There was quite an outpouring of emotion and commenting on my posts last week about the latest round of Asheville Citizen-Times lay-offs.
This post was of particular interest. In the comments, former Citizen-Times award-winning reporter Quintin Ellison said she was so upset at job cuts in the newspaper’s Haywood County bureau that she was ready to challenge. Here’s some of what she said:
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.
Several people responded. Joe Martin, former editor of the Cherokee One Feather who now has his own online newspaper covering the Eastern Band of Cherokees, said he’d be interested in helping out. Another “pissed off former ACT employee said:
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.
Deborah Potter, a former WLOS reporter who worked for a couple of years as an editor at the Citizen-Times, then moved on to work as former U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor’s public relations flak, also said she’d help. I’ve also heard from a couple of other former C-Ters who said they’d be interested.
The emotion is there. The desire is there. Will anything come of it?
7 Comments
A free publication would probably be the only model that would work. I’m not sure about a co-op – explain more?
It would require good sales, but there are many many good salesfolks out there.
The bigger issue might be credibility. Here is what I really, really wish would happen: Virgil Smith would leave Gannett, pull investors together, and launch a regional publication or some type of information service. Crazy? Maybe, but his roots are deep here, his heart is here, and people would trust his judgement and business abilities. Practically every former – and probably current – AC-T journalist would be at his beck and call, as would salespeople, circulation (though I’d go free and mail it outside towns), online, you name it.
Why would he do it? Because the AC-T that he built and loved is destroyed. Because the company betrayed this newspaper, the community, and its own ideals.
The region lacks the voice that it deserves. Good people with tremendous skills are either out of work, out of the field, or laboring under horrible pressures. The company is not simply suffering the woes of a crummy economy. It was mismanaged and greedy. The good stuff – such as a real committment to diversity – has been lost in the panic to maintain unreasonably high profit margins.
I have a lot to thank Gannett for, and generally enjoyed the 10 years I spent with the company, or at least the first seven or so. But I have no respect for what is taking place, company wide or in Asheville.
As to the current management at the newspaper: Never worked for Randy Hammer, though his news credentials impressed me when he came on board. I do know that Phil Fernandez is a good guy and a fair person. I seriously doubt that either of these fellows wanted a decimated newspaper to stand as their legacy in Asheville, but that is what has happened.
I hope they are resisting. But, having done and said things as a manager in Gannett that I’m not particularly proud of myself, I have to say that the likelihood is they are probably just trying to survive. It is awfully easy to start justifying that stuff when Gannett On High issues orders.
I would like to see something fill the void, whether Virgil ever comes back or not. Why don’t I do it, the masses cry? Because it needs good business leadership. I can write a decent story when motivated, but that about sums it up. Oh, and I always thought I performed well in meetings, though sometimes I talked too much. There sure were a lot of meetings …
So a couple of posters think one or two grammar or spelling errors in an online forum post means a new publication won’t succeed if the erring poster has anything to do with said publication? Sorry, Ash. Better tell the MtnX to close up shop, because I’ve seen a typo or two here on your site.
Look, here’s the deal. As long as the leadership in Retail Advertising at the ACT remains, anybody would be successful at getting revenue. Number one, a new free pub would have a lower overhead since they will not need an ad director or several managers, to manage managers, managing managers. Seems like easy math to me.
Hey Quintin, how about we create a free pub using a Co-Op business model.
Would it work?
While, unlike Frank, I realize that the last comment above was not attributed to Joe Martin, I do agree with Frank’s sentiment. With a sentence like "And we all know there IS enough…" [emphasis added] I wouldn’t hold up much hope for a C-T challenger with this person on board.
The idea of a free bi-weekly paper is a good idea. The question is, "Is there an advertising base to support it?" Problem with the Ctimes is that the directors would sit in meetings and come up with new products without asking advertisers if they would buy ads. Blue Mountain Living, Mountain Maturity and other pubs went under because they didn’t have a a revenue base. Lots of writers out there – who is going to sell it?
The ACT has so much momentum towards failure that Asheville is ripe for another news source. Come on people, reach out and take another piece of their pie.
With grammar like Mr. Martin’s I don’t have much faith in a thank you note, let alone a bi-weekly newspaper.