With The Carthage Press left in disarray after two years of Buzz Ball at the helm, I have to wonder just how long is The Press going to continue publishing six days a week.
The newspaper has lost 60 percent of its readership over the past decade and has almost no advertising in its Monday edition. GateHouse has made the move already with some of its papers in Kansas.
Despite the problems it has, the shorthanded news staff at The Press has done a remarkable job getting as much local news as it does into the paper.
Whoever replaces Buzz Ball, don't expect any help to be coming to the news department. I would guess Ball will be replaced by someone who can do damage control with the business community and pick up the slack in advertising sales John Hacker and the news staff is unlikely to get much help from the new general manager and knowing how GateHouse Media operates, the chance of any reporters, or even stringers, being hired is zero.
5 comments:
I find it ironic that you can judge Buzz Ball's helm as a "disaster" when you, Randy Turner, was fired for incompetence at the "helm" of the Press so many years ago. Perhaps some of your readers on here don't realize that.
A case of short memory, perhaps?
I was not fired for incompetence as anyone who was around The Press 10 years ago will be happy to tell you. The full story of the events that led to my firing was featured in this post http://rturner229.blogspot.com/2008/07/10-year-anniversary-of-column-that.html
It had nothing to do with my ability as an editor or reporter and everything to do with the Terry Reed lawsuit, a lawsuit, I might add, which thought it had several defendants, all of the others reached a settlement with Reed. The judge dismissed the case against me and said it should never have been filed in the first place.
Instead of criticizing the Carthage Press (though it's easy to do)you should take note of all that the Neosho Daily is doing right. Rick steered the paper to a lot of awards in the APME contest this year.
Pound for pound, the Carthage Press is head/shoulders above the Neosho Daily any time, day or place.
The Daily News has as extra reporter, access to freelancers, a editor, a copywriter and a publisher who writes - none of the things allocated to the Press and staff. As a long time reader of the Press, I think they are doing a fanstastic job. and will do better with recent moves
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