The Hook reports that the Daily Progress will furlough all of its employees for a series of Mondays in March, May and July (while still issuing the paper on those days). The furloughs are mandated by Media General (the DP's owner). The message board at the bottom of the Hook story has a series of comments from DP supporters and critics. A number of the messages focus on criticism of Media General's corporate leadership.
There are more and more articles recently (see, for instance, Jack Shafer's piece in Slate this week) about how the newspaper industry can/should reform itself and survive. I will be curious to see if one of the industry leaders attempts (again) a service like Times-Select (from a few years back) in order to monetize its content. I had a mixed response to Times-Select -- I was annoyed at the idea of having to pay for the articles, but I'd go for a few weeks without Friedman and Dowd and become so frustrated that I would relent and shell out the dough for a month.
87. Have the Progress and either the Hook or C'Ville considered partnering, in order to benefit from the combination of the DP's daily coverage with the weeklies' better features and wittier tone?
88. How many local papers in the US are still "afternoon editions"? Are there any? I always loved the rollout of the afternoon editions in London.
