Two more ideas for saving the Press:
The first is from Mark Anderson, a former Press reporter who now works for the state House Republicans --
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation may be the only hope for saving the Bristol Press and other JRC-owned papers in the region. It is a world-wide corporation with a track record for acquiring financially troubled newspapers, reorganizing them and making them going concerns once again. The New York Post is an excellent example. NewsCorp is a well-managed company and may be the only news organization with the financial resources available to acquire the BP, NB Herald and other troubled JRC papers in our area within the next eight to 10 weeks. If we are serious about saving our only local weekly newspaper at a time when the economy in the Northeast is tanking and hadly anyone is willing to make risky inveastments, we need to contact NewsCorp ASAP.
Another, which I've heard several versions of, is this: That the Press could pare back to a three or four-day a week paper, which would provide only a little less revenue while cutting printing and delivery costs in half. It would likely be profitable if we did this right now, I'm told, and with a new office and a better website (which would be updated regularly), there should be a decent profit for the owner. The JRC apparently has no interest in this, because it's collapsing under a mountain of debt, but a new owner could well pull it off.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
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