Manassas (Va.) News & Messenger: Doneski

Closing Dec. 30.

Sad.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/pr-williams-news-and-messenger-to-end-publication-dec-30/2012/11/14/1fc92ab0-2e9d-11e2-9ac2-1c61452669c3_story.html

 

We discussed it some in the MG thread. Probably deserved its own thread, though.

 

Oh. My bad. I just looked for threads on it before posting.

If the powers that be feel like it's good on the MG thread, that's fine.

 

I feel really bad, after having read the story, etc., about this today. I was offered a job at The Potomac News a few years ago, and for the time, they offered me a nice raise and it would've moved my family much closer to my wife's hometown. I was this close to taking it, but we couldn't make the financials work - the standard of living just didn't make the raise as substantial as it looked on paper - and we decided to stay put. Two-to-three years later, I'm happily out of newspapers, about two years after hearing that the position I was originally offered was eliminated. So while I guess I dodged not just one, but two bullets, I'm not thinking about me. I feel sick for the people who are losing their jobs, including the genuinely good guy who wanted to bring me on board. Best of luck to those involved.

 

I read the subject line "doh-NESK-e." Thought a Russian billionaire might be buying it and moving it to Brooklyn.

 

I was wondering who Mr./Ms. Doneski was, too (same pronunciation).

 

Long lost relatives of Mr. and Mrs. Finito.

 

And, as someone who has closed two papers in his lifetime, a little more than flip when you're talking about a paper closing and people losing their jobs....
Not surprising, just flip.

 

The Potomac News was a must-read for me when I was working at a couple weeklies in Virginia's horse country. Sorry that the market couldn't support the more locally targeted product, if indeed that was the problem.

 

Two alumni of the paper, in its Mannassas Journal Messenger days, Bob Dutton and Brian Burwell. Others of note?

 

It's not my place to say whether I am "of note," but my first sportswriting job was at the Manassas Journal-Messenger in '96-'97. I was hired when the sports staff expanded by 50% -- from two to three. The Potomac News was then our larger rival.

My annual pay was $17K, which was less than one-fifth of my previous annual salary as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Clearly I was not qualified to be giving financial advice to CEOs, or anyone else for that matter. (Thanks goodness for Ragu!)

I much enjoyed my year in Manassas. Nice folks, and no shortage of 7-11s. I'm sad to see the paper is folding.

 

I think maybe Sandy McKee?