Claremont Eagle Times, RIP

I really hate (4.00 / 1)

that swirling-around-the-drain sound, but it just keeps getting louder...

So much for the notion that local papers will survive with local news.

Argh

is right.

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by: GreyMike @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 20:09:58 PM CDT

Does anyone know (4.00 / 1)

the southern end of the Eagle Times' reach?

I ask because there is obvious crossover with the Valley News from Claremont and north of Claremont, but south of it, say, Charlestown, can you get a Valley News and/or do they cover that area?

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by: Dean Barker @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 20:11:14 PM CDT

Doesn't the Keene Sentinel cover the area south of Claremont? (0.00 / 0)

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by: Putney Swope @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 21:51:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

If so, that's a whole lotta (0.00 / 0)

"north of Keene" to cover.

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by: Dean Barker @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 00:50:27 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

This will leave a hole in news coverage in that area (4.00 / 1)

The Eagle Times was the last daily newspaper to go online in the state. It contained news and viewpoints that the other papers never did. I found it very useful when I was doing Links.

This will leave a hole in news coverage in that area - hopefully the Valley News and Keene Sentinel will pick up the slack (and hire some newly unemployed workers).

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by: Putney Swope @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 05:27:38 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Dean... (4.00 / 1)

They have a circulation of about 9,000. It also covered Springfield and Chester, VT areas.  

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by: NH Ex-pat @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 18:09:50 PM CDT

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Woops, never mind. I saw below n/t (0.00 / 0)

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by: NH Ex-pat @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 18:10:39 PM CDT

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Thanks anyway. (0.00 / 0)

Another interesting thing is that its reach went a little west into the Newport area and further, so it touches (touched) near where I am too.

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by: Dean Barker @ Sat Jul 11, 2009 at 20:40:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Sentinel coverage (0.00 / 0)

No, it doesn't cover "south of Claremont."

Chesterfield and Westmoreland, yes. Walpole, a little bit.

Gilsum, Marlow, yes. Lempster, Goshen, Newport: not so much.

(We have readers on the Sentinel staff - I hope they will correct me if I have that wrong.)

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by: elwood @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 20:15:23 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

They report on Charlestown (4.00 / 2)

Walpole, as well as Springfield and Bellows Falls VT.

It's not a bad thing.  They picked right-wing stories, held Bush as a saint and did everything they could to Bash Obama.

The grammar and spelling was atrocious.  A coworker called to cancel is subscription and their phone number was incorrect.

Good riddance.

"We Demand Rigidly Defined Areas of Doubt and Uncertainty" D. Adams

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by: nonverbalcoma @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 20:32:38 PM CDT

Beg to differ. (4.00 / 5)

It IS a bad thing. Diverse news sources, not controlled by gigantic corporations, are essential to democracy.

Even the crackpot ones.

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by: elwood @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 20:37:45 PM CDT

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In this area it was a disservice (0.00 / 0)

They misreported and had an appalling slant.  All they did was fill people with misinformation.

Hopefully the Valley News will fill in nicely.

"We Demand Rigidly Defined Areas of Doubt and Uncertainty" D. Adams

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by: nonverbalcoma @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 20:53:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

The Snooze did cover the area anwyay... (0.00 / 0)

The Valley News already does cover Claremont and the rest of Cheshire County.  The Brattleboro Reformer could also move its territory farther north.  But who knows how long either of those papers will keep going?

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by: TimothyHorrigan @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 08:00:08 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

oops *Sullivan* is what I meant (4.00 / 1)

I typed "Cheshire" when I meant "Sullivan."  What I mean to say is that the Valley News already does cover Sullivan County.

The area which is now in a newspaper black hole is western Cheshire County and this time I do mean Cheshire County :-)

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by: TimothyHorrigan @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 08:05:33 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

The Reformer is part of a national chain (4.00 / 1)

The Denver Post is the master link in the chain, I believe.

The editor of the Reformer left, after a falling out with the chain, in Archer Mayor's mystery series featuring Brattleboro cop Joe Gunther a few books back.

My point is: local voices add a lot. The Valley News - part of the small Newspaper of New England group - qualifies. I'm not sure the Reformer does.  

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by: elwood @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 18:18:31 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

4 for the Archer Mayor mention, (0.00 / 0)

an easy guy to have a conversation with.

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by: GreyMike @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 20:23:06 PM CDT

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About the Reformer... (0.00 / 0)

*** The Denver Post is the master link in the chain, I believe. ***

Yes, that's true. Media News Group. Run by a known GOPer names Dean Singleton. Called Barack Obama "Barack Osama" at an AP event and joked about it. His papers are tanking. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up getting broken apart and resold to other papers or something.

And no, the Reformer doesn't qualify as local news. Their current publisher is also the same publisher that also  runs the Bennington Banner (they're both owned by New England Group). The Brattleboro Reformer's editor, Tom D'Errico is a nice guy, but he's from Greenfield, MA. I heard from their former cartoonist that D'Errico didn't even know who Bernie Sanders was when he first started. No joke. Too many stories to tell, won't get into right now.

The Reformer's sad. It's now running between 12-16 pages of news per day. We'll see how much longer it lasts.  

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by: NH Ex-pat @ Sat Jul 11, 2009 at 19:35:31 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Too small for a Daily Paper (0.00 / 0)

The Eagle Times didn't have a large enough circulation to warrant it as a daily newspaper. Being a daily eats up so much money. Especially in this day and age with a slow economy, the rise of the Internet, Craigslist, etc. They could've gone weekly. that would've been better economic sense. But to shut down this quickly can only indicate how bad it really was there.

Another publication of theirs was "The Messenger." I'm surprised that's folding too. They always had a lot of ads and ad revenue keeping it afloat. Oh well.  

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by: NH Ex-pat @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 18:15:34 PM CDT

(Ascends soapbox #3) (4.00 / 2)

The newspaper business isn't driven by the same business model as the muffler shop business. It really requires a publisher who is in it for the sheer joy of it: the prominence, the influence, the notoriety - maybe even the ink-stained romance of the thing.

Greeley (NH boy), Hearst, Ochs, Taylor, Graham, Loeb. Ewing, Splaine, DeCoursey.

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by: elwood @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 18:22:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Argh. Paine, not Splaine. (0.00 / 0)

Walter Paine was the gentleman publisher of the Valley News for many years. Splaine is - well, you know.

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by: elwood @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 20:26:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It takes more than that IMO (4.00 / 1)

People can get into the newspaper business and have all the passion in the world, but they also have to go in with a keen sense of business or else they won't last. I don't know what kind of guy ran the Eagle Times, but to quit on a dime like that must've meant there was something seriously wrong we don't know about.

I still believe keeping it as a daily in that area probably wasn't the best idea, not in today's media environment, not with the circulation they have, and not with the economy Claremont always endures. It's not Lebanon, Keene, Nashua, or Portsmouth. It's pretty dead up there.  

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by: NH Ex-pat @ Sat Jul 11, 2009 at 19:22:07 PM CDT

[ Parent ]