Well, at least Lee Zion didn't get himself killed

For those in the media who have forgotten the name, Lee Zion was the small-town Minnesota newspaper publisher and owner who, with a variety of cockamamie claims about his journalism and a couple of cockamamie reasons about why he was leaving that I dissected here, with a short follow-up here, decided he "had to" get rid of his newspaper, and as I put it in Mark Twain terms, "see the elephant" by going to fight in Ukraine.

That was just over two years ago. I don't think I had googled his name in a full year, but something prompted me to a few weeks ago.

Well, lo and behold, more than a year ago, and, less than 10 months after doubling down on his determination to head to Ukraine? In early May 2023, he became editor of a weekly paper in Haines, Alaska. No, really.

He discusses his background:

“I’ve done a lot of things. I was the business reporter at the San Diego Business Journal. And in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I was a reporter/copy editor. Then there was Bryson City, North Carolina as an editor, which I greatly enjoyed. And most recently, I was the owner and other things at the Lafayette Nicollet Ledger in Lafayette, Minnesota.

For any "community" type newspaper editor, let alone one at or over age 55, even given the situation, that's a lot of wanderlusting.

He also discusses his time in Ukraine. He said he "put his back out" shortly before he was to head over, and it bothered him the whole time, and he only stayed a few months.

No indication if he offered to have sex for free with any Ukrainian girlchik porn bots, or with any Last Frontier women, either, per his time in Minnesota. Hope you like a LOT more snow and winter overcast than Minnesota had. (Less than 30 percent sunshine for half the year would probably drive me fucking nuts.)

To be totally honest, given the number of things he likely lied about with his Minnesota newspaper — claiming no staff help is a proven lie — he's probably lying about his time in Ukraine and why he didn't stay longer, either.

New editor, fewer pages in Gainesville

 So, at the start of the month, as I had heard would happen, the Register officially named CNHI's Cleburne editor as the editor in Gainesville as well. 

But, she doesn't just run that. She's also the editor at Weatherford.

Which means she probably doesn't do a lot of editing at any of the three. And, very little writing. (That's part of why Aledo's Randy Keck saw an opening to start an online-only alternative to the Weatherford Democrat.) So, in that sense, former Register editor Mike Eads won't be replaced.

And? Those pages? The Tuesday, Aug. 6 issue? Just 8 pages. First time I've seen them do that since dropping from triweekly to semiweekly. Don't know about the weekender after that, but the next Tuesday's issue? Eight again. (Why anybody would steal it at the local library other than for crosswords, I don't know.) They did have 10 on the Aug. 17 weekender, but if they'd not nearly a page and a half of legals, they might have dropped.

Aug. 20 midweek? Eight pages again. Ditto Aug. 27.

Looking ahead? Eads fought his way through football coverage and after that, the Register did nothing with sports, other than submitted letter of intent signings, the rest of the 2023-24 school year. Nobody responded to their ad seeking stringers. And, they've yet to start running one this year. That means no sports, in all likelihood.

But, it DOES have (checks notes) an eight-page! football preview. I didn't look in detail. Just saw it had an eight-page preview. Probably almost no ads. That said, in years past, Bill Patterson's Denton Wrecked-Chronic has only had a 12-page preview.

Update, Sept. 18: And, it's being VERY inconsistent in print in sports coverage. And, weirdly so. See more below on the Sept. 17 issue.

Sept. 3 midweek: Bare football scores with presumably submitted photos. 10 pages, in part due to tax rate legal notices.

Sept. 10 midweek: One-paragraph summaries of the Max Preps kind with submitted photos.

Sept. 17 midweek: NO scores, let alone story, even though it was Gainesville's homecoming. NO photos to go with. At least it was all local news on the front page, as the homecoming stuff meant no Texas Trib. But, it was just eight pages. Seriously. They ran a four-column photo, run vertically down to the shoes, of the king and queen, that basically ate up all of the front page on those columns, then a story about the alumni being honored and something about county Democrats to fill out the other two.

But, NO score from the game, let alone other area games.

Also, nothing online or in print about the demolition of an overpass crossing I-35 and how that might affect traffic.

There's probably a reason you readvertised that position

 Managing editor job, five-day daily. Kind of isolated, Western state. 

That doesn't reveal too much, as towns big enough to be small cities can be kind of isolated in any Western state due to population and climate controls on it out there.

So, I won't say more, so I don't alienate the publisher if this is read by that person. Well, sort of; hold on to that thought.

Job advertisement was on JournalismJobs in early June. Apparently nobody bit, or nobody good enough for their ask, or nobody cheap enough for their offer sheet or some combo of the above. (Job listing says that pagination as well as website content management experience is required, which means no pagination hub, and who knows how much help, to boot. Also weirdly, it uses a Siri-type app to do voice versions of all stories. Can't be for the visually impaired, as you have to see to hit the "play" button.)

So, it was readvertised a month or so later, early-mid July.

So, I applied, to kick the tires as much as anything. In addition to the notes above about a spot being advertised again, per not wanting to alienate the publisher, I told them in my cover letter and email that I knew more about the place than the typical out-of-state applicant, and hinted it was a fair chunk more, but didn't go into detail, lest I risk alienation.

I did not tell them that I also knew the previous ME had stuck only a year or just over.

Anyway, the publisher did make me a bit green with anger, not envy.

Said I needed clips along with cover letter and resume. I said I have a Google Docs link, open to public, at the end of the resume. Publisher said no bueno. 

So, with no more than medium effort, I gave them a police story about a drug and alcohol sales to minors sting, a column related to that, as no more than medium effort, and then a 5,000-word, or more, long feature story about the retirement of the previous priest at the Catholic church here. I wanted something that long deliberately.

Month later? Haven't heard back and I sent no queries. My tire kicking was not high-level interest even before the personal interaction.

==

And, what the hell. Let's name names.

It's .... the ....

Roswell Daily Record. Per the "about" on its website, it's like Jill Stein trying to pretend to not be an antivaxxer while actually being one. In this case, it's trying to pretend not to push 1947 UFO conspiracy theory while actually doing so.

In July 1947, something streaked out of the sky, hitting the ground outside of Roswell, New Mexico, beginning years of ongoing speculation as to what the object was. According to initial information provided to the Roswell Daily Record by the Roswell Army Air Field, the startling headlines claimed that the military had recovered a flying saucer from a nearby ranch.

Overnight, the story changed from a flying saucer to a weather balloon, and over the ensuing years, that explanation morphed into a military high-altitude surveillance program. Over decades of conspiracy theories that the U.S. government has covered up the possibility that an alien spacecraft and its otherworldly crew were responsible for the 1947 crash. Through it all, and continuing to this day, the Roswell Daily Record was there to report the news and to spark the public interest and fascination with this story.

Wrong. 

The publisher, and owner, is the daughter of a long-term owner who died in 2018. AFAIK, it's the only paper they own.

And, Beck daughter has a reason to peddle this, as did daddy, assuming he did, too.

The paper owns its own UFO store.

Of course, here's the reality.

And, I knew that reality long ago. I also know that, 25 years ago, Roswell boosters were talking about when the city would hit 50,000. Never happened. Population's been basically flat since 1990 and Farmington has just about caught it, while the Farmington metro area is much bigger.

Basically, it's a High Plains/edge of desert community, that has, or it was when built, the largest mozzarella cheese plant in the US if not the world.  But climate change and water owed to Texas on the Pecos and no aquifer of note in the area will ding that. There's some oil there, but not like in the Permian. New Mexico Military Institute is the only other major or semi-major business driver.

A McLatchKey clusterfuck in Charlotte coming up

 The Charlotte Observer, nominally owned by McClatchy but really by Alden Chatham Asset Management, is about to implode.

Per a Substack run by a presumably online-only competitor, The Charlotte Ledger — or maybe the Substack IS??? the online paper ...

The Observer is going to cut to just 3x a week in print.

And, wait, that's not all.

We all know there is no DeJoy, or rather, too much DeJoy, in the Mudville of the U.S. Postal Service.

McLatchKey in Charlotte is delivering those 3x papers a week via the USPS. No more carriers.

Sidebar: Where in the FUCK are they being printed if they have 2 p.m. deadlines? Atlanta? They've obviously gotten rid of their own press, which for a daily paper in one of the top 30-35 metro markets in the US is incredibly stupid right there.

Here's the Observer's announcement. The change starts in September.

That said, this Ledger does run off Substack, it appears. That means you're paying overhead to Hamish et al. And charging just $99/year for the half that is paid. SMH. The Way of Life sub-Substack (it's a newspaper, not a newsletter) is paid-only, with 22K subscribers. OTOH, that's $2.2 million, if those subscriber numbers are current and no churn.

They say, on the first link, that the Observer is down to less than 40 journos. OK, at $50K a year, and allowing Hamish his cut off that $2.2 million plus the partially paid biz Substack, you've got the same number yourself.

However, my back-of-envelope calculation doesn't allow for the employer share of FICA taxes, nor for unemployment insurance program payments to the state, nor any state business taxes on the Ledger, nor any property taxes if it has a physical newsroom. (Also, are these sales subject to North Carolina sales tax?) It also presumes that there's no health insurance and these employees have to Obamacare. It also leaves no room for higher pay for editorial management. 

So, while the Observer may be imploding, and may have shot itself in the foot on the printing press closure, whenever that happened, it's not like the Ledger is necessarily all that and a pack of smokes either. And, it's been around four-plus years.

Why aren't you charging for sports if you are presumably, going beyond "just the box scores"?

==

Update: Re the suggested collection, Teh Google said Chatham is going in the crapper in other ways, merging McClatchKey with the parent company of the National Enquirer. Well, maybe not. The story said that "accelerate360," Chatham's glossy mag group, would specifically exclude the Enquirer and some other mags, and also by name exclude David Pecker.

We'll see how long and well that lasts.

==

Sidebar: I appreciate the correction from Alden to Chatham, which error I shouldn't  have made. But, it reminds me ... moderation here is being flipped on.