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Audio Feature: Local newspaper ownership

Mar 06, 2017 12:10 am
It wasn't too long ago that most local government meetings had at least one local newspaper reporter in the audience. Now, not so much. Last year The Delaware County Times stopped publishing. The Schoharie News bought the 34-year-old Mountain Eagle newspaper from the local Columbia-Greene Media newspaper chain. They also run The Daily Mail and Register-Star, and they also stopped publishing the Greene County News and River Chronicle last year, and laid off a reporter at The Windham Journal. All Columbia-Greene papers also cut back much local coverage last year. Here's a bit about the remaining local newspapers:

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The Columbia Paper
Office in Ghent; owned by Parry Teasdale, an American video artist and a founding member of the early video collective Videofreex. He was also involved with Lanesville TV, one of the first unlicensed TV stations in the country, in Greene County in the 1970s. Teasdale was also editor of The Woodstock Times and The Independent.
Covers Columbia County. www.columbiapaper.com
Letters to editor: The Columbia Paper, P.O. Box 482 Ghent, NY 12075-0482 or letters@columbiapaper.com. Info: 518-392-1122.
The Columbia Paper is an independent newspaper.
Publisher: Parry Teasdale.

The Daily Freeman
Office in Kingston; owned by Digital First Media, of Denver, Colorado.
Covers all of Ulster County and parts of Greene (Catskill, sometimes Cairo), Columbia County (Germantown, most notably), and Dutchess County. www.dailyfreeman.com
Employees are represented by the Kingston Newspaper Guild.
Letters to editor: Daily Freeman, 79 Hurley Ave., Kingston, N.Y. 12401 and letters@freemanonline.com. Info: 845-331-5000.
Owners Digital First Media operate many other newspapers across the country, including The Oneida Daily Dispatch, The Saratogian, and Troy's The Record.

The Daily Mail
Office in Catskill; owned by Johnson Newspaper Corporation, of Watertown, New York.
Covers Greene County, but, lately, more national news many hours after it is posted elsewhere on the internet. www.thedailymail.net
Letters to editor: The Daily Mail, 414 Main Street, Catskill, NY 12414 and editorial@thedailymail.net. Info: 518-943-2100.
Owners Johnson Newspaper Corporation operate many other newspapers across New York, including Columbia-Greene Media's Register-Star (which covers Columbia County), The Windham Journal, Ravena News-Herald, and The Chatham Courier. The Daily Mail traces back to The Catskill Packet, which began publishing in 1792, and is not related to The Daily Mail in London.
Publisher: Mark Vinciguerra.

Times Union
Office in Albany; owned by Hearst Communications, of New York City.
Covers Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties, and some other regional issues, as well as news from the capitol. www.timesunion.com
Employees are represented by the Albany Newspaper Guild.
Letters to editor: Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY. 12212 or tuletters@timesunion.com. Fax: 518-454-5628.
The Hearst chain operates many other newspapers, magazines, television networks, and internet sites. Founded in 1857 as the Morning Times, the Times Union was bought by Hearst in 1924. Hearst was founded by William Randolph Hearst, portrayed in a faux-biography by Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane."
Publisher, CEO: George R. Hearst III

The Mountain Eagle and The Schoharie News
Offices in Schoharie and Stamford; owned by Middleburgh village mayor Matthew Avitabile.
Covers Schoharie and Delaware counties. www.theschoharienews.com
Letters to editor: theschonews@gmail.com.
The Schoharie News bought the 34-year-old Mountain Eagle newspaper from the local newspaper chain Columbia-Greene Media in 2016. The Delaware County-based Mountain Eagle and The Schoharie News are now owned by Middleburgh village mayor Matthew Avitabile who says he will not run for another term.
Publisher: Matthew Avitabile.
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