Newspaper endorsements going against the will of your subscribers

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Nothing new really ...
The CNHI newspaper chain, which has papers in several coalfield areas of West By God, is endorsing Hilary. And catching holy heck for doing so. It's no secret WV is securely a GOP state and will follow Trump to the gates of heck.
The papers are getting a ton of complaints from readers for going against the grain and against the opinions of the majority of their readers by endorsing Hilary.
I spot checked a number of CNHI papers across the country and all the ones I checked endorsed Hilary, including papers in Kentucky, Michigan, Alabama and Texas.

The chief complaint against the papers is the disservice they are doing to their subscribers by not endorsing their preference. Honestly, its not even close in favor of Trump.
The state's other, largest chain - Ogden - typically a GOP, Right-Wing bastion has not yet made a presidential endorsement. The fact Ogden Nutting is friends with the head of Murray Energy (a coal company), makes it a no-brainer Clinton won't be endorsed. It's a matter of will they endorse Trump or keep silent.
I think they will come out in favor of Trump, which will be in the (perceived) best interest of their subscribers.

I'm not sure I would even do such an endorsement for fear of losing additional advertisers and readers. It's a stone best left unturned.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

How many is tons?

 

[MisterCreosote]

Maybe they realized Trump isn't actually a Republican.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

It got bad enough they one them had to go the route of the Arizona paper and tell subscribers they had a right to their opinion as well.

 

[Bamadog]

Considering the headaches involved, why even endorse a candidate? It's like writing those throwaway football pick columns for high school football on Thursday. Someone always gets butt hurt by your prediction and nothing good every comes of it. I learned my lesson on those the hard way.

 

[dirtybird]

Considering the headaches involved, why even endorse a candidate? It's like writing those throwaway football pick columns for high school football on Thursday. Someone always gets butt hurt by your prediction and nothing good every comes of it. I learned my lesson on those the hard way.

Pretty much. I liked doing a prediction column, though it came at the end of a column that was either nonsense or something I had no business writing about.

I'm sure there was some point when endorsements were part of a greater-good, public service mission. But we're way past that.

 

[UPChip]

Cuts both ways. I'm at a Forum paper in a highly blue city in a blue state. We were told yesterday that the mothership in Fargo is doing an "un-dorsement" (term mine) and really, that's about as much most of us expected.

After spending the first 8 1/2 years of my career as an Ogdeneer, I too am curious what they will do. It was quite irritating to live in an Upper Michigan community and spend half of the endorsement of McCain or Romney or whatever on how good they would be for the coal industry, but everyone in the chain got the same one.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Did the mothership (aka Ogden Nutting) also do the non-WV state endorsements?

 

[UPChip]

Did the mothership (aka Ogden Nutting) also do the non-WV state endorsements?

As far as I know, Wheeling sent one endorsement for every paper in its chain. Like I said, ours (in the UP) included multiple references to the coal industry.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

No, No... Did Ogden issue blanket endorsements for Michigan Senate races or did you all have some leeway there?

 

[UPChip]

No, No... Did Ogden issue blanket endorsements for Michigan Senate races or did you all have some leeway there?

I can't say I remember.

 

[JohnHammond]

Cuts both ways. I'm at a Forum paper in a highly blue city in a blue state. We were told yesterday that the mothership in Fargo is doing an "un-dorsement" (term mine) and really, that's about as much most of us expected.

After spending the first 8 1/2 years of my career as an Ogdeneer, I too am curious what they will do. It was quite irritating to live in an Upper Michigan community and spend half of the endorsement of McCain or Romney or whatever on how good they would be for the coal industry, but everyone in the chain got the same one.

Does daddy still makes those calls, or can Junior make some decisions on his own up there?