I have little pity for the newspaper business in 2009. With a near monopoly on the printed news for over fifty years it's been interesting and yes a little joyous to watch big print stumble and begin to fall as the Internet began to take their place as they medium people run to when they need to know information.
Last week the newspaper once known as THE DAILY REPUBLICAN EAGLE announced that they will only be publishing two issues per week starting in September. This was once a newspaper which printed daily Monday-Sat and the issues were huge by small town standards. I also found this new publishing schedule odd as I recall reading a editorial by some old man publisher at Forum communications not long ago where he said that print and newspapers were still damn healthy! Also, get off my grass, you kids!
There is mounting evidence that the Red Wing Republican Eagle is going to one day fail and simply wither away. While the meatheads at the DRE announced this change to publishing less issues as a sign of strength and a opportunity to publish "more local news", no one from an observational standpoint can look at a dropping circulation curve and a print schedule that is becoming longer not shorter as anything but being marked for death. "Yes, we're profitable" the editor said in a follow up column, defying simple common sense.
Red Wing could use a good newspaper. A good, new newspaper, one published by people who actually have a semblance of right and wrong, a devotion to the town itself and the greater good. Every time I read the DRE I always come away thinking that aliens have landed and have taken over the newspaper. It's like every report is beamed in by the planet Mindar.
It's ironically funny to me that the exact factors that helped bring down the DRE are the same ones the DRE lauded for so long. Lets get both a Wal Mart AND a Target in a town of 15,000 so that virtually no small business will survive. Target and Wal Mart rarely buy spot ads in the paper. They do their own fliers, inserted, so when the DRE laments that now with both Wal Mart and Target that no small bushiness to buy ads, they have no one to blame but themselves.
The DRE has long, long been focused on prolonging the sad high school clique system which lives on for decades in towns like Red Wing. What are the popular kids doing in mid-life? Not to worry, there will be ample coverage of the latest trip abroad by the Delahauntys, or whose daughter is now a playwright in New York. But a developer comes to town and tries to ram a stack of condos down the throats of the citizenry and the RE can't even begin to do any investigative journalism. Multiple people die at Fairview in Red Wing from blatanet and verifiable medical mistakes, and instead of investigating for all they are worth, the editor of the RE shirks away, actually refusing to publish verifiable facts for fear of a lawsuit.
The next step for the RE is a chain on the door and a For Sale sign. Blame the Internet. Blame the local economy. Blame the changing news cycle. Blame a poor editorial staff and an editor afraid of her own keyboard. The end is coming for the Republican Eagle. And on that day many will be happy.
Last week the newspaper once known as THE DAILY REPUBLICAN EAGLE announced that they will only be publishing two issues per week starting in September. This was once a newspaper which printed daily Monday-Sat and the issues were huge by small town standards. I also found this new publishing schedule odd as I recall reading a editorial by some old man publisher at Forum communications not long ago where he said that print and newspapers were still damn healthy! Also, get off my grass, you kids!
There is mounting evidence that the Red Wing Republican Eagle is going to one day fail and simply wither away. While the meatheads at the DRE announced this change to publishing less issues as a sign of strength and a opportunity to publish "more local news", no one from an observational standpoint can look at a dropping circulation curve and a print schedule that is becoming longer not shorter as anything but being marked for death. "Yes, we're profitable" the editor said in a follow up column, defying simple common sense.
Red Wing could use a good newspaper. A good, new newspaper, one published by people who actually have a semblance of right and wrong, a devotion to the town itself and the greater good. Every time I read the DRE I always come away thinking that aliens have landed and have taken over the newspaper. It's like every report is beamed in by the planet Mindar.
It's ironically funny to me that the exact factors that helped bring down the DRE are the same ones the DRE lauded for so long. Lets get both a Wal Mart AND a Target in a town of 15,000 so that virtually no small business will survive. Target and Wal Mart rarely buy spot ads in the paper. They do their own fliers, inserted, so when the DRE laments that now with both Wal Mart and Target that no small bushiness to buy ads, they have no one to blame but themselves.
The DRE has long, long been focused on prolonging the sad high school clique system which lives on for decades in towns like Red Wing. What are the popular kids doing in mid-life? Not to worry, there will be ample coverage of the latest trip abroad by the Delahauntys, or whose daughter is now a playwright in New York. But a developer comes to town and tries to ram a stack of condos down the throats of the citizenry and the RE can't even begin to do any investigative journalism. Multiple people die at Fairview in Red Wing from blatanet and verifiable medical mistakes, and instead of investigating for all they are worth, the editor of the RE shirks away, actually refusing to publish verifiable facts for fear of a lawsuit.
The next step for the RE is a chain on the door and a For Sale sign. Blame the Internet. Blame the local economy. Blame the changing news cycle. Blame a poor editorial staff and an editor afraid of her own keyboard. The end is coming for the Republican Eagle. And on that day many will be happy.