It is not pleasant to watch venerable institutions, such as the Hartford Courant, squirm. Companies that so dominate the fabric of our community, and that do so much to aid our region, should be able to operate in dignity. But the Courant, of late, has found it increasingly difficult to do its basic job of producing a terrific newspaper without also defending its business decisions.
The Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper in America is owned by the Chicago-based Tribune Co., which this week reported disastrously bad advertising revenues and a 59 percent drop in earnings across its properties. The results were so disconcerting that some pundits wonder whether real estate billionaire Sam Zell will continue his planned buyout of the company.
Tribune, of course, has to keep operating the company as though there is no white knight in the offing, because that knight may well gallop away. It is looking to squeeze as much cash out of its operating units as possible. And it’s clearly sending out orders to its publishers about what it expects.
Although the news pages of the Courant are generally trustworthy, the same can’t really be said of the pronouncements by the business office stewards of the paper. They keep blathering that they are making local decisions in the best interest of the local market. How then can one explain that every single major business decision they make, every other Tribune publisher makes at the same time? The Courant leaders decide it’s best for the paper to outsource its circulation center to the Philippines – and it’s such a crackerjack idea that the Baltimore Sun and the Orlando Sentinel make the same decision at the same time.
The Hartford Courant’s executive suite decides the company’s numbers aren’t so hot, so in the best interest of the paper they kick out 10 long-time editorial employees. The decision was made locally, honestly, and in no way mimicked the Chicago Tribune’s own layoff of just a few weeks earlier. Or that of the Los Angeles Times.
The latest twist is the Courant’s decision to accept front page advertising. In a story letting readers know of the move, the Courant asserts that it has nothing to do with corporate pressure, that the decision was made completely locally. And yet the Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times and other Trib papers have also all come to the same conclusion.
The Courant’s bosses are not in charge of their newspaper, not when every decision they make is simply to parrot something being done across the rest of their company. Why they keep pretending as though they’re not taking orders from on high is incomprehensible. It’s clearly false, and it casts a shadow on the one true asset any great newspaper has: the trust of its readers.
Defiling Page One
Let’s turn the page, so to speak, to those Page One ads. Newspapers of yore all had ads on the front page. They also had pictures of people hanging themselves and getting fried in electric chairs. The idea of a more professional journalism culture civilized many front pages; it also relegated advertising to the inside. Some decry the return of ads to the front page. But done right – as even the Wall Street Journal has found — there’s no reason this isn’t a fine idea.
Let us hope, however, that the Courant actually has people looking at its front pages. The Herald of New Britain clearly doesn’t. On a tragic day last week when the tabloid played up a triple homicide as its headline, that sole story was paired with a giant Page One ad for cremation services. The Herald has already lost enough subscribers. It can’t afford to lose more because of a thoughtless and insulting pairing.
