Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Another Booth property is sold

The Kalamazoo building has been purchased by a downtown development group.

My favorite paragraph from the story:

"Taylor would not say how much he and business partner Alan Sylvester will pay to buy and redevelop the Kalamazoo Gazette property. The acquisition and redevelopment includes the former Business Review West Michigan building just south of the newspaper building on Burdick Street, which is also owned by the Gazette."

Well, here's an idea, work your sources inside the newspaper because somebody at Booth or the Gazette must know what they are receiving for the property? The sale amount is pretty important info for a business story, is it not?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Jim, you're right. Unless you are reporting about yourself. In that case, eh, not so much, I guess.

Anonymous said...

What kind of lead is that for a news story? "The head of Downtown Kalamazoo Inc. is pleased ...?" Oh, thank heavens! I was so worried that Kenny wouldn't be pleased!

Finally, a few grafs down, we get to the news:

"Kalamazoo-based Phoenix Properties announced plans Wednesday to buy and convert the 87-year-old Gazette building for multiple commercial uses, including office, retail, possible light industrial, and possible residential."

Then, just to give the story unity, it ends with this:

"He said he is also very pleased to have a local developer involved ..."

Good for you, Kenny. I, for one, am displeased.

Jim of L-Town said...

Anonymous 14:21:

Oh, but in my opinion you are wrong. You should especially cover all the bases when you are reporting on yourselves. Not to compare any Booth Newspaper with the New York Times, but when they have a negative story about themselves, it gets covered. Take some of the high profile plagiarism issues that they have covered on themselves.

A newspaper loses credibility when it treats itself differently in a news sense than it does everyone else.

At least there should have been a paragraph that said:

"Dan Gaydou declined to release the amount of the sale....." That would have at least told me that the reporter tried to get the information.

Anonymous said...

One interesting point that has not been discussed publicly is the fate of the newspaper's former morgue and archives, which still are in the building.
The organization does not want to give up control of the materials, but it doesn't want anyone else to control them either.
Negotiations are underway with the local university, which won't really have room to house it all.

Jim of L-Town said...

Actually, it was discussed here just a week or so ago, but it is still a good question.