The company that owns The Bristol Press and many other Connecticut papers has bought some time to restructure. See this press release.
We still have no idea what happens in the long run, but lsince ife is a series of short runs, it's nice to survive and perhaps thrive in each of them. In the long run, of course, we're all dead.
Meanwhile, it's kind of amusing and sad to see that the company's stock price is up almost a third today - to more than 4 cents.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
7 comments:
My limited understanding of this is the JRC has short term protection from their creditors. What I am curious about is if this crisis has more to do with fallen revenue from advertising what can they do to increase adv during an economic downturn? Does this mean the end of the smaller, local newspapers? How does this crisis effect the big papers like the NY Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, etc?
Falling ad revenue and shrinking subscriber lists are a given across the industry these days. But most papers -- including the Press, as far as I know -- are still making money. The trouble is that financiers borrowed heavily to buy papers and can't afford to pay back the loans with the profits that are made. So what you get are successful papers that are in danger of closing down.
It's worst in some chains - JRC, Tribune and Lee are typically cited -- but every paper is hurting.
Steve, you should keep this blog going as there is a real need for a local news source. We do not always agree, but the ability for us in Bristol, to keep up on our news is imperative. I think print media has been too quick to consolidate and this has caused huge debt at the parent companies. Might need to find local investors to again regain control of the local news. I also think they are very similar to the music industry in how slow they have been to react to the internet and make money using it. The information is important, but the delivery system has not really been upgraded to meet the way people get their information. I would be interest in your take and maybe future of print media, specifically newspapers.
The day the Bristol Press stopped being a local paper, moved it's press operation out of town (huge loss in just the curosity factor alone), the day it went to a tabloid style paper, was the beginning of the end. Too bad...I used to like to see the presses roll as I drove by, it made me want to buy the paper.
I wonder then if it would not be in the paper's interest to become independant (similar to the Republican and the Day) rather than getting sucked into the mess with the parent company?
The local coverage from the Press is there, but it's mediocre. You need to get new staff. You and Jackie do a good job, but there needs to be better leadership that pushes you to get better stories. I'm sorry a x-mas Day story on the Legion breakfast isn't cutting it (as well as making me sick to my stomach).
The Press needs to be more aggressive getting to what's really going on a city hall (not Art Ward's version in a late night email).
The Press lost credibilty (in my opinion) when it failed to address Couture's checkered past a cop, when the Courant did. And it goes on and on. The stories by you Steve although interesting seem cynical and somewhat biased sometimes.
It's a decent local paper, but not worth the subscription price in my personal opinion at this time. If it goes under, there will be a void, but I think either someone will buy it up or claim it as their own (perhaps as the Waterbury paper has done in the Torrington area).
Steve, The Bristol Press should have been shut down last year. Many people have gotten into heated debates "with the man who buys ink by the barrel".
Looks like the ink is finally drying up, and you'll be seeing red ink on pink slips.
You reap what you sow. So Long!
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