Shown the Door, Where's the Gate(House)?

Word on the street is that our 2007 Illinois Journalist of the Year is now out of a job. If recent reports like this one from the Wall Street Journal (The Train Wreck at Gatehouse Media) are any indication of things to come, then it looks like Mrs. Carlile will not be the last of the employees at The Journal-Standard to be lead out to the curb. If the reports from friends of Olga are true (and I would like to speak with her myself to get her side of the story), then this was an ignominious end to a long-term relationship between Mrs. Carlile and The Journal-Standard.

Gatehouse Media is looking at a massive debt load and decreased revenue stream. How long will it be before The Journal-Standard becomes incorporated into the Rockford Register-Star that is also owned by Gatehouse? Consolidation, while not a forgone conclusion, seems to be even more likely given the less than stellar numbers put up by Gatehouse.

In indirectly related news (as far as the fate of print-edition newspapers) The Chicago Tribune announced that they will have another mass lay off by the end of August due to declining ad revenues and increased operating costs. The number of printed pages will again be decreased and a design change is due in September.

Newspapers are struggling. Years of loyal advertising accounts are now looking to spend their money elsewhere. The top-down hierarchy of most newspapers is fast changing with the continued expansion of internet news services, online editions of the papers, and independent bloggers (many of whom have entered the mainstream media by way of their blogging insights). Publishers have, in many cases, downplayed the significance of bloggers as being "guys in pajamas with too much time on their hands", but now that the writing is on the wall for many publishers and major and mid-major newspapers, perhaps it is too late to save the traditional paper as we have known it for most of our lives.

Let's be honest with the citizens, local paper, give us the news of "Where's Olga?" and what is really happening at The Journal-Standard. In the meantime, while it may seem counterintuitive to initiate a new daily paper in the area, it also makes sense, because people are clamoring to hear local voices about local happenings, politics, and business, instead of wire service feeds and syndicated claptrap that doesn't involve us. So, bring on the daily edition of the Freeport Focus. The timing seems right.