Death and Dying in Boulder, Colorado

Our local newspaper, the Boulder Daily Camera, has announced a new policy. No longer will obituaries be considered news. They've been turned over to the classifieds and will be written by friends or relatives of the deceased and placed by funeral homes. Bottom line: deaths are now an opportunity for revenue enhancement.       

I'd always taken it for granted that keeping track of who's born, who's married, and especially who dies constitutes a considerable part of the mission of a local paper. Such events are bread-and-butter matters -- part of the soul of the community. 

The Daily Camera is certainly not where we find out what's happening in the big world -- it's woefully inadequate in that regard, although it does pick up and truncate a few pieces off the wire. The Camera's sole reason for being is that it covers local news, and by doing so allows Boulder's citizens to feel that they have something in common. 

But in fact the Camera only masquerades as a local paper. It's a holding of the folksy-titled Prairie Mountain Publishing, which is a joint venture of E. W. Scripps Co., the newspaper conglomerate, and the MediaNews Group (MediaNews itself owns the Denver Post and four other Colorado papers;  Prairie Mountain also owns the Colorado Daily). There's nothing local about the Camera and there's no reason for its absentee owners to care two cents worth who lives or dies in Newlands or South Boulder or Wonderland Hills. The Camera's job is to extract as much money as possible from Boulder and to forward the cash to Prairie Mountain Publishing.

The Prairie Mountain overlords have placed a new publisher, Al Manzi, at the Camera; Manzi is a corporate lifer. I'm reliably informed that he came with specific instructions to up the Camera's profits. 

And so, obituaries are now on a pay-to-play basis.

How is it that there have been absolutely no complaints about the new policy?  Boulder is a contentious, argumentative city.  It would be reasonable to expect that the Camera's letters-to-the-editor columns would be saturated with protest, but there's been nary a word. Why?  Because Manzi has instructed the editorial staff not to publish any letters that protest the new policy. It's good to be the publisher. 

Here are some proposals for Al Manzi.  Why stop with obituaries?  Or with wedding and anniversary announcements, which are obviously fair game. Letters to the editor: why not?  Why should a newspaper give free space to community opinion. Let those who can pay, pay. And editorials. Why should there be editorials when there can be advertorials?

Here's a phrase to remember:  "revenue center."   

In today's paper, there's an announcement that the Camera's editor, Sue Deans, who has local roots, has resigned. Could it be that her departure is related to Manzi's policy changes?  Would anyone be astonished to discover so?   

Comments

[no one]

The take that the Boulder paper doesn't run death notices is incorrect. The Camera still runs notifications of death for free, and people can still track the sad passing of people here.
The Camera charges for full obituaries, which may be regrettable, but the simple facts of birth and death are still reported as news and the paper absorbs the cost of doing that.
That last part, at least, is as it should be.
I won't try to defend the no letters policy.
As someone in the industry, I'd like to impress upon you that there's no guarantee newspapers will continue to exist for many more years. Then they'll be replaced by big national concerns only writing about national news. Google "Clear Channel" "News" and "train derailment" to see what that'll be like.
I worked as a writer at the Camera for years and never once heard from our "corporate overlords" about how to cover news. Conversely, at a family owned paper in a similar-sized market, I watched colleagues' stories spiked and altered due to the family's concerns over how their friends and interests would be perceived by readers.
The Camera's Corporate Overlords may want to nickel and dime families for obituaries as the paper scrambles to survive, but they don't seem to care what news gets printed. Sad, but it has its upside.

[Don Oberbeck]

Being a former long time resident of Boulder, CO who now travels for extended periods I find this new high profit oriented thinking as it applies to the obituaries a disgrace. Over the many years there I've made many friends and now with this new system I can no longer keep abreast of my deceased friends. A reversal of your "go for cheap" decision is in order.