The Commercial Appeal is the only local 'Memphis' daily newspaper left in circulation. The editoial content of the paper was sometimes 'naieve' and unbalanced but local events were generally covered well.
Over the past year we have been noticing that the paper is getting thinner and thinner - was used to be maybe 10 pages of job adverts and classified is now down to just a couple of sides. A sad reflection of the current economic climate and the increasing popularity of electronic media, it is not hard to see why such a reduction in advertising revenue has hit the newspaper industry hard.
Last Month, the Commercial Appeal raised it's prices, reduced it's delivery area and acquired a new President and Publisher. Since then more than ten percent of the workforce (of around 800 ) have been laid off through a combination of redundancies and 'staff buyouts'.
The Commercial Appeal seems to have an interesting history and Memphis would be a worse place without it. Although I prefer a greater amount of world news in my daily paper and find electronic media to be a more convenient format, I sincerely hope that the Commercial Appeal's financial cutbacks are enough to keep the presses rolling. Having surived the Civil War and the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878 without missing an issue, it would be a shame to see it falter as the result of the current recession or a lack of adaptability.
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