"Mr. Saslow didn't respond well to disagreement. Heck, he didn't respond well to suggestions."
Former employee of the Mail Tribune.
The Mail Tribune's final owner and publisher, Steven Saslow, is widely criticized, but his management mistakes and abrasive personality probably aren't what killed the Mail Tribune. It died because the world changed out from under it.
I have first-hand knowledge of some of the faults attributed to the owner of the Tribune by former employees. No need to re-hash it beyond what I have already written. Subscription deception squanders credibility Angry Mail Tribune. Lawyer threat. Tribune owner sues Ashland critics.
I think the Tribune failed to communicate a core brand value as an institution deeply committed to the well-being of its home community. Saslow had a disadvantage. The paper had changed ownership multiple times over the past four decades. It was a financial asset in a portfolio. The owners' goal was to squeeze out above-average returns. This final owner, Saslow, was a potential change. He presumably had local focus. He bought three local papers, the Nickel, the Ashland Daily Tidings, and the Mail Tribune. Possibly some people and groups somewhere in the county felt a close connection to him. My own experience, and what I have heard from others, was quite the opposite. In any case, the community-connection piece of the puzzle never happened.
But I suspect all of this is irrelevant. The revenue model for local newspapers has collapsed, and a newspaper needs revenue to pay for news gathering and distribution. Saslow asserts that Sinclair Broadcasting is not a shadow owner of his newspapers, that it has no ownership interest, nor did it exercise editorial control. The Tribune may have had to pay its own way.
Classified ads, those seemingly-insignificant ads crowded into the back pages of newspapers, were a huge money-maker. Those moved to Craigslist and E-Bay. Real estate ads announcing new listings and open houses had been a bedrock staple for newspapers. Those moved on-line, where buyers can see dozens of photographs. Advertising dollars moved from newspapers to Facebook and Google. Meanwhile paper, ink, and printers are expensive. It was hard to have reliable delivery of newspapers in the middle of the night, 365 days a year.
News aggregators like the Huffington Post republished articles printed elsewhere, and newspapers let them do it. The public thought news should be free. For "loyal subscribers" of the Tribune--i.e. reliable long term ones--the price climbed to $440/year, a price conspicuously out of scale with other subscriptions.
Times changed, people changed. Newspapers are an old-fashioned habit of old-fashioned people, and we are dying off.
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| Pew Research |
The Tribune did what most other local newspapers did. They cut costs--reporters--and hoped people would not notice. They hoped morale at the newspaper would not collapse, but it did. The Tribune became a couple of local news stories, with big photos, on page one, plus some local sports news, also with big photos, in the front of the sports section. The rest of the paper was re-publication of filler from out-of-area newspapers. It was a shell. Worse, it was a money-losing shell.
Yesterday I posited that possibly a TV station would step up to fill a void. Or perhaps a different business model, the non-profit/donation subscription model for a digital newspaper, could sustain itself. A third possibility has emerged. The Grants Pass Daily Courier has attempted the deep community connection model in neighboring Josephine County. They have local news reporters who write about local people and institutions in Grants Pass. They have been adding to staff. It can be done.
They say they have immediate plans to expand into Jackson County and with both local news and delivery. If they cover news in my home town, Medford, I want to see it. Here is a link to the Courier. A subscription is $15/month, $129/year. If they will deliver to my house, I will request a print edition.
Again, if I hear more about developments to re-establish local news in Medford, I will share what I learn.
A request of readers:
It is possible there are people who think the owner and publisher of the Tribune did an excellent job in a tough environment. I have never heard that view expressed by anyone with first-hand knowledge of him or the Tribune, but I would welcome comments or guest posts from people who think so.
11 comments:
Here’s the link: http://www.thedailycourier.com/
$15/ month online or $27/ month mail delivery of print version. Agreed: give it a try.
Yet another blog about a shuttered local newspaper is not interesting to me. Many newspapers have folded. It also seems morbid. Why kick dead horse?
As a result of being raised with newspapers and only a few radio and TV stations, we at least shared a common reality. Back then it made sense when Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
Thanks to the misinformation superhighway, people have now retreated to their own silo and believe what they want, regardless of the facts. Just yesterday I was on the road behind a pickup with a big TRUMP WON flag fluttering in the wind. I don’t know how, or even if, we can ever get back on the same page. It would at least be helpful if schools would teach kids how to tell fact from fiction, but Republicans would probably call it a commie plot.
My parakeet is going to miss having the Mail Tribune at the bottom of his cage.
The Mail Tribune just died, and next will be all the sheep that got their Covid vaccinations. Death by cardiac arrest. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!
Vaccination saves lives. Polio, measles, flu, diphtheria, COVID, tetanus.
There is decades of data.
For anyone unaware, Mr. Anonymous is referring to the malicious claim infecting social and right-wing media, that Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest was the result of a COVID vaccination. Whether Anonymous is serious or not, he proves my point: Far too many derive their misinformation from sources that are far too clueless. It can be deadly, as so many anti-vaxxers found out.
The loss of yet another monitor of local school boards,city and county government, local prep and college athletics, community projects and foibles,and even life passages, and endings is a notable milestone, millstone headstone for not only informing today but documenting for tomorrow community-based
community
One blog is sufficient.
Mr. Steely I myself am not a anti-vaxxer and I work in the medical field with over 40 years experience. But I can tell you that I saw first hand the effects of the vaccine right away in my elderly residents many who’s hands I held as they passed away. I worked a Covid unit as well and I personally have not received this particular vaccine as I felt it was rushed and pushed out way too fast. After seeing the things I saw that no one wants to talk about I personally do not regret my decision. I do believe that there is a investigation now into the link between the vaccine and strokes that the CDC just announced. Again I don’t regret my decision to not take it but now many of my colleagues do regret their decision in taking it out of fear of losing their job. I didn’t lose my job and I stuck to my principles once years of studies have been done I may reconsider until we know more about this new vaccine I will continue to do my very best to care for others and not ridicule them for their personal choices. Sincerely a Healthcare worker
"I'm not against it, I just think it's too much/too fast." We've heard that before.
You might want to read the CDC's bulletin more closely. It still recommends vaccination.
How many of those people whose hands you had claimed to hold weren't vaccinated, "health care worker"?
Your stories are not data.
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