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News :: Media |
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Alternative Weekly Shut Down |
Current rating: 0 |
by pm
(No verified email address) |
06 Jan 2003
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The CU Cityview, formerly the Octopus, formerly the Optimist, has been closed down. |
I don't really have any of the details, but it seems like an important story, so maybe people can fill in the details.
Lacking facts, I'll cite the rumor I've heard. Please debunk willfully. Here goes: The parent corporation (Saga Communications) gave no warning, but simply locked the doors at the paper's offices on Main St. in downtown Champaign, fired all the staff, and shut down the paper on Jan. 3, 2003.
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Conspiracy Theories And Picking Up The Slack |
by zcm
zach (nospam) wolfgang.groogroo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
06 Jan 2003
Modified: 07 Jan 2003 |
Who will pick up the slack? Folks should come to upcoming Public i meetings to talk about this. (I believe the next meeting is Thursday at 5:30pm at the IMC). I'll be there.
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Oops! |
by zcm
zach (nospam) wolfgang.groogroo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
07 Jan 2003
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I left out my conspiracy theory. It was lame anyway. |
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What Happened (maybe) -- What To Do |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 3
07 Jan 2003
Modified: 01:17:01 AM |
OK.
Both of you have teased us with promises of conspiracy theories. I'll put mine down here, adopted from comments I made earlier on the UC IMC list. I prefer to think of the following as more of a cold-blooded analysis of the situation, rather than as a conspiracy theory, though.
I don't think there are really any serious offers for the Cityview on the table (although I could be wrong.) Given the shutdown was right at the end of the year, including getting the last issue out a day early, byNew Year's (which seemed at the time to simply be taking account of the holiday, but in retrospect…) the shutdown makes it quite convenient to keep whatever tax write-off neatly within one year for the accountants, since Saga only bought it in October.
What I'm going to say next is to take nothing away from the staff at the Cityview, who struggled under trying conditions to produce a hip and relevant paper (something that is hard to do, as we in Indymedia know so well), although the result could be occasionally uneven. My belief is that Saga, from the beginning, bought the Cityview for the explicit purpose of shutting it down. What other value does a money-losing operation that the Cityview was in recent years (and maybe all along under its different names?) have to a profit-oriented outfit like Saga?
My guess is that the Saga bigwigs saw it as a way to eliminate competition for advertising dollars on their radio stations. Now they hope that the Cityview's former advertisers will buy time on Saga radio stations and, if they don't, they're still ahead of the game by eliminating another outlet on the community which they probably saw as nothing more than competition for their core business, radio. I seriously doubt if they ever intended a long-term future for the Cityview.
It's the way media consolidation works everyday across this country (with the blessings of the government -- see http://www.mediageek.org/ for the latest on what the government wants to do to ASSIST media consolidation.) Why should it be any different here? And thank goodness for the IMC (and WEFT and WILL-AM) or it would really be a media wasteland in our fair community.
Those who miss the outlet that the Cityview was should take comfort in knowing that there is another great paper, the UC IMC's own Public I, here already in the community. If you share the concerns expressed here about the media or just want someplace to get your side of the story out to the public, get involved by coming to Public I meetings. They are every Thursday at 5:30pm at the UC IMC in downtown Urbana.
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No Conspiracies -- Simple Capitalism |
by paul
paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 3
07 Jan 2003
Modified: 04:30:30 PM |
ML -- I doubt that Saga bought the Octopus/Cityview simply to shut it down. However, I do believe that Saga got involved as a defensive maneuver. AAA Entertainment, the mysterious Rhode Island based company that owns 4 FM stations here, was apparently ready to buy the Octopus when Saga stepped in with a better deal.
In the radio community AAA has a reputation for ruthless cost-cutting -- it acquires bunches of stations, slashes staff, combines them into one building and runs them on a threadbare budget. It's likely that being bought by AAA would have been very bad for the Octopus, probably turning it into nothing but a cheap promotional arm for AAA's stations and a way to leverage AAA into other areas, like billboards or even TV. I think a AAA owned Octopus/Cityview would have seen a steep decline in quality very quickly.
So, even though it only lasted about 14 months, the Saga ownership was probably a better outcome for that time period. Especially since Saga was comparitively hands-off and the only really noticeable indication of Saga's ownership was the increase in ads for its three radio stations. In fact, I think the paper went up in overall quality during the Saga ownership, probably as a result of more consistent finances and dedicating more resources to such simple things as writers.
However, you're probably correct about the timing of the shutdown. What I've heard is consistent with pm's understanding -- it was shut down suddenly on the 2nd, when employees were given a memo, told to collect their stuff, and the locks were changed. I'm guessing this tactic was used in order to make sure that it went down quick and with minimal reportage in its own paper. I understand that several employees were on vacation when it happened, and came home to phone messages informing them of the news.
Generally speaking, radio and print aren't thought to compete much on ad dollars, so I doubt Saga bought the Octopus simply to eliminate the competition. Simply, I think it was probably a situation where as the #2 owner (but #1 in ratings) they didn't think they could afford having their biggest competitor get into the alt. weekly business.
Recently in the industry mag Radio & Records the head of Saga was quoted as saying that it was a "mistake" to get into publishing. Even though the Cityview was Saga's only print property, there may have been plans afoot at Saga to get more into print that have since been ditched.
If I were to bet, I'd say that besides the new year tax angle, another element to the timing of the Cityview shutdown is the upcoming FCC media ownership rules review. I'd guess that most of these companies are saving their pennies to launch into a buying spree, if and when the FCC lifts ownership limits. I wouldn't doubt that Saga would like to get more into TV. By comparison a weekly newspaper is small potatoes.
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