[Imc] Re: did anyone hear the octopus report on WILL today?
editor at 8am.com
editor at 8am.com
Wed Apr 18 23:46:47 UTC 2001
As someone who has had more than a little involvement with the paper -- and
its several predecessors over the last 20+ years, I wouldn't be too quick
to blame corporate mismanagement for the problems. I wouldn't blame the
community (entirely) either. The community has wanted an alternative to
the News-Gazette ever since the Courier folded in the late
1970s. Curiously, both The Weekly and The Octopus tried to get Indiana
investors to make themselves a bigger enterprise -- and both stumbled
fatally in the process.
If I had to lay primary blame, I'd most likely cast my eyes in the
direction of the only daily newspaper in the area. When the Courier
folded, the competition wrote an editorial claiming that "the best paper
won." A real newspaper would have lamented the loss of multiple voices in
the area and the subsequent lessening of perspectives. As everyone knows,
the Gazette is not entirely tolerant of differing opinions.
The Gazette is very competitive. When the Weekly began, the Gazette
quickly came out with their own weekly "magazine" style arts paper which
has evolved into the current "etc." section on Friday. I think Paul Wood's
article about the Gazette's problems (and I have known Paul for many years
and worked with him at the D.I. back in college days) contributed to the
diminishing morale at the Octopus and will further encourage its demise.
One may not like to acknowledge it, but another problem is perhaps a lack
of tolerance on the other end of the political spectrum. The community
that would most stand to benefit from an alternative publication in this
area might well be one that also does not like to hear opinions that differ
from its own. I say this with some trepidation.
In the meantime, I'm planning to continue to distribute essays and reviews
on the 8am.com mailing list. In the way that IMC is able to distribute
news (and new perspectives on the news) via its website, I hope that 8am
will be a conduit for arts and essay-length opinion. I hope that this may
become a cooperative effort with IMC. I'd welcome your thoughts and
encourage you to check out the website at 8am.com and certainly to
subscribe to the mailing list.
Greg Springer
At 05:59 PM 4/18/01 -0700, Paul Riismandel wrote:
>At 05:44 PM 4/18/2001 -0500, Mike Lehman wrote:
>>It was also mentioned on reason for the Octopus' trioubles is that the
>>area is more conservative than a lot of places, but still diverse. I'm
>>not sure how much of an excuse that is. My conservative parents always
>>seem to have a copy of the Bloomington, IN paper that the same company
>>puts out whenever I go home to visit.
>>Mike Lehman
>
>Sounds like BS to me. Yesse's other papers are in Springfield, IL,
>Dayton, OH, Iowa City (now shut down), Bloomington IN and
>Indianapolis. Of those, which one seems less conservative than
>C-U? Maybe Iowa City is a little more liberal, but none of the others, at
>least according to my perceptions.
>
>Sounds like a good excuse to mask corporate mismanagement, though.
>
>--Paul
>
>
>>Danielle Chynoweth wrote:
>> >
>> > WILL interviewed Jenny Southlynn today about the Octopus. We're trying to
>> > find people who heard it and could give a brief report.
>> >
>> > If you heard it, please contact Walter Matherly who is following the
>> > demise of the Octopus (filed for bankruptcy recently) closely for the IMC.
>> >
>> > Walter matherly
>> > 239-5338
>> > matherly at prairienet.org
>>
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>
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