Connecticut print media about to shrink again?

Veteran Bristol Press reporter Steve Collins reports on his blog:

I don’t have any firsthand information yet, but I understand that unless the Journal Register Co. sells The Bristol Press and The New Britain Herald by Jan. 12, it will close both papers.
That means that the guy who thinks I’m a jerk who should be fired will essentially get his wish.

Sad news for Steve and his wife, who also works for the paper.

What I am wondering is whether this is just not an attractive property for a holding company to own, or is it (and the sister publication New Britain Herald) in fact unprofitable?

  • Anonymous

    It’s unfortunate, but print newspapers are just about done. Having worked at The Hour, Brooks Newspapers and the News-Times in Danbury, I can testify that newspaper management everywhere are going crazy trying to figure out ways to keep these papers afloat. They’ve lopped off huge chunks of staff – to their own detriment, by the way – and have jacked the numbers in so many different directions that the advertising staff is hard-pressed to make their monthly quotas no matter what they do.

    In the case of the News-Times particularly, having the company sold 3 times in 2 years was extremely bad for morale and did absolutely NOTHING to placate the customers that were left adrift by the constantly changing policies. Furthermore, having the management of the Connecticut Post coming in to “teach us how it should be done” was laughable – not only did they completely alienate and dismiss our customer base, but one year later the newspaper’s classified pages are STILL decimated from the neglect and constant rate-raising these “geniuses” from the Post put into practice.

    Personally I would LOVE to see the CT Post fall by the wayside. Maybe those smug and arrogant people will finally learn the lesson that a lot of other newspapers have had to learn the hard way. But I won’t be there to see it. Having read the writing on the wall (no pun intended), I moved on to another job before I became part of the immense crowd of laid-off newspaper employees not only just of the News-Times, but of newspapers in general.

  • Anonymous

    The Hour will go before the Post,and that will be justice.

  • Anonymous

    Todays Ct Post BRIDGEPORT — The manager of a Norwalk fast-food restaurant is charged with trying to pressure a local teenage girl to have sex with him to get a job there.

    Who covers the news in Norwalk the best? Not The Hour thats for sure.

  • Anonymous

    Sadly, newspapers all over the country are cutting staff in large numbers, and this includes the major newspapers, such as The New York Times. With the economic problems facing everyone, advertising revenues are already suffering, and they will worsen, resulting in the need for further economies. I read much of my news online but I still want a “paper” in my driveway everyday.

  • Old Timer

    In fairness to the Hour, this is a Bridgeport story. Crime took place in Bridgeport, arrest was made in Bridgeport and reported by a Bridgeport paper. The only Norwalk connection was where he works and where she applied for a job. The HOUR may pick up on it and run a story later, but probably not. Wonder if Wendy’s has fired him yet ?

    Cops: Man pressured job-seeking teen
    By DANIEL TEPFER
    Staff writer
    Article Last Updated: 11/11/2008 04:02:58 PM EST

    BRIDGEPORT — The manager of a Norwalk fast-food restaurant is charged with trying to pressure a local teenage girl to have sex with him to get a job there.
    Gabriel Okeke, 35, of Pearl Harbor Street, the manager of Wendy’s on Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk, was arrested Monday on a charge of fourth-degree sexual assault. He was freed after posting $15,000 bond.
    His arrest follows an Aug. 25 complaint to police from a 17-year-old city teen who told them she had previously applied for a job at Wendy’s and that Okeke had called her about filling out additional employment forms.
    Police said Okeke drove the teen to a parking garage under a building on North Avenue, where he began groping her chest and attempted to put his hand down her shirt. The girl said she protested and Okeke stopped. However, she told police, he told her that she would have to go with him into an apartment to get the job application
    When Okeke and the girl entered the building’s lobby, police said, he again groped her. When the teen told him to stop, Okeke allegedly responded, “You’re not going to get the job until you have sex with me.” He then allegedly touched her genitals, police said.
    The girl pushed Okeke away from her and fled, police said.
    When Okeke was interviewed by police about the incident, he allegedly told that while he remembered the girl, her story was a lie.

  • Anonymous

    The same company that owns the News-Times also owns the CT Post, Brooks Newspapers (all of them), the Stamford Advocate and the Greenwich Time. The reporters who work at these papers used to write only for their respective papers – now they’re being forced to write for all the papers.
    In Danbury particularly, the classified advertising pages have shrunk so much that the paper has been reduced to putting in Bridgeport classified ads in order to fill it up, especially on Sundays.

    When I worked at The Hour almost 2 decades ago talk was that the paper was going under, even back then. Well, here we sit 20 years into the future and The Hour is still an active community paper, albeit hanging by its fingernails to stay alive. I recently heard rumor of the building being up for sale, now that they’ve sold the presses for scrap metal and the paper is being printed by another publishing concern.

  • Anonymous

    What transpired in the parking lot of Wendys back around August a car had all its windows smashed in the parking lot here in Norwalk and it had to be towed from the Wendy’s parking lot.The occupants also had to be taken to the hospital and it was also a case where something had transpired like this.The Hour didn’t run the story someone else did then and it also involved the manager.This story is only a tip of the iceberg,they didn’t fire him then they probably won’t now.I guess its somewhere not to let kids go for a job I thinks.

    You sometimes wonder if it came out back then there would be less the chance it has happened to someone else.Run the story and someone else sees it and it happened to them maybe the guy will be put away with help and not have the chance to do it again.Pro active when it comes to jerks like this may save some kid from a close call or even worse.

    some out here don’t realize helping to catch a diddler or a perp is more important than maintaining an image for the city,and that is The Hour never all the facts only the ones that sound good.

    an educated public is a safer public,like the guy at the Aquarium picking up little girls those cops deserve a day off with pay they caught the bastard and only The Advocate carried the story.But we never heard Harry say great job did we?

    The Advocate John Nickerson wrote
    A 65-year-old man with a gorilla suit in his front passenger seat was arrested after a woman told police that he was parked outside the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk trying to lure girls into his van, police said.

    Lets not let anyone know we have to keep our kids safe,we have our police dept to remind of us that.I’m keeping this rant nice.

  • Wendy’s Lover

    Eat Fresh!!!! Sounds like Wendys needs some fresh managers as well.

  • Anonymous

    The Hour is shrinking,can’t ask some of the old timers they are gone.Anyone hear anything?