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Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville to publish three days a week

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by alanpagerules, May 24, 2012.

  1. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Tuscaloosa could really do some damage. Montgomery has been a joke for decades, but perhaps, they may get it right this time. This digital concept experiment is interesting but we'll see how effective it is after the first quarter of 2013. If successful, I'm afraid others will quickly follow suit.
     
  2. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Doubtful. No paper is going to come in and do any damage unless they cover local events. Readers can get T-News's Bama stuff online. They might pick it up at the newsstand at the store on an impulse buy, but unless they start covering Hoover on a daily basis, they won't make much inroads.
     
  3. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    I keep thinking the right response in one of these 3-day-a-week towns would be to launch a weekly product that dropped on one of the days the local "daily" didn't print. But that may be old-school thinking.
     
  4. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I'm thinking along the lines of covering things in B-ham on a daily basis to justify the move into the market. I would hope that if the T-News or the Advertiser was serious about making it in B-ham, those organizations would put forth an effort to do so. Otherwise, what purpose would it be to go into B-ham in the first place?
     
  5. I'll never tell

    I'll never tell Active Member

    There are plenty more crazy ass Alabama fans than there are crazy ass Hoover fans. They will pick up a significant number of old people who want to walk out to the mailbox and read Alabama every morning.

    And besides, without a Saturday paper, who really cares how good of a job B'ham is doing covering Hoover football? You could hire two reporters, but them in Bham and zone the front page and one inside page, do nothing different with sports and make significant inroads.

    Hell, you could even work out a deal with the car lots to where you zone the back page ad and pay for the experiment. Never underestimate the value of full-page color car ads.
     
  6. Pencil Dick

    Pencil Dick Member

    On a different note, someone I know who formerly worked at one of the Newhouse papers in Alabama received a letter in the mail today informing him that the company - or the former company - will start offering lump-sum pension plan payouts starting next month in order to lower its future pension liabilities.

    A friend who who worked for the NYT chain said The Times pension plan recently made the same offer, a lump sum or a monthly annuity. He said the amount he was offered was less than half than the actual value of the plan if he holds off until retirement age.

    I read somewhere that the NYT's future pension liability is $1.987 BILLION. Is that possible?
     
  7. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    I can confirm that NYT made that offer. Got a letter a couple weeks ago. We're supposed to let them know by Nov. 1 if we want the money now.
     
  8. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Probably. Tribune Company has about $1.3B in its pension fund.
     
  9. Pencil Dick

    Pencil Dick Member

    Good to see racism is alive and well at the new and improved Alabama Media Group.

    Proper grammar, not so much.

    http://jimromenesko.com/2012/11/01/al-com-apologizes-for-posting-inappropriate-blackface-photo/

    Then there's this nugget:

    http://blog.al.com/times-views/2012/06/about_our_changes_details_on_h.html
     
  10. boundforboston

    boundforboston Well-Known Member

    Has anyone read the print version of one of these papers? What do you think?
     
  11. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    That's assuming, of course, that either the company or the pension are there when he reaches retirement age. If we've learned anything on the economic front the past few years, it ought to be that pensions are not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow they once were. Whoever gets that sort of offer should seriously consider taking the lump sum and getting something while they can.
     
  12. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    A bird in hand is worth two in a bush.
     
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