CherryRoad Media does NOT impress me

I first blogged about the new entrant into the Texas newspapers biz in March. Among their titles, in my area, is a (I think?) still-daily in print Sherman Herald-Democrat.

Took a gander at recent issue last Saturday at my local WallyWorld. This was their Friday issue.

Twenty pages? OK, decent size.

But? About zero local content. The one locally bylined story on page 1? It was about trying to prevent "summer learning loss" among K-12 students. Nice concept. But, the local follow-up was limited. Asking a superintendent, not an assistant, about the idea of year-round school as an antidote would have made it better. Getting a comment from TEA Commish Mike Morath to that end, or even asking him about a longer school year, like other developed nations, would have been better. (It was made worse by the study being from 2017. If you're going to try to localize something off the Net, it probably should be fresh.)

That was a small problem, though, compared to the adhole.

Or rather, the lack thereof.

NO ROP. That's right, NONE. As in NO DISPLAY ADS!

Page and a half of classys with half page of filler on the second page of them.

That's it, in a 20-page paper.

I don't know if Cherry Road has any plans beyond an Advance-type wind-down, or per my original post, if they bought this paper from Craphouse to data-mine subscribers for more nefarious purposes, or what?

And, as a data company? The dotted lines that pop up around most links? Looks like ass. If that is part of "ADA compliant," pass.

There's no emails for publisher, ad manager, managing editor or staff writers. The one bylined person doesn't have their name as an active link. The "about" has names for none of the top people, which leads me to be suspicious about two paragraphs above. A "community rules" link is NOT CherryRoad's community rules, but eType Services, their CMS. I can't even find, under popular stories, a link to the then-new ME introducing herself two months ago. Very likely, she ain't there.

So, Lee Zion got somebody to take his paper off his hands

 For my original, and skeptical, take on the small-town Minnesota newspaper owner who wants to go fight in Ukraine so badly that he wanted somebody to take his newspaper off his hands, go here.

For a story of his success, with more of his background, go here.

Interestingly, like me, he's single, no kids. He's done his share of bouncing around.

My impression? Per an old Civil War phrase popularized by Mark Twain, he hasn't seen the elephant yet and wants to go see it.

With no significant other or children, “it’s just me and the newspaper,” he said.

That kind of reinforces things.

This only reinforces my take more.

“I do not want to die,” Zion said. “I am not afraid of dying.”

Then he paused. 

“I’m 54,” he added. “It’s not like I have a long life ahead of me.”

I feel a bit sad for him. It's like he's living through his love for Ukrainian music to the point of it becoming a fixation. (I exchanged emails with him before my original post; I still wonder, per it, if there's not business reasons behind this decision as well.

And, this story raises new issues. The Guardian reported, just days after my blog post, that he had someone else lined up to take it over. That fell through, I guess; Robert Lawson was listed as a "prospective candidate"in initial coverage of Zion. Also, he was a former newspaper editor; the actual "winner" is a former radio DJ. This also makes me think we're not getting the full story. Zion, in the new piece, doesn't tell WHY the original deal fell through.

I tweeted my original piece to CJR, Nieman, etc., asking somebody there to do a longer piece. Never happened.