I found this tidbit today in the Argus a little interesting;
For decades, though, curation of reader-created content has been at the center of the Argus Leader’s opinion offering. While today’s social media age allows for immediate sharing of one’s view, few individuals can muster the community reach that a letter to the editor published by the Argus Leader offers.
While there’ certainly value in continuing that platform, we’re making a few adjustments. Starting next week, we’ll increase the opinion presence in the Sunday paper while discontinuing the daily opinion page. As mentioned above, the Sunday Argus Leader has our highest print readership and is a natural place to highlight community views on issues of the day.
That said, without the daily opinion page, we will be more discerning on which pieces run. Letter writers will not have the guarantee of publication. We cannot uphold that promise. We’ll publish the pieces we elect to feature based on their local relevance and the strength of the argument presented.It’s my hope that these changes, paired with more that are certain to come, will allow us to sustain our opinion-based platforms while keeping the Argus Leader news team focused on the daily delivery of news.
As mentioned earlier in Cory’s column, a third of the daily subscribers are digital only. I’m not sure what that has to do with eliminating the daily opinion page, especially with a month before the mid-term elections. I have thought for awhile that the Argus will reduce it’s dead tree version to 3 times weekly and the Sunday edition. But my bigger concern (besides their lack of daily advertisers) is that our last vestige of local media sharing people’s opinions will be gone. Sure we can comment on blogs and Facebook, but it isn’t the same. I’m just wondering who will be turning out the lights at 10th & Minnesota someday?
They must need another page for USA Today profiles of the Kardashians and The Voice judges.
The Argus Leader is dying. I buy the Star Tribune if buy a newspaper.
I don’t always agree with you but your site is more of a newspaper to SF than the Argus.
Thanks, but I am NOT a journalist, just a citizen advocate of good government. The Argus still has fantastic talent in Ellis and Sneve. I often think Ellis will be the last man standing, he has held almost every position at the Argus and is unwavering. They are very fortunate to have him and his historical knowledge on staff.
Huh, Ive been told by a journalist with years and years of local skills that Scott is just a lowly gadfly. LTE’s will now be what? 25% of what it is today? Replacing it with what? Sanford and Avera full page ads? The Argus readers need more local and state news, along with the reader letters to the editor.
An other institution destroyed by the “internets.”
I was told that in 2006 the average age of an Argus subscriber was 65. That would make them 77 now, if they are still alive. (Maybe Archie Bunker logic)
Nothing lasts forever, and the blogs do their part, but losing a newspaper is not only the loss of a rag, but also a chunk of our press freedoms, too. Because the institutions which held newspapers together for many years, which themselves were often critcized for being to cautious or bias in their day, are now the very reality that we are begining to miss and cherish…. It’s like an old friend which we were just too dependent upon or took for granted…
As a 1960’s Argus paperboy it makes me sad to see the changes for no other reason than bleeding off profits to the larger corporation.
When Gannett bought the paper changes started to happen to peal away market share, including the start of USA Today. USA Today was the national newspaper to eventually eliminate the need for local newspapers.
At least once a year, for many years, I attended gatherings in Vermilion with Al Neuharth. He would brag how the Argus was the most profitable newspaper in the Gannett system. I asked him why the Argus no longer tried to grow the paper’s circulation through out the region as Christopherson’s had. The answer was circulating outside of Sioux Falls was too expensive so they were cutting back. USA Today was more important.
I’ve always disagreed with the direction and I feel sorry for those employees who are now on the receiving end of the short shortsightedness of 1980’s bleeding of profits. But most of I feel sorry for us to be watching our life long source of information and the keeper of the official record of our government disappearing.
If the ownership or management of our current Argus Leader cared to have a study group to find solutions, I would gladly sign up.
Focusing on the Sunday newspaper could be a wise business decision. If Sunday becomes the only circulation, the Argus might survive. A summary of opinions and the news at the end of the week could find a place at food store checkout lines. I don’t buy tabloid fiction but I’d buy the Argus.
Another good idea would be a half page flip newspaper. It’d be less intrusive to read in public places. Ellis came from the Canyon Courier in Colorado. He might realize that a fold format like the Rocky Mountain News is easier to stock and read. The competition is the Shopping News and Sioux Falls Woman printed matter. Find a place near their stacks and compete for their advertising and content.
It’s a payroll cost issue – pure and simple. The person who “curated” all the letters is gone. They don’t have anybody to verify authorship. That’s how you end up with a letter about the bike trail from Peter Sagan (three-time world champion road racer and winner of the Tour de France green jersey).
I see it through the same prism as Lalley (JFC, it hurt to type those words).
This is entirely because AL Media no longer has the resources to properly vet LTE submissions.
Another example is the LTE in which the author, as a resident of the City if Sioux Falls, claimed confidence and pride in the recent appointment of the Tech and Innovation Director – signed, “Author, Tea SD”.
I am a little off topic, but Bruce’s explanation of the Argus, thanks to Gannett and Neuharth, sounds a lot like the reason why the SDDP does not want to enhance Democratic voter registration in this state, with the “USA Today” inference being analogous to “message only”….
My favorite Visitor Post to the Argus Leader Media Facebook page is one in which a family member, the executor of his mother’s estate, spoke of the extreme difficulty in reaching anyone in Subscriber Service @ Gannett to discontinue automatic bank drafts for the print subscription which his mother had dutifully maintained to her dying day.
In contrast, he pointed to the very quick way in which the publication fees were “harvested” in exchange to print her obituary.
Good luck to any of the 7,000+ poor suckers who have given Gannett a debit-, or credit card for a “99 cent digital subscription”.
Why buy a newspaper when todays news is all on the Net? Last time I bought one was on a Sunday and it was like 3 dollars? For old news and a bunch of flyers from stores? What a waste.
As a country we need our local newspapers. We need them because they are the watchdogs on most everything local. You cannot get that from television or radio. Both are hampered by corporate owners and the corporate message. There are exceptions. Patrick Lalley is that exception. It is not just a coincidence that he is of the Argus. But the other 22 hours of that radio stations airwaves? Very questionable. Same for all 24 hours of kelo radio.
I do not always agree with what the Argus editorial board prints. Not meant too. I believe they failed in how they chose to cover the final days of the mayors race, and the school bonding issue. We agreed on many others. They have some great writers. I’ll include Shelly Conlon, even though we disagreed on some parts of her school bonding reporting. Sometimes journalists are limited by the info they are presented. That being said, I have lost ALL respect for Vernon Brown.
I have been reading the Argus for topics off and on the sports page since 1960. Have had our own subscription since 1972. That will not change. I am only disappointed my favorite part of each daily edition is gone. LTE’s are a must have. Too bad.
BTW, I come here daily for the same reasons I read the Argus. Good job Scott. Same for you Bruce.
Of course they sell more Sunday papers. People still like to read the colorful comics and browse the ads while they take a break from screens.