Posted on 01/20/2009 12:53:11 PM PST by radar101
The Tucson Citizen, Arizonas oldest newspaper, is going to close down by March 21 unless a buyer is found before then. And frankly, nobodys buying newspapers these days.
The Gannett-owned newspaper is run under a joint operating agreement with the Arizona Daily Star and is the first U.S.-Mexico border newspaper to announce its impending demise. Three other newspapers along the border have cut back operations, laid employees off and cut back benefits in an attempt to save themselves. This morning, the San Antonio Express-News announced its going to offer employees a one year unpaid leave of absence, institute a hiring freeze, darken positions, and shorten the news hole. The newspaper gave up its Mexico City correspondent more than a year ago, shutting down that bureau and using its sister papers, the Houston Chronicles, to write the copy. This morning, the San Diego Union-Tribune announced its lost more than 40 percent of its advertising revenue and promises layoffs. That papers already gone through rounds and rounds of buyouts, theyre out of options and quietly started looking into selling itself last summer.
At the Citizen, employees were told of the potential shutdown in a meeting, Friday afternoon. Im not privy to details from the meeting nor do I really care, the papers going to shut down in two months unless it can find a buyer, what else was there to say?
The reality of newspapers is such that Gannett likely wont find a buyer for the Citizen. Last month, the Rocky Mountain News announced it was being put up for sale by its parent company E.W. Scripps. The company had lost something around $10 million last year alone with the Rocky Mountain News.
A few weeks later, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Hearst) announced it was going up on the block or shutting down.
I dont think anybody is particularly surprised by Gannetts decision to close the Citizen; but it was a bit of a shock coming on yesterdays news. You see, this week, Gannett announced it was requiring its employees to take a week off of work. Everyone assumed this was being done to save some positions and prevent more layoffs. So todays news was quite a surprise to most. And todays news tells me Gannett has some more unpleasant surprises in store for its employees.
Could the cause be the incessant advocating of accepting illegal aliens?
That’s odd - its almost as if the drug barons and illegal immigrant traffickers buy less than advertising than the legitimate business they displace.
Good riddance.
Ping.
yaaaaaaaahoooooo. now for the NYT, I can’t wait till it closes it doors. But then the O will bail it out like all the rest of the people in line.
This is sad. Border paper or not, it’s sad.
Hopefully The Bisbee Observer is next!
“This is sad. Border paper or not, its sad.”
No it’s not. That commie paper has had nine lives so far. Hopefully, there’s no tenth.
While many here applaud the demise of the newspapers, I woory about what will happen to coverage of local governement if daily papers fold. Here in Charlotte, it was actually the conservative weekly that was the first to close. This paper covered the city and county governments meetings closely. They were supposed to go to a web only version, but I don’t think anything has been posted since before Christmas. If the Observer were to shut down, the local governments would lose another watchdog.
No its not. That commie paper has had nine lives so far. Hopefully, theres no tenth.
I call it the Tucson Comrade and the Phoenix paper (The Arizona Daily Star) The Arizona Red Star. They run with an editorial slant that alienates at least 50% of their pontential readers.
They've both been painful to read for years. I stopped about ten years ago when the Internet became more convenient and honest.
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