East Valley Tribune gets hammered

As someone on the copy desk who survived, I agree wholeheartedly with Bordow's comments. It's a very somber mood in the newsroom right now, and frankly, I think even the people who survived are looking to get out. The future doesn't look good, and I feel incredibly sorry for all the great people around me who were forced out the door for no good reason - other than the amount of money they had earned through years of hard work.

 

I made a point of picking up the Tribune on the way out of town Monday morning, solely for your Cards-Bills postgame coverage. I liked what I saw.

Guess that minor detail is no longer important to the people making the decisions. My heart goes out to everyone involved, whether you're leaving or staying ...

 

I guess those of us who thought we were sure to survive the next round of 5- or 10-percent layoffs at our respective outfits because we were one of the supposed best writers/deskers/editors in the section are fooling ourselves to think we're safe.

This firing represents a frightening turn for the worse. This was a very good, well-respected newspaper, not a struggling ship churning out a crappy product. It's not like the Republic did anything positive to force this paper to essentially wave the white flag, either. The Tribune and only the Tribune pretended to cover preps or local news in the Phoenix area. This was a surrender without combat, a surrender to something larger and more nefarious than an opposing paper. When a major print company doesn't even have the stomach or the cash to cut to the bone, produce a poor product and rely on the lag in canceled subscriptions, then you know things are truly bad. There must be major cash flow problems, or truly dismal financials to throw away so many advertisers and subscribers, rather than get what you can out of them while you cut back and reorganize.

When you're willfully walking away from tens of thousands of subscribers without so much as a backward glance, you're probably en route to either closing shop, becoming a local shopper or a collection of forgettable weekly rags.

 

As a subscriber of the newspaper from 1994 through 2007, it is very sad to see the demise of the Trib. It is especially sad to see a great staff decimated. However, it has been coming for a while with the signs to obvious to miss. The reason I stopped subscribing is that the newspaper dropped me as a subscriber. But not just me. The entire city of Scottsdale and parts of Phoenix in the distribution areas were all dropped. And there was no choice on the part of the subscribers. I even offered to pay extra.

I also get the Republic, and have relied on the Republic for the main part of my news, including ALL the pro sports I cared about (college, too). I got the Trib for its local coverage (high school and community sports and local news). That has been dramatically cut back over the last five years, or so, to the point where I wondered if it was still worth receiving.

After I was dropped as a subscriber, the paper went to a semi-tabloid format that seemed to contradict itself, leaving me (and others) to wonder where the paper was headed.

Now we know: To oblivion. The paper has in essence ceased to exist, unless it can build an audience on the web and it is hard to see how it can top the Republic. The only hope is to return to its local roots, but it appears there is not enough stuff left for that or broad enough interest in the remarkably constricted area to which it has pulled back in regard to coverage (mostly Mesa).

The demise has been amazing to watch. And, as I and others have noted, sad. It's the only word that fits.

 

Good God. My thoughts are to all of those who were let go. This is just awful.

 

I feel for everyone there. Keep your head up, as hard as that has to be.

 

How dangerous has it become for one's financial future to work for a newspaper? Any day you could walk in and be shown the door. I have a lot of respect for people that love this industry enough to stick with it. At the same time I'm glad I got out when I did.

 

Crazy thing about the EVT dropping Scottsdale. That's where the money is, especially the north half of town. And management didn't care.

 

Not exactly true Clerk...

Scottsdale NEVER embraced the Tribune, despite the "Scottsdale Tribune" brand, the Scottsdale community never considered itself part of the east valley. We'd think the money is there, becuase of the affluency, but that doesn't always guarantee relevance. Scottsdale has long embraced the Arizona Republic over the Tribune. Despite going to short tabs for zoned community editions valley-wide, the Republic actually kept the broadsheet "Scottsdale Republic", which in my eyes served as direct competition to the Tribune's angle. The Republic won that battle, if you can call it that.

There was always Phoenix, East Valley, West Valley and Scottsdale, at least to people from Scottsdale...

 

Add to the reasons the newspaper industry is in trouble: "Money? No, that's OK. We don't want your money, even though we really might need it."

 

I just moved back to the Valley and am still trying to decide, once I get my apartment straightened out, which paper I want to subscribe to.

Of course, I'll be living in Tempe and I'm now unsure if the "East Valley" Tribune will even bother delivering there come January. Which may be paranoid but, hell, if they've cut off Scottsdale, maybe not.

That's a brilliant money-saving scheme right there. Think of all the money you save on circulation costs by not delivering any papers...

 

They axed Tempe, too.

The focus is now Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert & Queen Creek.