By LOU ANTONELLI
Managing Editor
I’m back! Did you miss me?
Exactly five years ago, after serving as the managing
editor of The Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune since July 31, 2007, I was fired by
the then-owners of the newspaper.
One of the problems with working as a small town
journalist is that of-ten when you change jobs, you changes towns, because
usually there is only one newspaper per city.
I went to work for The Tribune when I was 50. It
would have been nice if that had been my last job until I retired, but that was
not to be. The economic pounding of the Great Recession, plus bad luck and
timing, led to the newspaper’s sale in the summer of 2014.
I knew the new owners would eventually want their
own managing editor, and while some people in Mount Pleasant might have been
startled when I was let go, I was not, and I was ready for it.
I started four days later as the managing editor of
The Clarksville Times in Red River County. Being a weekly newspaper, my salary
dropped proportionately, but I gained so much free time that I was able to step
up my fiction-writing career, and I wrote my first novel.“Another Girl, Another
Planet” was published on Jan. 6, 2017 – my 60th birthday - and I am very proud
of it.
It also garnered critical acclaim and was a finalist
in 2017 for a prestigious literary award in alternate history. I didn’t win,
but I was beat fair and square by the best author in the genre.
I commuted from Mount Pleasant to Clarksville for
over a year, and then in 2016 bought a house there. At the start of 2018 –
exactly two years ago – I bought the newspaper and became my own boss.
Now, while I was managing editor of the Mount
Pleasant Daily Tribune, I had a lot of control and influence over the paper,
but there is so much more you can do when you are self-employed. The dangers
and risks are greater, but so are the potential rewards.
When Patricia and I bought The Clarksville Times, we
were able to make improvements and innovations that were badly needed, and it’s
really paid off.
There’s a real problem in the newspaper industry
today, but to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of its death are exaggerated. A
lot depends of whether you know who your audience is and what works and what
doesn’t work.
First and foremost, newspapers are not businesses
that do well under chain ownership. The history of American businesses since
the Second World War has been consolidation and acquisition. But because the
business of newspapers is really news, they always do better when owned by
local people.
Because almost all newspaper income comes from
account receivables, cash flow can be a big problem, and while a well-run paper
can usually stay in the black and cover its own costs, it is much more
difficult to always have enough cash to send profits to corporate and pay dividends.
When a chain-owned business fails to meet its income
projections, corporate cuts staff. While this personnel model may work for
Burger King – you can always hire more “warm bodies” – the loss of competency
and institutional memory at a newspaper is devastating.
What the Mount Pleasant Tribune is now compared to
when I left it, I believe, completely vindicates my analysis. But that hasn’t
been my problem for years, and still is not. I’ve spent years building the
Clarksville Times up to be one of the best little papers, and I am quite proud
of it.
From 18 advertisers when we took over, we have 40
now. Our circulation is up 20 percent. We are doing well enough that we decided
to expand.
It’s common for weekly papers to seek advertising
support from cities with daily papers. Paris is only 30 miles from Clarksville,
and we have indeed many advertisers from Paris.
When I have reached out to Mount Pleasant businesses
and tried to bring them into the fold, I have learned that Mount Pleasant is
just a little too far away to be practical.
You know the old saying, two can live as cheaply as
one? I have an office and a staff in Clarksville, and I can produce a Mount
Pleasant newspaper for a minimal cost. So now I have.
Of course, I have the advantage of having worked and
covered news in Mount Pleasant for seven and a half years. It’s not like I am
starting from scratch.
The best businesses in life are those that both benefit
their owners and employees as well as the public and its customers. We hope and
expect The Mount Pleasant Mirror will be that. We take pride in producing a
strong community newspaper that is both informative as well as entertaining.
You the reader enjoy a newspaper for the same reasons.
If you are a Mount Pleasant business owner, we will
offer service as well as exposure you have not had available before. In this inaugural
issue, we have no Mount Pleasant business ads, of course, but expect that will
change quickly enough. In the meantime, we repeat businesses from The
Clarksville Times, as a free bonus to them.
That’s another key to being a good newspaper – not
taking businesses for granted. I’m giving my loyal and faithful advertisers in
Red River County some free exposure in Titus County because I want them to know
we appreciate them.
In the past I have given them free circulation gift
certificates to give their employees and customers as gifts. We allow them to
put promotional materials – pens, keychains, calendars and such – on our office
counter.
Although we are operating now from our existing
office in Clarksville, we of course hope to open an office in Mount Pleasant as
soon as feasible. In the meantime, our contact information is on Page 2. I’ll
probably answer the phone myself.
I will reach out to Mount Pleasant businesses myself
for advertising. The personal touch shows people you care and will take care of
them. All our advertisers will probably be locally owned.
Big corporations are impossible to deal with, and
besides they are the heartless one who rip the support from newspapers by
drying up their advertising.
We will make some effort to build up a circulation
base, too, but for the time being, the paper is free as people get used to
seeing it. You are more than welcome to send us your news items and stories.
Again, our contact information is on Page 2.
A good community newspaper is a joint effort between
the community and the newspaper. As I have made clear, corporate chains are not
the best owners of newspapers. The way I was bounced by the previous owners of
The Tribune was crap, but expected, and I’m a big boy and know how to take care
of myself.
I think I bounced back well enough. I started this
article by noting I was fired by the Tribune exactly five years ago. I mean
that literally. The publisher kept me on through Christmas and New Year’s,
since I needed to cover other people’s time off, and then gave me the heave-ho
the first day back from New Year’s.
That was Jan 2, 2015.I had decided some time back to
kick off The Mount Pleasant Mirror on the first Thursday of January. If you
look at the dateline on this page, it tickles me what the first Thursday of the
new year happened to be.
Best wishes in 2020, and good luck to all of us!
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