Posted By:
Jim VBFar be it from me to defend the Coaches Corner thieves, but SCD is between a rock and a hard place here.
Rob, you know better than most, what's going on in the newspaper industry these days. Price of ink is up, cost of paper is through the roof. Circulation is down. Advertising pages are down. Classified ads are down too, and they are, traditionally, the most profitable pages. Most major papers are at the door of bankruptcy. Many papers are talking merger with neighboring cities as a way to stay alive.
And then there are weeklies like SCD. All the same problems, plus some. Basically, the world has passed them by. A weekly hobby paper used to be the key way to get up to the minute news. Along comes the internet and add in their slow delivery problems and everything written in SCD is 3 weeks old before it gets to your door.
They are in a fight for their survival and the odds of them making it are slim and none (And slim just left town.)
Meanwhile, they have a disreputable advertiser who buys at least 40-50 pages a month. He is keeping them alive. As much as we all want them to kick him out, they'd be signing their own death warrant.
But their problem is that running his ads makes them an accessory to the crimes.
The honorable solution would be to fall on their sword, kick out Coaches Corner, and fold up 60 days later. Would any business do that?