Time’s up for the Star-Telegram? Not yet

by Steve Smith of West and Clear

Are rumors of the Star-Telegram’s demise premature? Fort Worth’s only daily newspaper made Time magazine’s list of 10 most endangered newspapers in America that was the buzz of the blogosphere yesterday after the S-T rang in at No. 9. Sayeth Time: “The parent of the Dallas Morning News, Belo, is probably a stronger company than the Star-Telegram’s parent, McClatchy. The Morning News has a circulation of about 350,000, while the Star-Telegram has just over 200,000. The Star-Telegram will have to shut down or become an edition of its rival. Putting them together would save tens of millions of dollars a year.”

Nice theory, but the only problem is that Belo is almost as deep in the hurt locker as McClatchy. As Tim Rogers at FrontBurner correctly points out, “Belo isn’t in a position to acquire a decent Metro columnist, much less another newspaper.” A straight-up Belo acquisition of the S-T won’t happen unless Bob Decherd wins the Powerball Lottery.

That said, I think that increasing combined operations will lead to something approximating a de facto merger, if not a real one, at some point this year. Personally, I’m not a big fan of all this brand mixing and content sharing. I don’t particularly want to read DMN content in the Star-Telegram and I think Dallas people people probably feel the same way about the Startlegrammer content. Part of the reason people are willing to plunk down for a subscription is the unique value of reporters and columnists who have the connections and the experience to put the news in context. The move toward less content plus less connection to the community is not a recipe for success. It’s a move further into “why bother?”

Which leads to my next point. What might have been overlooked by some — but not by the Blotch blog at the FWWeekly — was the announcement from the S-T last week of free weekly print edition of DFW.com that sounds like it’s designed to get all up in Lee Newquist’s bidness.

Of course, with all the slash and burn going on at 400 West 7th, I wonder who is going to actually write this copy, organize the listings and all of the other heavy lifting that goes in to putting together a useful entertainment tabloid. Well, wonder no more: looks like the answer is freelancers, according to a job posting on JournalismJobs.com.

Pardon me if I’m skeptical, but it sounds more like the type of innovation that has helped McClatchy climb all the way to No. 6 on Fortune magazine’s list of Least Admired Companies for Innovation. Is another print product really the answer when a more salient point would seem to be how to transition to online only? In spite of everything, newspapers are still profitable, but time to figure out a solution is running out. I think creating a new print product is more obstacle than opportunity.