Mike Reed Sets Goals for New Gannett

I don't know buy would not be surprised if governments were paying the obit rate. The laws are written in such a way as normally there is only one daily paper that can carry the notice. And newspaper publishers have been historically good at maximizing revenues when a monopoly exists.

 

I shared my obit story here a couple of months ago. About a 10-inch story and photo was $1,082.00 at my former paper. Obits are one of the last things available to newspapers to gouge their customers.

 

A real newspaper would cry out about wasteful spending if governments were required to post information "publiclly" in a newspaper which is only free at the library and only available when the newspaper is still publishing. And whose readership is a small fraction of the public. If I was local or county government I'd at least put the papers on notice that they are required to COVER city and county government if they still want the handout. Hell, go inch for inch on the thing. A column inch of coverage for a column inch of ads.

 

You would want a government agency to require a newspaper to cover meetings in order to receive payment for Legals?

I'll bet you'd shit your pants if a government agency tried to require a newspaper to do anything else, like attend police academy for a week or month before being able to be a police reporter. Or have some kind of certification in law to cover judicial matters?

That's idiotic.

 

What is the breakdown between legal notices published by the government and legal notices that a person or company has to publish? Are the rates different?

 

I think with the press freedoms we have in our country - also comes an expectation/obligation of newspapers to serve the public good, rather than just siphon of profits and give half-hearted attempts to claim you are doing "watchdog" journalism when you don't have enough staff to cover a council meetings. Given market penetration - it makes no sense for legal notices to be printed in the local paper when they could be posted online for free. The internet is also free at libraries. Of course newspapers would say loss of the legals would lead to further cuts - hence my point about colunm inch for column inch. The government - and the people - are being short-changed. Newspapers have raged in editorials about "giveaways" to other special interests for years.

 

Tell that to Heath Freeman.

 

Some legal ad revenue stats, a bit dated but still interesting
https://www.nj.com/politics/2017/03/christie-newspaper_feud_press_association_releases.html

 

The city and county government probably does not want the newspaper there and would be happy if it weren't there.

 

Oh, I don't doubt that - but I can also hear the cries of a newspaper saying loss of the ads would require more layoffs and hurt coverage - coverage that has already been slashed WITH the ads. Newspapers like to pay the "local institution card" when it suits them, a "business" when it doesn't.

 

I was told today that Gannett sold of a bunch of its smaller properties to Cherry Road. Sale goes into effect Feb. 1, so it looks like this has been cooking for a good while.

 

Cherry Road has been buying a lot of Gannett's smaller properties According to this article Cherry Road is trying to make a go of it in smaller markets. I find it interesting that they seem to be buying properties in a large geographic area. It does not appear they are just trying to cluster one region. I have no idea who is backing them but I sure hope they make it.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/new...gannett-newspapers-texas-oklahoma/9199575002/