Rumors of this newspaper's demise are greatly exaggerated

So I hear the Watertown Daily Times is dead.

Rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated.

But didn’t I just read somewhere that you are going out of business?

No, you didn’t. Well, I take that back. Yes, you might have read that somewhere. There are some loons in our community who write loonful things. You might have read it on a blog or in a chat room; I can’t be responsible for your choices in reading material.

Hey, don’t attack me, I’m just asking questions.

Sorry. No, wait, I’m not sorry. We printed a story about our financial situation in the paper two weeks ago. You have no excuse not to know what is going on at our newspaper or in our community.

I may have missed that story.

That’s your fault. Read the paper. Our stuff is also online. You have no excuses.

OK, OK, I’ll read the paper. But somebody told me you are cutting back on things?

Yes, we are. All of our employees are taking a two-week pay cut during the next six months. We also reduced the number of pages in the paper on Monday and Saturday, and we eliminated TV Showcase.

Yeah, I noticed you don’t have a local news section on Saturday and Monday. Why did you eliminate local news?

Oh, listen to that! I can hear the loons again! We didn’t eliminate local news. Local news is just in the A section rather than the B section. And we put a lot of our local news on the front page now. Some of our readers were so used to seeing local news on the Back Page, which we eliminated years ago, that they now say we have no local news in the paper. I tell them, “We buried it on the front page.”

So how many people did you lay off?

We didn’t lay off anyone. And look, the layoff thing is a little touchy right now, so let’s go on to something else.

You’re a real gem, Gorman; you like making everyone else squirm in town but you want to avoid “touchy” subjects when it’s about the newspaper.

Look, the Watertown Daily Times has been around since dirt. In the modern era of ownership by the Johnson family, no one has ever been laid off at the Watertown Daily Times.

So why so touchy?

We have been going through a number of gyrations here so as not to lay anyone off. This is a family business. The Johnsons don’t mind firing people, but laying them off is another matter.

I don’t follow. Businesses lay off people all the time.

Yeah, but the Johnsons think newspapers are community harbingers. A community’s vitality can be determined by reading its newspaper. If a community’s commerce is suffering so much that advertising and subscriptions drop to the point where a newspaper must lay off employees, it tells the community, “We are dying because YOU are dying.”

Aren’t you being a little dramatic?

Me? Dramatic? Never.

OK, but let’s just say there is nothing good to report about the Watertown Daily Times.

That is not true. Actually, during the next few months readers will see a ramped-up Web site that will include more north country news and sports than ever. We are consolidating our news gathering efforts in Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence and Franklin counties.

Consolidating what?

We own three daily newspapers, two weeklies and a shopper. We might own more, I’ve lost track. But historically we have kept most of our newsrooms separate. Our Carthage reporter, for instance, couldn’t work in the same room with the Carthage Tribune reporters. Same thing with our papers in Massena and Ogdensburg.

Yeah, but wouldn’t you share news?

Nope. At a recent St. Lawrence County Legislature meeting, there were reporters there from the Times, Massena and Ogdensburg. If you have a baseball score or obit, you have to call it in twice to get it in all the newspapers. Those days will be gone soon.

Yeah, but I don’t care about St. Lawrence County.

Yeah, well, St. Lawrence County said the same thing about you. However, we think all of you are children of God and deserving of dignity, respect and newspaper coverage.

I think you are getting dramatic again.

Me? Dramatic? Never.

So that’s it? No layoffs, ever, right?

Ever is a long time. We are making a number of equipment improvements internally that are less labor intensive. This will allow us to reduce our payroll through attrition without a drop in news coverage or service.

Our ad department is actually selling more local advertising than last year. Where we have been hurt is by eight national accounts that have made cutback decisions that ignore the economic engine that is Fort Drum. But those ads are slowly coming back. Our revenue is picking up.

But no jump in subscribers?

Actually, we have had a weird thing happen. After the story was in the newspaper about the furloughs, we have had people calling in to extend, renew or start a subscription.

Look, if you subscribe to the newspaper, home delivery costs you 52 cents a day. As a subscriber recently told me at the Home Show, the coupons in the Sunday paper pretty much pay for the whole week of papers.

So that’s what I am telling people. If you want a newspaper that tells you what your government is doing, covers sports and features and gives you the best local photography, all it takes is everyone to participate in the “52-Cent Solution.”

Fifty-two cents ... That doesn’t sound very dramatic.

That’s me. No drama Gor-mana.

Oh, wait. You’re going to start charging for obits soon. Mayor Jeff Graham says it’s a travesty that people won’t be able to have an obit in the newspaper unless they pay for it. Not everyone can afford an obit, he says.

We’re about the last newspaper in the country to charge for obits, so we have put it off as long as possible. But death notices — which are the equivalent of the first two inches of an obit — will be published free of charge. So no one’s death will go unnoticed. And we are making a special deal with Jeff. No matter what happens to the economy of Watertown, we’ll print his obit for free.

Bob Gorman is the managing editor of the Times.