I have been a subscriber for over 20 years and was reading the May 8 Frederick News-Post over lunch. It’s an activity I used to enjoy over breakfast, but that changed when home delivery was outsourced to the U.S. Postal Service.

It was interesting to note the absence in Monday’s paper of any mention of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby results (Mage won, by the way) or Sunday morning’s fire downtown (on Water Street).

(11) comments

TrekMan

The FNP does a great job, if you Ding-a-lings don't like it, it's pretty simple, don't subscribe!!

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mrnatural1
mrnatural1

I'd suggest we place the blame where it belongs -- squarely on Ogden Newspapers'.

Ogden purchased the FNP as a cash cow. They said the quiet part out loud in a FNP article around the time of the sale -- the FNP has a natural monopoly. A potential readership of hundreds of thousands of FredCo (and surrounding area) residents, many of whom are well-off financially, with close to zero threat that the Baltimore Sun and/or the WaPo will attempt to move in.

You could almost close your eyes and see "Dr. Evil" smiling and pressing his fingertips together as he thought about the millions of dollars in profits he could squeeze from loyal FNP subscribers. In fact, one of Ogden's first actions was to jack up the subscription prices by over 65% in one shot. "Don't like it FredCo? Pound sand!"

In addition, Andy said, "The Brunswick water test report was published as a legal notice — a paid ad from the city of Brunswick, which determined what was published." What part of that is the FNP's fault? I suppose they could have a larger minimum font size for paid ads, but generally speaking businesses like the FNP try to accommodate their customers' wishes.

BTW, I do not know Andy, and I am no FNP fanboy. In fact, I'm still angry that when 2 reactionary, woke, commenters called me a 'repulsive racist' (my late step-dad was black) my attempts to defend myself were deleted, but the original defamatory, libelous remarks remained. Then the comment section was closed and all comments were deleted. It's bad enough to be the subject of abjectly false accusations, but to not allow the wrongly accused person to defend themselves is grossly unjust, and unethical. That would not happen with a well-run forum.

I mention that by way of saying that my defense of the FNP in this case is unbiased -- if anything I'd be inclined to pile on, but the criticism I see here is mostly undeserved.

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shiftless88

Mrnatural; you do realize that you can have a late step dad who is black and still be a repulsive racist. I am not saying you are, but the "I have a black friend" defense is weak.

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Jo and Bob H

(JoH responding to mrnatural's 3:53 post) It always helps to have more of the backstory--pieces of the puzzle--so thanks for that. And rightly or wrongly or both, personal experience does always seems to greatly influence our view of things, including institutions & the people associated with them. For whatever reason or unreason, I'm probably guilty of pretty strong bias toward the paper, in part because my experience with whoever was running the comment section one night several months ago was so different from your own. Against better judgment I had let myself engage, too late & too tired, in one of those conversations around bigotry, tribalism etc., & posted something that really was reckless & thoughtless if not repulsive. And when I woke up in dread the next morning & pulled up the letter to see what the responses to it had been, discovered that the section had been shut down. It may have been because my comment had been too awful, but I had the sense that it had actually been an act of gallantry by whoever was in charge that night. Paraphrasing a song-writing daughter-in-law In California, "Rejection can be protection." And life experience, both direct & indirect, tells me she's right.

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Dwasserba
Dwasserba

Oh. Waiting for a paper made of paper. Quaint.

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Earl Elliott
Earl Elliott

This paper lacks, in every conceivable way, both imagination, originality and interesting content.

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Jo and Bob H

Wow. Try doing it yourself sometime. Or telling it to the FNP staff's colleagues in journalism, who hold them in high regard. Or asking folks in communities that have lost or never had real (not canned & strictly profit driven) community papers how they feel about having lost or never had one.

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rwaesche

Editor Schotz, just a phrase saying 'the Brunswick water report was a paid advertisement' would have been enough. Leave the excuse about the Water Street fire out of it. It is very obvious that the FNP doesn't do a good job of reporting spot news. Instead you rely on the press releases of the investigating agencies to write the stories for you. It's pitiful to witness the FNP shrink to a shell of what it once was. Yes, the nature of the business has changed. However, you are speeding your own demise when you don't cover spot news and force people to go to - help us all - social media for information. You are also speeding your own demise when you parse and nitpick customers who take the time to express their opinion about a product they bought.

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gabrielshorn2013
gabrielshorn2013

[thumbup]

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threecents
threecents

Andy, I'm not sure why publishing the Brunswick water test report as a legal notice would excuse its illegibility. (I didn't see it, so I am just trying to follow the reasoning.)

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Blueline
Blueline

Small newspapers, like small Banks, have become fiscally difficult to maintain operations. If you enjoy the product, support it.

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