Kentucky daily paper loses contract to print weekly paper, launches its own

http://www.kentuckynewera.com/articles/2008/08/23/news/free/doc48af9937d197d189311525.txt

Newspaper planned in Oak Grove

From Staff reports
Saturday, August 23, 2008 8:39 AM CDT

The Eagle Post, a new weekly newspaper focusing on Oak Grove, Fort Campbell and surrounding communities, will begin publication Sept. 3.

The newspaper will be printed in Hopkinsville by the Kentucky New Era, its owner. It will operate as an independent publication.

“The Eagle Post will provide unprecedented coverage of local government, schools, sports, community events, wedding and birth announcements and other items of interest to the families in Oak Grove, Fort Campbell and northern Montgomery County, Tenn., communities,” said Taylor Hayes, publisher and chief executive officer of Kentucky New Era Inc.

Copies of the new publication will be available free of charge through a network of 173 distribution boxes located throughout Oak Grove, Fort Campbell and Hopkinsville, as well as in Clarksville Tenn. Papers also will be delivered to residential households on Fort Campbell and to every residence in the Oak Grove zip code.

Chip Hutcheson, publisher of the Times Leader in Princeton, will serve as the publisher of The Eagle Post. Hutcheson has 32 years of experience in newspaper publishing and serves on the board of directors of the Kentucky Press Association and the National Newspaper Association.

“I’m real excited about the possibilities,” Hutcheson said. “It will be a tremendous amount of work but we want to provide a community newspaper for Oak Grove and we’re encouraged that the people of Oak Grove will accept and embrace the product.”

Dan Potter, mayor of Oak Grove, said he’s excited about the paper, the first to serve his city and the surrounding communities.

“I think it’s great. There are a lot of things we need to tell people,” Potter said. “It will do a lot of things for us. It will bring people together. The advertising will make people shop in local stores and that will bring revenue to the city and it’s good for economic development.”

The newspaper’s business office is located at 15095 Fort Campbell Blvd. in Oak Grove.

“We are excited to be in a position to deliver a new level of local community-oriented media coverage to our Oak Grove and Fort Campbell readers.” Hayes said. “In addition to our printed paper, we also will maintain a Web site that will provide news, features, photos and video galleries. The Web site also will serve as a portal to online classified ads through the ‘Click for Ads’ link at www.clickforads.com, the online market place that matches buyers and sellers.

“We want to maximize interest in our newest publication and encourage our readers to submit news tips, community event information, wedding and birth announcements and other news items to The Eagle Post via fax at 270-439-5142 or by e-mail to eaglepost@timesleader.net. For advertising information call 270-439-5122 and classified ads can be placed by phone at 270-887-3250.

For the past 28 years, Kentucky New Era Inc. was the contracted publisher of the Fort Campbell Courier. That printing contract expires Aug. 31.

 

This has disaster written all over it. The printing contract with the Fort Campbell Courier was worth millions. The Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville has been after that contract for years. I don't know if this was a knee-jerk reaction by Taylor Hayes but he's not the most impressive person in the world to begin with. They are going to go up against an Army-funded weekly with bottomless pockets. They're also talking about centering their focus on Oak Grove which is nothing more than a small town that caters to young soldiers with strip joints, tattoo parlors, bars and primarily fast food stops. If they try to make a run at Fort Campbell they will have a difficult time establishing contacts with the military. From the financial loss side of things, if I were in the New-Era newsroom, I'd be looking for cover and kevlar. Joe Wilson, the sports editor, is top notch and a good guy. I wish him and the others the best, but I don't think this will end well.

 

even if it's "army-funded," how can a weekly spend millions on printing? newsprint has gone up but that seems like a wee bit of an exaggeration.

 

Knowing how newspapers operate, I wonder how long it will be before the journalists at the daily paper will have to provide copy for the weekly, and vice versa.