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Date Posted: 13:43:42 08/15/18 Wed
Author: Pour Richard
Subject: Re: Changes coming at the Post-Gazette
In reply to: Pour Richard 's message, "Re: Changes coming at the Post-Gazette" on 07:05:18 08/13/18 Mon

Well, Lisa Hurm, PG VP/GM, finally, in the third graf, revealed the days of no print -- Saturdays and Tuesdays, starting the 25th. They printed (remember that?) her letter today on A-5 (guess John Block was busy). But she is still coy about when the rest of the days go printless -- "eventually it will be necessary to transition to a primarily digital delivery system." She beefs that up a good bit, ominously, later in the letter: "The good news is that many of you have already joined us on our journey towards an exclusively digital delivery." When's that journey comin' in for a landing, Lisa?

We are to line our bird cage floors with what, again, Lisa? Well, maybe all those newspaper home-delivery people, who will have so much time on their hands, can come up with a new company called: Bird Cage Solutions.

She also says, "This year, new tariffs on newsprint have compounded the already high expense of printing a daily newspaper," as she plugs the digital offerings, PG NewsSlide, PGe and the post-gazette.com website. I'm betting John and dead-ringer Allan told her not to blame Trump for his ill-advised and counterproductive stiff tariffs on Canadian goods, which led to Canada putting tariffs (20 to 30 percent?) on newsprint that the entire U.S. newspaper industry relies on. Thanks, Trump.

And she confidently states: "We are confident you'll find PGe and PG NewsSlide to be superior delivery methods to print." File that under whistling past the graveyard, Lisa -- who has a lovely little head shot of her by her signature at the bottom.

But what about the 80-year-old guy who grabs the "print" sports section on the way into the bathroom every morning? He's more interested in not sliding off the toilet than using PG NewsSlide, Lisa. What about him?

Well, she didn't forget him after all, friends. She ends the missive: "We appreciate your loyalty and trust as we embrace the future." Thanks, Lisa.

Kids, maybe you, too, can grow up to be a PG VP/GM (or work at the FBI, CIA, IBM or GE?), though without newspapers. That is, if there is a Post-Gazette at all.

>This is the heart of Allan Block's thinking:
>"Why are we doing this?” Mr. Block asked. "Print is
>going away. If you project even five years into the
>future you cannot imagine there’s a print business
>that will be vibrant nationally or internationally. We
>have to acknowledge what is happening. It’s time to
>put our great digital players fully into the game."
>
>That may or may not be true. He may be exaggerating
>his case to make it look better that the PG is
>abandoning print sooner or later after 232 years of
>print, probably sooner, by saying everyone's doing it.
>But that may be just a minority view. Ask the NYTimes,
>the WallStJournal, the WashPost, even USAToday. I
>don't hear them saying, like Chicken Little, the print
>sky is falling. Block may just be trying to spread the
>blame, make it an industry problem -- while he is
>asking his loyal subscribers to pay the same amount
>for 29 percent less print product. I don't hear him
>saying that as a matter of fairness, we have cut our
>subscription cost by 29 percent.
>
>And I think he has already put all his digital cards
>on the table, and many think a lot of it is crap.
>
>But, overall, he just exudes that attitude of the rich
>and powerful who really think they have a right to do
>anything and to ignore what subscribers want to know.
>People want to know only a few things: He won't say
>which two days are being cut out in two weeks (my
>guess is it's Saturday for sure and Tuesday -- could
>be Wednesday and not Tuesday). He won't say what the
>schedule is to cut out more print days and which days
>will go. Two more days to be cut, when? All five days
>to be cut, when? Why did they spend something like $70
>million on a brand new print plant not too long ago if
>"print is going away" -- did all that sneak up on
>them? Did all this crisis arrive because the Blocks
>and the top managers' salaries will finally have to be
>cut, which they find unacceptable? What will we wrap a
>fish in when there are no more newspapers?
>
>
>
>
>>http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2018/08/12/Po
>s
>>t-Gazette-embarks-on-new-profile/stories/201808120103
>>
>>They’ll be dropping two days of print production a
>>week — and it sounds like more change is coming.

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