Our members produce great work, but it won't get read if Lee Enterprises doesn’t fix its broken website and app. We’ve told the company there’s a problem, but since they don't believe us, we collected complaints from social media. (It didn’t take long.) #BuffaloDeservesBetter🧵

Background: The The Washington Post cut its Metro staff 10-plus percent as part of a buyout in late 2023. Now, per this news, it wants to sell “premium” local news? Will it staff back up to do so? Or simply divert reporting/resources away from what basic subscribers are getting now?

Media news: The Daily Beast buyout results are in, and they're just about gutting the site. 25 (or 70%) of unionized staffers took the buyouts, including nearly all of the most senior journalists. Meanwhile, non-union editors expect to face a round of firings at end of the month.

.Richmond Times-Dispatch reports what RNPA already told you: On 7/4, RTD switches to digital-only on Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day and Memorial Day. search.app/sf74NCoeDfxHUx…

Some personal news; Lee Enterprises has eliminated the sports editor position at The Daily News in Longview out of "financial considerations." It was a pleasure to make newspapers for my hometown and tell the stories of so many amazing people. Thank you for reading along.

What you would have held in your hands this Fourth of July morning had ⁦Richmond Times-Dispatch⁩ - which is giving up print on about a dozen federal holidays - published the 3-D version that had landed at front doors across #Va every day w/o interruption since the end of the Civil War:

Happy July 4th! Aside from celebrating our independence, today marks the first day in The Buffalo News' long daily history that it printed no physical paper on the 4th. And here's how Lee Enterprises spun that: (thread)

Founders wanted newspapers to get super cheap postal rates. Instead, at the moment when we’re struggling most… “Publishers Have Been Hit By Postal Rate Hikes Of 47.8% Since 2021” ⁦News/Media Alliance⁩ mediapost.com/publications/a…

“You buy a newspaper or you listen to the radio for current information and for news, and if it's not delivered in a timely manner it loses value." whro.org/virginia-gover…

Welcome home.

#Va Democrat who heads US Senate Intel Cmte on prisoner swap w/ Russians that includes release of two American journalists:

On the job - even in the joint.

You read that right. NewsGuild-CWA won more than 90 first contracts in the last three years! Their rank-and-file committees are unstoppable!

Personal news: This is my last week at The Virginia Mercury. Later this month, I’m joining michael phillips to help launch The Richmonder. Very excited to get back to my City Hall roots and be a part of building a new local outlet. richmondbizsense.com/2024/08/06/rtd…

“The website and emailed newsletter will focus on #Rva initially with plans to expand coverage to the counties over time.” richmondbizsense.com/2024/08/06/rtd…

Destination unknown? Richmond Times-Dispatch publisher Kelly Till said today paper is leaving downtown #Rva HQ April ‘25. No word - yet - where news, mrkting folks will go. Maybe Hanover plant? Quitting #Rva after generations there would cut literal, figurative bond w/ our core audience.

Bummer - maximum bummer.

Huge news at The New York Times: After 63 years as the go-to rewrite man, lede-all maestro, and poetic obituary writer, the peerless Robert McFadden is retiring. Many times I have witnessed his artistry; the man is a legend. Great honor is due.

Brian Lamb, AKA Mr. Transparency in Government.

“These journalists say they’ve found themselves exposed to communities they never would have otherwise known… In doing so, they also built stronger bonds with their readers, helping to address the ever-declining level of trust in the news media.” cjr.org/business_of_ne…