RIP Medford Mail-Tribune

What American newspapers are digital success stories, other than The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal which are all unique?

 

Lived in the area for several years -- nice place for biking and blackberries -- and remember when the Mail-Tribune, under Ottaway, was a solid product. The weekly Tempo arts tab was well done. As more and more folks moved in, they related less and less to their local worlds -- back in the day, the then single high school was a powerhouse in academics and athletics -- and the Mail-Tribune reflected that.

 

My friend, a decades-long resident of Talent, confirms the region has been ruined by the influx of hedge funders and trust fund babies.

 

I'd hold out some small sliver of hope for the future of print if we heard any public resistance or outcry when the frequency of publication is reduced, or print is eliminated altogether.

But we don't. We never do.

I asked my 9-year-old granddaughter yesterday if she knew what a newspaper was. She answered, "That's the paper Grandma puts on the floor when she cuts my hair."

 

Got my first newspaper job in 99. Within months we went from twice a week to 3x. I wonder if we were one of the last to add printing days.

 

I'd bet so. What's the state of the paper now, do you know?

 

I was only there a year and within 4-5 years after that they were back to twice a week. I checked just now and it is Wednesdays only, which isn’t surprising for a Podunk county seat. Amazingly the tiny once-a-week rag over by the state line that was our friendly completion is still hanging in there as well.

 

More bad news for the area. Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Wonder if it's core audience is just getting too old.

https://www.oregonlive.com/entertai...ff-departures-layoffs-amid-restructuring.html

 

The Washington Post is now losing money and has announced layoffs will be forthcoming. So I am not sure if the Post is a success that could be duplicated by an ownership group with fewer resources than Bezos, which is everyone else on the planet.

The Boston Globe for many years has had a promotion where you could subscribe for $1 a month for six months and then the rate would jump to $30. They claim they have retained most of the subscribers at higher rates. Last year they said they had 225,000 digital subscribers, most of whom were paying the higher rate. That is about the only local effort that I have read about that would be considered a success.

 

I know the publisher of the Bend Bulletin and six other smaller papers declared bankruptcy in 2019. How is the Bend paper doing now?

 

The bankruptcy of the Bend paper was driven in no small part by the profligate spending of an egomaniacal, self-important editor who had the publisher in his back pocket and who must have had pretty damning pictures of the company's board of directors to have been given such a long rope with which to hang the operation. The current publisher used to be CFO of the "old" Bulletin chain but left after her attempts to warn the board of directors of what loomed on its course were ignored. Her first name is not Cassandra, but it could have been in that case.

Raises were given to employees maybe 18 months ago ... I think they were the first in five-plus years. The paper is hiring in at least a couple of departments.

Part of the company's rescue operation included investment by wealthy locals ... all of whom except one, I believe, have been repaid (bought out). The one who hasn't been repaid wanted to maintain his investment, evidently seeing the company as having good prospects.

As an operation, The Bulletin suffers from what other papers suffer from ... distribution issues, poor deadlines (especially for sports), bad reproduction quality (outsourcing its printing), poor (or nonexistent) editing and an editorial-side staff that is generally inexperienced (and probably doesn't get much coaching or feedback).

 

Oof. That hit me hard.

The Globe went in big with three-times-a-week regional sections around 1998 or 1999. At the same time it started a Sunday bulldog that hit the stands early Saturday afternoon. The NYT poured a lot of money into the place. All of that is long gone. Their once-a-week "regional" sections pretty much run all the same stories now, there might be a replate or two between them.