For those of us who, for a lifetime, have very much enjoyed reading, from our own hands, a newspaper, with our morning orange juice, there's been nothing but bad news lately.
Unfortunately, it appears that additional, disturbing news will continue to chip away at us until there's an unknown final ending.
You've had to dig deep to discover the most recent developments and maybe that's good news. As this is being written, the Kornerman has seen no indication that the most recent staff cuts of Gannett employees have reached the Des Moines Register......yet.
Gannett, of course, is the Register's parent company. Based out of Virginia, Gannett is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, as measured by total daily circulation. Gannett boasts over 100 daily and 1,000 weekly publications.
According to Gannett, the newest round of layoffs occurred last Friday and was due to a $54 million second quarter loss, on revenues of $749 million. At least 20 of their newspapers were affected but I've seen no listing of the ones involved. As a result, I'm unaware of the status of the Register or the St. Cloud, Minnesota Times where one spokesman said, "we used to have six full-time and four part-time sports reporters. We now have one."
The last Register layoff, we know of, occurred in August of 2013 when nine workers, including five reporters, were cut. That was the same time when subscriptions were boosted by 40-percent.
Some Iowa newspaper readers bank on Lee Enterprises for their consumption. However, in May, that entity was forced to make $45 million in cuts. Ten Iowa newspapers were involved, including the Quad City Journal, Waterloo Courier, Sioux City Journal and Mason City Globe Gazette, in addition to the nearby Omaha World Herald.
Of course the newspaper industry is not the "one and only." We do know that others, such as HyVee and Wells Fargo in Iowa, have undergone serious recent cutbacks.
Let's hope we don't hear that the Register is involved in the latest Gannett cuts, although the future seems rather dismal.
K-----K
A page in the most recent Boone County Historical Society publication, "Trail Tales," provided a memory maker for the Kornerman and it does tie in, somewhat, with the just completed newspaper talk.
The page in question features a map titled, "Boone, Iowa, Trade Area,"........"Every day coverage of the Boone News Republican," which, of course, was a six days a week daily paper in earlier days.
Now this is a 1942 map and that "coverage area" stretched from Gowrie to Jewell to Slater to Woodward and many communities in between.
Unbelievable, but true......even into the 60's, when I was the Boone News Republican Sports Editor. At that time, I had the extreme pleasure, and I mean that statement, of traveling to and personally talking to the coaches and athletes, while providing sports coverage for 18 (that's right), 18 schools sports activities for the daily News Republican.
Obviously, I couldn't be at each of those 18 sites on a daily or even weekly basis but I did follow a regular schedule to personally go, when possible, and build relationships. The reward, in most cases, was that, via phone, someone from those destinations were assigned to call in their game results or anything else deemed newsworthy.
With a tear in my eye, I recall those wonderful days and the extreme pleasure derived from covering the athletic events of those schools, while also gaining lifetime friendships with so many terrific people.
K-----K
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