Personal thoughts on south suburban Dallas newspapers

First, the good.

Going to a free throw gets rid of the horrible cost of second-class postage and otherwise reduces overhead. The tabloid size sets it apart from the old Today and the Focus.

Now, the not so good. I think trying to cover Grand Prairie, Midlothian and the Best Southwest is just biting off too much. And, I think the paper has its smallest ad sizes set too small. Finally, there’s probably going to be some trust issues, especially related to the publisher.

As for publishing? Well, we had moving-related glitches last week. We’ll have an issue out this week. We may go two weeks before another.

Seriously? I give this about a 50-50 shot of doing anything beyond three months.

Update: Several points.

First, if I am being too pessimistic on the Suburban, great. Obviously, I'd love for it (us?) to fully succeed, even if I am no longer there. But, it's not just me who says it's biting off more than it can chew on territory/coverage; I've heard similar comments from other people with as much or more background in the business as I have. I could maybe see Midlothian plus the three most advertising Best Southwest cities, with getting what we can editorially and adwise out of Lancaster.

But, Grand Prairie? Stupid. First, those car ads will NOT be back at all for 18 months, and only at a diminished rate then, with the possible exception of snagging a "cash for clunkers" ad or two.

Second, GP is as big as, or bigger, than all four BSW cities. It's difficult to do a paper JUST on it.

When Today tried it, it did not try it the way I thought it was going to be tried - no first issue until we had X number of column inches of ads signed up on 13-week contracts, credit card numbers in hand.

There are a couple more lesser issues I may tackle in a future post.

(Update, Aug. 14: Everyone who has given me feedback on my being fired by the Suburban says it's ridiculous.)