How long will the Union-Tribune stay daily?

Weeklies masquerading as dailies

When is a daily newspaper no longer a true daily? That’s the too-close-to-home question that’s been raised by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago. “Across the country, rising costs and shrinking demand for printed publications have changed the very definition of ‘daily’ newspapers,” notes a July 27 online account of the move to so-called e-newspapers, being touted by San Diego’s Union-Tribune as the paper’s inevitable future. But industry skeptics told Medill that the adoption of PDF replica papers risks killing the business.

“Wall Street has told newspaper chains that they have to be digital and give up on print. That is a big mistake,” Medill quotes Oklahoma print publisher Phillip Reid as saying. “How do you have a newspaper with no paper?” After U-T publisher and editor Jeff Light revealed in early June that his paper would not run print editions on both the Fourth of July and Memorial Day — and would expand the practice at an unspecified future date — the paper has been flogging the e-newspaper replica’s ostensible merits.

“Although I received a few angry emails and a voicemail, many readers understood that a seven-day-a-week printed newspaper will eventually end (but that is years away), given changing reader demographics and the expense of printing and delivery,” U-T Readers’ Representative Adrian Vore explained in a July 24 dispatch. “For those readers who prefer print, the printed daily edition of the U-T is expected to remain for years, and the Sunday printed edition is never envisioned to go away. As a subscriber myself, I’m happy to know that.”

Whether or not Vore’s sunny take proves correct, as the specter of becoming a movie studio looms over the site of the Los Angeles Olympic Boulevard plant where the long-suffering U-T has come to be printed alongside its LA Times sister, those wishing to bet on the San Diego paper’s future as a going concern face a narrowing range of dire options. Contributing to the recent gloom are the departures of U-T staffers Beto Alvarez, the paper’s Digital Creative Director, who went to work at the LA Times in June, and Black columnist Charles T. Clark, who also announced he was leaving the paper the same month. “This will be my final column as a regular columnist at the Union-Tribune as I am stepping away to attend law school,” said a Clark June 3 missive. “Frankly, I expect things are going to get worse before they get better. There are times when I look at our political parties and our judicial system and feel that the house is already on fire and there are no exits.”

Ward heeler

San Diego Assembly Democrat Chris Ward took off on a summer junket to Israel, per a July 19 report by Sacramento-based CalMatters.com. “The Israel trip is among a handful of junkets on which state lawmakers have embarked during their month-long summer recess, which ends Aug. 1.

These trips are typically funded not by taxpayers, but by special interests that lobby the Legislature,” noted the item. “The trip was sponsored by the California Jewish Legislative Caucus Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit affiliated with the Legislature’s Jewish caucus, and funded by the Koret Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

Lawmakers were also asked to contribute $1000 to the caucus’ foundation to help cover expenses.” Van Nuys Assembly Democrat Jesse Gabriel, who also went along for the sort-of-free ride, told CalMatters the payment would come from his campaign fund. Lasting from July 5 through July 12, the junket’s members included, in addition to Ward and Gabriel, Assembly members “Buffy Wicks, Isaac Bryan, Evan Low, Robert Rivas, Luz Rivas, Blanca Rubio, Freddie Rodriguez, Matt Haney, and Richard Bloom; and state Sens. Ben Allen, Scott Wiener, Steve Glazer and Susan Rubio.

The CEO of the Koret Foundation also joined, and two staff members of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation were there for most of the trip.” Gabriel was quoted as saying purpose of the travel was to “learn about developments in Israel and the region; explore opportunities for partnership on issues of mutual concern such as water, the environment and technological innovation; and help lawmakers better understand the Jewish community and our relationship to Israel.” Koret has also given UCSD $1.3 million to study marine archeology in Israel.

“This three-year award will facilitate scientific exploration of coastal environments in Israel, which offer the most sensitive deep-time records for how humans have adapted to climate and environmental change over the past 11,000 years,” says a university news release.

— Matt Potter (@sdmattpotter)

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