Well I made the chart so I suppose I am to blame for the misleading colum heading.  I didn't realize that included the post until I just looked it up about ten mintues ago.

Circulation gains 25% in two years

Better understanding of readers leads to growth

PLS USE DENNIS HETZEL COLUMN SIG

 

 

First, let me offer a disclaimer. Today's column is rather self-promotional, but The Kentucky Enquirer has a great story to tell. I want to share it with you, because it wouldn't be possible without the support of the people who are most important to us.

 

That would be you.

 

You see, amid the gloom you might be hearing about the newspaper business nationally, The Kentucky Enquirer's daily circulation is up nearly 25 percent since 2005. Our growth in Northern Kentucky is a big reason why The Enquirer is one of the few metropolitan newspapers in America with an upward arrow.

 

 

...

 

Dennis Hetzel is general manager of The Kentucky Enquirer/NKY.com. To reach him, call 859-578-5518 or e-mail [email protected]

 

http://news.nky.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20070909/NEWS0103/709090388

... Don't you just love this bit of irrelevant info that just happen to make it? I would guess it's because the crime took place in a suburban environment? ...

 

 

Gun pointed at drivers, man cited

THE ENQUIRER

 

 

ANDERSON TWP. - A man is scheduled to be in court this morning on charges he resisted arrest Friday afternoon while brandishing a .357 Magnum revolver after pointing it at drivers along Interstate 275.

 

Timothy Ross Wooley, 49, was charged with resisting arrest, carrying a concealed weapon and carrying a gun in spite of a previous conviction that prohibits him from doing so.

 

...

 

Court records listed Wooley’s address as the Drop Inn Center homeless shelter in Over-the-Rhine and as Zodiac Drive, Mount Healthy.

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070928/NEWS01/309280027/-1/CINCI

 

 

Another one ... lol ... back-2-back! Wow.

 

 

The linked headline:

 

"Banks group may vote Tuesday"

 

... and after I click:

 

Banks group may vote Monday

BY JANE PRENDERGAST | [email protected]

 

 

The Banks riverfront development project could move a step closer to reality after a meeting officials plan for Tuesday.

 

The Banks Working Group plans to have a meeting 3 p.m. Tuesday at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center during which members hope to vote on the latest plan, said Libby Korosec, spokeswoman for the group.

 

After a successful vote, the project would go to Cincinnati City Council and Hamilton County Commissioners for approval.

 

 

 

...

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070928/NEWS01/309280057/-1/CINCI

I'm reading this book about the Civil War, Battle Cry for Freedom, by James McPherson.  In the chapter on the Dred Scott ruling, he cites favorable public to the ruling, one of which is from a "Cincinnati paper".  I check out the footnote and lo and behold, the paper in question was none other than our very own Cincinnati Enquirer.  The paper's motto should be something like, "Now in our third century of endorsing the wrong side of history."

County fights infant mortality

Programs seek to better health of moms, babies

BY PEGGY O'FARRELL | [email protected]

 

Babies in Hamilton County are twice as likely to die before their first birthday as babies in the rest of the nation.  In addition, Hamilton County's infant mortality rate is about 1.5 times higher than the rest of the state, data show.  The situation is not improving.

 

The county's infant mortality rate has remained stubbornly high for more than a decade in spite of the efforts of health-care workers, researchers and educators to reverse the problem.  "We've got a lot of money, a lot of energy, a lot of smart people, but not a lot of success," said Jim Greenberg, director of neonatology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

 

...

 

The disparity is starker among black families. The infant mortality rate here for black babies was 20.4 percent, compared with 6.2 percent for white babies.

 

...

 

the bolded section can't possbily be true, Angola's infant mortality rate, the worst in the world is 18.4%. 

 

 

More at http://www.enquirer.com

The Enqulirer just sucks!

 

Indeed

I'm reading this book about the Civil War, Battle Cry for Freedom, by James McPherson.  In the chapter on the Dred Scott ruling, he cites favorable public to the ruling, one of which is from a "Cincinnati paper".  I check out the footnote and lo and behold, the paper in question was none other than our very own Cincinnati Enquirer.  The paper's motto should be something like, "Now in our third century of endorsing the wrong side of history."

 

You don't know the half of it. It is so said that the Enquirer is the paper that lasted. It was one of the leaders of the Copperhead movement and regularly defended slavery and the Confederacy. It only succeeded because they did the best selling classified ads. The best paper was probably the Cincinnati Commercial, our WSJ. Unfortunately, the Enq. bought it and closed it during WWI. The Times of Times-Star fame was probably the only worse paper as they actively encouraged the anti-Catholic riots of the 1850s.

Can't say I'm impress with the new redesign of their website. It doesn't seem to be organize too well.

It is taking me some getting used to!!

"Talking with the readers - most important listening to the readers' reactions - is a key part of the philosophy of the Local Information Center."

 

They NEVER talk with their readers in their blogs.  They post the topic and then completely leave the conversation.

 

I expected there to be more comments at the bottom of that story's page, but there were only about a dozen last time I checked.  And only one or two could be considered positive.

 

 

The Enquirer REALLY pushes their reporters to produce with strict deadlines. The guy I know, honestly wouldn't have the time to do all that.

Can't say I'm impress with the new redesign of their website. It doesn't seem to be organize too well.

 

The new site is absolutely atrocious. Not only is it still a jumbled mess of links like it previously was (what's the difference between cincinnati.com, nky.com, enquirer.com etc...), the one thing it had going for it was its pleasant, easy on the eyes design. Now that's gone.

I can't stand it at all. At least before, you could kind of tell where to go on the page, now its impossible to tell what's going on anywhere.

It does take some getting used to, but I do like some of the new functions...like how you can arrange your page so that your section of the paper is on top (i.e. Business News ahead of Crime & Courts News and so on).  It is quite jumbled, but you just have to organize your sections as I mentioned and then set the Enquirer page (where you have the organized sections) as the bookmark page...then you'll be set.

the new website is awful

I bought the Kentucky Enquirer today while I was eating in Bellevue...absolutely no mention of the Queen City Square groundbreaking.  Would The Enquirer have excluded a Northern Kentucky groundbreaking of a similar magnitude?

When they redesigned the website it then became a restricted site at my work. It is labeled as entertainment!

To comment on two things:

 

One: I like the new website look.

 

Two: Jake I agree, the Enquirer continues to pander to the suburbs and continues to bury important city news stories.  It was only two weeks ago that they pushed the West Chester Dogfest above the Gay Pride Parade in Northside.  (Which needs to be Downtown at this point)

I like the new site's look as well.

It is growing on me and the enquirer site is better than cincinnati.com.

I've  tried a few more times and it's not working for me. I may go back to "borrowing" my neighbor's paper.

Cartoonist Borgman to leave Enquirer

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/09/01/daily15.html

 

Jim Borgman, longtime editorial cartoonist for The Cincinnati Enquirer, will take a voluntary buyout being offered by the newspaper and its parent Gannett Co., the Enquirer said in a Wednesday story .

 

Borgman, who has been the paper’s editorial cartoonist since 1976, is one of 60 Enquirer employees taking part in the buyout program, which the paper announced to its staff in August. It is part of a companywide buyout instituted by McLean, Va.-based Gannett (NYSE: GCI) to cope with declining ad sales and circulation.

 

...

Ah, he was the one guy I liked at that paper.

Enquirer Loses Web Users

http://blogs.citybeat.com/porkopolis/2008/09/enquirer-loses.html

 

The Cincinnati Enquirer's Web site has experienced a double-digit drop in traffic since its parent company recently forced a format change that many users have complained is slow and cumbersome.

 

An internal report prepared by Chris Graves, The Enquirer's new media editor, states page views of the Web site in August totaled 32. 4 million, down from 39.3 million in August 2007 — or a 17.3 percent decrease.

 

...

They totally hit that website with the stupid stick. Gannett deserves all the losses it gets from this piss-poor design.

Enquirer Loses Web Users

http://blogs.citybeat.com/porkopolis/2008/09/enquirer-loses.html

 

No wonder the Cincymoms reader forums are popular, as it makes The Enquirer’s print edition seem downright prudish. Recent topics in the “Romance & Sex” section include advice about having anal sex, how adult toys like Ben Wa balls work, and how to have a G-Spot ejaculation. (Citizens for Community Values, are you listening?)

 

In fact, some of the forums seem to be dominated by users trying to sell products from Pure Romance, a Cincinnati-based sexual aids company that's received coverage in the newspaper's print edition.

 

Oh man that's so funny. I can't believe I've been missing out. Hell with UO, I'm joining Cincymoms.

Despite Bashings, Enquirer Continues to Move Forward ... to a Tabloid

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-17601-despite-bashings-enquirer-continues-to-move-forward-to-a-tabloid.html

 

Celebrating Reds Opening Day might be the only local tradition whose popularity and numbers exceed badmouthing The Enquirer.

 

Hostility to the morning daily is amazing, as is critics’ frequent admission that they don’t subscribe or read it regularly. If they did, the paper might be unique in contemporary American journalism, posting double-digit increases in circulation and ad rates. So let me speak well of my former employer, lest the urge pass.

 

Yes, it’s thinner. Some familiar features have been dropped. No thoughtful reader expects reviews of books of substance, knowledgeable local movie reviews or environment reporting.

 

...

Weekday circulation slips 6.5% at Cincinnati Enquirer

Business Courier - Tuesday, October 26, 2010, 2:56pm EDT

 

 

Weekday circulation was down 6.5 percent for the Cincinnati Enquirer in the 26 weeks ended Sept. 26, according to new figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

 

The Enquirer’s combined average paid circulation (Mon-Fri) stood at 157,574 during the period, a reduction of 10,937 from the same period in 2009. Sunday circulation declined 1.1 percent to 255,037.

 

The Audit Bureau numbers also reflect a 3.3 percent gain in home-delivery paid circulation, which the Enquirer’s parent company attributes to a 2010 attempt to “improve the Sunday experience” for readers and advertisers.

 

 

Read more

The internet and poor reporting is killing the newspaper business.

The Enquirer has headlines on it's website such as "You Might be a Democrat If...", countless negative articles about the streetcar, can't even accurately report the score of the Bengals game, etc.  THIS is what is killing the newspaper for me.  I think there is value in having a hard copy printed newspaper, and I read the New York Times and LA Times whenever I can, but the Enquirer is pure garbage, and I refuse to read it, much less buy it.

The internet and poor reporting is killing the newspaper business.

I don't know, but this seems to be more of an American phenomenon. I recently read an article (in the NY Times :roll:) about the Globe & Mail in Toronto (which is considered sort of the "classy," more serious paper there) which is spending a fortune upgrading its printing presses. Although the papers in that city have had financial problems, there are nevertheless three daily broadsheets (The National Post--the most conservative editorially--and The Star, in addition to the Globe) and one tabloid (The Sun) that still seem to thrive. I can't think of any American city that has that many competitive major dailies left. Maybe it's like this in Europe also? Just wondering...

I spent about 20 days of this year researching old Cincinnati newspapers.  I can't say that it's *ever* been good here.  Also, the Enqurier was not the dominant paper until about 30 years ago...before that the Times-Star and the Post were at least as big.  Again, none of them were very good. 

Jake - the Cincinnati Commercial - now there was a paper. Unfortunately it was bought by the Enquirer in the great newspaper consolidation of the WWI era. The Enquirer has always been a rag and generally on the wrong side of history.

J-meck, it would be interesting if you could point out a few (old) times where the Enquirer came out on the wrong side of history.

The best example is on slavery and the Civil War. The Enquirer wasn't quite a Copperhead paper, but it certainly did not oppose slavery and was generally pro-Southern - it was owned by an Irishmen w/ Southern sympathies at the time.

Yes Dave I spent a lot of time reading the Commercial.  I agree, it was hands-down the best.  It had a graphic style very similar to the New York Times.  Unfortunately it is not indexed, so what I did was look up dates for things, then use the Commercial for research purposes since I didn't have to obtain permission to use their graphics.  I also spent quite a bit of time just going through microfilm systematically -- looking through a week ahead and after important events.  Unfortunately there is a time limit -- like when the library closes -- so you can't read everything and turn over every last stone.   

 

My book will be shipped the week of November 15.  One of the delays was the head honcho's concerns over my criticism of the Enquirer.  I intentionally left almost all of that out but he was confused by the various papers and thought that they were all the Enquirer or at least all still operating.  This caused about a two week delay to straighten things out and in the end I only had to change one sentence.  I kept out all references to an early 1970's Enquirer piece called "Cincinnati's Super-Duper Subway", which I believe single-handedly set the tone for all subsequent subway reportage.  It's factually inaccurate, of course, but then it's physically prominent in the Historical Society's "subway scrap book", and so its errors have been repeated ad nauseam.

 

Another interesting thing I discovered is that the E.W. Scripps company has no record of them having bought the Cincinnati Times-Star, even though they do technically own the copyright. I still had to get permission from them for stuff dating back to 1915 (95-year copyright) though just to be safe. I reproduced in near entirety two really fantastic articles from the era, one from the Times-Star and one from the Enquirer.  The Enquirer one is from 1913 so I didn't need permission to reproduce it, and it was merely a pronouncement from the head of a civic organization, so it wasn't original work anyway.

 

If you think the Enquirer is obvious, check out Wheeling, WV's:

 

http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/548105/Go-to-the-Polls--Conservatives.html?nav=511

http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/547983/Doing-Things-Obama-s-Way.html?nav=509

"The Intelligencer", good lord.

Hahaha, thanks for that, Sherman.

Enquirer editor Tom Callinan to retire

 

Enquirer Editor Tom Callinan announced Tuesday that he will retire Jan. 1.

 

“It has been a privilege to serve this community as editor for the past eight years,” Callinan said. “I have had a front-row seat to amazing change and transformation in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. I believe The Enquirer has played a role in making this community a better place.”

HORRAY!

New editor: It's great to be back in Cincinnati

 

By Carolyn K. Washburn • The Enquirer • January 15, 2011

 

Hello, Cincinnati!

 

It's great to be home. I am privileged to be the new editor of The Enquirer; I never dared dream I would someday be editor of my hometown newspaper.

 

Here is another quote from further into the article, at least she doesn't come out negatively right off the bat about all the downtown issues.

 

The Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region is clearly committed to dynamic change. Civic, neighborhood and business leaders are making big plans and looking beyond these tough times; it is inspiring. The Great American Tower is stunning. I can't wait for the World Choir Games next year, a great moment to connect Cincinnati's German musical history with our city's global future. And it will be simply fun! The Banks development has much potential. And regardless of what you think of the streetcar, you have to give its supporters credit for thinking big.

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110115/NEWS01/101160350/1196/NEWS/New-editor-It-s-great-to-be-back-in-Cincinnati

Look for a new site design for the Cincinnati Enquirer at some point in the future. The Louisville Courier-Journal just received a refreshing, which should be what the Enquirer will receive:

http://www.courier-journal.com/

 

What do you think? The new photo gallery is a HUGE step and has been long needed. The current setup at the Enquirer is to click the "Next" button for some 30-odd images, and is time consuming and slow. No thumbnails.

 

But I'm not a fan of Pluck's commenting service. Discus is far faster and more feature rich, IMO.

That's better, but still not good.  It's a shame really, there isn't a good local news website out there at all.  Most of the news I get comes from Twitter or here, actually.  I don't really mind the local TV news either, it seems the more low-budget it gets, the less serious it becomes.  Bad puns and tongue in cheek comments fit well into a news broadcast that is, for the most part, about nothing.

Did the new editor take out all comments on the site?

 

 

Edit: Nevermind the new site just put most in a new place but you still can't comment on some stories but can on others.

Just like before. Looks like the new inspired design that they are raving about looks like... all of the other Gannett newspaper sites.

^Yep...Louisville's C-J made the switch to a similar style about 2 weeks ago.

Just heard today the Enquirer is once again laying off employees.  More details coming...

Here's my suggestion. Produce one good section of the paper covering local news and issues. Wrap this section around a USA Today. Sell that.

Cincinnati Enquirer lays off 20

 

The Cincinnati Enquirer announced 20 layoffs Friday, including six managerial and administrative positions in the newsroom.

 

“This is about a two and a half percent reduction,” said Mark Woodruff, vice president of market development for Enquirer Media.

 

Woodruff said jobs being eliminated outside the newsroom are “primarily support roles.”

 

Woodruff referred additional questions on the layoffs to Gannett Co. headquarters in McLean, Va. A spokeswoman was not immediately available.