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Yahoo!If newspapers are dying, as every media pundit likes to say these days, then the Santa Barbara News-Press is on the bullet train to the graveyard.
On Monday, the Audit Bureau of Circulations — the newspaper industry’s official counting agency — released its semi-annual report on readership trends and circulation tallies, which are used by newspapers to set advertising rates. The report, called the FAS-FAX, was based on data acquired up until March 31, 2007. It showed that nationwide over the past 12 months, daily newspapers’ circulation has dropped an average of 2.1 percent, with Sunday editions faltering a bit more to 3.1 percent. (Not such the predicted horrific slide, it seems, but a steady slip nonetheless.)
The News-Press, however, dropped a whopping 9.5 percent, to 38,000 newspapers. The L.A. Times’s James Rainey called it “one of the biggest declines in the region” and the media-watching magazine Editor & Publisher said that the newspaper “plunged.”
A series of questions were sent to the News-Press via the paper’s spokesperson Agnes Huff, asking whether or not management could attribute this drop to the current situation at the newspaper. That situation includes federal prosecution by the National Labor Relations Board, a refusal to approve a 33-6 union vote from last September, the banishment of certain websites from existing employee computers, and last month's front-page, non-bylined story linking former editor Jerry Roberts to child pornography, a move that reportedly also caused another employee, business writer Steve Bonser, to recently quit.
If the News-Press chooses to respond, they will be afforded to space to do so here. But a response is highly unlikely, because since January, almost every post on this Santa Barbara Media Blog has sought answers from News-Press management, and they have declined each time. There have been occasional responses from attorneys Barry Cappello, David Millstein, and Larry Stein when questions arise over legal matters, but otherwise, the News-Press management is mum on the whole situation.
Meanwhile, the paper’s former employees, including Roberts, have won two ethics awards in the past year. These latest circulation numbers just seem like the latest writing on the increasingly scribbled wall.
Double-clicking on any word or phrase in this story will open a reference window with definitions and links to other reference material.
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Here is a notice that is going around and around.
SHAME ON WENDY DEMONSTRATION
A demonstration of community outrage will be held:
Wednesday, May 2, 2007, 8:45 to 9:15 a.m.
at Santa Barbara County Courthouse Arch on Anacapa Street
Contact email
operationcoldshoulder@gmail.com
Supporters of Jerry Roberts and everyone concerned about journalistic integrity are encouraged to gather during the half-hour prior to the court hearing (Superior Court room no. 4) at which Ampersand (the News-Press corporate owner) will ask the court for return of a computer hard disk containing porno images that could have originated by anyone. Law enforcement officials have stated that no case can be pursued because the chain of ownership for the computer hard disk is unknown.
Through a front-page article on Sunday, April 22, the Santa Barbara News-Press insinuated that illegal child pornography found on a computer once used by Jerry Roberts somehow involved him, even though the News-Press and its ownership and management knew, in statements last January if not earlier, that others in the building had full access to the same computer for years and that the computer also was purchased used from unknown sources.
Many people believe that this so-called news article, with no author credited, was published by the News-Press to ruin Roberts’ reputation as part of a continuing lawsuit where the News-Press is suing him for $25 million. The News-Press demand for the computer hard disk, through a court action, appears simply to be a ruse and an insulting distraction because such images are illegal contraband and law enforcement authorities cannot allow them to be possessed by anyone. The FBI already is conducting an investigation, and the News-Press seems to think it would be a better detective than the Santa Barbara City Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
People who wish to show their support for Roberts and the principled journalists, and who wish to condemn these latest News-Press insults, are invited to demonstrate for a half-hour Wednesday morning, starting at 0845 outside the Courthouse on Anacapa St. Show them, yet again, that the greater Santa Barbara community will not be intimidated and will Not Back Down to threats and innuendo by Ampersand and the News-Press.
Signs are encouraged to display, as easy as bringing and holding up the cover of the most recent issue of Santa Barbara Independent .
FirstDistrictStreetfighter (anonymous profile)
May 1, 2007 at 11:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Readership and circulation up at Santa Maria Times
http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/...
Readership and circulation also up at Independent, Daily Sound, NewsRoom, EdHat, Blogabarbara, CraigSmithsBlog, Daily Nexus, Shape of Voice, etc. etc. etc.
But down at only one newspaper in Santa Barbara County, and we all know why, and it only is getting worse and worser there.
David_Pritchett (anonymous profile)
May 1, 2007 at 11:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
May I say that David Pritchett and Cathy Murillo deserve a round of applause for the rally hosted by operationcoldshoulder.com in front of the courthouse this morning.
Attended by about 65 people, the rally went well. An interesting sidenote is that a videographer supposedly working for the News-Press videotaped the event, and it wasn't for security chief Nick Montano, but reportedly for the News-Press's Web site. Now, that I'd like to see posted!
Channel 3's John Palminteri, along with a Channel 6 reporter, also covered the event, along with other videographers documenting the ongoing News-Press situation.
There was even a journalism class from Santa Barbara City College covering the rally as an assignment.
To paraphrase Robert Duvall from "Apocalypse Now," there's nothing like the smell of napalm or a News-Press rally early in the morning! ;)
bobGuiliano (anonymous profile)
May 2, 2007 at 1:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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