Chicago Tribune targets Racine

The JT fought off a circulation challenge by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, but now it appears the Chicago Tribune is eying Racine for new subscriptions.

The Tribune is offering cut-rate prices on its subscriptions, starting at 99 cents a week for the Sunday paper. For a penny more, $1 a week, you can get home delivery on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. A daily subscription is $2.75 a week.

The JS has abandoned its Racine County coverage and given its recent bloodbath of layoffs - 92 in one shot - it's unlikely they'll ever return to Racine for coverage. The Tribune push likely will meet a similar result, simply because the Chicago paper never writes about our community (they occasionally write about Kenosha).

The JT's prices are competitive. They're offering five weeks of daily papers for $7, or $13.75 per month of daily papers. You can get 13 weeks of Wednesday and Sunday papers for $26.

Interested in a newspaper?

Get the Chicago Tribune here.
Get The JT here.

Competition disappears in Racine media

A few weeks ago the J-S launched a redesigned Web site. There's nothing special about the new look - it's sleek, the colors are dulled down and blogs are featured more prominently. (The only thing I don't like is NewsWatch off to the right side. It feels dismissed there ... I liked it better front and center.)

But one significant change for Racine is Racine is no longer included on the site. On the old JSonline, Racine had its own section with a link on the front page. On the new site, Racine is no where to be found.

It's not much of a surprise given the J-S's decision to shutter its Racine bureau in Sturtevant. But the state's biggest paper - and the dominant source for news in southeastern Wisconsin - appears to have abandoned all Racine coverage.

At RacinePost, one of our daily jobs is to aggregate Racine news onto our front page. It's our effort to bring all of the stories about Racine into a single place, making it easy for readers to checkout what's going without visiting the individual sites themselves.

Lately, we've noticed fewer Racine stories online. Part of that comes from the J-S's decision to abandon our community. The loss of the weekly section has weakened news coverage in Racine, and left the JT with minimal competition. We work to offer a credible alternative to the local newspaper - given the stories they get from us, it's clear 212 Fourth St. is one of our key audiences - but we're not a full-time paid staff (at least not yet). So the loss of the J-S and its dedicated staff is an unfortunate blow to Racine. Add in the JT's shrinking space - and, one has to imagine in the current economy, it's soon-to-be shrinking staff - there is less oversight of our community and many fewer stories about the people living here.

You're reading our solution. RacinePost tries daily to offer competition to the established newspaper. It's my sincere hope others will take up the same banner and try to do the same. Maybe someone along the way can figure out how to make some money and we can return to an era when five, six, even 10 newspapers competed for readers.

If I had control over the JT, I'd split employees into competing groups and have them fight for readers. There would be 4-5 separate news sources under the JT banner, and the daily paper would be a composite sketch of everyone's work. Successful reporters would be rewarded with bonuses and more resources to report the news. Unsuccessful reporters would be shown the door. (Note to Rick Parrish: This model would work. Feel free to call me for the plan.)

The competition model works in the news business. It pushes everyone to work harder and write better stories. It's also a lot more fun. The loss of competition in Racine media is worrisome. Working in a vacuum, you believe you're doing a good job regardless of what you're actually doing.

So rise up Racine bloggers and reporters and take on the news of the day. Do it in your own voice on your own timeline. There's nothing special about being a reporter, you just have to take a few minutes to research and write. So start a blog and give it a shot. You just may be the one to save our daily newspaper.

Garin announces her own endorsements

Shortly after Marge Krupp won the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's endorsement in the Democratic primary to challenge Paul Ryan, Paulette Garin announced her own endorsements. They're not as strong as the largest paper in the state, but they're something ...

Here's the press release:

KENOSHA – First District U.S. Congress candidate Paulette Garin has announced a series of major labor endorsements unprecedented for a primary:

• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 430
• Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 4611
• Racine Labor Coalition
• Racine Central Labor Council AFL-CIO

“I am humbled by this recognition from my fellow union brothers and sisters from right here in the First Congressional District,” said Garin, who is a member in good standing of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

“My family has long ties to unions and solidarity,” Garin added. “My grandfather was a UAW Local 72 member from the union’s founding in 1935 until his retirement after 50 years of service. My father served as UAW Local 960 Treasurer for 35 years, and is still active in the UAW-CAP and the UAW Retirees Council. Growing up in a union household has shown me the importance of organized labor as a force for the well-being of all working families.”

Garin has prepared for her run for the 1st District seat now held by Paul Ryan by passing the certified public accountant exam on the first try.

“We need fiscal responsibility in Washington to counter the irresponsible borrow-and-spend policies of the Bush administration and Paul Ryan,” Garin said. “My CPA training puts me in a unique position among the Democratic candidates to scrutinize federal spending in the interest of taxpayers.”

The congressional primary will be held September 9.

Journal Sentinel axes its editorial cartoonist

Newsroom cuts are everywhere in the dead tree world, although the newspapers don't always tell us who's going -- until they're gone and we notice missing bylines. (And, of course, there are many non-bylined editorial newsroom jobs that also just disappear, along with production, circulation, advertising, and other positions.)

At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, one high-profile departure has just surfaced. Two weeks ago, the JS announced it was trimming 130 jobs due to declining revenue -- Journal Communications today announced that total revenue at the Journal Sentinel and its community newspapers dropped 9.5% year-over-year in July -- but we didn't know who was leaving.

Today, it becomes clearer. One of the losses will be the Journal-Sentinel's long-time editorial page cartoonist, Stuart Carlson. His last day was Friday, Aug. 15 -- coincidentally, the anniversary of his 25th year with the newspaper -- and his last cartoon was printed Sunday. At one time, the Journal Sentinel had two editorial cartoonists; now it has none.

Stuart Carlson's last Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cartoon

Carlson said he was forced to take a buyout. He wrote in an email to MilwaukeeWorld.com:

'Fraid it's true. Given the cutbacks planned at the JS I was told they could no longer “justify” having a full-time editorial cartoonist. Although I’m taking the buyout, I’m not going willingly. I’m being forced out.

Another sterling decision by the best and brightest in the paper’s management.

I’ll continue to be nationally syndicated in papers like the Washington Post.

I'll be looking for some other career around here.

Carlson's departure leaves only one editorial cartoonist still drawing for a Wisconsin newspaper. That's Joe Heller of the Green Bay Press Gazette, who self-syndicates to a number of small newspapers. Regardless of your politics, that's a sad state of affairs. (And a shame to give our own state and local politicians a free ride.)

Other cuts coming at the Journal Sentinel include the demise of the Real Estate section, the reduction of editorial pages (plural) to a single editorial page, and a report that the business section might be merged with the news department. On Aug. 2, we reported the elimination of the newspaper's weekly Racine section. And on July 24, the loss of seven jobs, still unspecified but including one reporter, at the Racine Journal Times.

Carlson's cartoons for the Journal Sentinel are archived HERE.

One final thought: Any budding editorial cartoonists out there? We'd love to talk about someone providing regular or occasional cartoons for RacinePost. If you're interested, you know how to contact us...

Journal-Sentinel shutting down its Racine section

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is ending its Racine section that ran in Sunday papers.

The paper confirmed the move this week. The last section is apparently scheduled to run next Sunday.

While great news for The Journal Times, which was running scared from the J-S for years, it's a sad blow for news in our community. It means less coverage, less exposure and less competition for our entrenched daily at a time when it needs more competition to get its act together.

The end of the Racine section puts a period on the J-S's ambitious plans to take over Racine County. At one time, the Milwaukee paper was considering a daily Racine section with a staff in its Sturtevant bureau comparable to the JT's. There were actually days when the J-S had more reporters on the ground than Racine's paper, which was leaving positions dark to try and meet Lee Enterprises' budget figures.

The heyday of the Racine section came around 2001 and 2002, when Tom Kertscher was the lead reporter in the office. He consistently pounded the JT with great reporting, and left the JT veteran scratching their heads on how he got his stories.

Here's a story as to why we need competition. Back around 2002, the JT's ace reporter found out a police officer was caught by the Police and Fire Commission (literally caught with their own eyes) sleeping in his car. The reporter found out about the story, but didn't write about it because he was friends with people in the department and didn't want to upset people.

After a couple of weeks, the J-S got word and ran the story, which went national. The JT ended up looking foolish.

Competition in the news business insures against cozy relationships affecting coverage. Racine has less competition now, which means the JT has less to worry about. That's not a good thing.