Post & Courier

2008-11-07T21:43:00.004-05:00

Bill Hawkins, the Executive Editor, phoned me after my e-mail.

Only in the Lowcountry can one expect to hear from the publisher of a major, OK - the only, newspaper.

Bill addressed each of my six issues in a professional manner. Like every other newspaper in the country Bill has to balance advertisers against readers against the cost of printing.

The thrust of my missive was that the paper needs to provide an outlet for local advertising (that's how they make their money) and local news.

Bill agrees.

Over the past couple of years, the P&C has opted for wire service stories that I read on the Internet a day or in some cases several days before they appear in the paper.

Why subscribe? I don't care about real estate or cars or TV schedule. I'm looking for the new on the Peninsula or West Ashley or Mt. P. or the Lowcountry.

In this past year, the paper has dropped GMLc (Good Morning Lowcountry), Elsa (the public editor), and the Sunday backyard gal (sorry, I don't remember her name).

In my humble opinion, the Post and Courier's only chance at success is to focus every one of their reporters on local news.

P and C wants your feedback

2008-11-07T21:14:00.006-05:00

Ahoy,

A few days ago I fired off a missive about my frustrations with The Post and Courier.

The following is my posting to Pierre Manigault and Ivan V. Anderson Jr.

Good Morning,

As a life-long newspaper reader, I'm about to cancel The Post and Courier. Specific reasons include:

1. This month's unannounced subscription increase. I discovered the increased fee this morning when I lodged a complaint against late delivery.

2. Dropping of popular columns like GMLc, public editor, and Sunday's backyard columnist

3. Out-of-date comics' pages. Most strips ran out of new ideas several decades ago. There hasn't been a new Peanuts in this millennium. By keeping these dinosaurs (B.C., Cathy, Garfield, etc.) you're denying new cartoonists an opportunity at expression. (No, I'm not a cartoonist nor do I know one.)

4. The dearth of local news coverage. By the time the paper arrives, I've read the wire stories online - usually the previous day, occasionally several days earlier. Thursday's edition is my favorite but even that divides local coverage into too many segments. To me, local includes most of the tri-county area.

5. Tuesday's paper - why waste the ink and paper? The supermarket inserts are nearly as voluminous.

6. E-Edition is unusable. Have you tried the e-edition reader? In graphics mode, it truncates the stories; in normal mode, it presents plain, unformatted text.

7. The unstoppable growth of the Steroid, er Sports, section. In Sunday's paper, the A section is 14 pages of mostly news-free ads while the Sports section is 14 pages of mostly ads-free sports.

I realize that all newspapers are struggling, but I believe there is a vital need for a paper that covers local news thoroughly while providing an ad outlet for local businesses. I suggest that you dump the wire services and reallocate your massive sports department into meaningful local coverage.

Is the sparse local coverage and editorial page worth nearly $15 per month? I'll let the subscription people know my decision.

Sincerely,

Dennis

Censoring Doonesbury

2008-11-07T19:39:00.000-05:00

During election week 2008, the Post and Courier chose to censor a comic strip.

Why?

Is Doonesbury so offensive that the right-leaning P&C cannot publish it?

Visit Doonesbury and judge for yourself.

Kayaker