According to Agence France Presse, “New York newspaper Newsday plans to start charging users of its Web site, a top executive of the company that owns the daily said Thursday.”

This is an approach that has proven successful for the Wall Street Journal but was tried for some services by the New York Times a couple of years ago and later discontinued.

One of the top 15 newspapers in the country, Newsday has a strong base on Long Island and also serves the greater New York metropolitan area, competing with the Times and the Post.

Publishers from throughout the country will be monitoring Newsday’s -new approach carefully because its success or failure will be an important indication of options for the struggling print medium. The bankruptcies within recent days of the two Philadelphia newspaper and Denver’s Rocky Mountain News are signs of the considerable financial pressures that virtually all newspapers face today, Lancaster included.

As recently commented upon at NewsLanc, the success in charging for Web site content by the Wall Street Journal is attributed to the exceptionally high value readers place on its economic and financial coverage. Whether Newsday’s local coverage of Long Island will be in sufficient demand to generate revenues is problematic but a fascinating experiment.

R. I. P.

www.breitbart.com

“An annual convention of newspaper editors has been canceled so their publications can save money and focus on surviving the recession.

“It’s just the second time that American Society of Newspaper Editors hasn’t convened. The last time occurred during the final months of World War II in 1945.”

Editor’s note: The following comes from a representative of TRRAAC.

“Lancaster Newspapers refuses to report that the project partners are responsible for submitting false statements to the state government in their attempt to obtain millions of dollars to cleanup the LCSWMA dump in Manheim Township. This week, both Lancaster Intelligencer and Lancaster New Era reported on developments with the proposed relocation of the Dillerville Rail Yard. Both reporters were informed that an application submitted to the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) falsely represented that the project had already “committed” and ‘awarded’ $ 1 million from Department of Environmental Protection. However, neither story noted this significant fact.

“TRRAAC’s investigation has confirmed the DCED application was submitted by EDC Finance in December. As recently as February 11, 2009, DEP wrote to Keith Orris of F&M and informed him the DEP application was only in process. This is evidence that the DCED application falsely represented to DCED that DEP had awarded and committed $ 1 million toward the cleanup of the dump.

“LNP is one of the largest contributors – to the tune of $50,000 annually – to the Economic Development Council of Lancaster County. EDC Finance is described on its web site as a division of the Economic Development Council of Lancaster County. Board members of EDC Finance include Larry Downing, president of Manheim Township Board of Commissioners; Michael Davis of Barley Snyder, the attorney who is representing F&M College and convinced Manheim Township that federal law preempted local floodplain ordinance; and a partner at Hartman Underhill & Brubaker, the law firm representing LCSWMA (the beneficiary of the state grant to pay the tipping fees to relocate the waste). The Board of Economic Development Council of Lancaster County includes Tom Beeman of Lancaster General Hospital, John Buckwalter of LNP, a partner at Barley Snyder, and Keith Orris of F&M College.

“It is interesting to note that TRRAAC has discovered an e-mail dated August 19, 2008 where the head of DEP’s Brownfields Action Team wrote to Kathy Horvath, the DEP official responsible for reviewing the proposed cleanup plan and public involvement plan, about a conversation she had with Keith Orris of F&M. The e-mail notes that Jill Gaito, the DEP Deputy Secretary responsible for the Growing Greener grant program, had agreed that ‘we would use [Growing Greener II] funds for remediation work at the Norfolk Southern project. Keith will send a scope of work so that we can start the paperwork.’

“So, while DEP was reviewing the cleanup plan and public involvement plan, apparently somebody high up at DEP decided the project would be funded before it was ever approved. Is it any wonder that DEP rubber stamped the plan on October 3?”

Perhaps NewsLanc would be interested in writing about the contradiction in two stories in last night’s and today’s papers: while the state is reducing hours and services and may even entirely close down, or cause to be closed down due to lack of funding – F&M/LGH are asking, and expecting, to get $20 million from the state taxpayer money to fund a project that even they admit is for their own private benefit (see quote below by Michael Yoder, Intell, Feb. 27):

“F&M wants to move the rail yard so it can consolidate its athletics fields with the land it is redeveloping at the former Armstrong floor plant, and Lancaster General Hospital has planned expanding at the site.”

News reports that the “Rail yard move is under way” bring mixed feelings.

Yes, enabling the expansion of Franklin and Marshall College and connection of road patterns in North West Lancaster are very desirable things.

But the underhanded, undemocratic manner in which the dump site was chosen should concern citizens not only because of the abridgement of the rights of the neighbors, not only because F & M and General Hospital should know better, but also because tens of millions of tax payers’ money to relocate a benign asbestos ladened dump may have been saved if a more suitable location indeed exists.

We at NewsLanc are hoping this episode bring an end to an era dominated by the self serving dealing of S. Dale High of The High Group (The Convention Center Project) and , on behalf of F & M, by college President John Fry, (the Norfolk Southern railyard project.)

In both cases these community leaders dragged along unwitting accomplices who should have known better. Fulton Bank was sand bagged with the Convention Center Project and stopped funding the partnership and separated itself as quickly as possible after sordid facts were brought to its attention. Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. was involved because the misguided Steinman heirs sought to help downtown, and mediocre executives unwisely collaborated with what High for the prospect of owning the Marriott for only a token investment.

Worse, the Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. trashed journalistic standards and used its power to further its financial interests in Penn Square Partners and to destroy the public careers of two decent officials.

All that the future rail yard neighborhood was asking was that an impartial expert examine alternate locations and confirm that the dump site was preferable, all things considered.

All the former County Commissioners and convention center critics were seeking was a professional feasibility study and abidance with its conclusions.

NewsLanc hopes and believes that the future will be better. Dale High and John Fry have been unmasked for what they really represent. No longer will Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. be able to mis-lead with impunity.

NewsLanc is small but growing; we are tough minded and well funded. Like George Soros, we believe that an informed public over time will make better decisions. We pledge to stay the course!

At the Feb. 26th monthly public Lancaster County Convention Center Authority meeting, a modest public request was honored by the Board.

Randolph Carney, a city resident, noted that, according to the LCCCA website, the project current value stands at $174.4 million. However, Carney observed, the actual project cost has fluctuated over the course of the past year. Being that “well over fifty percent” of the cost of the hotel and convention center is comprised of tax-payer dollars, Carney asserted that it is the duty of the LCCCA to present the public with accurate and accessible figures. Carney later told NewsLanc that “The convention center, of course, is 100% taxpayer dollars.”

Chairman Art Morris acknowledged that the numbers posted on the website have not been updated since last year’s audit. Secretary Kevin Fry committed to doing all he can to ensure that the data provided online is appropriately updated.

Last year’s runner up for the county championship Catholic High was once again locked in battle with 2008 winner McCaskey High before four jury members in a court room presided over by County Judge Jeffrey D. Wright.

After evaluating the impressive presentations by both teams, the jury split 2 to 2 between McCaskey, representing the Plaintiff, and Catholic High, for the Defendant.

As a tie breaker, points awarded to attorneys and witnesses through out the contest were added up. Again the teams were dead even.

Finally, a third tie-breaking criteria was applied, and Lancaster Catholic won by the narrowest of margins.

For the victors, regional contests lie ahead and aspirations of reaching the state finals.

For the losers….there’s next year.

Here is a recurring theme: We are seeing it in Philadelphia: When business drops, it is pitched as a deficiency of the venue, and a demand is made for funds to “upgrade”.

There is no doubt, that remedial or restorative work needs to be done on a regular basis, but the monumental funds demanded are absurd.

The average life span of a NYC restaurant is 18 months. (of course a few survive for a long time,but stay with me)….The opening brings in the adventurous diners who want to try the new kid on the block. Its success depends on word of mouth to intrigue others, or the initial bubble of business deflates.

Or…in any business, every time a new competitor or a new technology comes online, attention is drawn from what was: the new kid last week.

I promise we will hear this same “cry” here in Lancaster within five years: That the venue needs an upgrade to be competitive.

On another note: Have you noticed the canopy structure extending from the Queen St. Entrance? It is not drawn as far out in the architect’s sketch. It extends well beyond the facade of the Montgomery House, and that extension is truly ugly.. It cuts across and detracts from both.

Sinfully ugly.

In a Feb. 26th column headed “Ayers gag bid unfunny – and un-American” Jeff Hawkes states “…there’s no place for suppressing even the most repugnant speaker. Ignore him. Denounce him. But uphold his right to have his say.”

He criticizes seven Lancaster County state legislators for a letter calling upon Millersville University’s president to cancel William Ayers talk.

He asks “Since when does the possibility that people might be offended trump the right of a university to engage a speaker? Or an author to write a book? Or a blogger to speak his mind?..That happens as a direct consequence of something Americans say they value: freedom.”

WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail. The Intell can fill its front page with display ads so long as they publish columns like that!

A full color display ad for Chapman Ford appears at the bottom of the front page of the Feb. 26th Intelligencer Journal.

WATCHDOG: What ever it takes! We need at least one newspaper in this town.

The Internet is changing how we obtain information, advertisers are deserting the print media, and times are tough.

Radio stations are also in peril.