Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Ashvegas is receiving lots of notes today from angry readers of the Asheville Citizen-Times, readers who did not receive the newspaper at their doorsteps this morning. I have no idea how many newspapers were not delivered, or delivered late.
But the reason for the hiccup is probably obvious — the Citizen-Times was printed in Greenville, South Carolina, for the first time on Sunday night, then driven up the mountain to be distributed around Western North Carolina. The Citizen-Times closed its Sardis Road printing plant Saturday/early Sunday.
Readers were also greeted this morning to a vastly revamped Citizen-Times, which I’ll write more about shortly. In a front-page story by Publisher Randy Hammer, Hammer describes changes to the newspaper for the first time. Hammer blames it all on the national and local economy, while ignoring the fact that Gannett Co., which owns the paper, and the Citizen-Times itself, are both still quite profitable.
The changes are nothing new to readers of Ashvegas; I’ve been chronicling them here for months:
-No classified ads on Mondays and Tuesdays
-A narrower-width for the newspaper (Hammer does not mention this in his column)
-Few pages in the daily paper. Monday’s edition has only three sections; the Living section is an inside page to the local Mountains section
-Cutting the Sunday Forum section
There are more, but I’ll get into those in a bit.
In another odd move, Hammer’s by-lined piece cannot be found anywhere on the Citizen-Times web site. For a newspaper that claims it’s all about the web, that sure is odd. In the past, top editors have argued that in a case like this, the news only affects the print product so it’s only going to appear in print. That’s a bullshit argument. It ranks right up there with the newspaper claiming it operates by the mantra “write for the web first, print second,” when it’s clear that in lots of instances, the newspaper holds back stories it thinks it has a “scoop” on.
I’ll get the Hammer column scanned in so everybody can read it.
We also cancelled out home delivery because the paper is just not worth reading. We also had a hard time getting them to stop delivery–it took 4 calls to stop the paper. I think they are really desperate to keep home delivery and circulation numbers up.
I don’t know of anybody who reads the Citizen-Times any longer, except maybe occasionally online when there is a big story I read about on here on see on tv.
It’s a sign of the times and will only get worse.
I think the Asheville Citizen Times should get fined for every News paper thrown in a front yard of a person that does not subscribe. That includes complimentary papers also. If people wanted the paper they would subscribe.
So here is a question for you:
Does the circulation numbers reflect complimentary papers and all papers delivered after the subscription has been canceled. If it does, could that be fraud?
we have cancelled our subscription for well over two months now and our yard continues to get littered with what I consider to be Gannett’s worst paper.
In shock because they knew about it for a couple of weeks?
Inside:
That is because everyone was in shock and they were wondering how would be the best way to cancel their subscription.
the ACT also received no added calls this morning concerning the change. It was a regular day. 🙂
Everything went out fine… done by 2:30am. Trucks arrived from G’ville early. We were well prepared. Today and tomorrow morning has zero anticipated problems.
The carriers should have seen no difference… other than a mighty thin paper.
Suppose ill look into it tonight from my side.