Word is this Friday afternoon that the Argus Leader is continuing it’s slow implosion after they have shut the presses down and moved them to Iowa.
This afternoon, Joe Sneve, arguably the best political reporter they’ve had in some time, announced his departure on Twitter.
Also hearing word via the grapevine that he’s not the only person departing, and another well known name in the news division is leaving as well.
(Update..) The word is that Jonathan Ellis, the Argus’ other decent political reporter, is also leaving, and the pair will be going into business together, producing a political newsletter.
We’ll see what the state’s largest paper (as printed out of state) is going to be left with when the dust settles.
weakens the Argus imho
I only read the Argus for those two. I guess I can clear out that bookmark.
RIP Argus Leader.
Argus has been on the down slope for many years. This is more of same.
Investigative journalism and political reporting just aren’t what they used to be, when we had Dave Kranz, Joe Kafka, Chet Brokaw, Terry Woster, and many others.
USA Today with a small section for South Dakota. The Hedgefund company that owns Gannet is now selling some of the newspapers after they stripped them back to local buyers for those interested. How long before the Argus Leader, Watertown Public Opinion and Aberdeen American News have reached rockbottom before sold at Rummage Sale prices?
I don’t know if anyone would be interested or if it is even a viable business, but it would be great if local ownership could take over these papers.
One problem though is that Gannet has centralized ad sales and layout (and probably more, I assume HR/Finance etc.), and now prints the paper in Des Moines instead of Sioux Falls. They sold the Sioux Falls office which means the printing press is gone. And the website is on a platform that is common to all Gannet newspapers.
So if you do buy it your first step is to reestablish all of those things – a lot of overhead.
I don’t even bother with a newspaper anymore.