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Q, if your idea works out, I may be willing to design a print prototype to get it started!! My firm could possibly do the web site & marketing if someone wanted us to hire us to. Oh, the possibilities if someone could make it happen …
I’ve been waiting to chime in, but only felt I had something relevant to offer at this juncture. I worked for a prominent real estate magazine here in Asheville and was laid off without notice on Tuesday. I saw it coming, but expected at least a little notice. If anyone needs a production/layout/graphic designer, I put my name in the hat. Seems like anything print-related is a dying breed at the moment. Sad.
I don’t think Jeff instituted the information center. I believe it was an idea pushed on all Gannett papers from corporate. While I think the paper would have been served with Virgil Smith at the helm, Jeff certainly was a better publisher than the current one. I would have to believe that Smith and Green would have handled the current crisis with a lot more information and wouldn’t have hid in their office.
You would have to find someone with deep pockets who is not afraid to go head to head with Gannett.
It woulld have to be one of the other paper chains that wants to poke them in the eye, I think.
If you just came up with money, as a start-up in a town this size, I think Gannett would murder you.
So, it would have to be a proxy war with McCatchey, the Times, Hearst, or the Tribune groups fighting.
The C.T. needs a better (read: MUCH) online presence. Afterall, look what it did for Boston’s Atlantic Monthly.
The ship is sailing — with or without Gannett.
Count me in!
Joe — I saw here on Ashvegas what you’re doing in Cherokee.
Awesome.
Quinton — you’re the best investigative reporter around — who always kicked my ass.
Think Sandy might come back?
Anyone out there with money?
Print is a risky business these days —but after all — stranger things have happened in these mountains.
It gives me hope.
Hey Quintin, If you know somebody willing to put up the money and give it the staff, I’m the man, especially if it’s online since that is the future of newspapers. I’ve never been afraid to piss people off (look at the work I did in and about Cherokee), and I’ve soured on Gannett ever since they abandoned their project in Cherokee.
The problem is right now, getting anyone to put money up, especially banks, is like swatting flies with a sledge hammer. Even if you can do that, then you’ve got the same situation getting people to buy ads. Business just sucks right now. That’s why I’m solely online now.
Heck yeah. I’m with you 100%. A twice weekly paper would be easy to start and build. And we all know there is enough disgruntled ACT employees to make it happen on the cheap.
Another pissed off former ACT employee.
Jeff Green started the AC-T on its downward sprial. He brought Asheville the "information center" crap. I would not trust him as far as I could throw him.
As usual I miss posting when the news is actually breaking because I don’t keep a computer at home … I think I’ve evolved into a neo-Luddite. So, I’m hijacking Jeff’s cherry-picking of former AC-T employees to say this:
I’m very pissed about the gutting of Haywood County, and the firing of so many talented people from the newspaper, with more I’m sure to come.
A few years ago, Gannett was going to save itself by encroaching on community newspapers and the magazine world with ‘niche’ products. Problem was, it used a bunch of daily-minded folks to launch these products, plus failed to add much staff in support. Sounds like most of the company’s initiatives, doesn’t it?
Guess what? The effort failed. The two folks fired in Haywood were both my staff at one time. Good people, underpaid, unappreciated during their time with the AC-T. If anyone needs two good employees call me and I’ll give sterling references. Karen was my front office person and Suzann was an ad assistant. They are both, as far as I know, committed to living in Haywood, but could probably commute into Asheville or other counties. (I haven’t talked to either, they don’t know about this posting.)
(Jeff, got openings at Iwanna? Kyle would give good references, too, I’m sure.)
Matter of fact, I’ll go one further. if someone would go into competition against the AC-T either as a daily, weekly, or website, I’ll come out of farming retirement to do the investigative reporting/editing on a part-time basis at a bargain price, until the effort is up and running and someone better can be found. Surely all you smart Asheville folk could get together, show some initiative, and find investors. The money is there to support the effort – maybe not the profit margin Gannett demands, but a good living could be had by a group or individual with the balls to take it on.
A very pissed off former AC-T employee and Gannettoid … Quintin
I have found this is the only way to fight Gannett. Getting jobs for the people that are still there or have been let go is a win win.