"Mr. Saslow didn't respond well to disagreement. Heck, he didn't respond well to suggestions."
Former employee of the Mail Tribune.
The Mail Tribune's final owner and publisher, Steven Saslow, is widely criticized, but his management mistakes and abrasive personality probably aren't what killed the Mail Tribune.
It died because the world changed out from under it.
I have first-hand knowledge of some of the faults attributed to the owner of the Tribune by former employees. No need to re-hash it beyond what I have already written. Subscription deception squanders credibility Angry Mail Tribune. Lawyer threat. Tribune owner sues Ashland critics.
I think the Tribune failed to communicate a core brand value as an institution deeply committed to the well-being of its home community. Saslow had a disadvantage. The paper had changed ownership multiple times over the past four decades. It was a financial asset in a portfolio. The owners' goal was to squeeze out above-average returns. This final owner, Saslow, was a potential change. He presumably had local focus. He bought three local papers, the Nickel, the Ashland Daily Tidings, and the Mail Tribune. Possibly some people and groups somewhere in the county felt a close connection to him. My own experience, and what I have heard from others, was quite the opposite. In any case, the community-connection piece of the puzzle never happened.
But I suspect all of this is irrelevant. The revenue model for local newspapers has collapsed, and a newspaper needs revenue to pay for news gathering and distribution. Saslow asserts that Sinclair Broadcasting is not a shadow owner his newspapers, that it has no ownership interest, nor did it exercise editorial control. The Tribune may have had to pay its own way.
Classified ads, those seemingly-insignificant ads crowded into the back pages of newspapers, were a huge money-maker. Those moved to Craigslist and E-Bay. Real estate ads announcing new listings and open houses had been a bedrock staple for newspapers. Those moved on-line, where buyers can see dozens of photographs. Advertising dollars moved from newspapers to Facebook and Google. Meanwhile paper, ink, and printers are expensive. It was hard to have reliable delivery of newspapers in the middle of the night, 365 days a year.
News aggregators like the Huffington Post republished articles printed elsewhere, and newspapers let them do it. The public thought news should be free. For "loyal subscribers" of the Tribune--i.e. reliable long term ones--the price climbed to $440/year, a price conspicuously out of scale with other subscriptions.
Times changed, people changed. Newspapers are an old-fashioned habit of old-fashioned people, and we are dying off.
The Tribune did what most other local newspapers did. They cut costs--reporters--and hoped people would not notice. They hoped morale at the newspaper would not collapse, but it did. The Tribune became a couple of local news stories, with big photos, on page one, plus some local sports news, also with big photos, in the front of the sports section. The rest of the paper was filler from out-of-area newspapers. It was a shell. Worse, it was a money-losing shell.
Maybe if the Tribune had maintained deep ties to the community it could have withstood the huge tidal forces against it. But maybe it would simply have meant that its collapse would have been a bit slower in coming, and more heartbreaking when it did.
Yesterday I posited that possibly a TV station would step up to fill a void. Or perhaps a different business model, the non-profit/donation subscription model for a digital newspaper, could sustain itself. A third possibility has emerged. The Grants Pass Daily Courier has attempted the deep community connection model in neighboring Josephine County. They have local news reporters who write about local people and institutions in Grants Pass. They have been adding to staff. It can be done.
They say they have immediate plans to expand into Jackson County and with both local news and delivery. If they cover news in my home town, Medford, I want to see it. Here is a link to the Courier. A subscription is $15/month, $129/year. If they will deliver to my house, I will request a print edition.
Again, if I hear more about developments to re-establish local news in Medford, I will share what I learn.
A request of readers:
It is possible there are people who think the owner and publisher of the Tribune did an excellent job in a tough environment. I have never heard that view expressed by anyone with first-hand knowledge of him or theTribune, but I would welcome comments or guest posts from people who think so.
Just signed up $15 a month for on line Courier. Hopefully they will be able to add Jackson County news soon.
There was an interesting study a few years ago that showed communities without a local paper paid on average over $650,000 more in municipal bond interest. The reasoning being that there is generally more political corruption in those communities and accordingly worse credit ratings.