D&C Troubles

UPDATE: This is as good as it gets! http://www.rbj.net/fullarticle.cfm?sdid=56591.... this was just published a few minutes ago.


Does anyone else in Rochester think this is nuts? http://rochesterdandc.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/NEWS01/508250328

I've heard about the rift between the union and the D&C for years, but it must have just really hit me that they've now gone 13 years without a contract. THIRTEEN YEARS???? Doesn't this harken back to a time when US Presidents inserted themselves into these kinds of labor disputes? Reagan and the air traffic controllers? Or Clinton and the MLB? There must be some way to resolve this labor dispute. Clearly negotiations are not "in good faith" as Thomas Flynn suggests. If they were, perhaps there'd have been some conclusion to this, oh, say, a decade ago!

I have a buddy who's a local and national news nut - yup Scott, that's you - who's been keeping me informed on this for years, but I've only paid coursery attention to it at the most. But I think the D&C, by running the story in the first place, has finally caught my attention. There are no labor disputes that cannot be resolved. There is some give and take in every negotiation. Scott suggests that it's up to the subscriber base of the D&C to cancel their subscriptions and write to the paper letting them know that it's because of the labor dispute that they're cancelling. That may be a good solution, but would enough people actually care to do it?

Would a resolution of the labor dispute lead to higher quality reporting in the pages of the D&C? I tell you what, that's something that would grab MY attention. Most Sundays for me are spent first reading the D&C Sunday paper and realizing how mediocre it is. I then usually hop in the car, head over to Wegmans and pick up a bagel and a copy of the New York Times. I spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon sitting outside with my coffee, bagel, and NY Times and read it almost from front to back! I then think to myself, "Why is the D&C such a crappy paper in comparison?! Why do they even get the comics section wrong!? We're a good sized city with lots of stuff going on... maybe if they raised the price a nickel?"

I've also gotten into the habit of reading The Buffalo News on occasion, and their local news coverage is far superior. Their editoral section is better, and I'd say it's more broadly based in terms of opions expressed. Now granted, their a far more independent organizations, but shouldn't the D&C - founded by Frank Gannett - the former headquarters of one of the biggest newspaper companies in the world - be one of the best small market papers in the world? With our educated workforce, and with the proliferation of the internet and information, isn't there more that could be written that isn't included in the D&C already? I ask you!