Screwing up a takeover in SW Oklahoma

Southern Newspapers bought the Lawton Constitution 18 months or so ago and then decimated the place.

And, another newspaper owner, who lives in Oklahoma, is wrong to claim this was needed.

Even if the previous owner hadn't trimmed staff enough, you don't fire that many people at once.

In addition, people not fired for good were made to reapply for their jobs. You don't do THAT at all.

Nor do you engage in apparent age discrimination when deciding who to keep and who to let go among the totally fired or those made to reapply, then fired for good.

Of course, when you the supporting owner engage in your own form of cheapism, you say these things in the belief they're true.

Given that Lawton continues to grow, and I believe Fort Sill is continuing to do the same, or at least hold its own, and Southwest Oklahoma becomes a small retirement hub, that paper shouldn't have been cut that much. Not even having a dedicated Fort Sill reporter any more? Institutional memory down the crapper.

Also, why Gannett, owner of the Wichita Falls Times Record News, didn't consider a buy and doing some clustering work, since it has Sheppard AFB, and both cities have oil, I have no idea. The longer I am in the biz, the stupider the newspaper ownership class makes itself appear.

Denton Record Chronicle or Denton Wrecked Chronicle?

I've joked about newspaper names in Texas and elsewhere for ages.

I'm not alone on the "StartleGram" for the Star Telegram in Fort Worth, I know.

But, I had never heard the, I'm sorry, The Dallas Morning News called the "Snooze" by anybody before I did.

Before that even, in an easy one, the Wichita Falls Times Record News was the Times Wrecked News. I did that mainly for layout reasons. Back when small seven-day dailies had actual pages, I didn't get why it had op-eds, classys and other mish-mash all in the same section.

Riffing on that is the headline of this piece.

Several years ago, (it's been 20!) the Snooze bought the Wrecked, which actually wasn't such, from its previous owner, who stayed on, as publisher or general manager, I'm not sure which title.

Anyway, about a year ago, citing future vision decisions or similar, he his grandson bought it back under basically a no harm no foul reacquisition.

But ... it is Wrecked now on the ads side. Not sure if it was that bad when Belo still had it, or if it has slumped further downhill since.

But, a 20-pager on Saturday. And, 20 percent ads, IIRC. (This was the June 8 issue and I didn't write down the adhole percentage.) As usual, I'm counting obits as part of the adhole.

I know June is kind of slow in the biz, but still. If that's what a Saturday looks like, what is their Monday this time of year? About 16 pages at less than 20 percent? Or 14 or even 12 pages to keep the adhole percentage up?

Should it be moving to six-day territory?

Also, and this may be a relic from Snooze ownership, but why do the Snooze (and Startlegram) both circulate in Cooke County, and the DRC does not?