Douglas E. Jessmer

So the math, according to a former managing editor of the U.K. Observer, proves it — newspapers aren’t dying. They just smell funny.

And they still have great financial worth, too.

John Duncan, at his Web site “The Inksniffer,” says (and you can read the whole piece here):

Being a big believer in the power of markets to expose the truths behind people’s words, I thought I’d dig a little and work out how much it would cost me to buy a newspaper title from a group that really ought to sell it to me. That would be groups who believe that the future is digital in some way, who have no other synergistic newspapers in the same area and who could use the money. The New York Times and McClatchy have titles that fit into all those categories.

There’s two of them near his home, and one of them hits close to home for me, since I worked there:

I chose the Bradenton Herald and the Sarasota Herald Tribune. Neither is particularly good, or outrageously troubled. The SH-T is dull and lifeless but that is hardly extraordinary. It is a lazy monopolist with few ideas and no feel for its community. Again, not outstanding in any way. If there was a prize for being mediocre and average, the SH-T would win so often that it would get to keep the trophy.

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ABOVE: Nicole Bogdas and I mug in front of her offending Michelin outside a Clearwater, Fla., eatery. (Photo by Angela M. Roberts)

Nicole Bogdas, formerly of The Palm Beach Post, will soon be taking up residence in the newsroom at, uh, you know, I probably don’t even have to tell you, but it’s the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Before she gets there, well, doesn’t the road to every new newsroom position go through Charles Apple’s blog? In lieu of that, or as an added bonus, whichever, she came through the Tampa Bay area, where she had lunch with me and with my girlfriend, Angie. (So Charles, my friend, you’ve been checkmated!)

We ate at Lenny’s, a quirky breakfast place along U.S. 19 in Clearwater, after which we went out to her cream-colored Beetle ragtop to check on her cat — and I spotted a flat tire on her car. Being Sunday afternoon, the only option was Tire Kingdom. Nicole had a small air compressor in her trunk (do Beetles have trunks, or just large outdoor glove boxes?), so we aired the tire up a bit.

Since she didn’t know the way, our two-vehicle caravan, neither of which included a Dodge Caravan, headed to the tire shop. It started raining, making the trip even more fun. Anyway, her tire was taken care of, and she was on the road in no time. Or a little, whichever.

We caught up over breakfast food (I had a bagel called “The Detroit” — just a plain bagel with butter, which I ordered “the way Detroit should be, burned and drowned, this time with a toaster and butter,” eliciting laughter and one comment, I think from the waitress, about how I was too late).

Full disclosure: I once worked in Detroit (The News), as did Nicole (Free Press).

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I visited Pittsburgh Monday (Aug. 20) for the first time in nearly a year, and was reminded just how lucky the people there are to have two independently owned newspapers.

Especially two newspapers who have such a rivalry — it’s a to-the-death sort of competition not found elsewhere in the country. While the broadcast media continues its downward spiral (Pittsburgh’s just barely a top-25 market now, after being a top-10 market!), the newspapers are really where the intensity and drive are in western Pennsylvania. And heck, there’s the Beaver County Times to the west, with my friend Clif Page leading photo over there, nipping at both their heels.

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…you can’t take the newsroom out of me.

As you may know by now, I’ve jumped ship for a while. But it’s not easy.

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