My letter to my local newspaper

A question to the managers of The Muskegon Chronicle

I've attached a link to an article about a local newspaper that is thriving in today's tough newspaper market.

Their formula is simple;
1. Don't give your product away for free
2. Make your product worth the customer's money

http://muskegonpundit.blogspot.com/2008/12/us-newspaper-shuns-web-and-thrives.html

Also attached is another link

http://muskegonpundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/newspapers-commit-suicide-read-all.html

It includes this letter to the WSJ that exemplifies what most of my friends say about our local paper:

" Exactly right, except the media do not take reports and put them into understandable context. They distort reports completely out of context, and call it truth. Papers are not going out of business because bloggers will do reporters' work for free; papers are falling because they are confirming readers' belief that we cannot trust the mass media, ever, on anything, so why pay for lies? The blogosphere did not do this to you; you did it to yourselves."

We simply don't get the real news from The Muskegon Chronicle therefore we won't pay for it any longer.

I've been a Chronicle subscriber since 1976.

When I recently dropped my subscription I wasn't asked why. There was no follow up call to see why they had lost another customer.

I sensed there really was no interest in hearing the truth.

Monopolies tend to produce inferior product and the loss of competitive skills.

Our county, cities and townships have serious problems ahead.

Muskegon County will lose approximately $3 million in state funding within 14 months.

There are offers from private companies to take over our airport and Brookhaven that could save the county $millions per year.

The county seems to be on the verge of tearing down the Herman Ivory Bus Terminal and building a very expensive multi-story parking ramp 50 yards away. And about 150 yards away from the parking ramp they just tore down!

Our schools are not educating our children, according to the MEAP scores.

And what do we hear from The Chronicle?..............zzzzzzzz

Where is the expose on the Hilton/Holiday Inn bond debacle?

Instead we get COLOR comics!

There is serious news to be reported and The Chronicle is a no show at every event.

Do I sound angry?

You bet!

A once great newspaper that provided essential information to our community has abrogated its responsibility and in so doing destroyed the jobs of its employees and soon, it seems, will finalize its own destruction.

I doubt there is the business acumen or the will, this late in the game, to become the trusted source of facts and truth that The Chronicle once was.

I'd sure love to be proven wrong.

GordoM-sad-to-see-a-future-similar-to-the-present-"journalism"