Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Local Weeklies: Small Town in the Big City
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timesledger.com
Who runs these Queens, N.Y. weeklies? Rupert Murdoch. News Corp. bought the TimesLedger chain and other local chains last year. |
On Mar. 11, the New York Times parachuted into the wilds of the New York City borough of Queens and dips its highly polished toenail into the gritty world of "small-town" Queens neighborhood weeklies in
Outsiders Tug at Queens Newspapers, by
Ellen Barry.
Barry noted that media organizations as big as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. are going small as much as they are going big (MySpace) by buying up and working with some of these mom-and-pop operations -- such as the 16-paper chain Times Ledger Newspapers. (Interestingly, that chain's about page does not mention News Corp.)
Two great quotes from the story by Queens newspaper owners about the Great Gray Lady:
- Michael Schenkler, publisher of The Queens Tribune: "Ask someone at The New York Times about Queens," he said. "It's like two airports so they can fly to Washington, D.C. That's what Queens is to them."
- Maureen E. Walthers, publisher and editor of The Times Newsweekly in Ridgewood, Queens, also regards reporters from Manhattan as interlopers. "Nothing personal," she said, "but you're dealing mostly with people that came from Iowa."
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Other than the humor, though, this story is backhanded compliment on the strength of micro-local media, whether in print or online. The two Queens papers' sites -- while nowhere near, of course, to having the depth and cutting-edge content of
NYTimes.com -- are rich in ads.
...Which brings us to Walthers' comment about what she said at the one Columbia journalism school course she attended (for one day). According to the article, the students were asked to describe the most important principle in journalism: The students said "integrity," "justice," "truth." Ms. Walthers was the last to answer. She said, "advertising."
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