Kids, don't do this layout at home!

Before I moved to this Eastern Front newspaper, I had never seen anything like:

Yes, that's a subhed next to a cutline. 

By the ME boss lady.

That's just fugly.

If you do insist on doing that, don't brag about your design skills.

No, a redesign won't save you, either

Whether it's a redesign of your physical print paper or the electrons of your website, it won't save you unless it leads to more ads.

Even as, by necessity, circulation becomes a larger part of the revenue pie, it hasn't yet replaced advertising. And it won't for some time in the future.

So, unless your redesign leads to more ads, or at a minimum, to twice as much in circulation revenue as you've lost on ads plus circ in the ... last two years, it won't save you.

And, thus, it's not worth massive time investment.

All you're really doing is playing around with the Internet 2.0/social media shortened attention span hamster wheel.

The Snooze slouches further on ads

Update, Dec. 7: It's gotten worse. An 11.5 percent adhole on Thursday, Dec. 6. AND, that was with cutting back to 36 pages, below the 38 that has been a previous Thursday low, and the 42 or so that's normal.

About zero Christmas-shopping related ads. Thin on inserts.

Update, Jan. 4, 2019: The slippage got worse. A 7.5 percent adhole on 36 pages on Christmas Eve.

===

Last Thursday, Aug. 2, I saw something I am sure I've never seen in a Dallas Morning News before, because it almost certainly has never existed before.

That would be a non-Monday paper with an adhole below 20 percent. Well, no, even worse.

Below 15 percent.

Yep, the Snooze had a paper with a 13 percent ad run.

How do I count this?

Inserts, preprints, pay a separate rate, of course, and aren't traditionally counted.

I don't count house ads.

I don't count house ad filler on things like classy pages.

I do count obits as paid inches though.

And the Snooze had just 13 percent. On a Thursday.

Now, defenders will counter that August is a slow ad month.

Tis, in general. But, Thursday traditionally isn't as slow as Monday-Wednesday.

AND ....

They got the adhole as HIGH as 13 percent by running just 38 pages on a Thursday. Run 44 pages and you're at less than 11.5 percent.

And, it didn't get much better a week later. Again on 38 pages, the Snooze was at 18.5 percent Aug. 9.

Remember, the Belo parent has sold all TV stations, and all non-Dallas print properties as well. It did have the ethics to separate its digital marketing earlier this year.

But, wow.

They're going more and more digital first. An acquaintance of mine writes almost entirely digital now.

But, I don't know how well that will hold up.

They've bled market share. On politics, especially on endorsements, they remain with their old white core readers, not so much from Dallas itself now as the north burbs. On Dallas news itself, Jim Schutze, augmented more and more by Stephen Young and others, kicks their ass at the Observer, including Schutze's old running mate, Robert Wilonsky.

Things all kerfuffled in Marlin, Texas

It hurt somewhat to give two weeks' notice at the Marlin Democrat because I saw things that ... as I've told people, and within limits of some non-disclosure paperwork — I didn't feel comfortable with.

It felt more uncomfortable when my two weeks' notice was shortened. (I and the person making the call shortening it will use different words for what happened. I'll leave it at that.) 

It felt uncomfortable and hurt to see people in Marlin, before I prepared to move back to my previous job, see me around town not knowing I was no longer at the Democrat.

But, as I said, I "felt uncomfortable." Let's leave it at that. I've already talked to at least one person on the phone and said that was enough to share publicly.

Directly or indirectly, the Democrat will be back under the control of the Hearne folks, from all I know. That's not going to change. How much some of the things I learned after I moved back to Marlin and that made me uncomfortable will continue — for those who have heard about such things or maybe even been a victim of – I don't know.

The possibility of not being able to fix things like that — not editorial things such as writing, page layout, editing, etc. — was my primary area of discomfort.

I perhaps could have known more about some of the things that made me feel uncomfortable when I was looking for housing in Marlin, and changed my mind at that time about taking the job and moving.

I don't want to say too much more.

I've already been accused of attacking Hearne people. If saying "I don't know why they didn't want to run club news, but I will again" is attacking, so be it.

People who know me from when I was here before, or want to ask people from when I was here before, I hope still trust my word. You might not have agreed on my take on matters of opinion on local political and cultural issues in the past, but I hope nothing personal resulted from that.

As I said when I returned to Marlin, I just wanted to move forward.

I still want what's best for Marlin's future.

In fact, before I left, I told people that I'd come back to Marlin again for the right position, or at least to the Marlin area (Waco) and do what I could to boost the Marlin community.

Obviously, that job would not be as publisher of the Democrat under current ownership.

Nor, respectfully put, would it be as publisher of the Democrat under one possible alternative owner. I heard about that, and no, I don't think that would be the best possible owner.

But, if the hospital or the school district needed a PR person, or somebody in Waco or Temple needed similar? I"m there. Obviously, once I decided that I felt uncomfortable, and that I didn't think I could get more comfortable in my current circumstances, this is America and a guaranteed job of OK pay, even with the hassle of the re-move, was certainly better than nothing.

I am not joking coming back to that area for the right position, though.

Obviously, removed from Marlin again, there's not too much I can do. I may pass on an email address associated with this blog to a few people, both for tidbits about Marlin that may not get on either the paper's pages or official Facebook pages, as well as for people who honestly have jobs like I just mentioned. Or for other things.

Meanwhile, I look down the road at Hearne. A Ty Clevenger, love him, hate him, or a bit of both, has been "plugged in" there for years, and there's only so much he can do from Brooklyn.

As for other possibilities for news coverage in Marlin, or informed and caring commentary about that? Otherwise, I know choices aren't too great. Clubs don't thrill as much to having their meeting news on a Facebook group as in a newspaper, and older (and some younger) club members may not "do" Facebook that much anyway.

And, I may be wrong otherwise. Maybe some of the things that made me feel uncomfortable are readily fixed and will be. (Though some, I am sure won't be.) I made a judgment call influenced by yet other factors out of my control. I'm over a certain age, when a certain type of job discrimination can happen. And my previous job was still open.

I otherwise felt it was easier writing out some of these issues to the degree I could, and in a relatively dispassionate way with the passage of a few months.

I'm still not sure what Jim Moser, owner of both the Marlin and Hearne papers, knew about this in Marlin. I do know that Clevenger, a few years back, published Moser's email over stuff in Hearne. I also know that a few people in Marlin know Clevenger.

In any case, thanks for reading.