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* Nick Vlahos at the Peoria Journal Star…
A Red-Blue cage-match election this fall. A contrite Bruce Rauner. An alleged per-mile-driving-taxing JB Pritzker. Local municipal budget cuts. Hotel defaults that leave local taxpayers on the hook for $7 million.
This is a heck of a time to stop Word on the Street, isn’t it?
The Journal Star’s political column is going on hiatus, at least for now, because of the recent departure of co-author Chris Kaergard.
We’ve enjoyed sharing Monday mornings with you. And Sunday nights, too, since the advent of the internet has allowed the column to appear there before it hits print.
But part of us feels bad about leaving when perhaps this forum might be needed the most.
“Departure” is one way to put it. “Fired to help pad the bottom line” would be another.
* Ahem…
“You cannot cut the value of the product you give readers and expect them to reward you with growth.” NYT publisher A.G. Sulzberger gets applause. Amen. If only all owners heeded these words. #Newsleaders2018
— Angie Muhs (@amuhs) September 11, 2018
* Related…
* Edwin Eisendrath named ‘Illinoisan of the Year’ by state broadcast journalists: “The first is economic. As the margins in our business have fallen, the industry has been helpless against investors who consolidate, cut, sell assets and charge management fees. These are behaviors that make the American economy the world’s most dynamic. Journalism, however, has a different role in a democracy than does an outdated carriage factory. The damage has been particularly devastating to newspapers, and the Sun-Times was no exception.”
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:15 am
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What a disaster. I feel for both.
Comment by WSJ Paywall Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:21 am
Te be replaced, no doubt, in the digital edition with videos of water-skiing squirrels.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:23 am
Bad on a lot of levels. Here is a little something to chew on from our friends at Illinois News Network about how the lack of a journalist watchdog leads to higher government spending: https://www.ilnews.org/news/statewide/report-newspaper-closures-increase-size-cost-of-local-government/article_d21d83a0-a57f-11e8-a2f5-d3fa451cd132.html#utm_source=ilnews.org&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fillinois-newswire%2F%3F-dc%3D1535023803&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline
Comment by SAP Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:25 am
Paper not in my area but what a shame. How on earth can you shut a political column down in an election year. What on earth is a paper for except to cover politics and the underbelly that often goes with it. Are they expanding car ads?
Comment by DuPage Saint Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:25 am
Sounds like every GateHouse paper. There’s not even enough paper there to line the bird cage. Monday is bad enough but Tuesday is absolutely horrible. Absolutely no content except what they rip off the wire to fill space.
My guess is in the next two to three years there will be no Journal-Star, State Journal-Register, Lincoln Courier. Instead, GateHouse will publish it’s own version of “Central Illinois Today” that will be printed in Peoria and shipped out. The SJR building in Springfield will be sold and the remaining staff will fit into one floor of a nondescript building near downtown.
Comment by Wylie Coyote Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:26 am
Without oversight by the fourth estate, I’m sure state and local government representatives will go out of their way to be on the up-and-up. /s
Comment by Jocko Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:28 am
At the other end of the ownership spectrum, the Paddocks are selling the company to their employees.
Local ownership matters. As much as some here hate eeevil unions, at least the Sun-Times has it and is making an effort to keep the paper afloat. Is there any chance a group in Peoria could pull itself together and make an offer for the J-Star?
Comment by Northsider Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:28 am
I wonder if the remaining employees can buy the paper back.
Comment by Nick Name Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:29 am
We stopped home service of the SJR on Mondays and Tuesdays and we haven’t really missed it.
Without Bernie’s writing and coverage of local sports, we would have no reason at all to keep getting the paper as the content has gone way down hill.
For example, they got rid of the Illini dedicated reporter, John Supine several years. We get our Illini news from the Champaign paper. The SJR uses wire services to report Illini news and games. What a joke.
Comment by Give Me A Break Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:37 am
It looks like more and more journalistic responsibilities are going to fall to entities like Capitol Fax. As you can imagine, this will have both positive and negative ramifications depending on the entity.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Comment by Stuntman Bob's Brother Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:39 am
Chris Kaergard,
You’re top shelf. I’ll keep looking for you, you keep writing somewhere for me to find you.
Oswego Willy
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:40 am
How can the PJS drop the political writer less than 2 months before an election?
Capt Fax should set up some satellite cells. (Hint)
Comment by Annonin' Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:49 am
Newspapers need to start focusing more on local news and less on national. I can read Fox/CNN/Politico for national stories, but I cannot go there to find out about my local city hall or the communities around me. When the newspapers die, where will the public learn about what is happening in their community? As with any industry adapt or die, and newspapers appear to be content on dying.
Comment by Yup! Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:51 am
This is yet another sad reflection on the nature of the news business today.
I can remember when newspapers were real newspapers with real news, commentary and content. When at UIUC 50 years ago I had the St. Louis Post-Dispatch delivered daily. It was a real newspaper back then, winning Pulitzers and with top national and regional reporters. How things have changed. I wrote for the DI and got a minor in Journalism, but never worked in the industry.
Two years ago I dropped my local daily because I could get the obits and the area police blotters on line. And the Illinois News Network was being picked up to cover state news. And much of that was 48 hours old by the time the paper hit my house, and always with a certain editorial bias.
Technology has created many changes in the ways many of us get our news. It is disturbing that some papers are now eliminating public comments on articles published online.
This forum is one of the few remaining sources where honest comment and discussion is allowed and encouraged. And thank you, Rich.
Is it time for CapFax to go 7 days a week?
Comment by illini Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:53 am
We are headed for one State sponsored news outlet ala Pravda?
Amazon news for everyone? …everyday?…delivered by drones to drones?
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 11:58 am
“Who shall keep watch over the guardians”…Latin is a dead language for a good reason?
The fourth estate is in danger.
The statement above should send chills down the spine of every person who believes in truth and self government.
Who will stand and who will take a knee is the question.
I fear the answer…and then…I think of the words of Ben Franklin on keeping our Democratic Republic.
Can we keep it?…I’m forced to wonder.
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 12:12 pm
I think in a year or two Phil Luciano will be the only human reporter left at the PJS.
As I mentioned last week, my family has subscribed to the PJS since the mid 1960’s when we moved to Illinois. Just recently I realized that I was paying $700 a year for a newspaper that on many days I can read in less than 10 minutes! I am seriously thinking of dropping my subscription–there is now little of value to me left.
Comment by G'Kar Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 12:31 pm
The PJS, for now at least, still prints Finke’s column in the Sunday paper.
Comment by G'Kar Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 12:32 pm
This daily reader of many local and national papers, both print and on-line, must sadly report that nearly all have greatly diminished in quality over the past decade. Local news outlets have been the hardest hit. These days you can get more local news at the nearest saloon.
Comment by Keyser Soze Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 12:40 pm
By the time I get my Sunday Tribune delivered it seems every article has already been posted free of charge online. That formula for newspaper survival obviously is not working.
Comment by Wylie Coyote Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 12:53 pm
Politico’s model has scooped up a lot of political journalists nationwide, but I wonder if the model to emulate lies in sports? The Athletic has some of the best beat reporting in local sports, and it’s a national website with several local chapters. It is subscription based and has managed to hire a lot of experienced old hands at various newspapers.
Something like that, with several reporters covering the Statehouse, a few doing city government in Chicago, Peoria, Rockford, and Metro East, would be a very satisfying read.
Not the CapFax isn’t. I’m amazed at how much Rich does every week in this forum and worry about the coverage of state politics if he ever decides he doesn’t want to shoulder the burden anymore.
Comment by Paul Powell's Nest Egg Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 1:23 pm
==Not the CapFax isn’t.==
Should read THAT, not THE. Meant as praise!
Comment by Paul Powell's Nest Egg Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 1:24 pm
$700 per year for a newspaper from Peoria, IL???
I subscribe to the digital Sun-Times, Milwaukee Journal, and NY Times. Totals about $25 per month… $15 NYT, $5 a piece for the other two.
There’s a ton of good stuff I don’t have time to read in the NYT.
Comment by James Knell Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 1:29 pm
==Local news outlets have been the hardest hit.==
I agree, yet there seems to be some online startups trying to fill the void, especially after the Daily Southtown was gobbled up by the Trib. The “Patch” services, Burbank Beat, Oak Lawn Leaf, etc. are some of these that keep an eye on the southwest suburbs, at least. I would imagine there are a lot more.
Comment by Stuntman Bob's Brother Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 1:33 pm
==At the other end of the ownership spectrum, the Paddocks are selling the company to their employees.==
Don’t forget that ESOPs are designed as a retirement plan which can magnify employees retirement risk similar to lack of diversification. Interestingly, an ESOP at PJS is what lead that paper to being owned by GateHouse.
Comment by A Watcher Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 1:45 pm
Less reporting.
Smaller newspaper size with fewer pages.
Increase the daily price and increase subscription price.
And they wonder why fewer people are buying the paper.
Comment by btowntruthfromforgottonia Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 1:48 pm
Wylie,
You described something there that isn’t as unlikely as some people might think.
Comment by btowntruthfromforgottonia Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 1:50 pm
–$700 per year for a newspaper from Peoria, IL???–
They list 13-week,seven-day home delivery for $72. That’s $288 a year. How are you paying $700?
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 2:15 pm
-$700 a year-
That can’t be right. I’m paying $10 a month for the SJ-R (online) because of Bernie and Finke. Best deal I have is $3.50 a month for the WaPo because I have Amazon Prime.
Agree with Wylie that the Trib is “front-running” a lot of their digital content, making the real paper kinda stale.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 2:46 pm
Not exactly the same, since it’s print vs radio, but WIU has decided to eliminate funding for the local public radio station, WIUM/WIUW, which covers much of west-central IL as well as southeastern Iowa and northeastern Missouri. The significant drop in funding (which will amount to over half of their budget) means that the station will likely have to switch to only broadcasting the national feeds from NPR and other similar organizations and will likely have to eliminate it’s entire reporting/investigative staff.
Personally, I’m sure it has absolutely nothing with the station’s excellent reporting series called “Crisis of Confidence” about the budget impass and other relevant issues: http://www.tspr.org/topic/wiu-crisis-confidence
There is currently a significant local push to try to get the university to restore at least some level of funding, but hasn’t seemed to gain much traction with the administration yet.
Comment by Doing Human Things Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 2:47 pm
I will not be surprised if in a few years Finke and Bernie Schoenberg’s columns are only available in the Illinois Times (the free alternative weekly in the Springfield area); and/or if Gatehouse tries to gobble up the IT itself.
Comment by Leatherneck Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 3:29 pm
I was down to the Sunday SJR in Springfield. When I saw the charge for $9.95 to pay by check I dropped it.
Comment by SW Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 4:07 pm
“WIUM/WIUW… will likely have to eliminate it’s entire reporting/investigative staff…. it has absolutely nothing with the station’s excellent reporting series called “Crisis of Confidence” about the budget impasse…”
Yes, it will be easier to kill next time with no reporters… I can hear Mr. Burns saying to his new Russian business partners wearing “oligarchs of the world unite!” lapel pins.
Comment by James Knell Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 4:29 pm
*–$700 per year for a newspaper from Peoria, IL???–
They list 13-week,seven-day home delivery for $72. That’s $288 a year. How are you paying $700?*
That price is for new subscribers. For those of us who have subscribed for years the rate has kept going up and up and up. I think they figured, and in my case they were right, that if you have automatic withdrawal to pay for the subscription you would notice the increase.
Comment by G'Kar Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 4:46 pm
==but WIU has decided to eliminate funding for the local public radio station, WIUM/WIUW,==
Peoria’s public radio station, WCBU is also in jeopardy.
http://www.pjstar.com/news/20180814/public-radio-may-be-leaving-bu-campus
Comment by G'Kar Monday, Sep 17, 18 @ 8:33 pm