DEAD WOOD MEDIA SUFFERS ANOTHER SETBACK
An Upstate, S.C. “old media” conglomerate closed its doors this week – laying off an undetermined number of workers and discontinuing six local newspapers that served an estimated 30,000 South Carolinians. Hometown News – which published The Boiling Springs Sentry, The Blacksburg Times, The Middle Tyger Times, The Inman Times, The Whitmire News and The Woodruff News – closed its doors on Wednesday.
Ever heard of any these papers? Yeah … neither have we. Which makes this a “six trees falling in the woods” story. In fact as far as we’re concerned the real news here is the assertion there are 30,000 literate people residing in Blacksburg, Boiling Springs, Inman, “Middle Tyger,” Whitmire and Woodruff. Cause we highly doubt that.
Anyway … like Dr. Egon Spengler said in Ghostbusters, “print is dead.” Or at the very least dying.
Of course the taxpayer-funded incentives this industry receives are still alive and well …
Speaking of, news of these papers’ fate was first reported by The Spartanburg Herald-Journal – a daily Upstate rag that’s owned by The New York Times.
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17 comments
One down, four to go. Ever notice when Sic Willie puts out a stinker of a story like the one on Bush 41 that he starts putting out inane stories like this in order to “push” the stinker off the “headline” section. Get busy Sic Willie, four more and you are there.
FITS:
The folks at the Hometown News are very fine people and small business owners.
This was a very sad announcement in the SHJ.
They are politically conservative so we have lost family members.
Your harsh words are not appropriate for the owners of these 6 papers that served small communities…..the problem is that our GOP folks that have all of the marbles in SC have lost touch with our “Small town SC”.
Happy New Year!
RSB
Sadly: as SC became more of an open and prosperous state, post-Campbell-pro GOP, even the smaller newspapers began to import Leftwing Zealots…and the Letwing USC J-School has not helped either…
A good (Conservative) newspaper person has a hard time finding a job, or a voice, even in this state…I can personally attest to that…
Publishers have been too Stupid to see that liberal “D@*n-the-ledger” editors are a death knell…
And now these sorry-@$$#$d anti-business, anti-tradition editors can blame the Internet for the failure of print media…
Liberalism is a Plague..and the media is a PRIME example of that…but otherwise smart busineess people (publishers) have not figured out that you cannot CRAP on a majority of your customers, and silence their voice, and stay in business…
WVOC is finding that out, in radio too…
What is going on with WVOC? This is the first I’ve heard of any problem.
Of course Big T is right in one respect. Apparently the way to survive is to eliminate all journalistic standards and real news, and become a constantly running infomercial within the greater infotainment industry. Like Fox News Channel, Rush, Beck, Drudge, and FITS News.
I think big idio”T” has just alleged to be an educated journalist!
Surely he jest!
YOU BETCHA!
YOU BETCHA!
henry:: Have you heard who they replaced the moderate (FITS-like) Keven Cohen with?…it’s Horrible…Morning Zoo, dumb@$$#@ in the afternoon…
WVOC has Thrived on CONSERVATIVES, but I understand their GM is an Obama Liberal…so they keep p!$$!n’ in the face of their would-be loyal listeners…
There is NO legitimate Conservative media in this state…and we vote 65-to-70 percent to the right…
It’s bad when media turns down Money to be Leftist…
It’s the MAIN reason FITS can be by…there is NO true alternative to the rank-and-file Liberal Zealots…
BigT:
There is a reason why there is no legimate Conservative media in this state…………
It’s called the marketplace dipshit
If you want a forum, go to a brokered radio station and front your own if you’ve got the guts and money.
Talk about true marketplace without any whining………
103.3 in Greenville is waiting……………..
Sparkle City: you make my point. Conservative radio is a home-run…but Liberals in management are too dogmatic to be fair and equal.
They’d rather fail, than give conservatives a voice, because they know we’d point out the high faillure rate of the left…and how Conservatism works when practiced.
Liberal managment is THE problem, as The State news paper fire more people each year…and Air-Head America goes bankrupt.
Rush Limbaugh is the highest pain media man in the nation. Beck’s not far behind and Sean Hannity and Micahel Savage are paid millions for Conservative radio. It works. And the audience is more educatied and loyal.
But the Left would rather fail than support it because of their fear of the Truth.
the SHJ was sold by the New York Times several months ago.
Too bad about “Hometown News” falling.
The “Middle Tyger Times” was the only paper giving the scoop on REAL goings on in the snakepit that is Lyman/Duncan/Wellford in addition to providing the best coverage concerning the Holly Springs FD fuck-up.
They had a staff of maybe 5?????
Yeah, FITS and BigT really are instrumental in providing no BS local news.
And as far as internet, OK for the most part but you always have to “consider the source” big time.
Oh well, I guess I’ll have to trust Russ Cassell to inform me what is going on in GSP from now on since print is dead and FITS only gives a shit about Columbia and the Mid-State.
Especially since ‘ol Blowhard Cassell will start a new program next week with only himself to listen to himself talk and his fawning fanactics to kiss his ass.
Personally, I think WORD is starting to fall apart at the seams. When there is a big reorganization, that is usually a sign of despiration.
BTW, there is a new Classic Rock station in GSP 96.7 FM – it ain’t quite as good as 95.7 WXRC-FM out of Charlotte but not bad for the what passes for radio in these parts…………
Anyone remember the old website a few years back called “Mediachatter”?? That was a good site for radio/tv topics in the Upstate. It’s defunct now as far as I know.
I dunno, Will- you should probably be lamenting this from a journalistic (or idealogical, or both) point of view. The Boiling Springs whatzis (the only one of these raglets I’ve ever seen) was editorially steeped (pun intended) in Tea Party goodness, with a recurring God ‘n Country theme woven throughout and around a dozen or so ads for hair salons and chiropractors per issue (in other words, unapologetically symbolic of the free market). You would probably have been a fan, and your Big T persona could have had a heyday with it.
That is/was the good thing about local and I mean WEEKLY local rags like the ones Hometown news produced. They reflect the community they served.
“Middle Tyger Times” did not have the TEA party slant which was fine with me.
The Herald Journal is owned by Halifax Media, now. I mentioned this in a post replying, I think, to your article on Sen. Alex Hawkins.
Simple thing to get right, but you got it wrong, were advised, and got it wrong again.
Shows that for certain, the “new” media ain’t all that.
Just like Jesus tore down the temple, and built it back…
Media is being put asunder because of its lies and hate and ill will.
People like me will build it back to an instiution that can be trusted and of service.
It seems futile now…but the TRUTH will never die…
First you kick a sick old man while he is down, then you dance on the grave of a small business. All in one week. Santa wasn’t good to you this week Will?
“We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy.
Something’s missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help.” — Montag