UticaOD charging to read news

[Clipper]

That has to either be corporate greed or desperation. The OD is a sinking ship. It is sad. It is tough to try and save a newspaper with a worn out press and circulation numbers that are going down commensurate with population numbers. The press was used and came from another Gannett newspaper when it was installed at the OD. I get flashbacks every time I read where the print edition is going to be running late and that they are allowing folks to read the e-edition free. That was a nightmare when we had to try and get papers on the street by 7AM when the press didn't shut down until 5:30 or later. We used to "steal" the single copy papers from the bundle routes destined for stores to insure that home delivery carriers had time to deliver before they went to work or school, and then we had to go back around all the routes to deliver the single copy paper bundles to the stores and machines. When that happens, the number of papers sold drops significantly because they are not there when the customer stops for his gas and coffee.

The ones that suffer most are those dedicated individuals that run and maintain the press. They are there many times half of the day to make sure that the press is repaired and ready to run again the next night, and they have to be back at 8 or 9 PM or so to start setting up for the press run. It takes a couple of hours to configure the press and to put the plates in place on the drums of the press among other tasks that are necessary to be ready to run. My office was adjacent to the press room, overlooking the loading docks. I have to admit that there is a certain rush when that old press roars to life. It shakes that entire end of the building, and then within minutes the bundles start coming down the conveyor to the dock, sometimes almost end to end, depending on how fast they are running the press. Four trucks at a time are loaded when all is running well.

It is probably a little peek into what will eventually happen to most printed editions of newspapers. I think there will always be a market for publications like the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other famous papers with nationwide distribution, but the average local paper is not going to have the circulation to support the staff and equipment that it takes to print it and distribute it. With more and more people buying the compact electronic devices, and smart phones, the commuter will no longer be running for his train with a paper tucked under his arm.

[dgriffin]

Mar 13, 2011 20:35:52 GMT -5 Clipper said:

...My office was adjacent to the press room, overlooking the loading docks. I have to admit that there is a certain rush when that old press roars to life. It shakes that entire end of the building....

That had to be the offset press or the hybrid, right? It couldn't have approached the roar of the old Hoe hot type presses. We could feel them start up 5 blocks away up John St at UCA in the late 1950's!

Clip, your office must have been in the mail room, where I spent Monday nights while in college "supplementing," putting the Family Weekly in the Funnies for eleven cents per each pack of 50. If your arm was in shape and you didn't sweat to death, you could make $15 for the night. Circa 1961.

firstamendment, I had a few routes as a boy, the first the afternoon paper (OD) in 1954 when I was eleven, down behind Faxton Hospital to Lincoln Ave and Shaw. I also had a Sunday only east of Blessed Sacrament in '56 and I did the Faxton Hospital walk through in '57, then the OD again on upper Dudley Ave. around '58-'59.

I got a couple of stories from the experience, "Good News" and "Forgiveness." They are nos. 86 and 56 in my Windswept Journal at:
www.windsweptpress.com/essays.htm

[Clipper]

Actually when you entered the loading dock area, the stairs to the mail room were on the left, and there was a set of stairs on the right that led to my office and the pressroom. There was a long window over my desk where I could monitor activity on the dock from my desk. There is now a mechanical carousel up in the mail room that drops the inserts into the papers and there are people at several stations around it just to keep it loaded with the inserts off the pallets. . There are two conveyors that carry the papers from there to two machines that count and bundle the paper for delivery.

There is actually a computer generated top sheet that is printed upstairs, and those top sheets are coordinated with the program that counts the papers and ties the bundles. Each bundle gets counted out, the bundle top designating what route or end destination will be is dropped on top, the bundle is tied and then it goes down a conveyor directly to the loading dock to be loaded into the vehicles for delivery. I understand that it is all contract haulers now and they don't use company drivers and vans anymore.

You probably were there before the loading docks were closed in and had overhead doors. Not much difference in temperature now though, as the doors are open all night while the trucks are being loaded and sent out. The papers come out and the trucks are loaded much to fast to allow for opening and closing the doors between trucks. It is usually rapid fire controlled chaos from the time the press run starts until the press shuts down and the last bundle comes down the belt to the dock. There is actually a big red button on the dock and a big red button in my former office that can bring a shutdown of the press if hit. It is for emergencies, but if it gets pushed and the press is shut down, you better be ready to explain it to Donna Donovan the next morning, standing tall in front of her desk. Shutting down and restarting the press is no easy task. It is quite tedious and involved.

It was an interesting job, but the pay was not worth the frustrations of dealing with the hassles caused by corporate's refusal to spend money, and the problems with the old press extending the hours necessary to get things done several nights a week. No matter what happened up stairs in the production side of the house and in the pressroom, the pressure of putting the paper on the streets on time ultimately was my responsibility, and without my logistics background from my previous job at Griffiss, it would have been much harder. I WAS able to streamline many functions and save wasted steps and trips while I was there.

I thought it would be a piece of cake to manage 16 vans and 30 something part time drivers after managing a fleet of 500 vehicles, and 60 pieces of construction equipment divided between the US and Germany. I was very wrong. The fast pace of newpaper production and delivery can have a person tearing their hair out in a very short time, LOL.

[dgriffin]

....proving the technology has certainly not relieved us from hassle, but created more! Yes, I imagine I wouldn't even recognize the place, except for the Oriskany Blvd front facade. You were smart to leave an environment like that. I haven't been involved in anything regarding the press for a number of years, but understand it is today a very cutthroat endeavor with very slim profit margins. Not my father's newspaper, as we've discussed. And the business is evidently in a death spiral as it fights the Internet. Of course, they said radio would kill the newspapers and television would kill Hollywood, so one never knows.

Mrs. Dave insists we continue to take the newspaper, for the ads I guess. I'd never miss it, especially our local daily, which comes from a nearby city I have no interest in. It's a Gannett sheet and it's just as lame as the OD. Probably with similar policies, such as firing reporters just as they get experienced and before they qualify for vested rights.

[denise]

I'm very confused by this. I just signed up for e-edition for $10/mo. Where is the $69.95 fitting into this?

[Deleted]

I signed up for the e-edition for $10.00/month and like it. Some say it is hard to read but I have no problem. I think if you want to read the premium parts of Utica-OD it is $1.98, something like that. Have no interest in that.
The only problem with not getting the physical paper is that I use it to drain my fish& chips on it three nights a week.

[yankee]

The only reason I still get the local paper is my parrot needs fresh "reading" material every day.

[Clipper]

I can only suggest that more people go to the Utica Daily News website, using the link at the bottom of our page. It evolves daily and has become a great and reliable alternative to the Observer Dispatch online page.

I just posted a comment on the UDN page wishing them all the best. We have gained new members as a result of the OD announcement and the subsequent comments on their page recommending us as a discussion forum and the UDN site for news.

WELCOME TO ALL OUR NEW MEMBERS. HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS SITE AS MUCH AS THE REST OF US HAVE FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS.

My comments on the UDN page were as follows:


D Naegele on 03/14/2011 03:20:03 pm

I see this as an opportunity to really excel. Don't let it slip by. I have always been a UDN fan and daily reader since the first day you were on line. I put a post up on our "Clipper's Busy Corner" discussion forum reminding folks of the link at the bottom of our page that brings a person here with the click of a mouse. We are grateful for your allowing that link, and with the influx of new members to our forum as a result of the OD announcement, we hope to be increasing YOUR readership as well as our own. We enjoy the relationship very much. Your comment section is much easier to use and more user friendly than what is offered at the OD, and our discussion forum is friendly, and the subject matter and features are diverse, and interesting. We gained eight new members and who knows how many "readers" the day that the announcement came out on he OD homepage because there were several people that commented and pointed to UDN and Clipper's Busy Corner as alternative news and discussion sources. As the administrator of the Clipper's Busy Corner forum, I wish you all continued success and want you to know I am one of your greatest fans. Keep up the great work.

The UDN news site is relatively young, but has grown in readership and has improved in quality steadily since the first day they came on line. They are great folks over there. For those that don't enjoy the OD homepage, UDN is a great alternative. They are on MY daily reading list for sure. The more of us that use the UDN site and take advantage of the "comment feature," the more interesting the comment section will become. Click on the link and give them a read.

[urbanhermit]

That's where I got the idea to join this forum, from the OD comments section. I've only been on here less than a half hour and it already beats anything I read out of the OD!

[stoney]

Mar 13, 2011 13:44:28 GMT -5 Clipper said:

Firstamendment, Ralph and I posted a link to here everyday until the OD finally told us to stop, haha. We both got nastygrams eventually, because we were putting up the link at every opportunity.

I used to do that too, Clip for my old board!! They kept deleting my link, but I was persistent. ;D

[Clipper]

Glad you joined us Fiskie. We have a good time here at "The Corner." We get heated and opinionated here also, but we try to keep it civil and decent. There are new threads daily to discuss, and also features that are more light in nature. We have the 50's and 60's music thread that has been ongoing with 209 pages of wonderful memories, pictures, playbills and discussions by musicians and fans of the 50's and 60's bands in the area. The members that brought that to us from a different forum when it shut down, have done a wonderful job of keeping it updated and fresh with new pictures and new members regularly.

Just read the rules for the forum and have a good time. Glad you chose to become a member here.

[Ralph]

Yankee's got the right idea!

Since we don't have to return our papers at the store anymore I just bring them home and shred them for our fids.

Hey........9 parrots go through a lot of paper!!!!
LMAO!!!!!

[Clipper]

That's where mine get recycled Ralph. My neighbor has several parrots and a huge white cockatoo that craps like a 30 pound pelican. I know. I have cared for their birds while they were on vacation, LOL. ;D

Are you saying that the OD no longer wants the "returns" back again? That used to be a required thing in the newspaper business. Reports had to go to corporate when we were under Gannett's control. They wanted to know where every copy of every edition ended up. I suppose to keep the local management from cheating on the numbers sold and keeping some more than their share of profit. Collecting and baling the returns for recycling was a major chore. I WAS ALWAYS A BELIEVER THAT THEY SHOULD BE USED IN BIRDCAGES AND NOT BROUGHT BACK AND DUMPED ON MY LOADING DOCK! ROFL!

[Ralph]

No sir....all we have to do is count them at the end of the night and they're mine to do as I please with.

Happy birdies!!!!!

[dgriffin]

Well, now. See that? All the complaining done on this forum about the OD and yet there's a significant part of Utica's population ... the feathered part ... that loves the newspaper and finds it useful.