Fight back!
Question:
In Sacramento, the propagandizing Bee is almost as good as Tass used to be. ‘Course, liberals support and run it. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – WSJ? What a bunch of liberals. Three words: Wall Street Journal. Accept nothing less (and it WILL be FAR less). — awaddell at codestrike dot com Jim, Where are you at? I know Gannett took over Oshkosh and Appleton — both formerly grand, locally-owned newspapers. It’s sad what they (and all "chain" paper companies) do to a local paper. For 22 years I watched as Gannett (known as the "DeathStar" in the newspaper world, since they come into your orbit, and destroy you) raped and pillaged city after city, all across the nation. You should see what they’ve done to the Des Moines Register! It was once a world-class, Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper. It is now a mere shell, exactly as you described. And they pay their carriers and district managers so little, that delivery is a day-to-day gamble, like rolling the dice. Like we always said to our newspaper clients, "You pay peanuts – you get monkeys" — and that’s what Gannett gets… — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" Jay, Our local paper is also owned by Gannett. Most of the time they can’t manage to even get the paper delivered and when it does come it’s a joke. About 2 pages of Central Wisconsin articles and the rest of it is national AP articles take right off the news line. Any article that the local reporters write is normally filled with mis-information and errors. The paper used to be locally owned and ever since Gannett bought it several years ago it has been terrible. I wonder if they think that the fire departments and the police departments should also turn a profit? And I imagine that they must be just rolling in the dough from the local bus service huh? JimB This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"! http://www.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Response:
This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"!
What’s surprising (or unreasonable) about that? It’s the natural, inevitable result of demands that government be "run like a business", just as underfunding is the natural result of demands for tax cuts. — Paul Baechler
Response:
What’s surprising (or unreasonable) about that? It’s the natural, inevitable result of demands that government be "run like a business", just as underfunding is the natural result of demands for tax cuts.
Right. And when I start seeing ANYTHING resembling business efficiency, and profit-making (or motive) in gubmint, I will (a) stop bitching about them expecting our airport to make a yearly profit, and (b) fall over dead. Until that time, expecting the airport to make a profit — one that is measured using regular business parameters — is no different than expecting the library, park system, or bus system to make a "profit". Ain’t gonna happen. But does paving the streets make a profit? Of course it does — but it’s hard to quantify. Paved roads bring commerce to the area, which makes them "profitable" — as do the paved runways and taxiways of our airport. Our airport brings $11,000,000.00+ annually to our local economy, according to an Iowa State University study. The city’s annual subsidy (that the newspaper is bitching about) amounts to around $200K. Not a bad investment, by any measure. — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Response:
Newspapers are dead, they just don’t know it yet. When I worked for the St. Paul Pioneer Press/Dispatch in the late 80’s I couldn’t believe how poorly run it was. Still is and hemorrhaging money.
The conglomerate I used to work for responded to the Internet and declining circulations by hunkering down and spending next to no money at all on responding to the Internet and declining circulations. They also traded for some more newspapers. I actually had a kid come by to tell me that only 10% of the news I was interested in could be found on the Internet. Pushy little salesguy, too. Newspapers: a 19-th century waste of good trees. Rob
Response:
Newspapers: a 19-th century waste of good trees.
Say what you will about them, newspapers remain profitable, are even expanding (at least around here), and — my truest measure — the daily newspaper is one of the most popular items we include in our delivered-to-the-suite continental breakfast basket at our hotel. And our high-speed internet connections — which we thought would be so popular — remain largely unmentioned and unused. Go figure! — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Response:
And our high-speed internet connections — which we thought would be so popular — remain largely unmentioned and unused.
Only about half of all US households own a PC. Of those, many are simply unused, and most of the rest are used only for email. Most of the people using their PC just for email don’t mind being without email when they are traveling. I never would have expected an Internet connection to be a widely popular feature. For those who DO want it, it’s very important and a great selling point. But only a small fraction of your customers are even in a position to use one. Even for the people who do just email, chances are that they don’t know how to access their email from an Internet connection other than the one at their house. Maybe you got a skewed view of how popular it would be by depending too much on your survey of us here? Talk about an unscientific survey! :) Anyway, I’m not suggesting that you should get rid of the Internet connection. It’s a great feature, IMHO. I’m just not surprised that more people like their morning paper than like the Internet connection. Pete
Response:
Maybe you got a skewed view of how popular it would be by depending too much on your survey of us here? Talk about an unscientific survey! :)
True. However, you guys (pilots) ARE our targeted growth market — so what you think and want is important. I think the unpopularity of the high-speed internet connection is really more a commentary on how few pilots (and tech heads) have actually stayed with us in the first 6 weeks. Which isn’t a surprise, either — our marketing efforts have only just begun! :) Luckily, we’ve been so full of Hawkeye football fans, we’re too busy to worry about it! — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Response:
True. However, you guys (pilots) ARE our targeted growth market — so what you think and want is important.
What I think IS important! I never meant to imply otherwise. :) I think the unpopularity of the high-speed internet connection is really more a commentary on how few pilots (and tech heads) have actually stayed with us in the first 6 weeks.
Probably…though I’m guessing it’s more the lack of "tech heads" than the lack of pilots (I know lots of pilots who are baffled by computers 
). In any case, if I recall, you knew up front that your major clientele would not be pilots, so I’m guessing that all of this isn’t *that* much of a surprise to you, even ignoring the relative newness of your marketing efforts. :) Pete
Response:
Great response, Jay. Articulate, concise, and fact based. The editors won’t know what hit them!
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"! http://www.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Response:
Hi Jay! Great editorial! I’m glad it got published. I hope it actually makes a difference… Newspapers are not only profitable, they are run completely and totally like a business – profitability is key, circulation drives advertising $$$, and ratings drive circulation. It will be a long time until newspapers really die – I predict it won’t happen until someone comes up with a way for everyone to surf local, well organized web news sites on the train, the kitchen table, and in the toilet for 50 cents a day… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Newspapers are dead, they just don’t know it yet. When I worked for the St. Paul Pioneer Press/Dispatch in the late 80’s I couldn’t believe how poorly run it was. Still is and hemorrhaging money. Totally untrue. Newspapers are INCREDIBLY profitable. I worked at a newspaper in Wisconsin (until ‘97) with a 37% profit margin! And when it dropped below 33%, we were instructed to tell our employees that we were having a "terrible" year. (If it dropped to 30%, we laid people off!) And *all* of that profit goes back to the home office. Not one nickel of it stayed in the community. THAT’S what chains do to hometown newspapers. — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" Jim, Where are you at? I know Gannett took over Oshkosh and Appleton — both formerly grand, locally-owned newspapers. It’s sad what they (and all "chain" paper companies) do to a local paper. For 22 years I watched as Gannett (known as the "DeathStar" in the newspaper world, since they come into your orbit, and destroy you) raped and pillaged city after city, all across the nation. You should see what they’ve done to the Des Moines Register! It was once a world-class, Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper. It is now a mere shell, exactly as you described. And they pay their carriers and district managers so little, that delivery is a day-to-day gamble, like rolling the dice. Like we always said to our newspaper clients, "You pay peanuts – you get monkeys" — and that’s what Gannett gets… — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" Jay, Our local paper is also owned by Gannett. Most of the time they can’t manage to even get the paper delivered and when it does come it’s a joke. About 2 pages of Central Wisconsin articles and the rest of it is national AP articles take right off the news line. Any article that the local reporters write is normally filled with mis-information and errors. The paper used to be locally owned and ever since Gannett bought it several years ago it has been terrible. I wonder if they think that the fire departments and the police departments should also turn a profit? And I imagine that they must be just rolling in the dough from the local bus service huh? JimB This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"! http://www.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" <HTML<HEAD<TITLE</TITLE <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR <STYLE</STYLE </HEAD <BODY bgColor=#ffffff <DIV<FONT face=Arial size=2<FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> Newspapers are dead, they just don’t know it yet. When I worked for the St. Paul Pioneer Press/Dispatch in the late 80’s I > couldn’t believe how poorly run it was. Still is and hemorrhaging money.</FONT<BR</FONT</DIV <DIV<FONT face=Arial size=2Totally untrue. Newspapers are INCREDIBLY profitable. </FONT</DIV <DIV<FONT face=Arial size=2</FONT </DIV <DIV<FONT face=Arial size=2I worked at a newspaper in Wisconsin (until ‘97) with a 37% profit margin! And when it dropped below 33%, we were instructed to tell our employees that we were having a "terrible" year. (If it dropped to 30%, we laid people off!)</FONT</DIV <DIV<FONT face=Arial size=2</FONT </DIV <DIV<FONT face=Arial size=2And *all* of that profit goes back to the home office. Not one nickel of it stayed in the community. </FONT</DIV <DIV<FONT face=Arial size=2</FONT </DIV <DIV<FONT face=Arial size=2THAT’S what chains do to hometown newspapers. </FONT</DIV <DIV–<BRJay Honeck<BRIowa City, IA<BRPathfinder N56993<BR<A href="http://www.AlexisParkInn.com"www.AlexisParkInn.com</A<BR"Your Aviation Destination"</DIV <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" <DIV"Newps" <<A in message <A re.com</A…</DIV<BRJay wrap=""Jim, Where are you at? I know Gannett took over Oshkosh and Appleton — both formerly grand, locally-owned newspapers. It’s sad what they (and all "chain" paper companies) do to a local paper. For 22 years I watched as Gannett (known as the "DeathStar" in the newspaper world, since they come into your orbit, and destroy you) raped and pillaged city after city, all across the nation. You should see what they’ve done to the Des Moines Register! It was once a world-class, Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper. It is now a mere shell, exactly as you described. And they pay their carriers and district managers so little, that delivery is a day-to-day gamble, like rolling the dice. Like we always said to our newspaper clients, "You pay peanuts – you get monkeys" — and that’s what Gannett gets… — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 <A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="http://www.AlexisParkInn.com"www.AlexisParkInn.com</A "Your Aviation Destination" "Jim" <A class=moz-txt-link-rfc2396E </PRE <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"<PRE wrap=""Jay, Our local paper is also owned by Gannett. Most of the time they can’t manage to even get the paper delivered and when it does come it’s a joke. About 2 pages of Central Wisconsin articles and the rest of it is national AP articles take right off the news line. Any article that the local reporters write is normally filled with mis-information and errors. The paper used to be locally owned and ever since Gannett bought it several years ago it has been terrible. I wonder if they think that the fire departments and the police departments should also turn a profit? And I imagine that they must be just rolling in the dough from the local bus service huh? JimB "Jay Honeck" <A class=moz-txt-link-rfc2396E 03</A… </PRE <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"<PRE wrap=""This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"! <A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://www.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm"http://w ww.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm</A — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 <A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="http://www.AlexisParkInn.com"www.AlexisParkInn.com</A "Your Aviation Destination" </PRE</BLOCKQUOTE<PRE wrap="" </PRE</BLOCKQUOTE<PRE wrap=""<!—- </PRE</BLOCKQUOTE<BR</BLOCKQUOTE</BODY</HTML Attachment decoded: untitled-3.htm
Response:
Shucks, Jay, The US Army, the USAF, The Navy and the Coast Guard have never operated at a "profit" (at least for them). Let’s get rid of those. (Now that would slow down Dubya. He’d have to stop one of his vacations and invade Iraq. "Here Cheney, take this M16 and cover me…")
There was the news story recently that the Iraqi vice-president said Hussein should fight a duel with Dubya, with Kofi Annan as the referee. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2297371.stm Hey, they could put it on pay-per-view, I mean, I’d pay to see that! Someone could make a lot of money. Back on topic for a moment, you get people trying to shut down small airfields over here in the UK, too. Usually the local council, who see airfields as not a valuable resource to the area, but a lot of land they can sell off to property developers so the property developers can build warehouses or office blocks… Then you get the NIMBYs* who buy a house next to the airfield then call for it to be closed down as it’s too noisy… They’re all bastards, all of them… — — Stranger: I wear no mask. Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask! *NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard – NIMBYs refers to people who complain bitterly about things going on in their area.
Response:
near Stevens Point, WI JimB
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Jim, Where are you at? I know Gannett took over Oshkosh and Appleton — both formerly grand, locally-owned newspapers. It’s sad what they (and all "chain" paper companies) do to a local paper. For 22 years I watched as Gannett (known as the "DeathStar" in the newspaper world, since they come into your orbit, and destroy you) raped and pillaged city after city, all across the nation. You should see what they’ve done to the Des Moines Register! It was once a world-class, Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper. It is now a mere shell, exactly as you described. And they pay their carriers and district managers so little, that delivery is a day-to-day gamble, like rolling the dice. Like we always said to our newspaper clients, "You pay peanuts – you get monkeys" — and that’s what Gannett gets… — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" Jay, Our local paper is also owned by Gannett. Most of the time they can’t manage to even get the paper delivered and when it does come it’s a joke. About 2 pages of Central Wisconsin articles and the rest of it is national AP articles take right off the news line. Any article that the local reporters write is normally filled with mis-information and errors. The paper used to be locally owned and ever since Gannett bought it several years ago it has been terrible. I wonder if they think that the fire departments and the police departments should also turn a profit? And I imagine that they must be just rolling in the dough from the local bus service huh? JimB This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"! http://www.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Response:
Newspapers: a 19-th century waste of good trees. Say what you will about them, newspapers remain profitable, are even expanding (at least around here)
Perhaps Dean Singleton owns your paper, or it’s still owned locally. I’ve met and worked for some of the other guys who run newspapers (the owners, not the publishers or editors), and I say without shame that these guys are about as interested in local issues and community building as you might be about seeing your local airfield turned into a stripmall and some apartment buildings. And our high-speed internet connections — which we thought would be so popular — remain largely unmentioned and unused.
Well, in your case, I’d propose that since you cater to pilots, perhaps the fact of air turbulence prevents folks from taking their laptops with them. And, it’s dang hard to eat and compute at the same time. Speaking as a pilot-wannabe (7.2 hours instruction so far) I’d ask you to keep your Internet connection available for my visit. Rob
Response:
Newspapers are dead, they just don’t know it yet. When I worked for the St. Paul Pioneer Press/Dispatch in the late 80’s I couldn’t believe how poorly run it was. Still is and hemorrhaging money.
Totally untrue. Newspapers are INCREDIBLY profitable. I worked at a newspaper in Wisconsin (until ‘97) with a 37% profit margin! And when it dropped below 33%, we were instructed to tell our employees that we were having a "terrible" year. (If it dropped to 30%, we laid people off!) And *all* of that profit goes back to the home office. Not one nickel of it stayed in the community. THAT’S what chains do to hometown newspapers. — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" Jim, Where are you at? I know Gannett took over Oshkosh and Appleton — both formerly grand, locally-owned newspapers. It’s sad what they (and all "chain" paper companies) do to a local paper. For 22 years I watched as Gannett (known as the "DeathStar" in the newspaper world, since they come into your orbit, and destroy you) raped and pillaged city after city, all across the nation. You should see what they’ve done to the Des Moines Register! It was once a world-class, Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper. It is now a mere shell, exactly as you described. And they pay their carriers and district managers so little, that delivery is a day-to-day gamble, like rolling the dice. Like we always said to our newspaper clients, "You pay peanuts – you get monkeys" — and that’s what Gannett gets… — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Jay, Our local paper is also owned by Gannett. Most of the time they can’t manage to even get the paper delivered and when it does come it’s a joke. About 2 pages of Central Wisconsin articles and the rest of it is national AP articles take right off the news line. Any article that the local reporters write is normally filled with mis-information and errors. The paper used to be locally owned and ever since Gannett bought it several years ago it has been terrible. I wonder if they think that the fire departments and the police departments should also turn a profit? And I imagine that they must be just rolling in the dough from the local bus service huh? JimB
This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"! http://www.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Response:
WSJ? What a bunch of liberals.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Three words: Wall Street Journal. Accept nothing less (and it WILL be FAR less). — awaddell at codestrike dot com Jim, Where are you at? I know Gannett took over Oshkosh and Appleton — both formerly grand, locally-owned newspapers. It’s sad what they (and all "chain" paper companies) do to a local paper. For 22 years I watched as Gannett (known as the "DeathStar" in the newspaper world, since they come into your orbit, and destroy you) raped and pillaged city after city, all across the nation. You should see what they’ve done to the Des Moines Register! It was once a world-class, Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper. It is now a mere shell, exactly as you described. And they pay their carriers and district managers so little, that delivery is a day-to-day gamble, like rolling the dice. Like we always said to our newspaper clients, "You pay peanuts – you get monkeys" — and that’s what Gannett gets… — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" Jay, Our local paper is also owned by Gannett. Most of the time they can’t manage to even get the paper delivered and when it does come it’s a joke. About 2 pages of Central Wisconsin articles and the rest of it is national AP articles take right off the news line. Any article that the local reporters write is normally filled with mis-information and errors. The paper used to be locally owned and ever since Gannett bought it several years ago it has been terrible. I wonder if they think that the fire departments and the police departments should also turn a profit? And I imagine that they must be just rolling in the dough from the local bus service huh? JimB This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"! http://www.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Response:
Three words: Wall Street Journal. Accept nothing less (and it WILL be FAR less). — awaddell at codestrike dot com
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Jim, Where are you at? I know Gannett took over Oshkosh and Appleton — both formerly grand, locally-owned newspapers. It’s sad what they (and all "chain" paper companies) do to a local paper. For 22 years I watched as Gannett (known as the "DeathStar" in the newspaper world, since they come into your orbit, and destroy you) raped and pillaged city after city, all across the nation. You should see what they’ve done to the Des Moines Register! It was once a world-class, Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper. It is now a mere shell, exactly as you described. And they pay their carriers and district managers so little, that delivery is a day-to-day gamble, like rolling the dice. Like we always said to our newspaper clients, "You pay peanuts – you get monkeys" — and that’s what Gannett gets… — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" Jay, Our local paper is also owned by Gannett. Most of the time they can’t manage to even get the paper delivered and when it does come it’s a joke. About 2 pages of Central Wisconsin articles and the rest of it is national AP articles take right off the news line. Any article that the local reporters write is normally filled with mis-information and errors. The paper used to be locally owned and ever since Gannett bought it several years ago it has been terrible. I wonder if they think that the fire departments and the police departments should also turn a profit? And I imagine that they must be just rolling in the dough from the local bus service huh? JimB This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"! http://www.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
Response:
I seriously wonder why anyone even reads the "news" paper any more. This is what I sent the local rag, after they published yet another broad-side attack against our local airport — they were/are actually calling for the closing of the airport if it doesn’t turn a "profit"! http://www.press-citizen.com/opinion/guestedit101002.htm — Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination"
– Chris N35
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