The StartleGram is no longer a seven-day daily

 Not in print, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is not

June 23, I saw an issue at one of the Denton library branches. It said: "Friday-Saturday, June 23-24." In other words, the StartleGram now has a pre-weekend bulldog issue. (I know "bulldog" is technically, in the past, a Saturday-Sunday weekender, but it's the word that works here.) And, it's not like it's printing a separate "three-star" for Denton, just 30 miles up the road from Cowtown.

And, even with the two days combined, it was 24 percent ads at 28 pages, not counting paid obits, of which there weren't that many.

That said, as I noted here a month or so ago, it should get rid of its Monday paper, if anything. The most recent one I eyeballed had a SEVEN percent adhole.

The Fort Worth StartleGram sinks further on ads

 I was grokking a couple of issues recently at the Denton library.

Monday, May 8? A 22-page paper. Not bad on editorial content for a Monday paper in today's world, I guess.

Ads?

GODAWFUL. Even counting the paucity of obits as paid adhole? It was SEVEN PERCENT!!!!

And, yes, Mondays are slow.

Wednesday, May 10? A 28-page. And, a whopping 15 PERCENT! And, I didn't see any grocery store circulars inside. (That could be for a variety of reasons, I guess.)

Seriously?

On Mondays? If the adhole is even close to that regularly, even on a relatively small paper? Isn't it time to kill the Monday paper? I mean, can that be making money or even close to it?

And, on the paucity of obits? Have they jacked their prices that much?

Good luck, starting journos in the future who reportedly will start at $50K. None of you are being hired.

The Fort Worth StartleGram strike

 An insider writes about the process for the Texas Observer. Interestingly, at other McLatchKey papers, columnists are certified/certifiable as union members. At the StartleGram, not so much. Wondering if Bud Kennedy wrote a column about this.

Unions at Texas papers: an update

Newsrooms at the Dallas Snooze, Fort Worth Startlegram and Austin Stateless all opted sometime back to join the News Guild and fight for unionization. Surprisingly to a degree on first read, by its past history, but really, not, negotiations are going best at the one-pony Snooze, versus Craphouse/New Gannett in Austin and McClatchy/hedge fund in Cowtown, reports Gus Bova.

The Snooze may figure, with the former Belo owning only it and its limping offspring like Al Dia, that it's got nothing to win by pissing off remaining staff as it continues to work to become 21st century digital first after multiple past failures on that front.

McClatchy, for all its good stuff on not following other major chains on all foreign policy reporting, appears to have been a bit red-ass on labor stuff even before the hedge takeover. Craphouse (Gatehouse), the real driver of "New Gannett," is notorious as a crappy workplace, so no surprise there.

A LESS THAN 10 PERCENT adhole at the Morning News

 A week ago, I blogged about how the Dallas Morning News, aka the Snooze, had a 10-percent or so adhole in its issue the Thursday before that.

Today? Even worse. 

Despite MORE obits than the week before (and I count obits as part of the paid adhole), LESS THAN 10 PERCENT.

By my quick eyeballs, an even three pages on a 34-page paper.

What makes this even worse?

In today's world, if the Snooze still insists on printing this issue, it should not be distributed where I live. 

I live in the north exurban Metromess on the west side of I-35.

In other words, Fort Worth StartleGram territory.

What the hell the Snooze is even doing out here I have zero idea.

As I said last week, Belo's got more to worry about than A.H. Belo's Confederate past. With no papers outside the Snooze, Al Dia and anything else Dallas-based, and having hived off the digital marketing department ...

What's left there?

Their alleged paywall (third shot at doing one) is leaky, if it's even on half the time.

StartleGram, Snooze, continue to have COVID ad struggles

Last Thursday, I saw both papers on the racks in their Red River Valley exurban editions.

And, boy.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or StartleGram? First, it's been cut from the previous 20 pages down to 16. Hey, that made it 25 percent, or nearly so, on adhole.

As normal, I count obits as part of the adhole. Obits and extended classys with several public notices made up most of that. Display ads were less than three-quarters of a page, or less than 5 percentage points of that adhole.

Over to the Snooze. Normal, or post-COVID normal (can't remember where it was at in February) 30 pages on page count.

ELEVEN percent. The great majority was non-display. Now, it didn't get lucky, unlike the Cowtowners; no big raft of legal notices. But, that was "lucky" in Fort Worth. This is normal.

Still can't believe there are no talks, or rumors of talks, of a full or semi-full JOA.

McClatchy: On the clock and on the block

Chatham Assess Management has made an official bid for McClatchy as it currently sits in bankruptcy court.

Of interest here in Texas is that McC owns the Fort Worth StartleGram, which has looked primed to move closer and closer to an informal, if not formal, JOA with the Dallas Snooze for some time.

The big sticking point has been, in my guesstimate, that Belo owns nothing but the Snooze, a few Dallas print spinoffs and that's that. Basically, a JOA for these two papers means the end of Belo as an independent company. Yes, it's also got that digital marketing biz, but ...

It's unclear if and when McC will get sold and to whom. Per Chatham's bid, it's also unclear if it will be accepted and on what terms, or even officially let into the mix as a stalking horse bid.

But I would be seriously surprised if the Metromess proper (excluding Little D in Denton) has more than 1 independent daily paper by Jan. 1, 2021.

As I wrote on Tuesday, the Snooze probably should be snoozing print days.

The next step closer to a formal JOA, or something like that, would be it and the StartleGram deciding, between days other than Wednesday and Sunday, who's doing a print version and who's not, since they have a certain amount of distribution overlap beyond Dallas and Tarrant counties and the inner ring of suburbs.

Top blogging of 2019

Whether it's boredom, shock at the continuing decline of newspapers or other things, 2019 was my heaviest year blogging here. As a result, most of this year's Top 10 blog posts were from 2019.

No. 1? Skepticism about the SLC Tribune becoming a nonprofit, and discussing that skepticism in detail.

No. 2? Wondering if the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, aka the StarleGram, could survive much longer without entering a JOA with the Snooze. (This was one of several advertising-related, or rather, lack of advertising-related, hot takes about the StartleGram last year.)

No. 3? Looking at the Gannett-Gatehouse, rather the Mehness (can't even think of a good bad pun) - Craphouse merger.

No. 4? Calling out wingnut lawyer Ty Clevenger, as well as several small newspapers in central Texas.

No. 5? From 2018, advising fellow print journos not to work for Wick Communications. First time I've done a by-name callout. It started with critically examining their idiocy and "work harder AND better" vulture capitalism idea of cutting the AP wire at daily pages but not cutting the page count.

No. 6? Turning a skeptical eye to  the huzzahs and handstands on the Texas Tribune's 10th anniversary.

No. 7? In the era of conspiracy theories, "deep state" buzz, etc., calling out alleged Gnu Media for some of their pretentions.

No. 8? Saluting one vulture capitalism in the journalism biz for honesty in its rapaciousness.

No. 9? Based on some longform writing, looking at just how much the lies of Facebook, Google, et al about targeted digital advertising really were lies and how many people should have known better.

No. 10? Related to No. 3, wondering if the new Craphouse was going to inflict some godawful ginormous programmatic ad nightmare on us.

How does the StartleGram even pay its bills?

Seriously.

I'm wondering if the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is about to go broke.

On the way back from Big Bend, I stopped at the Amon Carter Museum Christmas Eve. Saw the great Gordon Parks exhibit for a second time, and had camera with me. Also saw another, new, photography exhibit.

Anyway, in the north side lobby, next to the museum store entrance to the building, was a copy of the StartleGram. As is my wont, I picked it up, in part to catch up on news after four days, but more, as is really my wont, to check out its adhole.

First, only 18 pages of paper. That's bad enough.

Second, I saw NO classys, unless there was a Section C I was missing, and I doubt that.

So, third?

One page, in all, of ROP. That's counting obits, as paid and at the rates charged today, as ROP.

One page, period.

That's a 5.55 percent adhole.

So, unless StartleGram ad staff is on straight commission with zero, zip, zilch, nada salary, how are they not about to go broke?

==

OK, I looked also at the Friday/27th issue when in Denton. It did have 5 pages and change of ads on a 34-pager, to break 15 percent. Of course, 2-plus pages was a front section "wrap" by Spec's for New Year's booze.

FW StartleGram: Slouching toward a JOA with the Snooze?

Every time I look at either one of the Metromess' two larger dailies, I see yet more cratering and yet more wondering about their viability.

The latest comes from the Oct. 3 issue of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

First, it's its normal weekday 20 pages. (Well, Mondays is usually shorter.) On its web press size and length that is approaching Berliner size.

AND AND AND?!?!?!

I've never seen a daily paper run ZERO display ads in an issue.

You read that right.

The StartleGram had a paid adhole of a bit under 15 percent.

It was five-sixth of a page of obits (which I count as paid adhole).

Two pages of classifieds.

And that was it.

No, really.

Again, ZERO ROP.

Now, a metro issue rather than one in the exurbs? Maybe it has a few ads.

But out here in the country? No display ads. At least not paid ones. (There was one quarter-page house ad.)

Wow.

Now, let's flip to the editorial side.

Lead story? From the other side of the Metromess, of course, the sentencing on Amber Guyger.

Photo?

From the Snooze.

Even five years ago, no way the Dallas Morning News is giving the Star Telegram a news photo. They'd started down the road of sports and entertainment coverage collaboration, but no way the Snooze does something like this.

Yes, I know the News' Tom Fox was part of a pool. Still, in the past, if that was sent to the AP, the Snooze would have said "no local media" or some similar restrictions. And, doesn't AP have its own photogs? Answer is yes, of course. Were none of them there? Were none of them allowed? There ARE other photographs. Plus, from the StartleGram's POV, there was the option of asking a TV station, or a network, for a still off video. Today's HD video would give you a fine quality picture for the front.

To me, that's poor optics and poor judgment.

Wow.

And layouts? Almost exactly the same on the front.

There you are, whichever way you slice your comparative viewing of the two papers.

Trying to figure out whether that looks worse (for the StartleGram) as a vertical or a horizontal.

So, JOA time? I mean, you might as well if you're to the point of sharing photos and having a semi-identical layout. And, if you're to the point of the StartleGram and you can't even sell an ad into your paper, you can't be making money, can you?

So, if no JOA, does this mean more layoffs ahead?

==

To give credit to where it's due, nine days later, their late Saturday bulldog had 40 percent ads, and the two Tuesdays since have been above 20 percent total, so more than 1 full page of ROP. Still.

Meanwhile, over at the Star-Telegram

From my years and years of living in or near the Dallas side of the Metroplex, I've seen the continued decline of the Dallas Morning News, and blogged about it repeatedly, in part because of the paper's pretentiousness, usually doubled down upon by the Belo corporation's own pretentiousness.

That said, over on the other side of the Metroplex, over in Cowtown, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram isn't totally hunky and dory either.

The StartleGram may not have the same individual, or corporate, pretentiousness as the Snooze. But, it's got problems.

I saw these problems when, for the first time in years, I looked through several issues at a fair-sized library when I got the chance.

Paid ad numbers by adhole percentage, in column inches, are no better than the Snooze's. And, that's with downsizing to a 46-inch web AND downsizing page counts — in some cases dramatically.

How dramatically? Or how drastically?

They run a 16-page paper on Mondays. That sounds like something for the Waco Tribune, or a few years ago, still for the Wichita Falls Times-Record-News. Yikes. (The Snooze, for comparison, runs 32 pages.)

AND, with that, and the smaller web, and, as I normally do, counting obits as paid ad inches, they STILL barely hit 25 percent on Mondays.

In addition, they've basically gutted the op-ed staff over there. NO local columns or editorials on that Monday paper. The dean of commentary of the StartleGram, Bud Kennedy, runs on a "Lifestyles" page and section the days he runs. (Bud may have been there in the past, to be honest.)

I used to think that, if a joint operating agreement was going to happen between the two papers, based on increased collaboration in the past decade, the StartleGram had the upper hand based on Snooze bleeding.

Now I'm not so sure.