Forget about trick or treat
More bad news for the newspaper business
By Ken Tingley
Merry Christmas!
Too soon?
Apparently not.
Last month, I stopped by one of the local big-box stores to show my wife the impressive array of Halloween decorations.
I had never seen anything like it. There were giant blow-ups, all kinds of spooky robotic monsters with blinking lights, ghosts and ghouls galore.
Outside in the garden section, there was a display showing you how to decorate with hay bales, corn stalks and pumpkins. My wife bought a pumpkin.
It seems like you see more Halloween displays these days and many are becoming quite elaborate. One neighbor in Queensbury had a 15-foot ghoul hovering over the road. Its size was impressive.
But then last week, my wife said she had to show me something.
We went back to the same store on Sept, 30 and I was shocked to see that Christmas had already replaced Halloween.
There were dozens of artificial Christmas trees.
There were Christmas blowups of all shapes and sizes.
All sorts of electronic light displays with “Ho Ho Ho” spelled out in flashing neon colors.
There wee penguins, Santa Clauses, snowmen - including one playing a saxophone - reindeer, Mickey Mouse and Grinches.
It was overwhelming and disconcerting at the same time.
“Isn’t it still September?” I said to my wife.
She nodded.
The leaves had not even begun to turn.
We had just closed the pool a week earlier.
The lawn needed to be mowed.
we had not had a frost yet.
And yet here was Christmas on our doorstep
I suspect that the big corporations have statistics that show Christmas decorations sell better than any other holiday, so why not start the push earlier to boost revenues.
I posted a photo of myself on Facebook showing my mock horror amidst all the Christmas trees and 11 people commented.
“Make it stop,” wrote one.
“Shame, they’ve gone downhill so much,” wrote another.
“Nooooooo,” wrote a third.
“I turned around and went the other way as soon as I saw it,” said another. “It was like, `Nope, I haven’t even had a chance to be spooky yet.’”
And finally, “It’s all about the money.”
So let me be the first to wish you a merry Christmas.
And a happy New Year.
I’m not sure when to say “Trick or Treat.”
Words to live by
I stumbled on this quote while perusing social media. Maybe social media isn’t such a cess pool after all:
“You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.”
Kurt Vonnegut, author
Radio interview
I sat down for an interview with Mike Morgan of Adirondack Broadcasting last week. It is the second time Mike and I have chatted about my books. Mike is a good interviewer and the time flew by each times, so if you are up early on Sunday morning and are interested in newspapers, journalism, or maybe just the future of your community, you may want to listen in.
You can find the interview on Froggy 100.3 at 6.a.m. You can also find it on Q-101.7, Big Country 107.1 and Fox Sports Radio 97.9 at 6:30 a.m.
Cartoon says it all
A journalism colleague who recently read my book sent me this editorial cartoon that seemed to sum up the predicament we find ourselves in these days as a democracy.
The cartoon was drawn by the retired Ed Stein, a former editorial cartoonist for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Col. Ironically, the Rocky Mountain News no longer exists.
Bad news
The Poynter Institute reported Thursday that at least one newspaper chain is still not doing well.
Gannett, which owns 200 community newspapers, posted bleak second-quarter earnings in August and its stock dipped to $1.55 a share this week. The drop is nearly a 30 percent decline for the stock price since last month.
Poynter cites the high cost of newsprint and delivery problems caused by a tight labor market as contributing factors. Poynter also reported that digital traffic is off throughout the news industry. But even with digital subscriptions growing, they are not enough to make up for the revenue losses from print subscriptions and advertising.
The prospect of a possible recession has advertisers being careful with their budgets as well. Gannett laid off 400 employees earlier this year and has left another 400 jobs open. The company also reported it paid down $50 million in debt, but that debt started at $1.5 billion.
The future does not look bright for Gannett.
Sad. Would have liked to have seen those decorations that some people must have worked so hard on. Very sad. By Christmas, I may be tired of exmas decorations.
Never too early to celebrate the birth of Jesus. That’s the reason for season, right? Maybe it’s time to return the holiday to its pagan roots.
Thanks for the Vonnegut quote and the giraffes.
😢 for the papers.