Comments on: The death of a daily paper

By: Bruce Wishart ~ Remembering a newspapering icon

Bruce Wishart ~ Remembering a newspapering icon — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:10:08 +0000

[...] about the closure of the Prince Rupert Daily News brought to mind this piece marking the passage of longtime [...]

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:31:20 +0000

I’m not sure how much of an “insider” I was, Scott – an educated observer, perhaps. I’m furious about the closure of the Daily News, and I’ve been increasingly frustrated watching its decline. It’s been like watching a friend start every day by injecting themselves with slow-acting poison. Had you come back as Managing Editor, a decade after you left, you would have found it almost unrecognizable.

By: Scott Crowson

Scott Crowson — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:13:05 +0000

Thanks for your insight, Bruce. I’ve been looking for some insider analysis of what happened. Please contact me when you get a chance.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:51:06 +0000

Thanks for the comments. I think that youâ€™re right in your assessment, Gordy. A friend and I were talking about this just this morning. In this case the failure of the ownership to invest in a proper website may have been a contributing factor, in a small way, but that was symptomatic of the broader issue. Online sources didnâ€™t impact this paper; heck, what there is of that here is either sheer invention or the regurgitation of the work of paid reporters. People here were by and large still content with the broadsheet. A website would have been built with an eye to long-term viability, but it would still have been produced by that same understaffed shop. And the staff of the paper would still know that they worked for owners who regarded them as little different than workers in a fast-food franchise. Or rather, perhaps, as workers in a bottled water plantâ€¦

By: Gordy K

Gordy K — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:19:42 +0000

Great article, Bruce. Very insightful. It is difficult to be relevant in a NEWS industry when NEWS papers have drastically reduced reporters, photographers, talented columnists and page counts. If you aren’t letting the readers know what’s going on at city hall, or school board, or at the local arena, or why HST and Olympic costs matter and cover the school musicals, volleyball and charity events — you know, the stuff everyone does in your town and talks about around the water cooler the next morning — it’s impossible to be relevant. A lot of newspapers, due to a variety of reasons and economics, are now glorified flyers, many afraid to call out council’s financial scandals or the government’s waste of taxpayer money for it may hamper their bottom line, or ability to get dinner invites with the higher powers. The independent newspaper, with people who have dreams of serving the community and being a part of the community and covering what matters in the community with well-written and well-researched stories is the ideal platform to keep papers alive, or at least serving as NEWS papers. And if people aren’t reading newspapers because they have no content or relevancy, why should anyone think they’ll read websites written and produced by those same understaffed newspapers? Any day a newspaper dies is a bad one. And the fact most larger papers/chains are run like impersonal banks with profit mattering a heck of a lot more than people, is sad, too. But then what hasn’t changed in this world?

By: Pirjo Raits

Pirjo Raits — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:02:00 +0000

Great article and great insight. It seems so many newsroom of small community papers don’t know what it takes to make a local paper relevant to the readers.

By: Simon Ratcliffe

Simon Ratcliffe — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:04:45 +0000

A good lesson here for anyone in any business. Stay relevant and look for real purpose.