Why The News Should Buy The S-T
This little item last week about the Star-Telegram and the News combining delivery in certain areas got me to thinking. Why stop at delivery? The S-T has been one of the best run, most profitable newspapers in America. But the McClatchy owners, in their bean-counting measures, are treating it like an impoverished second cousin. If the News bought the S-T they would own the fourth-largest metro area in America (Belo already owns the Denton Chronicle). Fort Worth is booming. A combined operation would save tons of money. And it would enable Belo to claim a near-monopoly on-line and in print. (Except for — hello! — us, of course.)
Okay, I’m just daydreaming here. It’s what a publisher does when he has 20 minutes to kill before the next meeting. But, dangit, if I don’t think it makes perfect sense.
22 Comments to “Why The News Should Buy The S-T”
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“But, dangit, if I don’t think it makes perfect sense.”
If done the right way (*cough* focusing on creating a strong online presence and not dumb ideas like Briefings *cough*), it does. But the decision makers at Belo tend not to go for things that make perfect sense.
So you’re saying that Belo should by the Startlegram so they can make it suck as hard as the Morning News? Right.
“in their bean-counting measures, are treating it like an impoverished second cousin.”
Sounds like a familiar media somewhere on Oak Lawn.
What if 3 retired NASA chimps and a Gibbon with a marginal knack for marketing bought The News? They’d still be intellectually superior to current management and probably earn the loyalty of the elusive and now departed “core readership.”
I remember when the Dallas Morning News ‘bought’ the Dallas Times Herald.
So why don’t you guys challenge Belo’s supremacy? Go buy the Dallas Observer, Dallas Business Journal, Fort Worth Business Press, Fort Worth Weekly, Dallasblog.com, Pegasus News, DFW Sports Page Weekly.. (and whatever other little publications you can think of) You could probably get more local content out of that than the Morning News has. You could create an online site that would definitely rival the Morning News. You could definitely save money by joining forces.. just don’t lay off any reporters.
We should be encouraging S-T to buy DMN, not vice versa.
Wick is a pot calling the kettle black. Bean counters at his own company are doing the very same thing. Apparently there are no mirrors there.
Wait, wait, wait…in this scenario would Randy Galloway get canned? Yes? Cool, I like it.
Oh, and please save me.
Nathan
I think he’s saying that Belo should “buy” the Startlegram so they can make it suck as hard as the Morning News.
They should rename the S-T as “Dallas Times Herald”.
>>>And it would enable Belo to claim a near-monopoly on-line and in print. (Except for — hello! — us, of course.)<<<
You’re not seriously claiming that D Mag and the People Newspapers are on par with the DMN and S-T, are you?
hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I wish I had the money to buy the Telegram so I could buy billboards which would read…
“Forth Worth’s Newspaper is the S-T!”
Come on, Not Me. If you’re going to take a shot, take a better one. Since D isn’t owned by Belo, it’s a near-monopoly. That’s all Wick said. Save the laughter for pictures of Eric/Tim.
Any type of monopoly in media is a terrible idea. The best possible thing is maximum idea-diversity.A member of the media should definitely be aware of that already.
=w=
healthryder.blogspot.com
It would be great for DMN to buy the FWST. Then Michael Landauer will have a new area to openly disregard journalistic ethics and promote political candidates. Just ask Joe Jaynes.
I find it hilarious that Wick decries the “bean counting” ways of the S-T’s owners, when the very premise of his column is about ways to “save tons of money” while creating a monopoly on news … Wow. I guess writers daydream about the words and stories themselves, while publishers daydream purely about money.
Or Sam Zell’s Tribune Co. should buy the S-T and team it with Channel 33. That would give him a strong media hold on the fastest-growing market in the country — Tarrant County, also known to D Magazine as “way out there past the Cowboys’ stadium”
yeah they should buy it…of course they would lay people off two weeks later…
AH Belo could buy up every newspaper in a 100 mile radius including the tiny coffee news and still not have a monopoly that mattered. Sure they’d control all ink on paper distribution in the area, but there are far too many alternatives to deliver local advertising. Even beyond the snark, the only thing that bringing all of the enterprises together would be more cost savings measures. The only thing that matters are more effective ways of making money from content that delivers value. Unfortunately it seems no newspaper has figured that out yet.
I can already hear the rumble coming from Amon Carter’s grave as he starts a turning.
What the DMN buyout the ST?
Abomination… I can hear ol’ Amon kicking dirt off his grave right now…