News Briefs for April 6, 2009

Comments ⁴

1. D. D. Degg

   Ukiah Daily Journal goes exclusive with WashPost Writers Group and not a peep, Sun Media goes exclusive with Creators and there is dissension. What’s the difference? Even more, is this a growing trend? Will syndicates now make special deals with papers that go exclusive with their product?

2. Wiley Miller

   “Ukiah Daily Journal goes exclusive with WashPost Writers Group and not a peep, Sun Media goes exclusive with Creators and there is dissension. Whatâ??s the difference?”

   The difference? Are you kidding? The Ukiah Daily Journal is a very tiny newspaper in a small community in Northern California. Sun Media is an entire chain, serving metropolitan areas throughout Canada.

3. D. D. Degg

   I see.
   One paper at a time – okay,
   one chain at a time – not okay.
   Frankly I have always been puzzled by the lack of exclusivity by certain chains in the last half of the 20th Century. The Hearst papers should have been the domain of King Features. Ditto with Scripps Howard and United Feature, also Tribune Company and Tribune Media. It just seems that would have been good business sense.
   That would have left the other chains (Gannett, Knight Ridder) and the independents in a free-for-all for the best creators and/or salesmen.

4. Wiley Miller

   Well, you asked what the difference was, and it’s a pretty big one, don’t you think? I didn’t say it was ok, just not a big deal when a tiny paper does to cut costs. In the end, both are doing a disservice to their readers.

   And if you had ever worked in one of the papers that were owned by Hearst or the Tribune company, you’d know that there was a great deal of pressure on the features editors to carry mostly the features of the syndicate owned by the company. But each paper still had some autonomy and didn’t want to pass up carrying popular features from other syndicates.