Over the past weeks, the CA changed it's format. A few observations:

Prior to this change, the Tigers and other local sports were lead stories. My CA today, 10.17.16, had at least 7 Tennessee Titan stories on the Sports front page. A Tennessean footprint all over the place. I wonder if Grizzlies stories headline their daily? There was not a new Schad story about the Tigers, even coming off a weekend win. Curious?.

I have to say I despise the Tennessee Titans from their treatment of Memphis during our pursuit for an NFL team. Not only do I dislike the Tennessee Titans, I have no respect for that franchise. Memphis is not a Titan town. I do acknowledge the strong Vol/Ole Miss presence in Memphis. But Memphis is a Tiger, Grizzlies town and this effort by the CA (new ownership) to make it a Titan stronghold is not going to work. It is, however, going to cause me to cancel my CA subscription.

I am curious what other's positions are.

You won't be alone. Print newspapers are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
I take my small town, twice a week paper, but get 99% of news from the internet. Especially sports.

(10-17-2016 07:34 AM)bcmemphis Wrote:  Over the past weeks, the CA changed it's format. A few observations:

Prior to this change, the Tigers and other local sports were lead stories. My CA today, 10.17.16, had at least 7 Tennessee Titan stories on the Sports front page. A Tennessean footprint all over the place. I wonder if Grizzlies stories headline their daily? There was not a new Schad story about the Tigers, even coming off a weekend win. Curious?.

I have to say I despise the Tennessee Titans from their treatment of Memphis during our pursuit for an NFL team. Not only do I dislike the Tennessee Titans, I have no respect for that franchise. Memphis is not a Titan town. I do acknowledge the strong Vol/Ole Miss presence in Memphis. But Memphis is a Tiger, Grizzlies town and this effort by the CA (new ownership) to make it a Titan stronghold is not going to work. It is, however, going to cause me to cancel my CA subscription.

I am curious what other's positions are.

The company that owned the Tennessean bought the CA. Therefore you will get lots of sports stories out of Nashville. Titans and Preds. Nashville will get lots of stories out of Memphis about the Grizz. Just how it will be with Garnett/USA Today resources.

Tulane game had no coverage in my Saturday edition. No high school football. Very little regular season baseball at the end. I've been addicted to print newspaper all of my life. No more. I'll buy the Sunday edition for $1 as opposed to paying $336 annually. No Tiger football today during Navy week is inexcusable. Jason Smith must have seen the writing on the wall.

Gotta say I like the Titans. I'm not bitter about them not coming to Memphis, it was a better choice. It's just business.

I have no idea why we still get the commercial appeal daily. It's an awful paper (I think most are), and as another poster stated, printed papers are becoming irrelevant. I've already read (or seen on the local news), most of the stories that are printed. They didn't even have any coverage of our last two games the following morning. They said the games were played too late. So they had small write ups the following day. Talk about old news. I could care less about local politics (train wreck), horoscopes, Ann Landers, or obituaries. So, why the f### am I actually paying for this garbage? One value, the wrappers are good for picking up dog mess...

Rant over....

Why is this thread in the recruiting forum? it should be in the main forum.

Hey mods.....

(10-17-2016 08:28 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  Tulane game had no coverage in my Saturday edition. No high school football. Very little regular season baseball at the end. I've been addicted to print newspaper all of my life. No more. I'll buy the Sunday edition for $1 as opposed to paying $336 annually. No Tiger football today during Navy week is inexcusable. Jason Smith must have seen the writing on the wall.

Tom Schad's story is time-stamped at 8:07 AM Saturday, 10/15/16.

They probably told him not to rush the story and it would be better for the Sunday edition anyway... you know, the edition with a much bigger readership.

But the story was online.

I thought, based on the author of the OP, that the paper had died.

the new format is awful

reminds me of a newbie tech person that just discovered fonts

I have been in the media in some shape or form for almost 50 years. I have worked for and been in meetings with newspaper executives, outdoor companies, magazines and broadcasting. The thing I noticed the most with papers was the total lack of creativity in business dealings. Maybe it was because they are all so TOP DOWN from big corporations. Also when the head person is an editor....with no real sales and business experience....you can see how the lack of business insight comes up. It would be like a radio station making the news director the manager. As an example, most all newspapers I deal with had their sales reps on salary. All other media, has their reps on commission. Thus, newspaper tended to get the least motivated and lowest paid sales people because the really good ones left and followed the money to radio and TV where the big bucks were being made by people doing basically the same type of sales job. I never understood that since all those newspaper leaders had to simply look at a very obvious industry payment structure that worked and adapt it. Another example is barter. When all media barters, they charge the appropriate earned rates. Many major dailies charged the much higher national rates to local advertisers that did barter. So, they actually penalized by charging a rate that was 50% or more higher just because it was barter. So, most barter schedules went to broadcast where local accounts got fairer treatment.

(10-17-2016 08:28 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  Tulane game had no coverage in my Saturday edition. No high school football. Very little regular season baseball at the end. I've been addicted to print newspaper all of my life. No more. I'll buy the Sunday edition for $1 as opposed to paying $336 annually. No Tiger football today during Navy week is inexcusable. Jason Smith must have seen the writing on the wall.

Same here, when the CA went local focus it was a real step in the right direction, now Gannett is undoing all that in matter of weeks.
I have a morning ritual of reading sports in print with coffee and then read the balance of the paper over lunch. I will NOT be renewing when my script runs out in Dec.

No, I don't want to read the paper on my computer or phone!!!

(10-17-2016 08:58 AM)Unionman76 Wrote:  the new format is awful

reminds me of a newbie tech person that just discovered fonts

It is the EXACT same template that the USA Today has run for some time.

Obviously, since the USA Today (Gannett) owns it, they want all their subsidiaries to follow the same standard. It makes it easier (once you get used to the new format) to look at other papers run by them.

How many people were laid off at the CA when the ownership changed?

(10-17-2016 07:34 AM)bcmemphis Wrote:  Over the past weeks, the CA changed it's format. A few observations:

Prior to this change, the Tigers and other local sports were lead stories. My CA today, 10.17.16, had at least 7 Tennessee Titan stories on the Sports front page. A Tennessean footprint all over the place. I wonder if Grizzlies stories headline their daily? There was not a new Schad story about the Tigers, even coming off a weekend win. Curious?.

I have to say I despise the Tennessee Titans from their treatment of Memphis during our pursuit for an NFL team. Not only do I dislike the Tennessee Titans, I have no respect for that franchise. Memphis is not a Titan town. I do acknowledge the strong Vol/Ole Miss presence in Memphis. But Memphis is a Tiger, Grizzlies town and this effort by the CA (new ownership) to make it a Titan stronghold is not going to work. It is, however, going to cause me to cancel my CA subscription.

I am curious what other's positions are.

You are kind being fast and loose with your description.

Sure, there are a bunch of Titans stories under "headlines" midway through.

But, that is below a BUNCH of local sports stuff.

(10-17-2016 09:34 AM)DallasTiger Wrote:  How many people were laid off at the CA when the ownership changed?

I'd like to know as well. There has been some talk as to certain operations moved to Nashville. Gary Robinson retired.

(10-17-2016 08:37 AM)Latilleon Wrote:  

(10-17-2016 08:28 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  Tulane game had no coverage in my Saturday edition. No high school football. Very little regular season baseball at the end. I've been addicted to print newspaper all of my life. No more. I'll buy the Sunday edition for $1 as opposed to paying $336 annually. No Tiger football today during Navy week is inexcusable. Jason Smith must have seen the writing on the wall.

Tom Schad's story is time-stamped at 8:07 AM Saturday, 10/15/16.

They probably told him not to rush the story and it would be better for the Sunday edition anyway... you know, the edition with a much bigger readership.

But the story was online.

I enjoyed clipping articles and mailing them to my son while he was at sea. It helped him pass the time in rare down time and when he can't access the internet. If we can't expect coverage of Tiger football games in our same time zone that is ridiculous. If that is the standard only Navy is certain to be covered if the rest are night games.

(10-17-2016 08:34 AM)covingtontiger Wrote:  Why is this thread in the recruiting forum? it should be in the main forum.

Hey mods.....

My bad. I didn't realize where I was typing. My eyes were bloodshot with disgust.

(10-17-2016 09:31 AM)Bill83 Wrote:  

(10-17-2016 08:28 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  Tulane game had no coverage in my Saturday edition. No high school football. Very little regular season baseball at the end. I've been addicted to print newspaper all of my life. No more. I'll buy the Sunday edition for $1 as opposed to paying $336 annually. No Tiger football today during Navy week is inexcusable. Jason Smith must have seen the writing on the wall.

Same here, when the CA went local focus it was a real step in the right direction, now Gannett is undoing all that in matter of weeks.
I have a morning ritual of reading sports in print with coffee and then read the balance of the paper over lunch. I will NOT be renewing when my script runs out in Dec.

No, I don't want to read the paper on my computer or phone!!!

There is not much room these days for an independent physical paper in medium size cities, it seems. Especially as profit motives have become standard (vs sustenance). The room for "buy local" in journalism seems to be in pure digital, unfortunately. Where I'm living right now, the daily afternoon paper closed its doors, then converted to only online, preserving its independence and non-profit motive on a daily basis.

I don't see how that could be done with a physical paper, I know weekly papers can do it, but even then, many are shrinking in size.

I'm going to miss the smell of newsprint...

Probably the biggest change in regards to the print edition and local is that if anything finishes up past 8:30 - 9 PM CST, it doesn't make the print edition. I noticed it as soon as it changed over, half the baseball scores and recaps were "late", Friday night HS footfall results don't make the print edition until Sunday. Really does drive you more and more to online content.

(10-17-2016 10:11 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  

(10-17-2016 08:37 AM)Latilleon Wrote:  

(10-17-2016 08:28 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  Tulane game had no coverage in my Saturday edition. No high school football. Very little regular season baseball at the end. I've been addicted to print newspaper all of my life. No more. I'll buy the Sunday edition for $1 as opposed to paying $336 annually. No Tiger football today during Navy week is inexcusable. Jason Smith must have seen the writing on the wall.

Tom Schad's story is time-stamped at 8:07 AM Saturday, 10/15/16.

They probably told him not to rush the story and it would be better for the Sunday edition anyway... you know, the edition with a much bigger readership.

But the story was online.

I enjoyed clipping articles and mailing them to my son while he was at sea. It helped him pass the time in rare down time and when he can't access the internet. If we can't expect coverage of Tiger football games in our same time zone that is ridiculous. If that is the standard only Navy is certain to be covered if the rest are night games.

This story was delayed a day at most from an awkward college football game day to begin with.

It's a new day where print deadlines don't matter as much with many if not most getting their CA stories on the website or the CA app.