I've written several times about the plummeting standards at the Glens Falls daily Post-Star ever since Ken Tingley took over there as managing editor. But this one is pathetic even by their collapsing standards.
Recently, the paper started publishing two free weeklies. One is named The Glens Falls Leader. I can't remember the Queensbury one. They are mailed to every household in the two municipalities. Essentially, these are nothing more than two lame advertising vehicles.
I've had my issues in the past with the weekly Chronicle's editor Mark Frost. I think it could be a much better paper than it is. That said, I respect Frost's integrity and recognize that his paper tries to be a part of the community, not apart from it.
Ultimately, The Chronicle is an independent paper owned and run by local people. And most importantly, it publishes points of view that The Post-Star won't. Simply put, it's another venue for voices in the community to be heard, without miniscule word limits and arbitrarily enforced guidelines. It's a venue that the chain daily (Frost's favorite term) wants to silence.
Simply put, these advertising vehicles are yet another attempt to try to suffocate The Chronicle out of business by siphoning away all the weekly advertising revenue. The daily's weeklies have a few fluff pieces and ads. Lots of ads. Far more than The Chronicle, which has no shortage of ads. The second half of The Leader is entirely classified ads.
Anyway, the most recent issue of the The Leader took local school districts to task for sending out district calendars to every household. They said it was a waste of taxpayer money.
Personally, I think a better solution would be to promote the district's online calendars and only distribute paper calendars to the few people who would specifically request one. But the Post-Star/Leader's comment is not unreasonable...
... until the unsigned opinion, modestly entitled 'A good idea,' went on to offer its solution. The editorial (?) selflessly suggested that districts provide the calendar info to The Post-Star so that its advertising vehicles can publish the calendars instead.
That way, their transparent argument explained, the calendars can be paid for by advertisers not taxpayers.
But guess who conveniently pockets the difference if this disinterested 'good idea' is implemented?
To slam local districts for not providing the paper with material it can monetize is brazen even by whatever standards The Post-Star still has left.
2 comments:
I don't know how big the school district in question is, but is it truly that expensive to mail calendars to parents? Either way, I'm with you, Brian: tell parents the calendar is online, easily accessible to most families.
Another possibility: I offer a description of what my grade school used to do. Before the start of the next month, they gave the kids an 8.5x11 sheet with the calendar for the next month. The students were expected to take it home and give it to the 'rents. At 5 cents a copy at most, is it truly that expensive?
Mark: in fairness, the calendars are mailed to every household in the district, not just every household with a student. At least that's the way in Glens Falls. However, most people have Internet access in some form or another, either at work, home or library. I say still produce the paper calendars, but in a very small quantities for people who specifically request them. Online calendars are always more up to date anyway.
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