so much for small weeklies being like cockroaches ...

if that's 4 people in the newsroom it's plenty to put out a good product.

not a lot of weeklies out there that own their own press.

 

I'd think it would be easy to put out a weekly with four people. We're putting out a daily with four.

 

it sounded like from the write-up the four employees were the entire staff (advertising, etc.)... agreed about four people in a newsroom being a decent number ...

 

there are tons of mom/pop weeklies where 4 or fewer total employees putting out the paper, selling ads, etc.

 

I'm sure those papers with four total employees are great reads too.

 

Actually five counting the publisher, and he does a fair amount of writing (from what I saw on the paper's Web site) ...

 

some are crap but i've seen some with some damn good writers, mr. elitist

 

Not an elitist, but some newspapers are just rags, plain and simple. There is one in my area where a guy on the city council writes the city council stories. It's not as if this paper doesn't have anyone else who could cover a meeting too.

Back to the original topic, if a small weekly was a cash cow, there is no way a company would close it down. Why would you close down something that brings in money?

 

Oh...if that was the case, then I misread it.

But we do have others pitch in when we can, even with our four-person staff (I'm only counting our news staff on that; Sports-wise, it's a one-man show). Our publisher took photos and shot video in Topeka yesterday. Our ME had to type stuff in on a laptop while she drove the car back.

 

I worked in college at a weekly that had been around since 1842, IIRC. 18-something, anyway. CNHI allowed the other weekly in town (and no, it wasn't that big a town) to buy it out and shut it down.

 

Our shop, also in the chain, got hit today too. Two lost in a small newsroom.

 

weeklies and smaller dailies can be major cash producers. it had to be management or something that messed this up. we're in a chain of about 30 small dailies and i'd say all but three or four are making good bucks.