Morris paper's front page seems like groveling

It's hardly necessary for me to present any criticism of the Morris paper, or as they might call themselves, the "Morris-Hancock" paper. Since the paper has grown not at all since the purported "merger" began, it can readily be described as bogus. I have called it a lie. But does anyone care?
The paper has nakedly tried cutting its way to profit over the past decade. As time marches forward, an increasing number of people are not going to realize the paper was once twice a week. Perhaps a simple weekly is suitable for Morris. But it has become such a small paper.
Has the media landscape changed that dramatically? The Elbow Lake newspaper remains generous in size. The popular "Senior Perspective" has not shown signs of retrenchment. Why the disparity? Maybe we ought to theorize that the Morris economy has something to do with it. I have wondered if there might be a "Hector phenomenon" here. The Star Tribune had a story on how the town of Hector MN was having its economy suffer because of being just a half hour's drive from a cluster of big box stores. In Morris we're just 45 minutes away. Also consider that Alex (or "Alec") is most inviting. It's not only inviting for shopping, it's inviting as a place to live. Think of many of our friends who have re-located there.
We get showered with advertising circulars for Alexandria businesses due to the fact the Morris and Alex papers have the same owner. I suspect those Alex businesses get exposure in Morris as a "perk" for advertising with Forum Communications, the owner. Elden's would never pay the same price as Willie's to reach the specific Morris audience, would it? We get circulars for "your hometown Sears store."
 
Peculiar front page
I'm writing this post because of what the Morris (or Morris-Hancock) paper shoved at us on Saturday (8/19). The paper is its normal size of 18 pages. Remember that for quite a while, it sat at 24 pages. So the 18-page current paper burns up its front page with a self-serving, desperate sounding, groveling type of message simply telling us to keep patronizing the paper. In effect, "Give us your money."
We're supposed to wonder what life would be like without our local paper. I suspect many Hancock residents are sifting through the reality of having the Hancock Record taken away from them. If there's no real shock yet, perhaps there will be with the onset of fall and the start of school activities.
It's interesting: we're told that newspapers generally are fading because people get their news and information online. However, as I pointed out in a conversation with Randy Thielke last week, schools have not taken it upon themselves to report and promote sports teams on their own website. Nor are coaches taking it upon themselves, so it's really up to the local paper in one way or another. Ten years ago I was expecting schools to get much more involved, to establish platforms like what we see with the UMM website having a big, dynamic sports element where you can find everything you need at all times.
Sports competes for support from the school budget along with everything else. So why shouldn't schools and their sports programs roll up their sleeves more? "We don't have time." There's a knee-jerk response. Well, accept the consequences if you find the visibility of your programs lowered. How in heck is Hancock sports going to get its due in the Morris-based paper if the Morris paper is no bigger than before? It's elementary: something will have to be jettisoned. If the Morris paper goes out of its way to accommodate Hancock, I assure you there will be blowback from Morris interests.
The paper's personnel are not above misrepresenting things. Here is an email I got from a main street business friend on June 12:
 
The new ad guy was in today, saying that the new "Stevens County Times" will run anywhere between 20-25 pages per issue, depending on content from both Hancock and Morris. They are re-doing the website to use the same template as the Forgo Forum, West Central Tribune etc. Apparently there will be some "free" content (a selection of stories from the paper edition), but only the people that pay for a paper subscription will get access to the full Monty. Those of us that pay for space ads will also get digital versions, and for an extra fee will get "search optimization" links from choice words therein.
 
The newspaper was actually just 16 pages recently, if you exclude the  county fair wrap-around. BTW remember those Denny Hecker wrap-arounds that were with the Minneapolis paper for a long time? It's unconscionable for the paper to "burn" its whole front page - such a limited resource - using large headline type to basically grovel at our feet, to plead for enough support to stay in business, I guess.
You know what? Millennials do not believe in paying for information, period.
The email quoted in this post suggested that we will accept the Sun Tribune as a "middleman" for getting information, with the paper able to scrape in money for this. I don't care about the newspaper's website. We can read obituaries on the funeral home's website and in a much more timely way. Ten years ago people weren't that adept at search - today they are much better. It's no sweat to navigate around the web with good ol' Google.
And, to hell with "district court news." It's simply a vehicle for supplying the local gossip mill, so we can whisper about who's getting minor citations. A former First Lutheran pastor was livid about having his minor speeding ticket get in the paper. "Why does it have to be in the paper?" he said.
Well, we can all choose not to do business with the paper. Please give this option greater consideration. And, I will implore local business people one more time: stop supporting those "sucker ads." The county fair wraparound was an example of this. Lists of businesses that are simply there to have their name with some good cause or idea. Let the paper do this promotion on its own. Don't let yourself be taken advantage of. Use ads to inform the public of your products and services. That's what it's for.
However, more and more people will probably go to Alex anyway. In summing up my thoughts about that current front page, allow me to use a word that I found was a favorite of the newspaper manager: "asinine."
A final thought/aside: Why should the school give the paper any exclusive access to info pertinent to the school, when the paper just tries monetizing it? The school should go directly to the public, which makes total sense if you apply a few brain cells. Get into the year 2017.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com