Dateline: Liberal, KS --- Staff walks out of old paper, starts a new paper

http://www.hutchnews.com/Todaystop/publi

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/606347.html

This letter to readers is not on their web site (which is still swdtimes.com despite the "d" clearly being fictional these days). The comments, however, are:

For a great number of reasons, this is snarkastically amusing to me.

 

His new company should be called Liberal Media.

 

Good for the staff. I wish them well. I know plenty of folks at other small-town papers who would like to do the same thing if they thought they could pull it off.

 

I know one other small-town paper staff who did it. I'm pretty sure it's still around and the orginal paper has gone from twice to a week to once because of it.

 

that is probably the best post I've read in a long time. Good luck to ya all.

 

Liberal has some interesting newspaper history.

One former publisher of the Southwest Daily Times was convicted and served time for embezzling from the paper.

When he was released from prison, he returned to Liberal and started a weekly that's still operating.

So, now Liberal might have three papers: a weekly run by a former ouusted publisher, a daily run by a former publisher and some of the staff and the Southwest (not really) Daily Times.

 

I wish them much better luck than a publisher in a small town north of Columbia, Mo.
He did the same thing earlier this century, and while I was appreciative of being an SE at his new weekly paper, the thing shut down within six months (and three months after I left). With the right staff, you can certainly pull it off.

 

The thing is this: Can you pry the advertising (especially the cars and the legals) away from the older paper? Sounds like people in town are so disgusted with the old paper that moving the advertising is a distinct possibility.

 

God bless and good luck to the 17 people jumping ship, but do you really win third place? You finish in third.

 

Incredible. The cult actually spent the $75 to place the ad.

(And they will now think I'm one of my former coworkers who actually invented that term in reference to Lancaster Management.)

 

I can't think of too many publishers who could convince even a janitor, let alone his entire newsroom, to walk out with him for a startup. I've got to be impressed with that.