Saturday, June 15, 2019

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?

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