As reported by the Hartford Advocate:
"New Britain's most popular independent political blog, "Frank Smith Says New Britain," averages about 500 hits per day; other local blogs get fewer than 100 per week."
(Click the headline above for the entire Advocate story)
Frank,
ReplyDeleteI have said before you are the Fox News of New Britain, now even the liberal media is acknowledging that fact!
From the sounds of this story, the Herald isn't doing so well, is it?
ReplyDeleteThe Hartford Advocate....
ReplyDelete....As with most stories, it helps to start at the beginning — not all the way to 1880, when The Herald's first issue appeared, but to 1995. That year, the Journal Register Company (JRC), a Pennsylvania-based newspaper chain, which owns the New Haven Register, purchased The Herald and promptly set about running it into the ground.
Even in the 1990s, when it was pulling in profit margins of 35 percent, the JRC pioneered some of the newspaper industry's most ruthless money-saving tactics. You can find stories about JRC bosses peering into cars to verify mileage claims and keeping supply cabinets under literal lock and key; more recently, in a move that earned the attention of Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the company paid its executives almost $2 million in "shutdown bonuses" for laying off employees and closing local newspapers while in bankruptcy.
At The Herald, the JRC axed a dozen employees in its first week. It also shifted The Herald's focus. Using its New Jersey papers as a model, the chain pushed reporters (like Rick Guinness of Herald staff)to be more sensational, one-sided and aggressive — in a word, more tabloid. Even today, Herald employees happily bad mouth the JRC as abusive and out of touch.
It's no surprise that The Herald's circulation, which stood at 33,000 when the JRC took over, dropped to 7,000 by 2008. Still, The Herald was all New Britain had. When the JRC threatened to fold it, more than a dozen local politicians and officials came together and sent letters to 16 media companies, imploring them to buy the endangered JRC papers, even offering them tax breaks, sweetheart loans and other economic incentives.
Although New Britain almost lost its daily newspaper the new owner Michael Schroeder stated that a local newspaper like The Herald has to reflect the community life of the City,
WHAT?!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteNo mention of the New Britain Advocate!!!
The New Britain Advocate isn't taking the town by storm?? Who would have thought!
Frank, all people want is INDEPENDENT reporting. That is why you get the hits. Congratulations.
FAIR AND BALANCED, just like Fox.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see any mention of the new competitor for the Herald either. the Hardware City paper has to be giving them a run for their money, right along with Frank Smith Says.
ReplyDeleteI can't even remember the last time I looked at a new britain herald, but I never miss a day of Frank Smith's blog.
ReplyDeleteIs Alderman Adam still going around town trying to convince everyone that only 8 people read this blog?
ReplyDeleteMaybe someone should give the Alderman a copy of the Hartford Advocate--If only he would be able to read it for himself.
Is that the same Adam that follows the lead of Sherwood by viciously attacking businesses looking to invest in New Britain?
ReplyDeleteWhere's the beef? Must be in the Chinese hot dogs.
ReplyDelete