Newspaper's Cheapness Hurts My Circulation

When I worked at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in the early '90s, the place was filled to the rafters with copies of the day's newspaper, free for the taking. I loved reading papers that were fresh off the presses and still had "new news smell," and on Saturday mornings I ransacked the place looking for the bulldog edition.

The bulldog, a Sunday edition published a day early for people who wanted 24 hours head start on everyone else, came out ahead of the day's news. Editors had license to fill the news hole with stories they liked, so a bunch of quirky stuff found its way into print that would be replaced in later editions.

If I was working today for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, a recent policy change would've killed me. They're cutting corners by making employees buy their own papers, even in the office:

Taking more than one newspaper from a rack when you have only inserted enough money for one paper is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Employees who steal newspapers will put their jobs at risk.

Comments

Guess they'll have to start reading it online.

That is how a company makes great employee staff relationshiups by charging them for there own work lol, so sad really. I agree with the online thing thoughimagine how many tress we would save each year if everyone got there news online, and printed out the coupons they wanted.

Meanwhile they're dumping 10,000 copies at a landfill to inflate their circulation. And Paula Abdul is a drunken whore.

You say that like it's a bad thing, Mike.

In other news, Georgia-Pacific now charging employees a penny per square in company restroom stalls...

They probably owned the vending machine in their company for a cup of coffee and charge their employees for it.

How hard would it have been to ask nicely?

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