Mark Frost has almost never had anything insightful to say. He's always sat in the peanut gallery and thrown stones at those who try to produce actual journalism.
That's when he's not violating basic journalistic ethics like writing a news article where he's part of the story without mentioning that... he's part of the story.
I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday. I stopped my subscription to the paper last month and struggled with that decision. It not only made me sad but I wanted to support the paper. I feel strongly it is needed to not only hold our local officials accountable but to keep our community in touch with what is happening in our area. It binds us together as a community and I feel that has now been lost. I can't pay for what the Post Star has become yet I feel the emptiness each morning when I log on to read first thing in the morning.
I've lost track of how many letters have appeared since the ruinous format change complaining about the vanishing local content in the PS.
Today's top story in the GLENS FALLS, NY Post-Star e-edition: the impeachment trial of... the TEXAS attorney general. The one local story they published today was secondary to that. Embarrassing!
Since trying to raise my rate, after I cancelled they are sending me non-stop offers of $1 for 6 months. So if they can afford to do that, why did they raise my rate in the first place? But even at that rate, I’m done with them. They can lure me back when they actually focus on this region and its news.
I threatened to cancel when they doubled the price after cutting the content in less than half and they gave me a better rate (though still not great for the vastly diminished content).
You are so right. The flowers downtown are truly amazing. They really do make a difference. About the Post Star, we are waiting until our yearly subscription runs out to make the final decision, but agree with everyone that the paper is less than satisfying.
Post-Star has been such a slow-burn fadeout that people just got used to it being on a deathbed. There probably still is a local market for news, but whether it’s a print edition or a web site, it takes money to at the very least report broadly on government and new businesses. It also takes personnel to sell $99 ads to pizza places and car dealers. Who wants to do that kind of job nowadays?
I cancelled my Post Star subscription with a heavy heart too. I subscribed to the Salem-Greenwich Journal & Press, I subscribed to get the Chronicle online, and am considering getting the Granville Sentinel as well. I notice even the Free Press advertising circular has stepped up to the plate with some local reporting. There is a saying in business: Keep it small and keep it all. Maybe hyper local, not regional is the way to go?
I held out as long as I could. But the last straw was when they increased my rate shortly after they cut back their product. This was after losing the print version because the carriers could no longer make a go of it, and putting up with more and more bland, generic, pre-digested, irrelevant content. I realized it was no longer pleasurable to read, and there was nothing in it I looked forward to. I miss the way it used to be very much!
Very interesting. I’m going to study the situation when I can because I value local journalism and the Post Star is all there is. I learned that most of our young people don’t care about the issues I believe. Anyway…thanks for your reply.
Sadly, you are so right. This is really more than sad. I still enjoy the Post Star because I treasure local journalism. I find many articles that are still pertinent, I.e. the one re pfoas in our water. I still enjoy some of your editorials and nowhere can I find nice long obituaries of our old and young people passing. I say Keep on Going Post Star!!
Though I have not lived in Glens Falls for many decades, I have continued to be interested in local doings, and in the Post-Star, for which I was a high school correspondent and summer cub reporter more than 60 years ago. Over the last 10 years or so, as I phased out of work in Washington, DC, I resumed my interest in the paper, and, in fact, volunteered with story ideas and did quite a bit of volunteer reporting leg work From afar for those stories. A few wound up on the front page. So, recently, I wrote the editors to mention that two prominent “grads” of Glens Falls - fiction writer Lorrie Moore (brought up on Monument Avenue, GFHS graduate), who has a new, well-reviewed book out, and big time lawyer Kevin Herlihy, a key figure in the controversial merger of the two major professional golf tours - would be worth story consideration. In fact, the New York Times has focused on them more than once this year. Never heard back, and,
now, after learning of the paper’s implosion, I am much less surprised at their lack of local interest.
When Will Dolittle, someone I think of as a consummate intellectual, does not subscribe to the local (semi) daily, it is a strong signal something is wrong. I lament the loss of a daily paper, do not trust the more generalized and far less accountable, on-line services, and wonder where people are going to get community information like obituaries? I am sad, disappointed with the Post-Star for my own reasons, and at a loss to suggest a solution. Perhaps a town crier?
Yes, at least I assume so. I was on a digital only subscription when I cancelled. You should cancel too, and then they’ll probably offer you a deal and then you can resubscribe and save some money!
It speaks volumes that someone like you, who worked in newspapers (and the PS specifically) for so long, could find so little value in the current iteration as to be worth your money. The complete absence of local news four days of the week is abominable.
I don't think it can possibly be rehabilitated by the [insert polite negative adjective] of Lee. I feel bad for the few reporters there who are doing the best they can. But they are not being set up to succeed.
A number dailies in New England have been bought by local/regional consortiums, some not-for-profit, in order to be kept relevant. I believe the Concord Monitor and Bennington Banner fall in to that category. They, thus, offer much more local news than than the Gannett-ruined Burlington Free Press and, obviously, the formerly good Post-Star.
I love the Hill Country Observer, which does exceptional journalism. And the Lake George Mirror is also good. But both are only monthly (Mirror weekly for the summer) and do not really cover the Glens Falls/Queensbury core that the Post-Star used to.
I join the chorus of P-S subscribers who took the step to negotiate a more reasonable deal; it's an act that usually provides personal satisfaction, but it was probably the emptiest - and even saddest -
negotiation I ever took part in.
I want so much to support strong local journalism, but it's just no longer present in those pages. Thankful for this Substack, to be sure.
Mark Frost has almost never had anything insightful to say. He's always sat in the peanut gallery and thrown stones at those who try to produce actual journalism.
That's when he's not violating basic journalistic ethics like writing a news article where he's part of the story without mentioning that... he's part of the story.
I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday. I stopped my subscription to the paper last month and struggled with that decision. It not only made me sad but I wanted to support the paper. I feel strongly it is needed to not only hold our local officials accountable but to keep our community in touch with what is happening in our area. It binds us together as a community and I feel that has now been lost. I can't pay for what the Post Star has become yet I feel the emptiness each morning when I log on to read first thing in the morning.
Did you stop because it was unaffordable? Just nosey.
No, not at all. I was tired of all the AP stories, the repetition and lack of local news.
I've lost track of how many letters have appeared since the ruinous format change complaining about the vanishing local content in the PS.
Today's top story in the GLENS FALLS, NY Post-Star e-edition: the impeachment trial of... the TEXAS attorney general. The one local story they published today was secondary to that. Embarrassing!
Since trying to raise my rate, after I cancelled they are sending me non-stop offers of $1 for 6 months. So if they can afford to do that, why did they raise my rate in the first place? But even at that rate, I’m done with them. They can lure me back when they actually focus on this region and its news.
I threatened to cancel when they doubled the price after cutting the content in less than half and they gave me a better rate (though still not great for the vastly diminished content).
Well said Will. Sadly, I came to the same decision.
I hope it was only finances that were responsible. Wondering.
You are so right. The flowers downtown are truly amazing. They really do make a difference. About the Post Star, we are waiting until our yearly subscription runs out to make the final decision, but agree with everyone that the paper is less than satisfying.
I plan to support the Post Star as long as I’m able. But then, I don’t travel much so can easily afford it.
Post-Star has been such a slow-burn fadeout that people just got used to it being on a deathbed. There probably still is a local market for news, but whether it’s a print edition or a web site, it takes money to at the very least report broadly on government and new businesses. It also takes personnel to sell $99 ads to pizza places and car dealers. Who wants to do that kind of job nowadays?
I miss the old Post Star and its reporters actually living locally.
Not a fan of the new forum.
And on a positive note the flowers are beautiful .
I cancelled my Post Star subscription with a heavy heart too. I subscribed to the Salem-Greenwich Journal & Press, I subscribed to get the Chronicle online, and am considering getting the Granville Sentinel as well. I notice even the Free Press advertising circular has stepped up to the plate with some local reporting. There is a saying in business: Keep it small and keep it all. Maybe hyper local, not regional is the way to go?
I’m just sad you let it go.
I held out as long as I could. But the last straw was when they increased my rate shortly after they cut back their product. This was after losing the print version because the carriers could no longer make a go of it, and putting up with more and more bland, generic, pre-digested, irrelevant content. I realized it was no longer pleasurable to read, and there was nothing in it I looked forward to. I miss the way it used to be very much!
Very interesting. I’m going to study the situation when I can because I value local journalism and the Post Star is all there is. I learned that most of our young people don’t care about the issues I believe. Anyway…thanks for your reply.
Sadly, you are so right. This is really more than sad. I still enjoy the Post Star because I treasure local journalism. I find many articles that are still pertinent, I.e. the one re pfoas in our water. I still enjoy some of your editorials and nowhere can I find nice long obituaries of our old and young people passing. I say Keep on Going Post Star!!
Though I have not lived in Glens Falls for many decades, I have continued to be interested in local doings, and in the Post-Star, for which I was a high school correspondent and summer cub reporter more than 60 years ago. Over the last 10 years or so, as I phased out of work in Washington, DC, I resumed my interest in the paper, and, in fact, volunteered with story ideas and did quite a bit of volunteer reporting leg work From afar for those stories. A few wound up on the front page. So, recently, I wrote the editors to mention that two prominent “grads” of Glens Falls - fiction writer Lorrie Moore (brought up on Monument Avenue, GFHS graduate), who has a new, well-reviewed book out, and big time lawyer Kevin Herlihy, a key figure in the controversial merger of the two major professional golf tours - would be worth story consideration. In fact, the New York Times has focused on them more than once this year. Never heard back, and,
now, after learning of the paper’s implosion, I am much less surprised at their lack of local interest.
When Will Dolittle, someone I think of as a consummate intellectual, does not subscribe to the local (semi) daily, it is a strong signal something is wrong. I lament the loss of a daily paper, do not trust the more generalized and far less accountable, on-line services, and wonder where people are going to get community information like obituaries? I am sad, disappointed with the Post-Star for my own reasons, and at a loss to suggest a solution. Perhaps a town crier?
I miss your column, and Forrest Hartley’s as well! Maybe you two could add your two cents to this forum on occasion?
Tanya, we’re they charging 1$ for six months of digital?
Yes, at least I assume so. I was on a digital only subscription when I cancelled. You should cancel too, and then they’ll probably offer you a deal and then you can resubscribe and save some money!
It speaks volumes that someone like you, who worked in newspapers (and the PS specifically) for so long, could find so little value in the current iteration as to be worth your money. The complete absence of local news four days of the week is abominable.
I don't think it can possibly be rehabilitated by the [insert polite negative adjective] of Lee. I feel bad for the few reporters there who are doing the best they can. But they are not being set up to succeed.
A number dailies in New England have been bought by local/regional consortiums, some not-for-profit, in order to be kept relevant. I believe the Concord Monitor and Bennington Banner fall in to that category. They, thus, offer much more local news than than the Gannett-ruined Burlington Free Press and, obviously, the formerly good Post-Star.
I love the Hill Country Observer, which does exceptional journalism. And the Lake George Mirror is also good. But both are only monthly (Mirror weekly for the summer) and do not really cover the Glens Falls/Queensbury core that the Post-Star used to.
Tanya: 😅
I join the chorus of P-S subscribers who took the step to negotiate a more reasonable deal; it's an act that usually provides personal satisfaction, but it was probably the emptiest - and even saddest -
negotiation I ever took part in.
I want so much to support strong local journalism, but it's just no longer present in those pages. Thankful for this Substack, to be sure.