"Citizen owner passes away, 74."
Yes, Big Jim, per a tribute note at Granite's website.
First, my condolence to daughter Brandi.
Second, does she take over Granite and reunite them with her Fenice papers, split about three years ago? Could be interesting.
Third, I think of an utterance of his that I heard, among other places, from the mouth of thrown-off central Texas publisher Dennis Phillips: "You can do anything with one more ad," or words to that effect.
I did learn things in my time with Granite. That includes things about newspapers as a business. Many of them aren't unique to Granite, from what I've learned since then.
Basically, folks, if you have a small town community newspaper, and it's not owned by some big chain, whether publicly traded or not, it's still owned by quasi-corporate folks.
First, for tax and other reasons, each paper in the "family newspapers" chain is separately incorporated. I presume, per an analogy I've used before, that even though every State Farm or similar insurance chain office is "separately owned and operated," nonetheless, the ownership is structured so the newspaper owners, or the corporate suites in Bloomington, Illinois, have final control and say-so.
Second, because of that, if you're the local newspaper publisher, the shit flows downhill when there's problems. And, note, we're talking about the 2020 newspaper world. At the same time, the rosy smell of success doesn't often linger in the home office without being claimed by HQ.
Third, what the hell are all the fees you're billed for on your monthly statement? And, are they all really justified? As far as things like ad-building services for smaller companies, uh, no, probably not. But, the thing is, some of that stuff, you get charged whether you use it or not.
Fourth? In today's world, the individual newspaper will suffer first, HQ second.
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