It’s the end of an era a couple hundred miles south down I-75. At the end of the year, Cincinnati will be a one newspaper town.
The Cincinnati Post, once the flagship of the E.W. Scripps Company, announced today it will cease publicatation at the end of this year. Here’s the Post’s coverage of its own demise – a well-written story posted, of course, online before it hits a printing press.
The decision was prompted by the ending of a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) between Scripps and Gannett. We know about JOAs here in Detroit, where Gannett runs the majority of a JOA with Media News Group. Cincy’s JOA ran for 30 years – the Detroit agreement runs through 2087. But, this makes you wonder how many two newspaper towns will be left in America at the end of this decade.
Tanner Friedman is recommending to our clients to use as many communications platforms as possible. We can’t say it enough – the communications world is changing. While newspapers (and TV and radio to boot) still reach a large audience, today’s news from the Queen City shows why diversification of a communications program is so vital.