Lee update

Newsosaur explains why Lee Enterprises' debt restructuring isn't as good news as Michael Gulledge would like you to believe. Also, see here.

But that's not what bugged me about Gulledge's front-page note. I was bugged (slightly) when he said that the Gazette has been the region's primary news source for 184 years, which means it was being delivered by travois to tribes along the Hi-Line before John Bozeman was born (the error was fixed online, but if the correction was noted anywhere, I missed it).

I was bugged (considerably more) when he wrote that Lee's debt would never impair its ability to serve advertisers and readers. That's just demonstrably not true, and it's insulting to staffers that already have been laid off. The advertisers whose ads all got smaller during the recent redesign also may be surprised to learn that they haven't been impaired.

I was bugged (even more) by the statement that the Gazette reaches 86 percent of adults in the market, all without defining either the market or what he means by "reaches." I suspect the number includes people who have had a copy of the paper blow across their front yard on a windy day.

Finally, I was bugged (most of all) by the fact that so many other Lee publishers chose to run notes almost identical to Gulledge's: see here and here and here. Gee, I thought Lee didn't dictate content to its publishers.

UPDATE: Sounds like Intelligent Discontent is more bugged than I am.

UPDATE 2: For more evidence that great minds think alike, also see publisher's notes here, here and here. For a response, see here.

Q: How cheesy is it to run eerily similar publisher's notes throughout the Lee chain?

A: Very cheesy.