Bad news for Media General

Media General can sure screw things up.

Publisher Steve Kaylor who is publisher for both The Madison Messenger newspaper as well as The Danville Register & Bee as well as the Reidsville paper, said in a news article in The Raleigh Telegram that the Madison Messenger which used to be published twice a week, will now only be published once a week. In the article Kaylor admitted that Media General had finally decided to listen to the readers.

"The newspaper publishers seemed to acknowledge what readers in Rockingham County have been telling them for decades -- that they prefer one paper a week, especially since the smaller Friday paper lacked the content that the larger Wednesday paper contained." wrote R. Gregg of the Raleigh Telegram in his story about the change.

I beg to differ. Media General isn't listening to anybody. They don't listen to their readers. They listen to their ad revenue. When advertising revenues FELL, THEN they decided to discontinue the twice weekly editions. It had NOTHING to do with what readers wanted. You tell me, with newspapers hurting, staff being laid off and offices consolidated do you really think they'd give up twice-a-week papers if it was making them money??! No. They'd reason "Oh, the readers want it!"

Reader demand is not likely the reason at all - unless Media General translates that as "if readers wanted it we could sell more ads."

Don't be fooled dear readers. The Danville Register & Bee and Media General aren't listening to what their readers WANT. They're listening to the moths fluttering around in their corporate pocketbook. Pure and simple. Advertisers weren't buying, so they're not printing. That's all there is to it. My educated guess is that at some point all three papers will be combined just as they have done with the web-site...Reidsville, Martinsville, Danville will have ONE paper. They'll probably change the name at the top, but you'll get the same mismash of stories. It doesn't have to be that way. Just stop advertising. That gets their attention.

See? You do have a voice. And it's green.