Pressing for a Bailout
JRC newspapers report on the need for state aid to JRC newspapers
Comments (8)Thursday, December 04, 2008
Andy BromageYou might have read about the heartwarming push to save a pair of century-old community newspapers from certain doom.
The papers themselves have carried inspirational, staff-written stories reporting how readers, elected officials and community members are banding together to save The Bristol Press and The New Britain Herald.
You wouldn't know from reading them, though, why the papers are in such dire straits to begin with. The stories don't explain that. They're too busy drumming up support for some kind of government-backed bailout plan. And apparently it's working.
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The Journal Register Co. is the famously stingy company that owns the Press, the Herald and the New Haven Register, among other papers. The Yardley, Penn.–based company is on the verge of bankruptcy, with massive debt, de-listed stock that's worth a penny a share and few paths to redemption.
Like the Hartford Courant (which owns this paper) and most Connecticut newspapers, JRC's a victim of shrinking ad revenue and circulation that's resulted in round after round of cuts in the newsroom. JRC's fatal mistake was buying a cluster of Michigan newspapers just as advertising from the auto industry was going bust.
Last month, employees at the Press, the Herald and a dozen JRC-owned weeklies were unceremoniously informed the papers would close up shop if a new buyer isn't found by Jan. 12. Since then, it's been all hands on deck to save the papers, with reporters writing a series of 'save the Press' stories while scrupulously avoiding the back story of JRC's disastrous management.
A Nov. 12 story by Press staff reporter Steve Collins headlined "Community Leaders Want to Save Press" quoted the mayor, a state rep, a city councilor, the former mayor, the town's historical research librarian, a local developer, a state rep-elect — even a fellow Press staffer who started a "Save the Bristol Press!" Facebook page — all saying they can't imagine Bristol without the paper.
Apparently unsatisfied with the pace of things, Collins posted an item on his BristolToday.com blog on Nov. 18 labeled "Hey, Hartford, doesn't anybody care about saving 100+ jobs?" in which he writes "there's been no indication that the state gives a damn" about the paper.
"The state's political leaders, who understand better than most how important newspapers are, should be pulling out all the stops to find a way to stave off these foreclosures," Collins writes. "There's not much time. Let's get moving and find a solution. C'mon, Hartford, lead!"
The Press ran another banner headline on Nov. 25 blaring "Officials Back Papers: Rell, Blumenthal call news services crucial to community, state awareness." The story, written by Collins' wife, Jackie Majerus, and Adam Benson (the Save the Press! Facebook page host), quotes the governor and attorney general saying they'd be "more than willing to explore" a bipartisan effort to save the papers.
To drive it home, the story reminded readers that, "Local papers provide vital news about what is going on in the community, from zoning meetings to city council actions, as well as things such as firehouse fundraisers, parent-teacher organizational activities and school sports."
It worked. Later that day, seven state legislators from the towns the papers cover asked to meet with Joan McDonald, the state's top economic development official, to discuss how the papers might be saved. They'll meet this Friday.
Rich Hanley, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac University, says the paper's motive is obvious.
"It's coverage geared toward self-preservation and their self-interest is totally clear in all this," Hanley says. "But there's no mention of quality, whether the paper has been performing its watchdog function and whether it has been given sufficient funding to do that in the past."
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For all the news coverage, the Press's editorial page hasn't written once about the paper's imminent closure. An average reader might conclude that JRC is using its news pages to drive a story about rescuing a failing property while avoiding full-throated coverage that might expose some ugly company truths. How else could you explain the choice to run an Associated Press story instead of a staff-written one when the papers announced plans to shut down? The staff seems to be covering only a small part of the story — the rescue.
A source inside the newsroom, however, says it's not that simple. The staff would like to report more aggressively on the situation, but JRC's got them on a tight leash. Without elaborating, the source says stories about the Press have been edited to remove quotations that higher-ups might find objectionable.
The executive editor of the papers, Marc Levy, wouldn't discuss any of that but did defend the papers' coverage.
"I feel like what gets printed in our papers is good productive positive coverage of developments," Levy says. "Certainly there are people in the community who want to know what's going to happen and the articles have kept up to date with developments."
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Quinnipiac's Hanley worries about the future of newspapers too but says anything approaching a public bailout of the industry is a horrible idea. Newspapers already get government subsidies, he says, in the form of reduced postage rates and relaxed cross-ownership rules that let competing papers run off the same printing press.
"We're in the middle of bailout fever and every dying industry wants a little piece of the government pie," Hanley says.
A few years ago, JRC brought Hanley in to talk about what they needed to do online to survive. Hanley gave them feedback but says his advice was for naught: "They don't have the money to do it."
On the day it reported on state officials backing the papers, The Bristol Press ran an op-ed by syndicated columnist Marsha Mercer headlined "Wrong Way to Ask for a Hand Out." The column mocked the CEOs of the Big 3 auto companies for flying to D.C. in private jets to ask for a $25 billion government bailout of their failing businesses.
The column quoted Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, saying: "I think it would be throwing good money at bad. They've already burned through hundreds of billions of dollars and they haven't turned these companies around."
Delete "of billions" and substitute "employees" for "dollars" and that pretty much sums up JRC. And sadly, most of their corporate media brethren.
Bristol and New Britain should not lose 100+ year old papers because of the JRC's management. They are crucial community resources that deserve a shot to stand on their own.
Even so, I don't want to see a bailout either. I want the state to help find a new owner and to make sure that the new owner knows about existing programs that help any business owner retain jobs.
But if anyone cares for the whole story, check out my blog at bristoltoday.com
One more thing -- we've done our job as watchdogs in Bristol for generations and have managed to keep doing it despite the odds throughout the JRC era. We don't need to report that in Bristol because people there already know it.
I can attest that Collins is right that despite its shrinking newshole and diminishing number of reporters, the Press has remained an honorable competitor. It has served the watchdog function that Professor Hanley recognizes as crucial. Mostly that is because Collins and Majerus are good reporters.
I don't know how they would write about the JRC's own evil incompetence in the pages of a JRC paper. That doesn't happen very often and it certainly doesn'thappen when dealing with ruthless bastards like the JRC's henchmen.
I kind of admire Collins' pluck in saying anything at all!
My grandfathers and grandmother worked in the old days, when type was set and led was poured. When I was in J-school, we still had typewriters.
The downfall of JRC is that it does not value the heart and soul of the paper and it does not respect the art. Salespeople have to have a solid product to sell. Once editorial people and production people are drained of every ounce of enthusiasm and energy in their body, they can't do that. JRC is about the bottom line, not about people. And people are what have made the newspaper industry an art.
When a community paper is no longer a community paper, it's just a shame.
It's a tragedy.
As a Ct resident, I shed no tears at their demise.
Of course a portion of our fight to save these dailies is borne out of self-preservation. Nobody wants to be standing in the unemployment line. But Steve is right. We don't expect nor are we asking any state or local officials for a bail-out. We're determined, yes, but not naive. Nor anxious to have our objectivity questioned by operating on the strength of public dollars.
To say we're "scrupulously avoiding" the JRC back story is patently false. Believe me, our readers know the damage that JRC has done to this paper, and the company's financial state and acquisition strategies has been well-covered by media analysts from Poynter to the American Journalism Review.
Our backs are clearly up against the wall right now. It serves no point to name-call or perform a living autopsy. We need to salvage these two Connecticut institutions for the good of the state, and that's what we're trying to do.
Call it masturbatory if you want, but what kind of journalists would we be if we didn't fight for the community we cover?
http://www.the40yearplan.com/article_111908_Closing_the_Herald.php
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