Monday will mark the ten-year anniversary of the death of the Houston Post, and its former editor-in-chief Lynn Ashby commemorates the event. I liked The Post – I signed up for a subscription my first week on campus as a grad student at Rice in 1988 and took it continuously until it was killed off (my Chron subscription lapsed for a few years during that time). I unfortunately can’t remember too much about it now. They endorsed Ann Richards in 1990 over Clayton Williams, and they used to occasionally talk back in the Letters to the Editor, and they’re where Ken Hoffman and Betsy Parrish once hung out. I’d rather have them around than not because I think two newspapers are better than one and a little competition never hurt anyone. Alas.
(I wonder – has anyone suggested to Ashby that he start a blog? I bet he’d get a wider audience than he has now with the Houston Community Newspapers.)
Thanks to Banjo for the link. Kevin also comments.
It’s really a shame that very few cities have more than one mainstream newspaper any more.
I’m trying to decide if I think having more than one paper is actually an advantage. Here in New York, we have the New York Post posing as the Fox “News” Network of the daily papers, the Daily News serving the “local knives and guns club” niche, and the New York Times with all of its troubles and travails of late. On an average morning, I most likely to pick pu the Daily News, but that’s mostly because I’m a sucker for the comics page. I never waste my quarters on the Post – it’s the cheapest paper in the city, and you truly get what you pay for. But 90% of the time, I just look for the AM NY or the Metro, which are free papers handed out to commuters in subway stations.
Sometimes less can be more.
We All Mourn the Post
Off the Kuff: The Houston Post, ten years after It’s been 10 years since the death of the Post. Nothing good has come from it… except, perhaps, for those who went on to bigger jobs. It was a sad day…
I can vehemently and rather emphatically say less is never more. Okay, well, I think I can say that. Uh, I’m pretty sure I can say that. I don’t care if it’s awful… Gimme a second paper!
Ken Hoffman is pretty cool. I still listen to him on KTRH.
Who wrote “Charlene” for the Houston Post Sunday Supplement?