Tell me more: "Bail Out Journalists. Let Newspaper Chains Die."

I'm listening. Any port in a storm; any revolution after a pandemic?

Bail Out Journalists. Let Newspaper Chains Die, by Ben Smith (NYT)

The coronavirus is likely to hasten the end of advertising-driven media, our columnist writes. And government should not rescue it.

 ... It’s a moment of deep crisis for the local news business, which could have been blown over by a light breeze and is now facing a hurricane. But it’s also a moment of great promise for a new generation of largely nonprofit local publications.

The time is now to make a painful but necessary shift: Abandon most for-profit local newspapers, whose business model no longer works, and move as fast as possible to a national network of nimble new online newsrooms. That way, we can rescue the only thing worth saving about America’s gutted, largely mismanaged local newspaper companies — the journalists.

“We need to accept that what local news is today is already dying,” said Ms. Green, 35.

She had that realization 12 years ago when she was a local education reporter. Her newspaper, The New York Sun, went under, and she created a new nonprofit organization to stay on the beat she loved. Now, her vision has expanded. She has co-founded the American Journalism Project, which aims to create a huge network of nonprofit outlets, some organized around subjects like education or criminal justice, others focused on covering a town, a city or a state. She wants to replace the hundreds of local newspapers now owned by hedge funds that are slowly being bled dry ...

"No official development plan has been submitted," but obviously there's a new restaurant coming to this vacant lot in Jeffersonville.

Hanson Bar & Grill?

Just curious here.

Does the News and Tribune actively seek to connect headlines to the content below them, or is it just blind editor's bluff?

For instance, this story. The header trumpets a restaurant in the works for a recently rezoned vacant lot.

But the story by reporter John Boyle mentions a rumored restaurant in only one paragraph, then offers an excellent account of transparency and planning issues in downtown Jeffersonville.

How does this story have anything to do with a headline touting a restaurant that the writer himself acknowledges is a rumor and absolutely nothing more?

How is the headline even remotely accurate -- unless it wasn't intended to be accurate, and was purposefully floated because any article about food draws more clicks than the ones about zoning changes?

Is anyone in charge at our local chain newspaper?

New restaurant in the works near Jeffersonville's Big Four Station Park

JEFFERSONVILLE — One of Jeffersonville's booming areas could see another addition in the coming years.

Last week, the Jeffersonville City Council approved the rezoning of a property at 300 W. Maple St., where Maple and Mulberry streets converge. The lot, which sits at the northwest corner of Big Four Station Park, has been a vacant strip of grass for years.

Though it hasn't been occupied in any permanent capacity, some city officials recall it being used as parking for Thunder Over Louisville and similar festivals. That could change now that the property has been sold, with a new project currently in the works.

No official development plan has been submitted, though early talks refer to the project as a sit-down restaurant and bar.

Worst corporate drivel ever as the newspaper's parent company plans a garage sale.

Leave it to a chain newspaper entity to unleash dolt-speak in announcing almost nothing at all apart from a desire for corporate bigwigs to make even more money.

People who write this badly should be in prison camps -- not children. Passages highlighted in bold scarlet represent particularly egregious spoutings of nonsensical gibberish.

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CNHI explores sale of newspaper company, by a robot at the CNHI NEWS SERVICE, live from the sand trap of a Bobby Jones golf course somewhere in sweet home Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – CNHI, LLC, one of the country’s leading providers of local news and information, said Monday it is exploring the sale of its newspaper properties in 22 states.

The announcement was made after its parent company, Raycom Media Inc., reported it has signed an agreement to be acquired by Gray Television group, a public company headquartered in Atlanta.

The News and Tribune is owned by CNHI, a subsidiary of Raycom.

Donna Barrett, CNHI’s president and chief executive office, said the company has retained the newspaper brokerage firm of Dirks, Van Essen, Murray and April to handle the sale of its newspapers.

“We’re excited to open the next chapter in our commitment to top-flight community journalism,” said Barrett. “We are looking for a transaction or transactions that will carry on CNHI’s rich tradition of public service through award-winning journalism.”

CNHI is a 20-year-old newspaper company that has grown from a few community newspapers at the outset to more than 100 papers today. They are located in the Midwest, Southwest, Southeast and Northeast.

Raycom Media Inc., which owns or operates television stations in 65 markets, acquired CNHI nine months ago.

“As we undertake this exploration process, we cannot say that any particular transaction will or will not take place,” said Barrett. “What we can say is that we will consider various options as we work to find a partner or partners that share our dedication to community newspapers and the vital journalism they produce to serve local audiences.”

The CJ's remarkably consistent terminal decline: No news in the Indiana Newsletter, and plenty of blue-bagged litter to clog the city's storm drains.

Friday was the 4th straight day of a Romeo Langford college choice story with top billing in the CJ's "Indiana Newsletter," finally supplanted today by the opioid crisis, another recurring chestnut that at least constitutes genuine news.

This vacuous irrelevance was accompanied by a fresh spate of unwanted blue-wrapped street spam.

Ah, but we have all been here before.

The Courier-Journal's "Indiana Newsletter": More Indiana coverage, perhaps, but is any of it really news?

When I think of all the possible news of the world, and all the conceivable news in Southern Indiana, and then this being a fairly typical "Indiana Newsletter" via e-mail ... the CJ's terminal decline gets even sadder.

It the best they can do: Sports, entertainment and celebrity hokum.

It's profoundly depressing.

And here:

Down with the Courier-Journal's blue-bag-recycling-hypocrisy. Fact is, it's litter.

Free speech my ass: The Courier-Journal can spin this any way it likes, but it's litter, plain and simple. Why do we allow representatives of the newspaper to trash the city? I'm not sure, but perhaps the city council's forthcoming litter ordinance will take this into consideration.

Cringe alert: News and Tribune treats us to double the usual dose of religious advocacy. Since when has it become a Christian circular?

"Could not agree more. If it's going to be an unreadable, poorly edited rag, at least keep it secular."
-- Regular Reader JS

Our perennially underachieving, Jeffersonville-based newspaper already has a weekly pro-Christian column written by the publisher's former pastor, and this is why I question the necessity of importing a syndicated "guest columnist" from Florida to tip the balance (um, what balance?) even further.

But in the end, it's just an institutional reflex action, isn't it, like when the doctor hits your knee with the little rubber thingy?

No more thought went into the selection of this column than what it takes to chew and swallow a lunch of chain restaurant food.

Still, let me be clear: The addressable point here isn't the columnist's religious proselytizing. It's her address. If the News and Tribune is to be a Christian newspaper, then surely it can find local Christians to preach it, rather than syndicated dreck-slingers.

KENNEDY: When God says ‘I told you so’, by Nancy Kennedy

... Just before Jesus raised a man from the dead he told the man’s sister, “Did I not say to you that if you believe you would see the glory of God?”

I think God loves to reveal his glory and loves to say “I told you so” when he answers our prayers and surprises us with himself.

The faraway author:

— Nancy Kennedy is the author of “Move Over, Victoria - I Know the Real Secret,” “Girl on a Swing,” and her latest book, “Lipstick Grace.” She can be reached at 352-564-2927 or via email at nkennedy@chronicleonline.com.

And my oh my, the tags:

Cathy Worship Christianity Food God Mom Jesus Glory Nancy Kennedy

The Courier-Journal's "Indiana Newsletter": More Indiana coverage, perhaps, but is any of it really news?

When I think of all the possible news of the world, and all the conceivable news in Southern Indiana, and then this being a fairly typical "Indiana Newsletter" via e-mail ... the C-J's terminal decline gets even sadder.

It the best they can do: Sports, entertainment and celebrity hokum.

It's profoundly depressing.

Transparency in schools is a relative term, redevelopmentally non-binding in the sense of ... "Is Hibbard gone yet?"

By the way, New Albany's Redevelopment Commission spent money to support the school corporation's property tax referendum last November (minutes from the September meeting, above). Note that the President is Irving Joshua, and the Director is David Duggins ... and the secretary taking notes is Adam Dickey.

Yep, the fix remains in.

Now, to the topic of this post.

I'm the first to concede these past weeks have been fractured, to say the least. My head hasn't been in the game, but still, I'd have sworn that something appeared here at NAC about the "open door" complaint.

It's unanimous as the NAFC school board rejects Hibbard's rollover.

We think this means Dickey wants Gahan's bedmate Hibbard to keep his job, but it's such bad writing that it's hard to tell.

Lee Cotner is appointed to a third stint on the NAFC school board.

Maybe it was a Facebook discussion instead.

Obviously, I favor the greatest amount of transparency possible. More daylight and greater openness always are preferable to less.

That said, contrast the chain newspaper's headline with the content; the ruling is "non-binding," and and access counselor himself concedes it to be a "technicality."

Damn, I wish New Albany had a newspaper.

NA-FC school board violated the Open Door Law, rules public access counselor, by Danielle Grady (Hanson Pay to Play Gazette)

Board decided upon a replacement at an executive session

NEW ALBANY — The Indiana Public Access Counselor has issued a non-binding ruling that the New Albany-Floyd County school board violated the Open Door Law during the replacement process of former board member DJ Hines.

A complaint was filed against the school board earlier this year by former board member Mark Boone after the board agreed upon — but did not take a vote on — a replacement for Hines during an executive session on Jan. 18.

IL's Stephen George asks: "Has The Courier-Journal lost its way?"

What is journalism now?

IL's Stephen George has written a very frightening glimpse into daily affairs at the once mighty C-J. This one's a must-read, folks.

With more staff cuts and a newsroom reorganization driven by market research, has The Courier-Journal lost its way? by Stephen George (Insider Louisville)

The executive editor and publisher of The Courier-Journal called the news staff of about 40 into a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, ostensibly to talk about the future.

That future, they soon learned, would start with all of them reapplying for their jobs. It’s a particularly dehumanizing part of an ongoing process driven by parent company Gannett and embraced by C-J executives to incorporate more market research and demographic trends into the paper’s reporting.

Journalism -- it's the perfect place for marketing professionals, rather like the best time to smoke cigarettes is while you're pumping gas.

The extraordinary contraction of the newspaper industry during the past decade has prompted round after round of layoffs and shrinking page counts. As ad revenue has declined, newspaper executives at the C-J and up the Gannett chain have scrambled to figure out what’s wrong, devoting increasingly more time and money to market research. Reporters and editors at the C-J have been subjected to various initiatives — driven by marketing professionals and often carrying goofy corporate rhetoric — designed to better connect them with their audience, a goal most media companies strive to achieve.

Uh oh ... it's the "profit motive" thingy again.

The memo is an explicit indicator of the change in approach C-J executives are pushing. Traditionally, reporters have been protected from the market pressures affecting their newspapers. It’s as old as newspapers themselves: Profit motive can corrupt the pursuit of news and investigations that aren’t exactly sexy but remain essential to the public discourse.

Now, reporters at all Gannett publications are being equipped with technology to monitor the performance of their online stories in real time. This might seem like useful information, but the implication has been clear: Write stories that people want to read. Never mind the traditional role of newspapers as keepers of the public trust.

“I don’t think they’re ignoring (the strong journalistic tradition at the C-J),” said one staffer. “I think they’re trying to obliterate it. It’s how can we get the most metric hits.”

It's a depressing and necessary read. I'm fond of reminding the uninformed that they're entitled to their own opinion, not their own facts, but as should be painfully obvious, we've already entered a protracted period of fact elimination. Then what?

Hail to the thief. Long live the chain. I'm comfortably numb.

In conjunction this week with numerous other CNHI chain newspapers, the News and Tribune erected an on-line metered paywall. You'll even have to pay to read the explanation of why you have to pay, except that I already reprinted it.

To summarize conclusions gleaned from recent Twitter exchanges, the cost for electronic access is $10 per month, compared with $15 to receive newsprint according to the US Postal Service's delivery schedule. The "Front Page" it ain't.

Finally the most recent temporary publisher Bill "Sales, Not Content" Hanson has conceded that your monthly tithe will not buy a reprieve from the intrusive roll-over videos and pop-up/over/under, buzzing-gnat-like advertisements that justifiably render the newspaper's on-line interface a local laughingstock. For this reason, I'm in no mood to subscribe. I'm okay with the price, just not paying it to be insulted by a chain.

Last night at Twitter, Jeffersonville-based managing editor Shea Van Hoy reinforced Hanson's earlier insistence that working together, they produce an "excellent community newspaper," by cautioning me not to peek around the paywall.

I would ask, Roger, that you not post entire N&T articles to your blog, as you did w/council story. I'm fine if you want to post a link, as you have in the past. Otherwise, it's theft.

In short:

Roger, there'll be none of that. I've no intention during this life or any other to follow of once acknowledging that time in 2011 when I screwed you over about your column after you did me a favor, but if you would, please resume directing traffic toward our paywalled website, as NAC has done for nine years running with scant thanks from us -- but anything else is mere thievery, to be quelled by sending the Community Newspaper Gendarmes to your back door ... of course, as soon as we fly them up on coach from Alabama, to which a sizeable portion of the $120 yearly cost will be going to Dixiecrat pensioners, anyway, even as we continue to insist that somehow, in some convoluted and wholly imaginary way with fingers crossed behind our backs, we're not a chain.

Shrug. Yawn. Somewhere, a dog fertilizes a bush.

This topic effectively has jumped the shark, along with Doug England's future in politics and the notion that this city by sanity's edge actually possesses a downtown economic development strategy. With the periodic exception of lifers past the point of mobility, chain outlets typically are staffed by folks eventually moving elsewhere, to other chains, and so it will be with this one, too. Maybe the next batch will be better. Maybe not. Whatever. In the final analysis, it just isn't worth giving a tinker's damn one way or another.

As we await Trib Daniel’s inevitable rejoinders -- touchingly, he is the newspaper's Jim Fowler, wrestling diabetic hippos in the oozing swamp as his upper management emulates Marlon Perkins, sipping chilled daiquiris in the hovering executive copter -- permit me to note that I’m happy to comply with Van Hoy's warning.

Henceforth, I’ll offer only rough paraphrasings of whatever I read at the 'Bune and ‘Bamagator ... however I manage to read it, and as seldom as possible. After all, I'm far less a thief than a spy in the house of bile.

Cheers.

Chain newspaper crazy train going off the rails.

Kudos to Dan Christensen.

First the cub reporter regularly uses his Twitter feed (under the chain newspaper's banner, and presumably with its permission) to lash out at small, independent local businesses.

Now the chain newspaper has published a column, evidently unavailable on  line, written by a woman urging big box flower arrangement shopping. Meanwhile the pop-up publisher of the year wanders off to post Bible proverbs, assigning a column slot to his pastor.

As we seek discernible signs of coherent chain newspaper management amid the escalating squalor, here's the florist's cogent point.

READER JEERS

... To Darlene Hilsenback for her column in last Saturday’s paper telling people to shop the big chain stores instead of their local florist on Valentine’s Day. Study after study shows money spent with small locally owned and operated shops benefits the local economy. With all the work groups and businesses do to try to get this out when someone encourages people to bypass the local florists and shop the chain stores for a better deal, we tend to get very upset. If you as consumers will take the time to shop your local florists I think you might be pleasantly surprised. Most of your local shops will compete not only in price, but also in service. It was stated in her column that the chain stores have less overhead, but in reality the small shops do not have the buying power that the big chain stores have. We can’t lose money on our flowers only to make it up on other products while you are in the stores, and still we try to stay competitive on our prices and services. I encourage everyone to BUY LOCAL, shop your local florists this year for Valentine’s Day, you and the person you are buying for will not be disappointed.

— Dan Christensen, co-owner, Affairs of the Heart Florist in Jeffersonville

A locally owned and operated florist since 1991