RIP Bend Bulletin?

Glad they're going to be locally owned. I'm guessing there will be a bit of a reduction in newstaff - but it shouldn't be too drastic.

 

"Local" being in state (but five hours away) compared with out of state, yeah.

The distance between The Bulletin and the new owner's other publications, I predict, means the pressroom headcount in Bend will not be substantially affected by the new ownership.

Very little duplication of coverage areas, too, so the "efficiencies" that some new owners try to realize by using content in multiple publications wouldn't appear to be part of the game plan, either.

 

I am curious to see how this works out. Bend appears to be a rapidly growing, thriving community. The population of Deschute County is close to 200,000. If the paper in a community like Bend can't make it then all the other dailies in similar sized or smaller communities are going to go bust.

 

I've said this before: Market dynamics certainly affected The Bulletin. But remarkably stupid decisions by the longtime cabal that had control of the operation (which must have had incriminating photos of members of the board of directors) contributed in no small way to the demise of the previous ownership.

And yes, Bend is thriving and growing. Median home prices are higher than in Portland. Not enough land in the urban growth boundary to build all of the houses that the demand would support. Low rental vacancy and borderline-criminal rental rates. Of course, the people who want to move there to bike, paddle, ski and golf aren't necessarily going to subscribe to the paper, and they're damn sure not likely to advertise in it.

 

All true - but all those visitors probably are looking for a resource to figure out where to eat, grab a brew, see a show, where to shop, what's going on.

 

... and they find that, like most other people in most other places, via online review sites such as Yelp and Google. These visitors don't beat a trail to the local convenience store to pick up the newspaper.

 

I was thinking digital.