Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Texas newspaper woes

David Crisp, the Billings Blogger, writes that one of his old papers, the Palestine Herald-Press, has dropped two days of publication a week – Sat and Mon – plus other dire steps:
The first daily I ever worked for, the Palestine (Texas) Herald-Press, has cut publication from seven days to five a week and has started mailing rather than delivering papers. I hear that substantial staff cutbacks also have taken place.

For the rest of Crisp's post, here. And for the H-P's story on the cuts, here.
From the Herald-Press, Aug. 1, another development that couldn't help a strapped publication:
Authorities have said [Herald-Press circulation manager Malinda Shea] Lucas took advantage of her position at the newspaper to create names of ficticious newspaper carriers. Checks were then generated in the names of those fake carriers, with Lucas cashing those and pocketing the proceeds, authorities have said.
Lucas stole $107,254.78 from the Herald-Press over a four-year period, according to authorities.

And for the rest of that sad story, go here.
I sometimes wonder how the Vicad can keep on publishing papers comprising just three four- and six-page news sections and a classified section that's all house ads.

2 comments:

Sugar Magnolia said...

Wow, I can't believe the Palestine paper is mailing papers now with no delivery. That's just bizarre. What about delivery to machines or newsstands? I wonder if they've stopped that too. If one must find a sunny side to that dire news, it will likely give a boost to that dying dinosaur, the USPS, who likewise is mulling discontinuing Saturday service as well. Did'ja ever think you would see the day, Mr. Loon? These are strange times we live in. I wonder if in the final analysis, if there will ever be such a thing, that we humans will deem the world of the internet to be worth all it has cost us?

The Loon said...

Newspapers and magazines have always enjoyed a very favorable postage rate, the idea being officially that the dissemination of information was good for the republic and unofficially that gummint exists to dole out cash to business. I'm sure USPS is happy to have any business at all.