Shake Up Update

I mentioned last week that the Republic is going through an internal shake up.  Sources tell me that the Republic is losing it's Mojos.  Let me explain.  Last year's fad was the Mobile Journalist or "MoJo."  These commandos worked out of their car and were supposed to offer "hyper local coverage."  Seriously, I'm not making this up.  Well, most of the Mojos quit, and now the Republic has abandoned the project. 

Here's some background from the Washington Post.

The chain's papers are redirecting their newsrooms to focus on the Web first, paper second. Papers are slashing national and foreign coverage and beefing up "hyper-local," street-by-street news.

How will it Play in Peoria?

While the change looks like inside baseball, it has implications.  A few weeks ago, I wrote that the Republic has stopped delivery service in Page and Tuba City.  (Ironically, the circulation department didn't get the memo and sent a bunch of letters inviting people in those areas to subscribe.)

Now unfortunately, the lack of Mojos means that even more local coverage is going by the wayside.  The Republic is dramatically scaling back, perhaps even eliminating, local coverage in Peoria and Ahwatukee.

I think there are public policy implications to the Republic's move.  After all, the State of Arizona forces businesses to spend millions of dollars on public notices.  The theory behind that forced expenditure is that people in the hard to reach places in the state will have access to notices that aren't otherwise available. 

If the Republic is going to maximize its profits by cherry picking the profitable locations and abandoning the rest, then perhaps it's time for the state to rethink its public notice statutes.

After all, who are we fooling.  Printing public notices in a newspaper is a complete waste.  The state should require that the notices be published on a common website.  It would be much cheaper, searchable and accessible through Google or Yahoo. 

While I would prefer a private company to handle such a website I think it could be well managed by the state. 

In fact, the last time I checked, the State already has an entire office dedicated to getting information to the public.  I'm told the office is well run too.  Here's one of GITA's values.

We believe the public has a right to easy access to public information within the constraints of privacy and confidentiality.

Many of the public notices come from government agencies.  Surely, printing these notices in agate type in the back pages of obscure newspapers isn't a way to provide easy access to information. 

If the Republic is going to abandon the unprofitable areas of the state, then the state should no longer force business and local governments to publish notices in the paper.  The technology is available.  The agency is in existence.  What we need now is a change in the statute. 

Comments

[Howard Shankerville]

One can only hope they stop their free delivery of the "Ahwatukee Republic" as I get rather annoyed at having to go to my driveway, pick up the rag and then deposit it in my trash can. Coverage of this area, by that paper has always been a joke. The whole thing was about Chandler anyway.

[Timothy]

How dare you mess with the cash cow of legal notices! I incorporated a non-profit and paid the state $65, and the Cap Times more than $300 to publish that fact. Geez, what's next, my company has to start enforcing immigration laws?

[Ty]

Woah, woah, woah. Greg! There is nothing changing in money markets like Ahwatukee. Look, the whole point of the city sections was to increase ad revenue from the small businesses that couldn't afford the run of press Republic. Think about it. Why did The Republic launch in Scottsdale first? Then Ahwatukee? Money, baby, money. So look at the potential ad revenue first. That is what is going to end the city sections.

[Tim]

A website is a great idea, and can be maintained by the state.

[Walter]

I mostly agree with your position on Public Notices with one exception. Print is print and it cannot be altered. A website can be manipulated in both helpful and not quite as benevolent ways. I think the Capitol Times was actually a forerunner of public notices on the web (but, I also think it requires a print ad in order to be included on the web). But this is exactly the type of entity that should handle legal notices.

[Michael Marizco]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the Daily Territorial held the contract for public notices.

[Happy]

Public notices are printed by different newspapers depending on the county. Sure, they are profitable to the newspapers, but Tim is right: Print is Print.

However, what's wrong with making them available in both formats? Most Arizona Newspapers do publish their public notices online at www.publicnoticeads.com and so do several other states.

[BobH]

What public notice of any significance is not based on some sort of public record (e.g., a business license)? Why would printing it in a newspaper make it any more permanent?

The hyper-local idea is one that a lot of newspapers around the country are following. It's very possibly a good idea, and worth trying, but of course whether or not it's a good idea, proper execution is the key. I'm surprised the Republic gave up on it so quickly.

The hyper-local idea is simply to de-emphasize national and international coverage, where a paper like the Republic can't compete with the web, and move to where the competition is softer, covering local news (less congress -- more city hall, less NFL -- more high school sports, etc).

If I were in the newspaper biz, I'd consider it worth a shot. Nothing else is working.

[muckraker]

Please don't take this comment as a defense of the Republic's recent moves....but what you need to understand is that they created the MOJO (mobile journalist) positions a the expense of having local cop coverage. yes, they eliminated public safety beats to create Mojo positions. So maybe this means they are trying to correct their mistake. The poor Mojos spent most of their time uploading crappy photos of non-news events.

That said, you are right to be concerned about the local news report suffering....since more than 30 people have left since Jan. 1, and none of the reporters who left have been replaced.

[ron]

I saw a little piece in the AZRep about becoming a community journalist yesterday. Pay wasn't mentioned. So this could be for High School seniors and college students and out of work moms and dads who want to get their name in print and get some experience being a journalist.

[Darell Heath]

Not just Mojo's going away. The Republic purchased video equipment for Reporters and Photographers and that also flopped. The videos were horrible! The readership has been dropping off steadily for the last 6 months. Gannett needs to kick Bushee and Lovedick to the curb!!!

[muckraker]

The Ahwautukee and Tempe Republics will now be staffed with just one reporter for each section. Two reporters are being diverted to the Chandler Republic where there is more ad revenue and more "disposable income". Pretty soon they won't even cover central Phoenix if their decisions are being based on ad revenue.

[Just me]

Aha, now it makes sense. I thought it was kind of, oh I don't know, strange/tacky that they continually ask readers to send in their "weekend photos", like I thought that was THEIR job to provide photos and stories for the rest of us. While I love the idea of a community section/paper, the reality is that the one in my area is pretty fluffy, to say the least. Plus all the stories have been on the web for days. While I like the more immediatness of web reporting, I don't like having to sit in from of my computer to get all the news that's fit to print, ha. I guess I'm a dinosaur.This is very, very sad.
What reporters have left, by the way?