Did the Observer kill the Lakwood Sun???

[Rhonda loje]

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index ... nizat.html

[Brian Pedaci]

I know your tongue is probably firmly planted in cheek, but I wouldn't pat yourself on the back too hard. They're victims of their own irrelevance.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Brian is correct.

I would say, that the Observer Project, caused them to lose focus as they tried
to compete. They should have paid less attention to Hyper Local, and focused
on what they did better. Which was at the time nearly everything else. This would
be like Convenient lowering the cost of beverages to a nickel because of the kids
around the corner selling lemonaide for a dime.

Had they stayed focused, and done what the readership wanted, allowing hyper
local projects to thrive, even amplifying their work. They could have taken a nice
ride to rebuilding their relevance, and importance. What they seemed not to realize
in the chase for the almighty dollar, is that people do live in regions. Lakewoodites
go to movie and stores outside of Lakewood, and to that end they were a perfect
tool for that lifestyle.

For the past three years, members of the Lakewood Observer board has been working
with the Plain Dealer and to a certain extent with the Sun Papers, on theory. That theory
is do what you do best. You see some of that weekly/daily. Put relevant stories to
your consumers on the front page.

I believe the re-organization, will find them falling into the "regions" that are being
outlined in the regional agenda for the county, that was in the Plain Dealer last week.
For the last year the talk was "8 Sun Papers" but that has been enlarged to 11. It
brings a smile to my face that the extra 3 are in cities where there are Observer papers.
One thing we always hoped for with the Observer was that it would force the media to
compete, that would bring more media coverage to Lakewood, and that was deemed
a good thing.

I hope that the PD, Sun, and now an all too thin Scene continue to publish.
The region needs them.

FWIW

[Dee Martinez]

So do you consider "killing" the Sun a success? What victory can the Observer brag about if we lose another source of information?
And if you killed the Sun, who killed the other 50 newspapers that have gone under in the last couple of years?
Get over yourselves. If the Lakewood paper folds thats not exactly a good thing for the city.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Get over yourselves.

Dee

Instead of blind hatred, read what I wrote.
I take no credit for the Sun, reorganizing. If you actually read my note instead
of overreacting you would see some of the LO Board has actually been working
with the PD/Sun to help them find their way.
You might have also read that we set the Observer up TO NOT COMPETE with the Sun
or any other paper, but to compliment them.
That we had hope from the beginning the Observer would force the Sun to cover
Lakewood better and in a different light. Not kill them!
That I hate to see the Sun, PD or any other paper fail.

I hope you felt the same way when the Sun came after the LO.

My god, please, must we always be so eager to spank Jimmy!
Please reference your quote above.


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[stephen davis]

Did the Observer kill the Lakwood Sun???

No.

Unfortunately, the economic climate is killing the Sun Papers. Crain's Cleveland Business has reported that, "Sun Newspapers will terminate 115 full-time and part-time employees in mid-August..."

Very sad for those employees, their families, and the businesses that they support. These are very difficult times.

Here's a link to the story:

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/ ... /906239961

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[David Lay]

More info is trickling out about the impending cuts:

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-hea ... newspapers