The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver is reporting that it will return to its old offices in a desperate attempt to stay afloat.
The move, according to Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell, is out of the need to generate more revenue from a new six-story building constructed by Campbell and his wife, Jody, which opened south of Esther Short Park in January. The options, Campbell said, are to either lease all of the 118,000-square-foot $30 million structure or to sell it. At present, Columbian newsroom, advertising and circulation operations occupy four of the six floors in the building at 415 W. Sixth St.
And bankruptcy isn’t out of the question:
In order to make the difficult financial transition, Campbell said the company is trying to negotiate a new loan with its lender or will seek temporary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors. Chapter 11 gives a business time to reorganize and return to financial health.
Whew. I’m no expert but given what we’ve been hearing about the credit crisis created by the mortgage scandal, that sounds pretty grim.
I have to confess I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, the heart of newspapers is news gathering, and the thought of Clark County not having a daily newspaper would mean that some 400,000 residents would find out even less about what is happening in their community. Sure, it’s possible that Oregon media would increase their coverage some, but The Oregonian has laid off tons of people this year as well. And Oregon TV stations are, well, TV stations.
On the other hand, Campbell runs a newspaper that printed the likes of Michelle Malkin for a long stretch of time, while adopting a thoroughly anti-union stance and coddling the local wingnuts. The standing joke for years has been that Campbell would be better off if he just sold the newspaper and concentrated on his apparent first love, real estate. Of course, that’s not looking so hot right now either.
The whole thing is kind of weird coming on the heels of a series of endorsements favoring Democrats. It’s as if The Columbian has come to the belated realization that the folks intent on destroying the “EM ESS EM” are not, in fact, the liberals, who despite grumping about various editorial positions and tendencies in reporting at least acknowledge the role a free press is supposed to play in our system.
Then there’s the collapse of the housing market itself and the attendant ad revenue. No point in advertising new houses when nobody is building them and nobody is buying them. So much for diversification of the Clark County economy. That turned out to be so much hot air, no surprise. The business of Clark County the last eighteen years or so has been building as many houses as possible, and now the residents shall pay the economic penalty.
They can be a cantankerous lot down there at The Columbian, so I wouldn’t rule out a McCain endorsement just yet. They seem to delight in making as many people angry as possible sometimes, just to prove a point. What the point would be with a McCain endorsement I don’t know, but trust me, they could come up with something.
Overall, the troubles at The Columbian are a continuation of ongoing problems in the industry, exacerbated by poor ownership, an unpopular editorial stance and small town cronyism. It’s entirely likely that Clark County will not have a daily newspaper at some point in the not-so-distant future.
And that’s a bad thing.
War is hell but if that’s what it takes to win the cultural and economic wars, the bankruptcies of the builders, the BIAW, and a wingnut newspaper are an acceptable level of casualties.
Drive east in Clark County, out Mill Plain or Fourth Plain, and you’d never guess this is a county in a state with a Growth Management Act. Sprawl galore, all one-story developments with one or more free parking spaces for every employee and every shopper. There’s a beautiful new boulevard that continues all the way to Camas –with absolutely no development along its length; but obviously ripe for same.
I don’t follow CC politics much (I moved away years ago) but given your posting, it’s easy to believe the Columbian was cheerleading the sprawl.
by Michael Lapham : 10/8/08 4:33pm – Report Abuse
Michelle Malkin apparently is too liberal for some of the Columbian’s readers. I lifted this comment (per fair use doctrine) off their blog:
“by Michael Lapham : 10/8/08 4:33pm – Report Abuse
Those of us who are not left wing loons receive no value from the Columbian. It’s editorials are so far to the left that you have to double check to see if its written by Karl Marx.”
If the Columbian goes under where will the rightwing cranks who regularly write letters to its editor go to vent their pent-up testosterone? Who knows, they might come here …
‘A Fatal Cancer’
David Brooks, a conservative journalist who called Obama a “mediocre senator,” had this to say about Gov. Palin:
“[She] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill Buckley. … He thought it was important to have people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning. And … that was also true for a lot of the other conservatives in the Reagan era. … But there has been a counter … tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I’m afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices.”
(Quoted from Huffington Post under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: In your guts you know she’s nuts. Now let’s see the trolls bash Brooks as a “liberal elite.”
[casually picking teeth with rabbit claws]
I just have no love lost on the print news in general. I love books and magazines, but the newspaper has to evolve into something that is more up to date and profitable, if they want to survive.
@2–Yes and no. The newspaper historically has been pro-Gorge protection and has advocated at times for better ways to control sprawl and protect water quality.
The focus by the paper on downtown redevelopment, as worthy as that goal may be, has fueled a lot of resentment elsewhere in the county.
Any pro-environment positions put it at odds with the noisy and aggressive deregulation and development types, ie BIAW, Farm Bureau and local Republican Party. It’s the old case of “by trying to please everyone you please no-one.”
As wingnuttia has become ever more strident and unrealistic about the media over time, The Columbian never really fought back effectively. It’s always the false equivalence of “both sides work the ref.” And we all know both sides don’t do it with the same frequency nor vindictiveness.
The paper never drew a line in the sand and stood up for itself by pointing out the intellectual bankruptcy and mendacity of neo-conservatism, instead choosing to attempt to mollify it by printing endless outrages by Malkin and local wingnuts.
Basically Clark County Democrats (I’m talking broadly about the institution, not regular folks) either ignore the paper a lot or couch their concerns in such careful language as to render the meaning nearly invisible a lot of the time. That’s changing, but years of abuse take their toll. Look at Brian Baird for crying out loud.
“Cross-saw” Vancouver anyone?
“[O]ur sacrifice should never be politicized. We are not Republicans or Democrats; we are men and women, sons and daughters, fathers, and mothers. Protest the war if you would like, but support us, the troops, for we may not know you but we will risk our lives to defend you.” — Anonymous Iraq veteran quoted in Atlantic Monthly
@5-
Roger, they already are. I saw some whack job from the McCain folks who was a Romney campaign transplant (man, they were good, weren’t they?) blasting Brooks on MSNBC this afternoon. Not a real conservative, they say, part of the MSN. Wow, those wacko fringies are tough. Step out of line once and they castrate you, or I should say neuter you regardless of gender, no matter how accurate you are.
To quote T. Freidman, criticizing Palin is like shooting fish in the barrel. But I must add, what is most deeply disturbing to me is not her petty tyrant tendencies, her book burning concepts, her non-existent resume, her whacky past affiliations with anarchists and witch doctors, her mediocre academic and professional life, her inherent contradictions in her statements or her passing aquaintance with the English language, etc, etc.. Those bother me, but this is even worse-
What really bothers me is that she has never once shown an iota of interest in international affairs, national affairs, or economic challenges facing our country, and its people. She doesn’t even have an interest in our country! And “that one” (not the black guy, btw) wants to make her VP
I would also love to give her a map quiz- not of the world- but of our country. Does she know where East Lansing is? Wilmington? Trenton? Galveston? Birmingham? Jackson? Butte? Akron? S. Chicago or East LA? (Hint, Sarah- the answer is in the question on the last two if you look closely.) And even if she does, what can she say about these places?
But the bottom line is its not her fault. McCain chose her,. That is is his one major decision as candidate. Wow, that scares the absolute shit out of me. It makes Phil Gramm at treasury look good.
Why McCain Quit Michigan
Partly because of what happened 93 years ago on the other side of the world.
Oh sure, the economy is a big piece of it, but it’s not the whole story.
Michigan has a large Armenian-American population. They aren’t a reliable voting bloc for either party, but play the parties off each other. Topping their agenda is genocide recognition. But that would piss off Turkey, where the U.S. has bases virtually on Russia’s border.
George W. Bush spoke to them with a forked tongue. In 2000, while campaigning in Michigan, he promised to support genocide recognition. But when Congress recently considered a bill to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians as a genocide, Bush warned against passage.
Fast forward to 2008. Obama supports genocide recognition. McCain has a long record of opposing it. AAs are a bigger voting bloc in Michigan than in any other state.
Getting the picture?
Interesting that just days after endorsing Gregoire the Columbian is going “under”…In 27 Days Gregoire will be following the Columbian and will get her eviction notice from the voters of WA State and have to move out of Governor’s mansion in 60 days!
@11 Uh, well, for that to happen Rossi has to win over at least 134 voters who liked Gregoire last time. And frankly, I don’t think he’s gonna get a single 1 of them. So, exactly how do you think that’ll happen?
I have a son with special needs. One of the employers in his turbulent employment history was the Columbian and I have to say they were the best, most understanding employers. Whatever their shortcoming, they are good people.