Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. profile and media properties

Bob Grawey    Oak Grove, Mn

Posted at 3:10pm on Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Ms Barrett and her group are trying to make everyone think they are on the right track and that all this "gloom and doom" about the demise of newspapers is incorrect.

As a (former)reporter for a weekly newspaper, I can persoanlly attest that newspapers are becoming a thing of the past.

Three weeks age I lost my position with a newspaper due to budget cuts. Out newspaper was one of two making money for the company (out of around a dozen publications), yet I was cut to help the newspapers already losing money.

I have also seen the quality and size of publications suffer becuse management is more concerned with advertising dollars.

As to the contentions Barrett and her group make concerning the "100 million people who read a newspaper the day after the Super Bowl outnumbered the TV audience for the game," it doesn't tell the true story as to why all those people picked up a newspaper the day after the Super Bowl. My guess is that the VAST majority of those readers were looking at the sports section and never read anything except sports. How many people read the newspaper across the nation Feb. 12 or June 6 or how about Sept. 20?

Ms. Barrett, let's put things into the proper perspective. Your ads are purely a marketing campaign to prop up your revenues which are suffering from a major decline in readership.

This puts you and your group in a position of public mistrust when you make such outlandish statements. If you want readers to return, then make your newspapers more interactive. Find ways to make the news literally leap off the page.
Barrett and these other newspaper executives know very well it will never be business as usual.

Be creative. Be public-minded. Be honest. Your readers deserve it!

Martha Potter-Goldstein    Denver, Co

Posted at 10:44am on Tuesday, August 2, 2011

I came upon this question while looking for the Donna Jean Barrett who owns some vacant land near Denver Co. This is really interesting- I must say that there needs to be an honest balance between important information, which is of value, that is positive & that which may be interpreted as negative. Many publications appear to focus on sensationalism & negative reporting and the intelligent public seems to be hungry for positive, constructive & creative reporting & ideas. Newspapers are still so critical to communication in this country that we all hope this message is taken to heart & acted upon. That would be a new approach, don't you think?

Clyde Marrs    Houston,Texas.

Posted at 3:21pm on Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Texas papers that you have acquired recentely are completely useless now,can't download your news,very few selections,Police beat,Courts and more national news than local.This is not the exception but the rule of all the papers that I look at on-line that you and companies like yours bought,bring back the local stations,thanks.1cdmartian@att.net

set_elwak    

Posted at 3:15pm on Sunday, March 28, 2010

I read a article under the same title some time ago, but this articles quality is much, much better. How you do this?

MYRNA AQUITANIA    Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA

Posted at 3:13pm on Monday, April 6, 2009

Need to know who to contact for legal advertising in one of your papers: McLEANSBORO TIMES LEADER - McLEANSBORO, Ilinois.

MAquitania@mnc.net
213/346-0033 x 254

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 4:38pm on Tuesday, February 3, 2009

On February 3, 2009, the Associated Press reported that CNHI CEO Donna Barrett is one of the leaders of a new campaign to fight negative perceptions of the newspaper business:

"Several newspaper executives launched a public relations campaign Monday to counter what they call "gloom-and-doom" reports of the industry's demise.

Sure, they admit, times are tough. The economy is bad, the Internet has sucked away advertising dollars and people are losing jobs.

But the 100 million people who read a newspaper the day after the Super Bowl outnumbered the TV audience for the game, the group said in an advertisement that appeared Monday in more than 300 daily newspapers, including The New York Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

With the ads, commentary pieces and a Web site, the industry is painting itself as a vital source of information and the best place for advertisers to sell anything from grapes to a house _ not the dinosaur often portrayed in the media.

"We are our own worst enemy. It's like there's a rule we have to beat ourselves up," said Donna Barrett, a driving force behind the campaign, called the Newspaper Project. "We are still a dominant media, and we don't give ourselves credit for that."

Barrett, chief executive of Birmingham-based Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., came up with the idea for the blitz with Randy Siegel, publisher of Parade Publications; Brian P. Tierney, CEO of Philadelphia Media Holdings, which publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News; and Jay Smith, the retired CEO of Cox Newspapers, which owns the Journal-Constitution and other papers.

"We are not trying to be Pollyannaish about the newspaper industry, but all the predictions of our demise are just dead wrong," Siegel said."