Former Neosho Daily News Managing Editor Buzz Ball introduced himself to readers at his new newspaper, The Carthage Press, in a column in Sunday's edition. (I would provide a link, but as far as I can tell, it has not been posted on the newspaper's website.)
In the column, Ball talked about his background and about what he wanted to see for The Press:
"My goals for The Carthage Press are quite simple: To be accurate, timely, local, respected and trusted. Sounds like simple goals, but maintaining them is the difficult part. But we cannot become the community newspaper that you deserve just by ourselves. It takes a team effort from the Press staff and our readers. We need to know what you want to read in your newspaper. We need to know what is happening. With just a four-person news staff, we cannot be everywhere at the same time.
John Ford, the new managing editor in Neosho, said it best: 'If it's news to you, it's news to us.' "
You might want to look that one over, Buzz. That can be taken more than one way.
The Sunday edition also included something Press readers will likely see many times over in weeks and months to come: Every page one article has John Hacker's byline.
Ball also says he wants to "become a Carthagenian or a Carthage-ite or whatever you call yourselves."
The word is Carthaginian. Unfortunately for Buzz, there was a time when a large number of people who worked at The Press could have told them that, but GateHouse (formerly Liberty Group Publishing) has neatly removed nearly all that is Carthage from the newspaper, as it fired workers to centralize operations in Neosho, and removed assets to improve the bottom line at Neosho.
Buzz has his work cut out for him.
7 comments:
And if things don't work out for Buzz in Carthage, Mr. Watson will soon be paying him a visit.
Randy, your bias is so transparent. During your tenure as editor of the Carthage Press you were best known for getting out of the talent's way. You shot yourself in the foot and were ushered into your current admirable occupation, which I understand you're better suited for. Liberty cut bait with Carthage when it determined it had a better chance of reinvigorating its Neosho property because The Globe hadn't cut as deeply into its circulation there. Now that Neosho has been fortified, it's time to beef up Carthage. Where Gatehouse actually needs to put its resources is in its web content and infrastructure.
I thought Rodney Blaukat's stated role was web content and infrastructure? Instead of trimming editorial staff, which will not result in circulation increases (duh!), why not fire some of the highly paid fat cats at GateHouse? Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Buzz, I think they're setting you up for a fall. You won't be able to reverse the circulation decline in Carthage, and Chip will be ordered by GateHouse to pay you a not-so-friendly visit. They'll axe you in order to save your salary. If you doubt this, ask yourself why they didn't send John Ford to Carthage.
Unfortunately, Randy, you're right. Welcome to the Neosho Press, delivering their news to the "Carthageites"
Buzz has already offended us here in Carthage by not knowing that we're called Carthaginians and not even bothering to ask someone.
I look forward to the BB regime. He certainly has a grasp of the requirements of business, their needs to maintain maximum economic development and the support and PR they best benefit from. Maybe RES can pay for him to take a trip to a new technology plant that RES wants to add to its line up in Carthage. Moark was rather successful in this endeavor in Neosho when they paid for BBs trip to Colorado to view some of their new technology.
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