains both profitable AND credible, is running out.
Print news is still a bargain, but signs are there that they are circling the wagons. While the papers in newsracks are still sold on the honor system, that is trusting that you'll deposit the correct change and take out only what you paid for, look at the shrinking size of the daily paper. I mean, you could walk into the corner Valero, and pull out five Advocates and fold them under your arm, hand Mustafa 50 cents, and he'd be none the wiser. Apparently, newspapers are starting to tighten their belts - up here at least. Wasn't long ago that you could drop in at 4am and there would be a pile of yesterday's papers waiting to be sold or recycled. I rolled in tonight from Austin at 7:00, and immediately stopped at the corner Shell for a Chronicle.....nada....no mas. Same thing happened twice more, before I was content just to go home and read it online, and browse thru my Austin Statesman from this morning, and my Marble Falls weekly Highlander.
As much as I wish I could come up with a solution for printed news, I guess I'll just be content to sit back and hope they figure out an answer. I do find it ironic, that with Google being my source for neighborhood pizza joint phone numbers, that on my way out of my apartment to the truck, and on the front stoop of each establishment I went to looking for a newspaper, I found myself tripping over those damned yellow bags of six inch thick Yellow Pages with..........a gazillion PRINTED phone numbers. Looks like the frickin' phone company is even slower to get the message than the Daily Planet, eh Lois and Clark? I haven't had a land line for two years, and I have had enough phone books delivered to my door to burn and keep warm for both winters........go figure.
Pain in many forms
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Today, I needed a very painful procedure. I knew that it would be so
painful; in fact I was worried that would scream, yelp or make lots of
noise. So, t...
4 years ago
2 comments:
I understand that two or three years ago, Roberts and McHaney were offered something like $37M for the paper. Circulation was much higher then. They obviously said no, and now here we are.
I would think that the shreds of what is left of a once decent paper coupled with a large reduction in circulation would eaqual an offer that the owners could not afford to take. I think they are stuck.
Who would want to invest in a dying newspaper? The family is going to place sentimental value on the business, but they have such a weak product to justify it.
Maybe as it once was with the VicAd, Edith Ann, it will be again. We can hope, anyway. Personally, Pilot, one way to ensure you get a Chronicle to read is to become a subscriber. Never take for granted that great service of having a paper delivered to your door; one day, it may well stop. Take advantage of services in the city that we in the sticks can't get.
I never thought I would see the day that the Chronicle would combine the business section with the City & State section, albeit only for two days of the week, but such are the times. If one wants to read concert reviews now, they are online, not to be found in the print editiion, but I can hang with that. My $55.00 mailing subscription fee is cutting into my budget, but I will not let the Chronicle go. I care about it that much. And that is the point I have been trying to get across to the VicAd. Does anyone really love the VicAd that much to overlook and forgive inconveniences because otherwise it is still an outstanding publication? Will anyone go that extra mile to Mustafa's place to grab a copy because they simply cannot do without it? I don't see it happening until this crew of Yankees goes back up North and we can have a truly LOCAL papaer again......
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