RIP Youngstown Vindicator

If Youngstown is like my market, the TV stations probably lost 75% of where they get their news from by the newspaper folding.

 

Certainly notable that neither GateHouse nor Gannett wanted it.

 

I've seen too many "signs of the apocolypse"(s) start at smaller papers, advertising on A1, no political endorsements, early deadlines, shutting down their presses and printing off-sight - and then slowly move up the food chain. More quickly than you would imagine.

 

I would be interested to know why; GateHouse went into Akron and dissolved the union. They own 10 of the other 17 dailies in NE and Eastern Ohio. I kind of always assumed Youngstown was just a matter of time.

 

Gatehouse still might pounce. It could just buy the subscription list from the current owners. Then it a could print a Youngstown edition in the Akron paper, using a lot of Akron and Columbus material.

Only buying the subscription list means that Gatehouse does not assume the union contracts. And since Gatehouse already has a nearby press they do not need the Youngstown plant.

 

I looked it up and Mahoning County, of which Youngstown is the county seat, has a population of 238,000. Does another paper publish in the county?

 

My guess is that in five years all the surviving area is that all the surviving dailies will be in one group and centrally published. The publisher will probably use separate mastheads but it will essentially be one editorial product.

 

Nope. There's the Warren Tribune Chronicle, in Trumbull County to the north, and three small papers in Columbiana County, to the south. Both would have to add staff or correspondents to cover Mahoning County news and sports.

 

Sinclair?

 

Lots of chains in small-market outlets in this HDTV era do the same thing. Gray and Nexstar for sure.

 

Why?

 

If Google and Facebook are going to collude to reduce ad rates lower it's going to make it damned difficult for news gathering companies to be sustainable. And I could argue an online ad is more valuable than one in a print product. For example, directly above me is an ad for Golfgalaxy.com. I see an item I like in this ad and I can click directly on it and buy it, whereas with a print ad I have to physically go to a computer to buy online or drive to a store.