January 13, 2009

Tell the new publisher how to improve The Bristol Press

Here's an open thread for all of you to weigh in on what Mike Schroeder should do to pump life back into The Bristol Press. Speak up. He'll read it.

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

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tell him to get my paper to me on time every day. That would make me subscribe again.

Anonymous said...

Hey lefty Bristol Press... does fair and non-bias reporting mean anything to you??

Prove you can do that, and I might subscribe again.

Anonymous said...

Give us the fire calls again!!!

Anonymous said...

2:26

What fire calls???

Steve Collins said...

I think the person wants the paper to print lists of where the fire trucks go each day. We used to do that years ago.
It wouldn't be at the top of my list, but there are people who care.

Anonymous said...

12:22 - HOW CAN THEY GET YOUR PAPER TO YOU IF YOU AREN'T A SUBSCRIBER? - SHOW A BIT OF FAITH AND GIVE THEM A TRY.

Anonymous said...

How about a little more emphasis on the good news.

Anonymous said...

Hire Concerned Conservited to do a weekly op-ed piece.

Anonymous said...

The only fire calls the paper needs are the calls to fire whoever writes the headlines with all the spelling mistakes.

Anonymous said...

Today's Bristol Press printed the same comic page twice. If they hired well-trained Graphic Designers to design and layout the paper, this wouldn't happen.

Who is composing and designing the paper?

Reporters shouldn't be responsible for layout!

Anonymous said...

Get rid of Sound off and go back to publishing more letters to the editor.

Concerned Constructive Conservative said...

January 13, 2009 3:14 PM:

I agree with that. Great idea...as a counter to the communist William A. Collins.

Anonymous said...

Cover local news -- stories about Bristol, Terryville, Plainville, Burlington and whoever else you may cover these days. Cover graduations, local high school games, American legion baseball. Run photos of these items. Cover city government in Bristol, Terryville, Plainville and Burlington. Show how the money that taxpayers pay is being spent. Consider combining resources with the Herald. Don't overlap (both of you covering Plainville is silly). You need to work together. I wouldn't bother with covering UConn sports until you get stronger and re-establish your identity in your towns. The AP can help you along. Folks are buying your papers for your local expertise -- not for UConn athletics. Let the AP help you cover national sports and state news. Make yourselves the place to go for local news in Bristol, NB and surrounding towns.

Anonymous said...

Stop telling Republicans that there's no typist at the Press, so their letters to the editor will not be printed. (I guess there's only a Democrat typist.)

Anonymous said...

Get rid of the tabloid format and front page shocker headline. ("MONKEY BOY SEEN IN PLYMOUTH")

Anonymous said...

Expand sound off to the editorial page .

Allow the public to present their views without worry of reprisals from the governmental authorities .

Anonymous postings in here should give you a great example of the exchange of views available .

An in depth piece on the corruption involved in the most recent national election would be a great start for the NEW and IMPROVED Bristol Press .

Anonymous said...

Stop printing verbatim press releases from Bill Hamzy -- or anyone else. Let reporters do their jobs instead of undermining them by running that junk.

Steve Collins said...

Reality -
You really want The Bristol Press to cover the "corruption" in last year's presidential election? Doesn't that strike you as perhaps a bit, well, out there?

AnonymousWestconnStudent said...
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Anonymous said...

I also would like to see an article in the Press concerning November 2008 election fraud.

Anonymous said...

The Press should sponsor community events like Arts in the Park and the Bristol Auto Show downtown and maybe some fireworks over the mall site or something like that. Don't just be a paper. Make our town better and nicer to live in.

Anonymous said...

Keep the tabloid format! People need to realize that tabloid means the size of the paper, not that it's "tabloid journalism." One has nothing to do with the other. If you changed the size back to broadsheet, it doesn't mean the headlines and content would change.

Anonymous said...

My understanding is that the Press has two reporters covering Bristol now, just Steve and Jackie. A police reporter, Adam, left recently.
Want to show us that you're going to be different? Then replace Adam and hire another reporter or two. We need someone to cover schools again at the least.
The other thing I would personally appreciate is to have the paper tell us what it's doing. If you add a reporter, tell us abou it. If you lose one, tell us about it. If you change printing plants, let us know.
For many years now, the only time the paper said anything about itself was when an editor came or left or the owner bought some papers somewhere. That's not enough.
Keep us in the loop. Be as transparent as you expect the city government to be.
That would be a refreshing change. Candor from the paper -- especially on things that people might not like -- would be a great step in the right direction.

AnonymousWestconnStudent said...
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Anonymous said...

The tabloid format should be dumped at the Press and Herald. It works only if you have some great photographers (Orazzi is outstanding) and excellent layout folks. Your layout team at both papers is inconsistent. And some of the other photographers aren't as consistently good as Mike.

Anonymous said...

If it looks like a tabloid, and sounds like a tabloid, then guess what it is? Time to ditch it and go back to looking and sounding like a real newspaper.

Anonymous said...

If you wish to increase circulation in Plymouth, increase Plymouth coverage. Plymouth gets at best one article a day.

I should be able to get more news from the newspaper than from the coffee clotch at D&D.

Kevin said...

More community focus - local doesn't just mean crimes and fires. It means business, schools, clubs, neighborhoods, what life is really like in an old CT factory town trying to find its way in the 21st century. And please, get some serious coverage of the Latino communities in Bristol and New Britain, where it's huge. That means reporters and editors who don't just speak Spanish but are comfortable in a bodega and a salsa club and can talk about what's really going on.

To cut costs, here's an idea: Deliver only to offices and other business and public places like restaurants on weekdays. Let residents get the Press on the Web (if you can do a printable form all the better) or in curbside boxes. Home delivery only on weekends, which is when people have time for the paper at home.

Get the sales staff out on the streets aggressively selling, with some real metrics on readership of each section, page and column. Develop new content that can be sponsored or that ties in well with a particular advertizer like a travel agency or bank. Don't let sales staff sit and wait for a call from a department store that doesn't exist any more.

That's just for starters!

Steve Collins said...

I just want to thank all of you for offering, for the most part, thoughtful, interesting ideas.
I agree with many of them, maybe most.
Of course, I'm not the owner so, well, you know how that goes.
But I am sure that part of the solution is going to involve having people like you folks do more, to make the paper yours as much as ours. There is, after all, little chance that the Press is going to suddenly and miraculously rebound to the sort of full staff it once had. And there's only so much that a few reporters in Bristol can do., however hard we try.
But there is nothing that Bristol as a whole can't do.
To have the kind of hyperlocal coverage that most readers would like to see as part of a package of news about Bristol is inherently going to mean that people in the community, including some who are unknown to us now, will need to step up, let us know what you know, share your experiences and knowledge with us and with your neighbors.
We can be a lot better with many hands helping.

Anonymous said...

Steve, does he have an Email address?
If so, what is it?

Steve Collins said...

I understand that he has a new email address: mschroeder@bristolpress.com.
If that doesn't work, let me know.

Anonymous said...

Thanks