An article headed “In city’s Southeast, an untapped market F&M study shows buying power, but few places to spend; millions in rent taken out” goes on to say “More than $19 million annually leaves the area as rent paid to outside landlords. It represents a major transfer of wealth outside the very community that needs it most, Long said.”

WATCHDOG:  Only a small percentage ends up in the Landlord’s pocket.  All the rest goes to the same expenses home owners have to pay: taxes, insurance, maintenance, interest.  The Watchdog doesn’t dispute that home ownership is desirable to stabilize a community and in normal times, unlike the present, there is the potential for appreciation.

A front page, column one, headline on June 10 read “Fiat rescues Chrysler from bankruptcy.”

WATCHDOG: Now who is going to rescue the USA from Fiat, a firm of such questionable legal and ethical dealings that one historian referred to it as a second Italian Mafia?

A June 11 front page article headed “New chairman at Pennsylvania Academy of Music Consultant let go.” It then goes on to say, before continuing on an inside page, “The academy’s board of trustees voted this week to replace Ware, who has served on the board since its inception 20 years ago, with Dr. Robert Falk. Falk is a partner in Anesthesia Associates of Lancaster.   The trustees also replaced Ely Gonick, vice chairman of the board of directors…”

WATCHDOG: We found the opening of the article potentially misleading, although matters are clarified on the jump page.

Gonick resigned strictly on his initiative last Friday as did Paul Ware on Saturday.  Both resignations came as a surprise but were understandable, especially in the case of Ware who was in a conflicted situation as principal creditor as well as Board Chair.

Both Ware and Gonick made outstanding contributions in terms of vision and service to the Academy.  Ware’s guidance as Chair and huge personal guarantee of debt made it possible for construction to proceed.

On Monday, an emergency meeting of the Board of Trustees was convened and the leadership void filled. On Wednesday morning, NewsLanc announced that it would break the story by the end of the day and encouraged the Academy to provide a press release.

Over the past half year, the New Era has turned away from the salacious and sensationalism. Instead, it has published a series of excellent in depth articles on the social safety net.

We judge the New Era in its final days to have become as good and, in ways, a better newspaper than the Intelligencer Journal.

After suffering through Marv Adams’ tedious columnn of June 7th, across the page we came across a Letter to the Editor in which the writer says of the late educator John Bonfield, “A great man has passed, but his legacy is only beginning.”

WATCHDOG: Would that the same moving tribute would apply to the lives of all of us!

The June 7 banner across page one exclaims “Center gets occupancy permit” and goes on to report that an official opening date is expected to be announced on Wednesday.

WATCHDOG: This may turn out to be the unusual case of “Better never than late!” However, a wag of the tail for the current board of the Convention Center Authority and all those who have pooled their talent and labor to construct the project.

Since the furniture is to be delivered this coming week, we estimate a full two weeks, working double shifts, for the hotel and convention center to be barely ready for guests by June 21st. This is just in time for the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities’ annual convention of June 24-26.

Talk about a close!

Its June 6 editorial “Cultural events enliven summer” claims “June also brings so much seasonal entertainment to Lancaster City that residents sometimes have to choose from among competing events.”

WATCHDOG: In its listing of cultural events, it fails to mention arguably the most important of them all. The Pennsylvania Academy of Music is presenting “Vivace!,” an international summer music festival of concerts and special events from June 13-27. In celebration of the bicentennial of Mendelssohn’s birth the concert theme of this year’s festival is “Mainly Mendelssohn.”

Just another case of the failure of the Lancaster Newspapers to recognize the contribution and future potential of the Academy. Another incident of “casting pearls before swine.”

A June 5 article headed “Commissioners are not happy with the increases awarded by an arbitration panel” goes on to describe the 7% pay hike, retroactive to January 1, that arbitrators awarded prison guards.

In the same issue, columnist Jeff Hawkes in “A city that’s fiscally unfit, with little fat” reports Mayor Rick Gray saying “I don’t think we have too many police.”

WATCHDOG: Note to the commissioners: If you want to slash guard costs and avoid building a new prison, convince Lancaster General Hospital to provide a full time clinic to treat an additional six hundred Lancastrians suffering from Heroin addiction.

Not only will this reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and make families financially self sufficient, it will greatly reduce the amount of crime, and thus the need for guards.

By investing $250,000 to subsidize such a program, many millions can be saved not only in eventual health care costs but for the tax payers.

Note to Mayor Gray: The same applies for containing City police expenses. So stop ‘kissing up’ to non-profit General Hospital and start demanding they use their $113 million in annual profits to do more for the community.

It is a disgrace to have people seeking but denied treatment.

Craig Newmark, founder of CraigsList.com, addressing a group of webmasters, suggested that the biggest problem facing the print media is their loss of trust. He attributed it to the tension between the financial interests of advertisers and the publisher, and the interests of unbiased news reporting and commentary.

When asked if he felt at fault because of the drop in revenues of the print media, he opined that perhaps the public will be better off when there no longer powerful forces seeking large profits influencing the media.

WATCHDOG: Sound familiar?

According to a report from the News Paper Association of America, newspaper ad sales shrank 28.3%, or $2.6 billion, from where they were during the same quarter of 2008.

• Print ad sales declined 29.7% to $5.9 billion
• Online sales down 13.4% to $696.3 million
• Classifieds down 42.3% to $1.5 billion
• Ad sales collapse 16.6% to $37.8 billion in 2008. The worst decline ever.
• 2009 revenues will likely come in lower than $30 billion, less than they did in 1987
• Employment advertising shrank 67.4% to $205.4 million
• Real Estate down 45.6% to $336.9 million
• Auto down 43.4% to $332.8 million
• National campaigns down 25.9% to $1.1 billion
• Retail down 23.7% to $3.3 billion
• “Other” down 16.5% to $587.7 million

WATCHDOG: Merging the daily newspapers was long overdue. The sooner the Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. figures out a way to derive revenue from LancasterOnline.com, the better off it and the public will be.

Failure to focus on feasibility and to anticipate the future can be just as disastrous for a private company as for non-profit organizations.