The GateHouse model in Columbia, MO

[swingline]

Terry Ganey on what happened to the Columbia Daily Tribune when GateHouse bought the paper.

The Tribune’s “Tragedy” | Gateway Journalism Review

 

[Doom and gloom]

“To think people are going to subscribe to a newspaper in hopes that someday it will get better is a fallacy,” he said. “You’ve got to put out a product that people want and feel like they need if they are going to stay on top of things.” ...and so on, and so on, and so on....

 

[Fredrick]

Good story. Those moguls in Manhattan figured out a way to make big bucks (for themselves) in buying newspapers from crotchety old (former) publishers/owners. Good for them I guess, but they certainly preyed on an industry and helped wreck it. Those moguls deserve credit for figuring out a way to make big time cash (for themselves) by gutting newspapers.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

My experience with WhoreHouse is the bean counters will leave you be as long as your publisher is good at monetizing your paper's assets. Mostly through special publications and presentations of events.

Unfortunately there's only so much blood to be wrung out of a community's economic turnip and sooner or later the sugar stops flowing. That's when it's hello Best Buy.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I excerpted this from the article. It was from a column by the editor:

"It’s true we’ve lost some subscribers in 2017, and for every 100 subscribers we lose there’s a $20,000 hole in the budget to fill. So we fill that hole with more cuts, but more subscribers show their disdain of the new changes by cancelling. So we lose another 100 subscribers, and now there’s another $20,000 hole needing filled. The cycle then repeats over and over and over.”

There is a term for this. It is called a death cycle.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Good story. Those moguls in Manhattan figured out a way to make big bucks (for themselves) in buying newspapers from crotchety old (former) publishers/owners. Good for them I guess, but they certainly preyed on an industry and helped wreck it. Those moguls deserve credit for figuring out a way to make big time cash (for themselves) by gutting newspapers.

Frederick We have been waiting for you. Were you on vacation?

 

[ChrisLong]

Frederick We have been waiting for you. Were you on vacation?

He got trapped in that 10 a.m. meeting.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

He got trapped in that 10 a.m. meeting.

Surrounded by suits, no doubt.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Frederick We have been waiting for you. Were you on vacation?

Ha, vacation! Frederick was clearly working one of his daily 12-hour shifts from which he never gets a break or a reprieve.

 

[Bronco77]

I am hearing through various sources that GateHouse is now the leading contender for the Austin paper. But these sources are third-hand, and I hope they're wrong for the sake of the folks at the American-Statesman (and its readers).

 

[jr/shotglass]

After the section of the newsroom that contained the copy desk was vacated, the lights were no longer turned on in that area. “It became a black hole,” Jackson said. “It had an incredibly demoralizing effect on the newsroom, like you were taking one of the organs out of our body.”

That. Is. ****ing. Cold.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I am hearing through various sources that GateHouse is now the leading contender for the Austin paper. But these sources are third-hand, and I hope they're wrong for the sake of the folks at the American-Statesman (and its readers).

Gatehouse is going to be rumored as a buyer for any paper, largely because they are very active buyers, and no one else is nearly as as active. Cox has tried to sell Austin and Palm Beach before and pulled them back. They may have qualms about selling to Gatehouse. Since Cox is privately held and has a hell of a lot of money they can afford to wait.

But, Jesus, the fact that the papers in those markets are having trouble selling is depressing. Twenty-five years ago those papers would have attracted boatloads of suitors.

 

[britwrit]

Of course, in the old days they never paid overtime either.

#neverletthatgrudgego

 

[Doc Holliday]

“We understand that you may be unhappy that we pruned some limbs, but we hope you will be glad that we are still here with deep roots,” Burton wrote. Six months later, Burton was “pruned” when he was replaced as publisher.

Most clever use of the word pruned ever. I was almost cheering when I read it. Classic.

 

[FileNotFound]

The Gatehouse model is inarguably bad for journalism. That said, it's more than optimistic to think that Columbia, Mo., could support two daily newspapers under any circumstances.

 

[boundforboston]

The Gatehouse model is inarguably bad for journalism. That said, it's more than optimistic to think that Columbia, Mo., could support two daily newspapers under any circumstances.

The Missourian makes this a different situation. Students earn nothing while working there, and the editors are already employees of the university. It’s a special situation.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

The Missourian makes this a different situation. Students earn nothing while working there, and the editors are already employees of the university. It’s a special situation.

When I was at Mizzou years and years ago, the Tribune had its own pipeline to the J-School and made extensive use of students as part-timers. It was a great source of cheap, temporary reporters and editors for them. I don't see that mentioned in the article, so maybe students' role on the staff has diminished.

 

[swingline]

Also, the Missourian has a paid subscription of about 1,000. It's taken by the hardcore journalism junkies and professors around town.

 

[swingline]

When I was at Mizzou years and years ago, the Tribune had its own pipeline to the J-School and made extensive use of students as part-timers. It was a great source of cheap, temporary reporters and editors for them. I don't see that mentioned in the article, so maybe students' role on the staff has diminished.

Diminished, as in nonexistent. When I was there more than a decade ago, news and sports might have had an intern, but I don't think there were any part-timers from the J-school ranks.

One summer very long ago, I did agate and covered the local sports for the Tribune between semesters at Mizzou.

 

[britwrit]

That's weird. In the early 1990s, the weekend reporter on Friday and Saturdays was always a j-student. Or at least I was, as well as the two guys before me, and the two after. The agate guys in sports were always students as well.