New Haven Independent

Posted by: Loance | December 19, 2008 2:03 PM

A few of these papers cost 50 cents.

shoreline Times mails papers to entire towns for free. I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner.

Posted by: Rod Meehan | December 19, 2008 5:09 PM

NOT the Snore View. Say it ain't so!? Where will we get all our holiday cupcake recipes?

Posted by: Dominic | December 19, 2008 9:07 PM

Attention local governments: Proceed as you wish. No one is watching.

Posted by: Joe | December 19, 2008 10:18 PM

I agree with Rod. Now where am I going to get newspaper to train my puppy...

Posted by: ctkeith | December 20, 2008 11:52 AM

Dominic,
The reason these papers are shutting down is because they were doing no real reporting.They were what I call "happy newspapers". Their "reporters" never asked a hard question of any local official and didn't see it as their job to do so.

I wish I could say that they'll be missed but in reality they won't be.

Posted by: Jeff | December 20, 2008 5:48 PM

No more names and addresses of the folks who get arrested. It made the best reading in the Branford Review, and is what is missing in THE SOUND. Its nice to know who lives in the neighborhood!

Posted by: cantwait | December 20, 2008 7:10 PM

I can't wait until the useless New Haven Register follows suit...

Posted by: tom | December 20, 2008 8:29 PM

My Register carrier left me a letter with my paper today ,she is out of ajob after 20 years.The Register found someone to deliver their papers cheaper.So all the carriers are laid off as of the 22ncd of Dec.

Posted by: Walt | December 21, 2008 7:34 AM

Back in the days of Bud O'Connor, the Hamden Chronicle was a good paper.

Now, not much of a loss, but will miss the Police reports and the crossword.

The Register itself is not even close to the old Register, but we have no choice. Must get it to read the obits and know whether or not we are still here.

Posted by: mnbn | December 21, 2008 9:42 AM

Nice language

Posted by: Tomm | December 21, 2008 10:13 AM

The Shoreline Newspapers never mailed anything to homes for free they have always been subscription papers. The Shore Publishing group, who does the sound, sends them for free making money from the ads only. Hey why would I buy the cow when I get the milk for free! As far as news I agree with ctkeith, old news with a few feel good stories sprinkled in. The Eagle is the way to go, too bad its a one woman, one point of view deal.

Posted by: Aldon Hynes | December 21, 2008 12:29 PM

While I think CTKeith has an important point about how some of the weeklies are failing because they long ago abandoned hard local news, I think Domenic's concern is very important.

If the local papers aren't watching the local government, who will? Perhaps it comes down to all of us. I live in Woodbridge and try to cover local government meetings, even though we still have functioning weekly newspapers here.

Will some of you do the same?

You can read more of my thoughts on where we could go with this on my blog.

Posted by: Rod Meehan | December 21, 2008 5:10 PM

Hey! Wasn't Shoreline Times executive editor Erik Hessleberg recently interviewed by the Branford Eagle about the fate of the local weekly papers, specifically the Branford Review?

He negated any notions of allowing the weeklies to founder. Was that a fib or just a miscalculation, Detroit style?

Posted by: branford_taxpayer | December 22, 2008 10:04 AM

I'm not suprised, I'd rather get my news on-line and not have all that recycling to do. I still get the NY Times though, I wonder why?

Posted by: Eddie | December 22, 2008 11:54 AM

JRC business model:
* Step 1: Buy successful local weekly.
* Step 2: Lay off three-quarters of the staff, move what's left to New Haven and strip content down to bare-bones coverage of kids' birthday parties and ladies' league parties.
* Step 3: Profit (for a little while).
* Step 4: Discover that for some reason, nobody wants to read the paper anymore.
* Step 5: Shut down newspaper and blame the economy.

Posted by: eddie | December 22, 2008 1:12 PM

Re: CTKeith

I was the editor of one of the Elm City weeklies shortly after the JRC bought the chain. I was hired right out of college, had barely set foot in the town I was covering, and was replacing the newspaper's editor of 19 years. I did my best and I certainly learned a lot, but it was a tough introduction to the business to say the least.

I wanted to cover real news, and I did my best to do so. But you have to understand: It was a business decision of the JRC to avoid hard news at these papers. JRC wanted lots of listings and social stuff and names, but it did not want these properties to cover real news because they did not want them competing with their flagship, the New Haven Register.

In a way it makes sense, except that (in the case of my newspaper at least) hard news was the primary reason people subscribed to begin with. Readers wanted the juicy City Hall gossip and inside scoop that the Register wasn't giving them.

Posted by: Ryan Healey | December 22, 2008 2:20 PM

CTKeith and Eddie was EXACTLY RIGHT. Capital Cities/ABC should have never accepted JRC's offer for the weeklies they sold them in Connecticut and Rhode Island years ago. They grabbed their check and sent these weeklies (many started by community members decades prior) off to slaughter. The closing of these weekly papers in Connecticut has little to do with the economy and alot to due with how poorly run they were under JRC's leadership.

Posted by: Peter | December 23, 2008 1:58 PM

Thats exactly what JRC did with the Register, they laid everyone off and striped the paper and made lots of $$$ for awhile. The moral at the paper is horrible and they can not keep anyone, especially in the advertising department selling ads. They actually go out to the reps cars and read the odomitor.

Has anyone been in the building lately? It is dirty and they long abandoned the nice entrance that the Jackson's (fomer owner's) had.

It's sad that you can get better local news in the Independent or the Yale Daily.

Someone local should buy the paper and expand the website. Their website is pathetic.

Also look how much money they poured into PLAY and the Registro...

sad sad sad.....JRC deserves what they get

Posted by: Walt | December 24, 2008 8:13 PM

Hamden Chronicle has sort of reappeared.

Now called "Post Chronicle" and covers North Haven and Wallingford as well as Hamden..

The features cited above that we liked, the Police Report and the crossword are not part of the new JR publication, though. Not much there.

Such is life!

Posted by: Walt | December 27, 2008 10:18 AM

Just dawned on me that the new Post-
Chronicle does not mean "after the Chronicle" as I had guessed, but that the Chronicle has merged with the North Haven Post, a weekly tabloid which I somestimes read while having breakfast in North Haven.

Post was pretty good as what I thought was an independent weekly, but now seems affiliated with the Journal Register group.

The value of each has now lessened, but what the hell, they are still free.

The advertising weekly, the Advisor, still successfully independent I think, thanks mostly to its letters to the editors columns has good info re North Haven , and sometimes a little Hamden. politics or civic issues.

Posted by: Bob Gibson | January 3, 2009 9:40 PM

Thanks to Walt for mention of Bud O'Connor and the Hamden Chronicle. I worked for Bud just out of college 30 years ago and the Chronicle was a weekly paper of substance and tangible value to the community. It was a privilege to work there. I am so sorry to see the dissolution of community journalism in the form of quality broadsheets like the Chronicle. I hope that substantive local media rises to fill the void.
Bob Gibson