Shakeup at the Times-Leader

Richard Conner has announced that he is stepping down as the publisher of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. This media board reports that he has also has pulled out of the newspaper business in Maine. Speculation is rampant about the financial health of the publication with many people fearing for their jobs and the rest of us worry about having just one local new source for information about local politics and government. The local TV stations ignore political stories unless something really big happens and the afternoon radio show is a joke.

The Citizens Voice has more information about what is going on than the TL.

Times Leader staffers face uncertain future


"Obviously there's concern in the newsroom," said one reporter. "It certainly seems more dire than it has before."
At the rate the cuts are coming, along with Connor's resignation, that same reporter wondered if Wilkes-Barre could soon become a one-newspaper town.
"It's not a good situation," the reporter said.
"I think everyone knew that both papers couldn't exist forever."

My interaction with reporters from both papers has been positive for the most part. Many told me they welcomed the competition and said it made them do their jobs better. I think we are the only small market in the USA with competing daily newspapers.

From a veteran of the newspaper wars who has joined the ranks of us lowly bloggers, Betty Roccograndi who writes Pure Bunkum

Is This The Beginning Of The End For The Times Leader?

And there’s nothing like the fear of being scooped that keeps reporters on their toes. When Bill O’Boyle worked for The Citizens’ Voice and beat me on a story, I feared going into the office that day to face the dragon lady, who’d inevitably ask icily, ”Why don’t we have this story?” (But, dear readers, I scooped him plenty in return.)...
What I’m getting at is remove that competitive spirit, and reporters run the risk of losing their drive in digging for news that those in office would just love to hide.
But the biggest irony of all would be if The Citizens’ Voice, a long ago fledgling offshoot of The Times Leader, which did everything possible to drive it out of business, becomes the only game in town.

Who is the dragon lady? I have a guess.

Candidates on the air

I had to cut yesterday's post short to deal with yet another minor domestic crises. The only reason I was even watching the local news is to see what candidates for local office had ads running. Yesterday's 6PM newscast had 3 political spots. The first was from ASCME asking Lou Barletta to support President Obama's job plan, that's not going to happen. Judge candidate Jennifer Rogers had the 2nd and the last was for DA Republican hopeful StephanieSalavantis that has the local blogosphere buzzing. See Joe V and the Yonk. Today there were a few more on the Noon broadcast including one for Luzerne County Council candidate Rick Williams.

I will highlight some of them in future posts.

Tonight I'm looking forward to game 2 of the World Series and will be cooking that All American dish, meatloaf. I took the night off from work after being poked, prodded, wired up and getting electric shocks in my leg by a Neurologist then went to the dentist for more fun. This aging process stinks.

I watched the local TV news tonight

I usually don't because I work 2nd shift and it's geared to sensational reporting about fires, car crashes and cute stories about kids doing something for soldiers or some other worthy cause.



To me the biggest story of the day was the DEP granting Cabot Oil's request to stop delivering fresh water to people in Dimock but it got only a passing mention of about 10 seconds. It is tragic someone's house burned downed or lost their life in a auto accident but the long term threat to the health of the people of Dimiock and the rest of us deserved more attention.






Driller OK to halt water to Dimock





DEP: Cabot can stop delivering water to Dimock resident








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“It's a great time to be a Republican in Luzerne County”

That was the message of Luzerne County GOP Vice-Chair Paul DeFabo before a big crowd at the Wilkes-Barre HQ last night. He said that because of all the scandals engulfing the county Democrats "if we can't win this time, we never will." It's hard to argue with that but after getting wiped out in the county elections in 2007 they still have a big hill to climb.

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DeFabo outlined the process the party will use to endorse a slate in the primary. A straw poll of the local committee people will be taken then the executive committee will give their blessing to the lucky few. I suspect that they have already made up their minds. I still think that is a mistake and smacks of the heavy handed way the county Democrats have done things for years. It's been a long time since the Republican nomination has been worth something and trying to stack the deck might backfire. Notable by their absence were some members of the executive committee.

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A few local bloggers made it including the Yonk who has a write-up of the event at The Lu Lac Political Letter.

Zen, Norton and McGruff were in the audience and will hopefully chime in later. The local media focused on America's Mayor Lou Barletta speech. Bill O'Boyle of the Times-Leader has a recap here.

Breaking News

Or not. The Citizens Voice has a story today about Sen. John Edwards visit to Bear Creek that was first reported a week ago on NEPA's Real Deal. Then on Monday the Times-Leader told us about a guy that can't sleep at night because of the demolition of the Hotel Sterling tower. The Luzerne County Liberator had that story on January 31st. In September me and Down With Tyranny posted a copy of Don Sherwood's 9/11 invite that made it into the Times-Tribune 3 days later. I also had the scoop on candidates announcing they were running for this or that office and who wouldn't show up for a debate that made it into the papers a few days later. And I don't know how many times Wilkes-Barre Online has done original reporting that made the papers in another form. I'm sure all the reporters involved will say they had other sources but it makes you wonder. Keep up the good work guys. The local media may not always cite their sources but we do.