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?