MJS Goes For Change, McCain Style

Today, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced that they are making even more changes at the paper. This is in continuation of changes made earlier this year when they cut many of their better reporters, columnists and other staff members. Unfortunately for us, it is not the postive kind of change that Barack Obama promises. It's more of the same as before, but only worse, kind of change that McCain keeps trying to tout.

As Gretchen Schuldt points out, they are cutting corners and cheapening the paper even further, and trying to spin it into some sort of pap that even the most ravenous beast would snub:

JS readers likely are well aware of the huge turmoil in the newspaper industry. It’s OK to tell us the truth — cutting suburban editions saves money and the paper really, really needs to do that to survive. It’s also OK to tell us that it will indeed affect what we read. Trying to cram more suburban news into a single local edition obviously will affect coverage and content — the change will not, as Koetting contends, be “for many of you…almost imperceptible.”

That’s the kind of thing that should only be in the funny pages.

I still get the hard copy of the paper. I enjoy reading the news, reading the funnies and doing the puzzle games as I eat my breakfast and have my morning pot of coffee. Today, even with all the expanded coverage of last night's Packer game, I still finished the paper 20 minutes faster than normal.

The MJS has gut the paper even further, lumping all the local news into one section. That is OK to an extent, but that means some smaller stories that might be pertinent to any given community might not be covered, as that it may not be as important to the editors than another story from another community. And even on slow news days, I don't really want to read about Aunt Martha from West Bend and her prize winning apple preserve recipe.

Not only are they cutting their news coverage, they are cutting their special sections. The Food section will be blended into the Cue. The Health section got cut and replaced by a monthly insert, that tells people nothing and is mostly advertisements. They'll be cutting back on the editorial section at least two days a week, and have dropped Doonesbury and Mallard Fillmore. (OK, I'll admit I'm glad the dumb duck is gone.)

They have also cut back on the Cue section, dropping three comic strips: Non Sequitur, The Flying McCoys and For Better or For Worse. The last one is due to the artist retiring and is understandable. What is not understandable is they drop two of the funnier cartoons, but keep the The Family Circus.

Not only is the quantity of the paper being diminished, but their conservative spin continues to be more and more obvious. Take their political coverage for example. While the McCain/Palin visit to already conservative Cedarburg was front page and took up a large share of the paper, Biden's visit in Green Bay gets buried inside, by the death notices. I really don't understand how anyone with an IQ higher than a fetid mouse turd can believe that the media is liberal.

And if all that wasn't enough to curdle the milk in your cereal bowl, they are also threatening their online site.

I've said it before, and it is even more true now. This paper isn't even worth the paper it's printed on. As I mentioned earlier, I still get their hard copy every morning. I know for a fact that I will not be renewing my subscription when it expires. I will have to check my records, and if the renewal date is to far off, I will cancel it now, and get a refund. There's no sense in throwing good money after bad.

Now, please excuse me, but I have to go if I can find a reliable, unbiased source for local news.