For years now, our local Republican rag, the State Journal-Register has been
doing everything it could think of to drive customers away. And they
have largely succeeded with genius business strategies like...
- Syndicating filth like Ann Coulter.
- Selling out to the Gatehouse Media vulture capitalists.
- Moving the presses to Peoria.
- Laying off/buying out most of their veteran staff.
- Moving the few remaining warm bodies into a spare room behind a Korean nail salon (not quite true but damn near.)
- Shrinking the paper to something the size of a grocery store flier.
- Running little more than obituaries, local sports, AP stories and a lot of "Area Dog Safely Recovered" stories from Rockford (which is 200 miles away from us.)
- Charging way, way more than any of this is worth to the point where even our family -- who are die hard "Support Local Journalism!" believers -- finally gave up and gave the S J-R what it so clearly wanted: a subscription cancellation.
So, having almost entirely divested themselves of the "news" side of the
business, the S J-R has begun shedding the "paper" side of the business as
well, starting with the elimination of Saturday paper delivery
altogether, but promising it's 23 remaining subscribers a "bold step towards
out future" by dumping it online.
We here at castle driftglass remain believers in local journalism where and
when it actually exists. But do not believe in throwing money into the
cynical, vulture capitalist money-pit where a mediocre regional paper once
stood.
Welcome To The Liberal Media
6 comments:
You've made a difference!
'Woke' San Francisco school board faces recall as residents blast 'dumpster fire' agenda
https://www.foxnews.com/media/san-francisco-woke-school-board-recall-election.amp
//Long before I started diving
I learned from them that
"Dumpster" is a proprietary word
belonging to the Dempsey Dumpster company//
Poetry!
https://www.laprogram.org/docs/EighnerOnDumpsterDiving.pdf
But the Donald , Made it all great again........
At least Vulture capitalism anyways. How that might make your life in America better?
Well that depends on the species you are and how wealthy the nest you hatched from.
Not to worry, R/ FOX Newsmax and OANN will be put on your media package for your tv viewing and will receive a piece of your paid subscription to your cable provider.TV
And then, you to may hear the GOP gospel to attack the capital in the name of the cult leader.
Just keep watching, prop those eyes open with tooth picks if need be.
If you want to be a true pure republican, that is.
Same story in lots of places I think. Gannett owns the local "paper" in my town so the only really local news is high school football scores, the police blotter, and obituaries.
Local sports news is what's keeping our area's newspapers alive. The weekly almost died when the editor decided to retire and the applicant pool to replace him was nonexistent (for some reason not even unemployed journalists wanted to move to the middle of nowhere to work for shit wages), but it's still stumbling along. They used to be able to cover all the local politics (school board meetings, tribal council, county commission, village boards) but now the tribal council is about the only one they have a reporter cover.
Your not alone.
My Local paper got bought out by a enterprise that buys news papers and now they own about all the local papers in the state. The papers have raised prices and reduced content and paper material. Layoffs. Hiring young unqualified people. Doing interviews with republicans in place of town hall meetings and without any rebuttals.
Now a Wall Street hedge fund manager is trying to do a hostile takeover. It has invested in the paper and now wants to impose the hedge funds people to the board of director to pluck any meat left on the carcus bone. The hedge fund was thwarted from putting their thugs on the board and sued. Yes, took the paper to court to make the paper place the hedge fund's people on the board after losing the election to other elected to the board.
The hedge fund lost the case but is determined to own the paper circus and let his pet vulture pluck the eyes and anything left off it.
leaving me to consider the USA Today, NYT, WAPO or any other large paper still in existence and only get broader national news.
As like you , I subscribe and support local news papers. Once It gets made small enough to drown in a judge fund bath tub. I won't be willing to support it.
They once it is gone, what? people will turn to Facebook? Twitter? R TV and FOX?. Some are already there.
So where are all those wealthy job creators? To step in with their wealth and create a decent news paper people can trust and learn from in which they will subscribe to?
It is a good time to be a crooked local politician. I spent almost the first decade of a 30-year career in newspapers running small town weekly papers and covering everything from town council to high school sports to Rotary Club meeings. The shit the local fixers would get up to even with the press watching was stunning. With no one looking over their shoulder, I can't even imagine the sweetheart deals that are being cut for develpors and the amount of flagrant abuses the local cops are committing.
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