January 4, 2009

A roundup of new Bristol Press-related stories and columns







Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is all well and good, and I too do not want to see the demise of these papers.
However, it all boils down to money.
Who will provide the funding, just to lose money?
Who will work for free, because the cause is good?
Bottom line, we are all looking out for ourselves, our own pockets: and sometimes we don'trealize the shotrt term gain brings about a long term loss.
But, so far NO ONE has come forth wit a workable solution, or volunteered to fund a losing proposition.
We can keep talking, we can keep writing, we can keep reading numerous editorials, but until someone takes action, action that is realistic, we will continue on the downward path.

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

Steve,
I am very interested in buying the Press. Right now a group of interested investors are in the process of contacting the J.R. Co. Let me first take care of some real estate deals and co-star in an upcoming local theater production first, because these are my top priorities. Then I am planning on possibly running for Mayor. And by the way I like both the Yankees and the Red Sox in case anyone was concerned.

Anonymous said...

CC,

You forgot to include that you will resolving the CL&P Lighting overcharge too.

Anonymous said...

Concerned Conservative. I know Ken Johnson and you are no Ken Johnson.

Anonymous said...

8:42pm - thank god

Anonymous said...

A couple of thoughts on this...

I'll preface this by saying that I'm very conservative, especially when it comes to fiscal issues. However, I don't see where tax breaks automatically equate to a "bailout," or where they would compromise the integrity of the news-gathering process.

There is a lot of talk about how the watchdog function of newspapers would be compromised by any government involvement. I think that narrows the issue, though. The watchdog function of the news media goes beyond government - journalists serve as a watchdog for business as well as for government.

If you look hard enough at the media industry as a whole, you'll find potential conflicts of interest everywhere. The Tribune Company, which owns the "Hartford Courant" and "Chicago Tribune," among other media outlets, is run by a prominent real estate developer (Sam Zell), and has its hand in a number of other arenas (partial ownership of Careerbuilder.com and the Chicago Cubs for example). This doesn't stop the Tribune Company papers from reporting on real estate, internet, or sports issues.

That's not to talk about the tax breaks and tax advantages that are utilized by the corporations that own newspapers across the country.

The point of this is that, in the present-day, every newspaper company has has been touched by government aid (in the form of tax breaks, for example) or big business. We have to have enough faith in journalists out there that these interests will not compromise their ability to report the news in a fair and unbiased manner.

I would much rather see a newspaper like "The Bristol Press" survive with some tax incentives for the buyer, than to see the news vacuum that would be created if a buyer does not come forward.