Southeast Mississippi's Hattiesburg heard something early this morning for the first time in 111 years from the local newspaper: nothing. "The presses at the Hattiesburg American slowly fell silent, following the paper's final printing in the city of its birth,'' Tim Doherty reports today, in a nicely written story you'll want to save for later.
Good for the newsroom, too! Looks like this might have been a hard story to pull off, judging from the slightly exasperated-sounding tone of the quote from outgoing Publisher Skippy Haik.
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Record the last runs!
As Gannett keeps cutting, we'll write a lot more of these stories in the years ahead. Consider video interviews with long-time press operators, and capture the sights and sounds of your last run.
What do you hear about your press? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
Check out the opinion piece on the departing publisher, Skippy, on the opinion page. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteFrom my Jan. 4 report about the Asheville Citizen-Times stopping its press:
ReplyDeleteTravis White and his co-workers watch as the last of the night’s 58,000 newspapers come off the Asheville Citizen-Times printing press. No words. No fanfare. There’s not much to say when a job’s finished for good.
“I hate it, really,” says White, a night-side supervisor in the pressroom. “My grandfather worked here for 44 years. My dad worked here 20-some years. My dad used to bring me to work with him sometimes. I grew up in the mailroom and the pressroom.”
There’s a slow quieting of whirring machinery. It’s about 2:45 a.m. Sunday, and a sense of resignation hangs all around. The nightly process of printing a daily newspaper, a ritual practiced for close to 150 years in Asheville, has just come to an end. Permanently.
“I’m gonna miss it,” White says. “I think everybody here is.”
Link here:
http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/asheville_citizen_times_stops_the_presses/
Link to story about closure of Asheville Citizen-Times printing press:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/aw5v7f
Hattiesburg has put up a Photo Gallery and a Video from the last run.
ReplyDeleteI was one of the first group downsized in Hattiesburg in 2001. And since it was so small we all knew each other. Pressroom - Advertising - Marketing - Newsroom... Everyone. We all worked hard to produce a great newspaper. My prayers for those who lost their jobs and those left. Sad day.
ReplyDeleteHere's where the readers will notice: in the earlier deadlines that are required for whatever newspaper runs first off a shared press.
ReplyDeleteSomething's not going to get in that should / would under the later press times.
Consider how much flexibility even one extra hour can give you during breaking news or when sources don't call back right away.
But well, that's Gannett.
10:32 p.m. yes, it sucks, but we've been doing it for years in Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteThe closing of the Asheville press plant and moving the printing to Greenville, SC, has immediately resulted in earlier deadlines (even though Avl Pub Randy Hammer chirped in print about Greenville's two presses). How has that affected readers?
ReplyDelete1. ACC basketball games that start after 8:30 p.m. do not make the new deadlines.
2. Many boys high school games miss deadlines (girls games are played earlier), including Asheville High and six other schools in the home county.
3. Area men's college teams are not getting next-day coverage, just feature follow-ups 2 days late.
4. Late-ending government meetings: ditto.
Does Gannett care? Apparently not. The next round of circulation numbers should be revealing.
Meanwhile, TV news has become the prime source of timely information and news.
The outgoing publisher probably sounded "exasperated," not "exacerbated."
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDelete@5:05
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call the opinion piece on Skippy beaufitul. It was loyal and polite. I believe it was also ordered.
The HA going down fast. It will get even worse with Fowler at the wheel. Gannett will sell this paper before long.
ReplyDeleteDrove by the newspaper this morning and there were like 10 cars in the parking lot. HA. Yeah, its going down. It was also after 10 and GM Mrs. Fowler had not yet arrived.
ReplyDeleteMrs Fowler has always gone and come as she pleased. When the first and second rounds of layoffs were going on she keep her door shut the entire time. She was also taking vacation 2 weeks at a time. She goes and comes as she pleases but she has always tried to keep up with everyone else. Go figure?
ReplyDeleteI remember not too many years back when you could not get a parking place at the HA. That was the good ole days. Back then Mrs Fowler's advertising reps thought they were to good to walk in the rain or get hot in the sun. They would park under the shed at the dock and make it hard on the guys delivering goods. She never would say a word to them for parking in no parking zones. What a leader!
She is a probably working from home like some of the other managers do all the time. I wish they would let me work from home! I doubt much work is being done!!!!
ReplyDeleteIts funny how when they "work from home" you can call them and they will say "Hold on, gotta get logged in" or "I'm taking my daughter to gymnastics, I'll call you when I get back.". Ms. Fowler took at least 5 weeks last year but always said since she was checking email from vacation she could pass it off as working. Advertising Director couldnt even enter a ticket for ads that were running. Not for classified or retail. Thats a shame. If you cant do the work how do you know what your staff goes through. Hmm.. Go figure is right.
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as the other managers who work from home I can only think of one and thats just laughable. Corporate and Jackson are on speed dial, these people cant funtion without a lifeline.
Talk about the reps parking in no-parking zones, remember when the reporters were threatened to have their cars towed if they parked in customer parking. Geez, its okay for the reps but not the reporters. The reps might break a nail and have to go home for the day. It kills me to see them walk in that building with shopping bags or talk about the deals they just got. Had 3 of them tell me to my face all they did was shop all the time. 2 of them no longer worked there anymore when they said that so it didnt matter to them.
ReplyDeleteMs Fowler or Ms Cotten both do not know how to enter Ads (unless one of them figured it out very recently) And as far as a few of the managers needing lifelines, that is 100% correct. They gripe about Corporate and Jackson, but htey can't function without them. If you mess up they want to hang you out to dry but if they mess up they try to cover it up so Corporate or the pub. does not find out. Heck you don't even have to do anything wrong for them to point fingers at you. You better watch everyone in that AD department.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, as a former ad rep at HA, I have to say that, yes, we did park under the shed if we were running in for a quick moment to pick up a proof or especially if it was raining and we had to go right back out to see a customer. But we were told to stop doing it and we did -or I did! Second, I seem to think that someone on here that posted the comment about the reps shopping all day might have been referring to me as one of those reps and that was taken completely out of context. It was made in social conversation during non working hours and it was a joke. I hate when people have a personal vendetta against previous employers where they were fired for clearly breaking the rules and have to make things up to make themselves feel better as a person. Sorry, but your still a sneaky, conniving, dishonest person and the only person who can change that is you and God!
ReplyDeleteSounds like someone feels guilty. I wonder if their comment made them feel better? I don't know about the other people but I know enough about these ad reps to know that you can't trust them. I can't think of one retail rep that can be called "honest". I am not trying to be mean, just telling the facts 'mam.
ReplyDeleteAs far as people being fired, I was not. So many good people lost jobs due to the layoffs. The facts are the people in advertising have done plenty to get fired and they get away with things somehow.
I know one word the AD dept at the HA does not know: DEADLINES
ReplyDeleteThey never meet them and then they try to blame everyone else!
I would be more careful accusing "everyone" in retail advertising of being dishonest. That seems to be kind of harsh thing to say.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the person who left the comment about being dishonest and sneaky. If you would have done your job and wasn't stealing from the company you worked for you would still have a job. SO stop with all your petty nagging and whinning.
ReplyDeleteNot all sales reps are bad...just most of them
ReplyDelete