Changes at The Oklahoman?

[I Should Coco]

I wonder how many newspapers exist as separate entities five years after they start publishing at the same plant as another paper. I think once printing is combined that the owners start to dream about the savings that exist from combining desks.

And by my unofficial and incomplete count San Diego (printed in LA), Cincinnati (printed in Columbus), New Orleans (printed in Mobile) and Oklahoma City (soon to be printed Tulsa) are produced at least 100 miles from the city named on their masthead.

Also, Phillip Anschultz owns both OKC and Colorado Springs. I wonder if Colorado Springs is going to undergo the same treatment. Publishing moves to Denver and design to Gatehouse.

In the world of smaller daily newspapers, the Moline Dispatch/Rock Island Argus shut down its printing press earlier this year. All its editions (along with the handful of other Midwestern daily newspapers in its family-owned chain) are now printed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa ... which, off the top of my head, is about 100 miles from the Quad-Cities. I believe deadlines are now 10 p.m. ... when I worked there about a decade ago, we had until 12:30 for the early edition, and updated pages by 1:30 for the main edition.

 

[Liut]

Assembly line all the way. The sell-out on design bugs me.

It bugs me, too. A lot. It wasn't the way I was trained. Having stated that, when I'm up against the clock and busting my ass design is the first thing to suffer. Don't like it, but don't want to have a heart attack, either.

 

[Fredrick]

It's assembly line journalism at its worst. Probably pretty repetitive work, too, I imagine, and that's not good.

Remember when newspapers truly cared about quality? Layout had to be just right. Stories impeccably edited and re-written in many cases. When newspapers mattered? Now it is ALL about the CEO and publisher maintaining their lavish lifestyles while nothing else matters. The product? LOL. It matters NOT AT ALL. The writing? Who cares? Just get it done. Respect in the community? None. Man, newspapers have officially thrown in the towel. Hate to break it to the Gannetters and all the consultants who brought this on: Guess what? When you get your way and everything is online only? Your Websites will mean nothing in your communities, especially in sports. Nobody's going to read your news stories or advertise for your news stories online and your sports pages will be read with the same interest as somebody reading a fanboy website's page. And your CEOs will be moving on cause they'll have bled all they can from newspapers, since those Websites aren't going to make a dime.

I mean think about this thread: The Oklahoman newspaper will be produced in Austin Texas and printed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I'd just love to hear what the deadine times are. ... Oh, but the Website will be just awesome. Wait til you see that Website!