A Bad Week for My Local News
December 6, 2007 by John Hewitt
I stopped by Starnet today. Starnet is my local (Tucson) daily newspaper’s online version. I wanted to read the sports (I long ago stopped relying on them for hard news). Unfortunately, I was thought blocked by Starnet’s new website. The site’s evil new interface requires readers to register in order to read the news. Not only do the publishers want you to give them your email address, they want you to fill out a biography and sign up for a bunch of newsletters.
The whole move is a giant step backwards for them. I felt like I was back in 1997. I don’t know if they are trying to drive people back to the print version or if they just don’t understand that people can get their news ANYWHERE now, but they’ve lost this reader. I won’t be returning any time soon.
Northwest Tucson, and the cities of Marana and Oro Valley, also suffered a major news setback this week. The Northwest Explorer, a fairly good weekly paper that did its best to keep track of the slightly insane politics of the region, has been bought by Thirteenth Street Media. TSM quickly fired most of the staff and appears to have put a stop to the practice of reporters actually questioning the information cities give them. It looks like the coverage will be all about new police cars and holiday parades from now on.
A long, long time ago I used to work for a newspaper on the Northwest side of Tucson. It was a little rag called the Catalina Sunrise that was pretty much squashed by the superior reporting and resources of the Northwest Explorer. It was a well deserved victory for them and I bore them no ill will. It’s sad now to see the Northwest Explorer declawed.
Marana and Oro Valley are glorious hotbeds of political corruption and sheer lunacy. The Tucson Weekly, the only gutsy publication left in the area, will keep covering them. Unfortunately, the Weekly has nothing but contempt for the Northwest side, so I won’t be able to read about their politics without wading through a sea of insults.
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Hey, John! I’m up in Phoenix. I stopped reading our newspapers years ago when the Phoenix Gazette was put out to pasture. The whole newspaper industry is going through an identity crisis. Poytner.com had an article about this not too long ago. The internet is either intimidating them or they are ignoring it all together. They haven’t adapted themselves to the new face of information. Change is not easy.
Hi Joni,
I actually work in Tempe, so I am familiar with the anemic Phoenix newspaper scene. Even the New Times has lost its former zing.
In the case of the Arizona Daily Star and Starnet, they used to be quite good when it came to the Internet. They were my original Internet and Web provider back in 1993. Up until recently, I liked their web site quite a bit. It was easy to navigate an the ads weren’t too annoying (I wonder how their advertisers are going to feel about the inevitable drop in page views). The Star was bought out recently though, and this may be the new company imposing its “vision”. I don’t know. I just know that I won’t join any organization that requires my membership just to read their articles. There’s too much good stuff out there that I can access without having to jump through hoops.
Anybody remember KCAC and Toad and Marty Earthworm . . . .
Connie, my hubby remembers KCAC radio but not the others.
New Times used to be good when Bob Boze Bell and Jana Bommersbach where on staff. Ah, those were the days….
Dang, I’m showing my age!
Hey Connie! I just checked out your link. Are you from Arizona and now in Texas?
I lived in Arizona during the late 60s and early 70’s. KCAC had just opened, Toad (Gary) and Marty Manning, were DJs, and I was on staff, that was about 1970 or maybe ‘71. Anyway, we picketed the Nixon campaign breakfast because they wouldn’t let KCAC have press pass, at least that’s what I sort of remember, and almost got shot down in the streets. It was pretty awesome times.
Wow! I keep forgetting how chaotic yet necessary those times were. I hope you’ve put your experiences down on the page. To have been part of that history is fantastic. I was “safe” on the Minnesota farm during all those years of upheaval and therefore missed all the passion of the era.
does bugmenot.com not work?
Hi Pearl,
I certainly could work around their system. I’ve done it before. I have over a dozen domains and plenty of emails that I can use for annoyances such as this. However, I object to the exclusionary tactic as a whole, and the belief that I should jump through a bunch of hoops just to read news that is freely available elsewhere.
[...] last week I was bemoaning my local newspaper’s horrible decision to restrict access to its web site. As if that weren’t depressing enough, this week brought [...]