Weeklies at risk

Oh, oh. This is not good news.

From a Nov. 12 story in the Hartford Courant:

"The Journal Register Co. has told employees at 11 weekly newspapers in Connecticut that those operations would be closed if a buyer isn't found by Jan. 12."

The story that's been presented for several years now is that the large metro dailies are in trouble for a variety of reasons, but the smaller community papers -- dailies and weeklies -- are actually doing fairly well. They will still be putting ink on paper for years to come, and making money doing so.

Maybe not.

There are some issues particular to the Journal Register that make this case unique. Massive debt and stock prices that are now measured in pennies, according to the Courant story, are part of the problem.

But, when you combine this with some of the difficulties we're seeing with other chains that have focused largely on mid-sized dailies, the story that's been presented doesn't look so good any more.

I think the Internet is coming faster for community journalism than anyone, myself included, had imagined.