Posted on 07/10/2008 12:35:21 PM PDT by abb
RALEIGH - A News & Observer subscriber is suing the newspaper for cutting staff and the size of the paper.
Keith Hempstead, a Durham lawyer, filed the suit last month in Wake Superior Court. He says he renewed his subscription in May just before the paper announced on June 16 the layoffs of 70 staff members and cuts in news pages.
The paper, he says, is now not worth what he signed up for and therefore the cuts breached the paper's contract with him.
"Plaintiff alleges fraud in that the newspaper announced changes in the coverage after procuring renewals from Plaintiff and other subscribers," Hempstead says in the complaint.
In a phone interview today, Hempstead, 42, said he could cancel his subscription but filed the suit to make a point.
"I wanted to get the newspaper's attention and the news industry's attention," said Hempstead, who is a former reporter at the Fayetteville Observer, adding that he loves The News & Observer.
"I hate to see what companies that run newspapers are doing to the product," Hempstead said. "The idea that taking the most important product and reducing the amount of news and getting rid of staff to me seems pointless to how you should run a newspaper business."
Hempstead said he wants to keep the paper from reducing news coverage and wants the newspaper industry to revisit its business model. His suit asks for an unspecified amount of damages and attorney's fees.
John Drescher, executive editor of The News & Observer, said he's glad that Hempstead is a loyal reader and that the N&O has meant so much to him.
"We've had some really good papers recently, and they're worth more than the 36 cents a day that Mr. Hempstead is paying us," Drescher said.
"In fact, he owes me money," Drescher continued. "So when he gets a lawyer, he can work with my lawyer and figure out how much he's going to pay me for the excellent coverage he's been getting recently."
Hempstead is currently seeking a law firm to take his case, and, he added, he's not in it for money.
leah.friedman@newsobserver.com or (919) 932-2002
ping
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/64651-Unkindest-cut/
Unkindest cut?
How a proposed pay cut surprised the Globe newsroom — and why it might actually happen
http://www.contentbridges.com/2008/07/is-the-la-times.html
L.A. Times: The Inconvenient Poster Child
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp080708newspapers_in_big_tr
Newspapers in Big Trouble, Should Americans Care?
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2008/07/10/ajc-issue-section-to-go-bye-bye/
AJC @issue section to go bye-bye?
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/07/07/daily33.html
The Columbian lays off 20
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/07/10/which-wapo-writers-are-pulling-in-230k/
Which WaPo Writers Are Pulling in $230K?
Posted by Erik Wemple on Jul. 10, 2008, at 11:11 am
wow, what a lawsuit.
Isn’t there something in the law which would limit the paper’s liability to refunding his subscription payment if he’s not satisfied with the changes in the paper?
I know papers all over the country are laying off staff and changing how they publish and what they publish. They are doing that for financial reasons. The papers would have rather not made these changes.
Imagine this concept applied to other things. Suppose your favorite sports team trades your favorite player, and they don’t make the playoffs. Can you sue for breach of contract, saying that if they had kept the same business model (players) they would have succeeded, and that’s why you bought season tickets?
Can’t wait to see what the court decides about this one.
“Hempstead, 42, said he could cancel his subscription ....”
He has no case.
I live in a town full of fricking idiots.
}:-)4
There’s no loser here. Either a lawyer or a newspaper - specifically the hated NandO, one of the perpetrators of the Duke Lacrosse Frame - will lose.
This is good news.
What is it about the legal minds (or lack thereof) in Durham. Is there something in the water that makes them either crooked (the Durham DA) or just plain nuts.
Of course the precendent would mean that if Hempstead’s own law firm changes staff at any time for any reason, then his clients with standing accounts might feel that the staff changes have influenced the overall status of the firm and could insist upon partial refunds (since the firm may well be “worth less” if an experience secretary or senior partner retires).
A lawyer. Suing. How special.
Maybe this dude has too much time on his hands. That’s probably why some nuisance lawsuits get started.
Please, Keith, may your legal efforts be duplicated around the globe.
Anything people can do to screw these liberal media idiots makes me happy.
I'm telling you, this is as good as it gets. A circular firing squad of our enemies - the Drive-By Media and lawyers!
... "the news tribe will have to migrate across the digital divide and re-settle itself on terra nova." A new platform means, as Stowe Boyd put it, "the end of mass."People simply do not hold with mass identity now that they are free to find human-scale identity, and once they find it, they will not go back. Newspapers and other mass media is falling first and fastest because we are rejecting the erstatz [sic], mass belonging that they offered.Or as the sociologist of media forms, Raymond Williams, put it before Stowe: "There are no masses; there are only ways of seeing people as masses." ...
Six: The Mark Unleashed
Tom Newman (Dismissively skeptical): Right. The "Holy Spirit." Is that like the holy implant?
Luke: No. The Holy Spirit is from G-d. The implant is a deception. A lie told by the king of lies.
Tom Newman (Obstinately conflating): So ... if you have it ... you become more like everyone else.
Luke: When your talking about the implant, yes. When you're talking about the Holy Spirit you become more like the way Jesus wanted you to become. More like ... Him. More unique. More individual. Opposite of the implant.
Tom Newman: That doesn't make any sense. ... You know, I mean, ... everyone becoming more like ... "Jesus." I mean, come on. He's just ... He's just one person.
Luke: He's also G-d. The G-d who made each one of us as a unique creation. Sin destroys that. Creates conformity. Redemption in Christ restores that. ... Brings us back ... to what G-d truly wanted us to be.
Is this the same lawyer that sued the dry cleaner for $68 million over a lost pair of pants?
This would be the perfect case for a judge to put a "frivolous lawsuit" smackdown on the plaintiff. There is a perfectly reasonable non-lawsuit method to solve this, and he chose not to perform it. My verdict: he gets the money back from his subscription but has to pay for every little bit of court and defendant legal work that went into this case.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/07/10/google-as-the-new-pressroom/#comments
Google as the new pressroom
...nor ethics.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003826472
It’s a Twister: AP Pulls Possibly Doctored Tornado Video
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003826447
Another Wisconsin Daily Goes Online, Drops Daily Print Editions
Its linked on Drudge. I don’t think this lawyer will be all to happy about the global coverage of his idiocy.
It is a metaphysical impossibility to embarrass a lawyer.
I didn’t say he would be embarassed. He just isn’t going to be happy about it.
Just wait until someone from far away from Raleigh sends this guy a nasty note or something and he sues Drudge for providing the info on him. He is likely idiot enough to do it.
Well, I don't know about that. Surely he wasn't so dumb that he thought no one would know?
Hmmm. Maybe I should strike that question. What's the old joke about using lawyers as test animals because there are some things rats won't do?
Super, superb job, my friend....
Thanks. But I want you to know I enjoy it so much I would PAY Jim Rob to do it, lol.
Yet another Durmite lawyer I see? Does he want out of the contract? Is there a contract? Does he want money damages for the $183 annual subscription rate? Or does he just want publicity for his legal career?
Yes, you do....one of your neighbors told me when Durham DA got busted for the stripper rape thingy, "This community is hurting and needs healing."
I almost heaved Cheerios and coffee into my keyboard.
A GREAT BIG bunch of fricking idiots.
LOL! You reminded me.
PING!!
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003826527
Pink Sheets, Here We Come? GateHouse Shares Fall Below $2
By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: July 10, 2008 5:30 PM ET
CHICAGO Shares of GateHouse Media Inc. fell below $2 Thursday, plummeting more than 13% on the day.
GateHouse (NYSE: GHS) closed at $1.81, down 28 cents, or 13.4%. Its previous low had been $2.09. In the past year, it has traded as high as $19.00.
Newspaper stocks were generally down across the sector, but far more modestly.
Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG) closed at $10.87, down 63 cents, or 5.84%.
The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) fell 24 cents, or 4.52%, to close at $5.07.
Shares of The New York Times Co., Gannett Co. Inc., and A.H. Belo were all down in a range of 1.5% to 2.75%.
He’s looking for flowers in bullshit.
Not guilty! Next case...
That was a Judge
....Super, superb job, my friend.... ...
Amen.
In years to come this aggregation will be poured through by historians who want to know how it all happened
Must be one of left wing lawyer to do something like that
Who is this jackass to tell a private company how to run their business? What an arrogant putz. I hope the judge sends him a message and makes him pay attorney fees and court costs for filing a frivolous lawsuit. No surprise this a-hole is an attorney.
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