You won't find a long, detailed review of the second edition of the Joplin Herald on this blog. The school coverage was better, but for the most part it still looks exactly like what it is- the Joplin Globe doing just enough to block the path of someone else who is trying to start a weekly. There is absolutely no reason why these news items would not fit in the Joplin Globe, even if the Globe does consider itself to be a regional newspaper.
Just for the sake of argument, let's say you're correct in your assertion Randy...The Globe is simply publishing this to keep the competition away.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't you? If not you are a piss poor business man. Another circulation threatens your advertising...why take that chance when you can provide that entity?
Your logic is lacking and your argument weak if "they are just trying to keep somone else out of the market" is the crux of your case.
I am simply stating that is why they are doing it, which is more than what the Globe's publisher did when he wrote his column explaining why the Herald was created. The items that are put in the Herald could easily have been put in the Globe and the fact they are being put in this new weekly free publication is an insult to those who are paying good money to buy the daily publication. Any newspaper that uses the entire back page of its first section to tell you what is on the other pages is already wasting space that could have been used to place all of this material that supposedly the Globe did not have room for in its regular editions. If the Globe wants to start a publication, that is its own business, but its Joplin customers deserve to know why they have to have a second paper just to receive Joplin news.
ReplyDeleteDid any of you know that the "new" weekly is a Tri-State version of the old failed Herald? They are taking a swing at the Big Nickel...and, of course, any other entity wanting to start a weekly. Randy is correct in wanting this information in the regular Globe daily. That is what we pay our subcriptions for...did they lower the subcription rate when they pulled this information from the daily.
ReplyDeleteWhat hasn't been said is that the business community is NOT supporting this product. Have you noticed the lack of advertisers in the new product? It is a joke. I give this product three months and it will close just like Herald did in the past.
The Tri-State Buyers Guide was in my Joplin Globe. It looks like a swipe at the Big Nickel, but its pretty sad looking. I give it three months tops. There are no line ads and it is like 4 pages. I haven't seen The Herald but it doesn't sound like something I need to try to read either. There was nothing to read in that Buyers Guide except about Poker, which, who gives a crap? It makes good paper for starting a fire in my fire place though. I think the Globe should just stick to making their product better. Why would any one advertise in these products? Its beyond me. I guess without advertisers it will dry up and go away in time.
ReplyDeleteFree weeklies nationwide are increasing their circulation numbers even as daily papers' subscribers continue to lose interest, cut expenses, discover the new-fangled Internet, or in many cases, grow old and die off.
ReplyDeleteFew young people bother to take a daily paper. They don't have the time or (thanks to the Bush economy) the money to devote to a subscription. But they'll sure pick up a free rag if it catches their eye, even if they have to wander through pages of self-absorbed columnists to find a semisucculent nugget of relevancy (sometimes called a "horoscope").
It could be a smart move by the Globe to establish a (bland, from what I've seen, but earnest) toehold in the free-circulation niche. And, at least in the short term, no doubt profitable.
Sustainability, on the other hand...
The timing might be suspect. If there are rumors of a competition coming to town, as I've read on this blog, whatever corporation owns the Globe probably put the pressure on, worried a trickle of advertising revenue stream could be diverted.
Well, the readers will decide. Then the advertisers. Then the bean counters.
It's all about money, remember.