Chicago Tribune no longer plays in Peoria

Bingo.

I talked to our publisher recently and asked his opinion about when we'd go all-electronic. He said based on revenue projections, not for a long time, probably not until technology changes again and an electronic version of the full version of the current paper becomes realistic.

 

The News-Gazette in Champaign prints its last edition of the Trib on Saturday. That cash cow for the independently held N-G is gone and ain't coming back.

 

Actually, yes. I could always pick one up in Champaign or Bloomington, and for a while the guy who brought USA Todays to our area would bring a few Sun-Times with him and drop them off at some of the convenience stores in SE Iowa.

I picked one up in Champaign on my way through back in January. I don't think, though, it's as widespread as it used to be.

 

Does the N-G become a morning paper now? Or did it already switch?

 

I believe the S-T still circulates in Illinois from Springfield north. Although they might still send some copies down to Carbondale for the SIU crowd.

 

I know I could always get the Trib and Sun-Times when I went to college in Iowa City.
Makes me sad to hear this news. I had a subscription in Iowa City - still have the Trib sports page from the day after Sammy Sosa hit No.62 hanging on my wall (no asterisk attached yet).
If I went to Iowa these days, that never would have happened.

 

I cannot stress Dooley and Bubbler's point enough. I wish to add my own observation. NOBODY makes enough money off Internet advertising to support a newsgathering organization of more than maybe 10 employees-and those are the most popular Web sites who have no residual hard-copy structure to support and/or dismantle. Internet advertising distributes fractions of pennies to content providers while the money is reserved for content distributors like Google. And there are already a billion Internet ad firms out there plotting to put Google out of business. It's never going to support ANY kind of mass media.
The major impact of this move by the Trib is psychological. Its customers are given yet another reason to believe they're buying a dying product. This will lead some of them to become ex-customers.

 

I played around with the Trib's circulation Web site and it showed that you could still subscribe in Springfield. Peoria was already in the "We're sorry" zone.

The AJC used to be available in (minimum) at least parts of 5 different states. Now you're lucky to find an edition worth a shit even in the outer suburbs, never mind the "other" Georgia.

 

It's absolutely amazing to me that so many folks don't get the cost-benefit analysis here.

Sure, of course the Trib can't go all-Internet and make money. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not next year. (Someday, yes, but that's another conversation. You doubt? Well, consider that by shedding the cost of newsprint, the printing plant, the entire circulation and delivery staff, the "paper" will cut huge, huge costs ... then get back to me. At some point, the online advertising will catch up, and it WILL happen).

But for now ...

The Trib bean counters have concluded that it costs more to distribute the papers in these areas than the distribution brings in. This is Finance 101, a second-semester MBA could do the math.

Why has the equation changed? Simple, folks, because many more people outside the Chicago area are reading the paper online.

It's almost certainly the right call.

 

I lived in Chicago for more than 20 years and I agree with Jersey Guy. I don't like the idea of it not being available in at least Springfield, but it's a call they had to make.

 

I believe it's been talked about in the last few years, but as far as I know, no decision has been made yet. Vermilion County edition was always morning. The 2-star version deadline was 10:30 a.m., and the city edition (CMO, to those in the know) deadline was 12:30 p.m.