An interesting video sidebar to the death of newspapers stories......
Back in my Oakland Press days in Pontiac, Michigan we used to eat lunch at a restaurant across the street from the paper. "Sid's," which was owned and run by a guy named Jim, served fresh turkey sandwiches with a dose of down home insults.
Jim kept the "Sid's" name because he didn't want to waste money on a new sign.
The family run restaurant was convenient and usually quick for lunch and occassionally our old publisher would stop in for lunch as well.
On several occassions the publisher would ask to sit with us and because he was a well-heeled individual we at first believed we might get our $3.78 lunch tab picked up by the boss.
Wrong! At the end of the lunch, the publisher, a good ol' Scotsman, divvied up the bills and made sure he didn't pay a penny more than his due. He was the same guy who stood in line to get free house paint from the city during a giveaway in the 1970s.
At that time the newspaper motto, which was prominently displayed on its building sign was: "Delivered to a doorstep near you." Which if you really think about it was a stupid slogan because most people want the paper delivered to "their" very own doorstep.
But as bad as the old publisher was, times have fallen hard on the Oakland Press, as it has on so many papers.
In recent years, the ownership has bought out, laid off or otherwise decimated the ranks of its editors and reporters.
One longtime employee and editor, and a friend of mine, was fired long distance by phone while he and his wife were on vacation. Nice touch, eh?
Another favorite OP co-worker and friend, Jean Saile, gave me sage advice, which I should have, but didn't take.
"Jim," Jean said to me. "A reporter should write for five years and then quit and go onto something else. After five years you will have covered every imaginable story and after that you will simply be telling the same stories over and over."
Although I didn't realize it at the time, that was so true.
The Oakland County news beat was an active one, with plenty of competition from Detroit newspapers and televisions stations. It was a fun place to cover the news, even if it was not very profitable.
But like so many other news organizations, the Oakland Press was swallowed up by a media money machine that was only content when it gutted the operation to maximize its profits.
It's a familiar story, no?
2 comments:
Going Down at The Oakland Press
OK you newsies are having too much fun without me.
Things at the Oakland Press in Pontiac are going down faster than Monica Lewnsky .
Losing all of the top management through ungraceful dismissals or just those joining the parade of competent people leaving for a better life is showing up in the puff pieces applauding the admonishments of the local tire store marking their fith year in business. On second thought doing that in Pontiac may indeed be note-worthy.
Employees who have not escaped the poor pay and lack of any sort of gratitude from the Journal Register owners are have the tar beat-out them. The copy desk is a hellhole and generally trying to do a decent job of covering a beat is in the long-a-go past.
What was once one of the major newspaper in Michigan is becoming a third rate rag. At one time The Oakland Press Sunday circulation was way over 95,000 on Sunday and in the 80s' in the week. The closely garded numbers now are about 67,000 Sunday and less then 60,000 week days.
When JRC bought the 21 Century chain, that included the Oakland Press, their stock was at about $21.00 a share. The last time I checked it was about $1.50.
The only way JRC can hope to margin even a dime on the dollar is to beat the profits out of the few employees left.
In spite of this disaster the darn place still makes a good profit and carries most of the water for the sister papers.
I expect the one time proud Royal Oak Tribune to close shop before the years end. But the hand full of Tribune employees just singed a new contract with the Newspaper Guild. It was become little more then a throw-a-way shopper now under JRC managnment.
Word around the entire Oakland Press building is that a union would be very welcome and inspite of the papers history this time the entire work force would signup.
Night Rider
Despite a brief moment of brilliance under the old regime, the uncovering of the Oakland Intermediate Schools scandal, the OP has been sliding into irrelevance for some time. I canceled my subscription years ago.
Even gifted with a Detroit newspaper strike, the OP didn't (or wouldn't) make the requisite investments to hold onto readers. Unless the JRC is selling crack out the back door, they must still be selling ads, though ... as long as the paper writes stories about tire store and doughnut shop openings and that irritating "best of Oakland" adver-cum-story crap.
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