January 16, 2009

Deal to buy paper may be signed Monday

The word around the paper is that the deal to sell The Bristol Press, New Britain Herald and three weeklies to Mike Schroeder and his silent partner should be finalized on Monday.
Let's hope the Journal Register Co., the current owner, doesn't find a way to muck it up.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I sure hope the new owner doesn't allow a sub-headline to go to press like the one on today's Bristol Press.

HOSPITAL GAINS
Bristol Hospital ends 2008 in the black, names Nancy Blanchette chairmanwoman.

Come on! Chairmanwoman? WTF!

Anonymous said...

Any word on the fate of employees and these papers -- Avon Post, Farmington Post, Simsbury Post, Windsor Journal, Bloomfield Journal, Windsor Locks Journal, Tri-Town Post, East Hartford Gazette?

Steve Collins said...

Yeah, that "chairmanwoman" headline is way up there on the godawful scale. But please keep in mind that tired, overworked and stressed-out people are scraping to get things done in the middle of the night. Mistakes happen.

Anonymous said...

That's why newspapermen and newspapermenwomen aren't doctors, pharmacists, airline pilots, policemen, military officers or presidents.

Anonymous said...

Mediocrity ain't gonna sell papers, Steve!

Mr. Schroeder needs to implement some level of quality control in this "manufacturing" process.

Steve Collins said...

Doctors, pharmacists, airline pilots, policemen, military officers and even presidents make mistakes. But they're not all on public display, which is inherent in a newspaper.
Still, nobody cringed more than I did when I saw that one on the front page today, except maybe the person who wrote it.

Anonymous said...

Doctors, pharmacists, airline pilots, policemen, military officers or presidents make their mistakes in private -- until a journalist shines the light on it. Everyone makes mistakes.
Yes, the headline was awful,and it, along with all the rest that the newspaper is and does, is out there every day for people to admire or not. While the rest of the community has to answer only to one person or a small group, journalists work in a fishbowl, where everyone can see what they're doing and the mistakes they make, every day. Most jobs aren't like that, and those of you who are so quick to criticize might want to give that kind of public scrutiny a try and see how you hold up, day after day, week after week, year after year, with everything you do on display for the whole town. Then see how you feel when you make a mistake and get trashed for it.

Steve Collins said...

Re the weeklies that someone asked about earlier... I believe most or all of them closed down this week, more victims of rapacious management.
I hope those who know more will fill us in. I'm heartbroken for the employees who have lost their jobs and for the towns that have lost their paper. It's a bleak and sad time.

Anonymous said...

Chairmanwoman?

It's not too late for the new owners to back out of the deal.

Anonymous said...

Maybe journalists should see how it feels when a person in the public eye makes a mistake and the reporters go after them, day after day after day for the rest of their lives.

Steve Collins said...

You know, I've been a journalist for 22 years now and I've never "gone after" anyone "day after day after day for the rest of their lives" so I guess I have no idea at all what the heck you're talking about.

Anonymous said...

"P-O-T-A-T-O-E"?

Why did we hear more about that than Teddy leaving Mary Jo to drown in his car, by the way?

Hmmmmmmmm......some mistakes are worse than others, I guess. But you just don't know which ones are going to get the spotlight. Or do you?

Anonymous said...

hopefully, some of these goody 2 shoe naysayers will sit back a bit and not start badgering the new owner even before the ink dries on the closing papers. s
ome of you really need to lighten up, seek professional help or just plain end this ultimate misery which you have listed as your personal address.

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