Alabama Media Group: Changes coming to your newspapers, and your online coverage, this fall

al.com ^ | Friday, May 25, 2012 | al.com staff

[suthener]

A new digitally focused media company — the Alabama Media Group, which will include The Birmingham News, the Press-Register of Mobile, The Huntsville Times and al.com — will launch this fall to serve readers and advertisers across the state, according to Cindy Martin, who will become president of the new organization.

Break

The Alabama Media Group will dramatically expand its news-gathering efforts around the clock, seven days a week, while offering enhanced printed newspapers on a schedule of three days a week. The newspapers will be home-delivered and sold in stores on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays only.

[suthener]

Three major newspapers in Alabama will reduce to three days a week. The last time I subscribed to the Press-Register it was editorially conservative. I couldn't handle their sources, though (Reuters, A.P.). My final straw was, and I swear this is a true story, when their was an A.P. story about either a robbery or a murder. The weapon used in the crime was a "military assault style pistol". I've been around guns all my life and all I could think was, "what in the heck is that?". I found in another source the gun was a 1911. Up until then, I did not know I owned a "military assault style pistol". Paper cancelled.

[blam]

I cancelled the Press-Register too after they advocated violating Alabama's Immigration Law. They also began demonizing anyone who was for or supported the law.

Anyway, I got over it and started back....I don't receive local TV channels and this is my only source for local news.

This looks like it will be a tri-city newspaper, three times a week?

Am I reading this correctly?

[fatnotlazy]

There is just no real need for a daily paper anymore. Just about anything you might get from a newspaper is available online. I still get a Sunday paper, primarily for the comics and coupons. There was a time when the Sunday paper gave you a hernia when you tried to lift it. Now it's almost weightless. Most of my Sunday paper consists of advertising. No real news.

I suspect that these days most papers know they are on the way out. They probably don't have the manpower to do good fact checking or they hire journalism students who graduated at the bottom of their class. Too many of these papers also rely heavily on Reuters, AP and other sources without verifying whether their information is accurate. Newspapers just aren't a good source of news anymore...if they ever were.

[SaraJohnson]

Exactly! The newspapers just re-printed AP propaganda. Why would I buy a newspaper put out by the elitist dunces at AP? Canceled, canceled, canceled!

[maddogtiger]

Thank God these aholes are going down the tubes. I will miss the newsprint that makes good compost for my tomato plants.

[maddogtiger]

Thank God these aholes are going down the tubes. I will miss the newsprint that makes good compost for my tomato plants.

[fatnotlazy]

I use my paper to line the cat litter box

[rightly_dividing]

MP has taken a definate liberal stance on the immigration law and other topics after being a conservative paper years ago. All these young "jouranlist" that they employ are libturds.

Though I have been away for two years, I still read Al.com to stay on top of what One Cent Sam does to Pi$$ away what remains of a once good place to live.

[Inspectorette]

There is just no real need for a daily paper anymore. Just about anything you might get from a newspaper is available online. I still get a Sunday paper, primarily for the comics and coupons.

Same here, I also like the NY Times Crossword puzzle. I can completely dispense with the entire front section of the Sunday Oregonian fishwrapper, as it's already old news, having seen all of it on the internet. The editorial section just makes my blood pressure rise, I could go to DU if I wanted to read that crapola!

[political1]

I love getting up in the morning and reading the paper. I don’t like the idea of getting Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday’s news on Wednesday. It’s sad. Maybe someone else will pick up the news service for the other 4 days.

[fatnotlazy]

We have two papers here — the larger ultra liberal one and the smaller conservative paper. At the very least, the conservative paper doesn’t fawn all over Obama like the liberal one does. Unfortunately, the conservative paper’s editorial page lost me when it endorsed Romney in the primaries. So I don’t read the editorial page anymore. Like I said, I read the comics and clip the coupons. That’s pretty much it.

[Lazamataz]

I did not know I owned a "military assault style pistol".

I own worse:

[suthener]

All the local press went over the deep end on the immigration law. I look at the source of this story, al.com and get the local headlines. I read it as the same local papers three times a week, but maybe you’re right. We’ll see.

According to a very reliable source, on June 5th management will meet with each current employee individually and make either an offer for employment or tell them their severance package.

[suthener]

Oh my God, you own a red x! Run for your lives!

[blam]

Isn’t there another local, unusually named, local newspaper?

[suthener]

Isn’t there another local, unusually named, local newspaper?

There’s this: http://www.lagniappemobile.com/

It’s a free paper. I haven’t read it much but I believe there have been couple of stories (the Steve Nodine story, I think) where they had better coverage than the Press-Register. It’s ironic that the owners of the paper once said that they would never lay anyone off due to technological advances. You may remember the editor that sued them when he got fired over that statement? Now they’re going to lay everyone off, although some might get to keep their jobs.

[blam]

Yup...that's it. I didn't know that it was free though.

I guess it doesn't have a lot of news items, eh?

[Lazamataz]

I did not know I owned a "military assault style pistol".

I own worse:

[suthener]

Yeah, I got to get me one of those.