Cutbacks. Buyouts. Layoffs. Papers abandoning their print customers in favor of online profits that may or may not ever materialize.
Forget all that. In Liberal, Kansas, they’re starting up a new daily newspaper.
A print newspaper. You know. Print? As in dead trees?
The High Plains Daily Leader cranked out its first edition Sunday. The staff mainly consists of the former editor and publisher of The Times, which had cut back publication in January from daily to three times a week. About 70 percent of The Times’ staff quit and followed their publisher to the Daily Leader, reports Maria Sudekum Fisher of the Associated Press.
In addition, the town of Liberal — population about 20,000 — has a weekly and a Spanish-language weekly. About half the town is Hispanic, Fisher writes.
Earl Watt, publisher of the High Plains Daily Leader, had been publisher of the Times but resigned that position last week. He said officials at Lancaster Management Inc., which owns the Times, told him last fall it had plans to cut back publication to twice a week as a cost-saving measure.
“I told them this community would reject that like a baboon’s heart,” said Watt, 37. But three days a week didn’t fare much better, he said.
“The public was upset,” he said. “They were dropping subscriptions. … Three days a week was kind of a slap in the face to the community. They felt embarrassed by it.”
The Daily Leader is circulating about 7,000 copies each afternoon. Its first editions were 14-page broadsheets. They plan to publish a Spanish-language edition on Wednesdays and to post a web site later this week.
Read the whole AP story in the Monday Kansas City Star.
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UPDATE
The Times web site is a complete mess. They don’t appear to be interested in updating it regularly.
For example, the site calls itself The Daily Times. According to the AP story, the Times cut back from daily publication in January. This is May.
A reader named Brandon posted on the site (I cleaned up the grammar a bit):
I read in [The Hutchinson News] (they update their site daily, hint, hint…) where Earl [Watt] is starting his own paper. Nothing about that on this lovely site. Maybe they will have a better web site with local news. Do you have their web address yet? If so, please post it so I can get local news.
Ouch!
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UPDATE TWO
A Daily Leader staffer e-mailed me a copy of Sunday’s front. I’ll post it separately.
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UPDATE THREE
Um, that Sunday front? There is a little issue with it…
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UPDATE FOUR
The latest on this topic, as of Wednesday, May 14.
As a former subscriber of The Times, I am happy that there is now a daily newspaper in Liberal.
Where did the owners of The Times learn that to increase profits, you cut back on service! Maybe that’s the way it works in the newspaper business, but in other businesses things don’t work that way.
The web site is terrible, looks like it was designed by a grade school student, except that possibly a grade school student would do a better design.
Arnold …
For all its lack of content, the Southwest Used-To-Be-Daily Times looks a thousand times better than most of the other Lancaster web sites, which have designs held over from 1995.
I’m a Liberal resident who bought a subscription to the new paper for the school I work at. This is the first time I’ve ever purchased a subscription to any paper. I wanted to support Earl in his new effort.
I have watched with great frustration how the swdtimes web site has changed, not to the best I might add. I know longer live in Liberal but still have ties to it. Sure would be nice to read the local happenings and news. Since the day this paper was no longer owned and by local people it has sadly gone to pot. Guess I will read the Hutchinson News to find out any thing.
As a former Times employee, I must say, sir that I appreciate your dedication to freedom of speech. However, in interest of fairness, perhaps you should ask why a number of good employees left the Times when Mr. Watt was in charge? Also, you should take pity on those who followed him who were scared enough about possibly not having a job that they left with him - believing in nothing more than a pipe dream.
i would really like to know what the website is for the new newspaper i am really needing the garage sale listing and they seem to be better at it then the times is. thank you