The 10,000-circulation weekly Jackson County (Mo.) Advocate focuses on serving its own neighborhood and it’s doing just fine, thank you. Sure, its four-person staff works long hours to produce the weekly, but employees will also stop to talk with residents who stop by the office because that’s where the best stories come from. Like the local man who found an image of the Virgin Mary on a rock in his back yard. “You never know who’s going to come through the front door,” says Editor Andrea Wood, who’s interviewed in this five-minute report by local radio station KCUR. “We’ve done stories about people who had grown freakishly large pears. It’s about the community.”
Wood says the turmoil that’s killing large metro newspapers isn’t hitting hyper-local titles nearly as hard. “This industry is stable,” she says. “People use the [community newspaper] for scrapbooks. You’re never going to get that from the Internet.” Local businesses are also more stable and loyal advertisers.
The Advocate competes with the Kansas City Star, which has been cutting back local news coverage. That appears to be helping the Advocate. Circulation is growing and now tops 10,000 subscribers. The Star no longer sends reporters to cover local government meetings, leaving the Advocate as the main source of information about their community.
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I have a great idea for MNI to save some money
Drudge: GM TO CLOSE MOST FACTORIES FOR SUMMER
MORE GREAT NEWS; DIKE BURSTS
Chicago Tribune reduces newsroom staff
The Chicago Tribune today reduced its newsroom staff, a response to the economic downturn and changes in the media business model.
The exit of 53 editorial employees is part of a paper-wide cost-cutting effort.
EVEN MORE GREAT NEWS; MARXISTS EAT OWN. (BUT WE PIMPED FOR HIM)
Newspaper Reps Seeking Antitrust Relief Find Opposition
WASHINGTON The Obama administration on Tuesday rejected new immunity from antitrust laws for teetering newspapers struggling to compete with Internet providers of news, entertainment and advertising.
Newspapers, however rare and financially weak, can adapt and ultimately conquer the threat posed by the Internet, the Justice Department's Carl Shapiro told a House panel.
"We do not believe any new exemptions for newspapers are necessary," said Shapiro, an assistant attorney general for economics.
OMG MARIXST COGNITIVE DISSIDENCE (WHO WILL MNI SUPPORT?)
Fidel Castro calls obama conceited
"Comrade Fidel" was quick to dash the president's optimism about easy rapprochement with Cuba, saying in a communique Tuesday that Obama misunderstood his brother Raul at the Summit of the Americas.
Obama has confused the USA with a Banana Republic nation. Shucking and jiving with dictators makes him look weak, not like a rock star hipster.
The publisher of the Jackson County Advocate, along with three other suburban papers he owned, broke up his consortium and sold them to various employee groups. He was tired of bleeding money. Regardless of their rhetoric, I think the facts are likely not so favorable.
GREAT NEWS FOR MNI MARXISTS, YOU AIN'T IN THE LIST! THIS COULD BE YOUR TCIKET BACK BOYS
Homeland Security Cancels its NY Times, WaPo, Newsweek Subscriptions
The Homeland Security Department is dropping some newspaper and magazine subscriptions to save money.
The agency has told its employees to cancel subscriptions to general interest newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post and to magazines such as Newsweek and Time by April 27.
Competing with The Star is almost trivial. Editor Roy Teicher at The Kansas City Kansan with few resources kicked The Star's behind from one end of Wyandotte County to the other.
The difference was that Teicher allowed his reporters to write about what they saw in front of them with no sacred cows.
The Star's WYCO bureau would not write any bad news about the Marinovich administration. None. Brisbane had specifically pulled investigative reporter Rick Alm out of WYCO and assigned him to gambling and it was clear that those who came after him would not be allowed to criticize Marinovich, or the newly formed Unified Government.
That's typical throughout the metro area. The Star is in the bag for the establishment sleaze and if the news conflicts with their agenda, The Star isn't interested.
As a result a school paper not only can, but has scooped The Star on a major story involving one of the establishment's key players. It's child's play when your opponent is handcuffed and blindfolded.
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