In April, when Ray Clark wrote in the Gray News “Some Gray News advertisers have received telephone calls suggesting that another newspaper has purchased The Gray News. There is no truth to this story. The Gray News has not been purchased, is not discussing being purchased and is not for sale,” I knew the opposite was true. I spoke with Gray News new owner Donato Corsetti in June, and he told me he had been negotiating with the Gray News, and it was going slow.
This week, Mr. Clark shared the results of that negotiation, and it seems the paper has been absorbed into the Windham business man’s chain of newspapers, along with the Windham Independent and New Gloucester News.
My goal was to found and build The Monument into something saleable within 5-6 years and then sell it to an independent company. The idea was to offer the people of the town of Gray some solid journalism and then berth the paper with a stable company.
Though it was always my goal to sell the paper, when the time came it was still a very hard and emotional moment. So to the Gray News Board of Directors: I can’t imagine the heartache surrounding your decision, and I extend deep compassion for you in your time of loss and new beginning, and congratulations, too.
Congratulations, Gray News, as well, you have a new life ahead of you. The people of the Town of Gray have a wealth of journalistic opportunity, two newspapers now adhering to the main tenet of journalism: citizens come first.
And to Mr. Corsetti, the Gray News’s new owner, from one savvy Italian to another, may the best paper win.
4 comments:
Will Mr. Clark now have to report news rather than opinion dispayed as news. There hasn't been an issue without incorrect information displayed as fact for a while. I also must say the Monument has had it's issue with fact checking recently as well. You know what I want...an acurate fact checked article about a story with a fiesty opinion ladened editorial page...maybe some day we'll have another paper like your orininal Monument again.
Thank you for you compliment, it means a great deal to me, I worked hard and so did Jeanne Adams and all the many the others, paid and unpaid.
My guess is that the new Windham regime will not put up with Ray’s poisonous editorials, his mocking of contributors and competitors in print, and his and Nathan’s absentee meeting reports with made up stuff in them. You alienate readers and advertisers that way, and is the very thing that made the GN have to sell. The new situation likely means means stressing Ray Clark and Nathan Tsukroff beyond their capabilities, in that they have to be real reporters or hit the road.
What was incorrect in The Monument? Concerns about facts orname spelling can always be directed to Editor John Balentine or Publisher Lee Hews Casler. Though, I don’t think that the paper will ever have "opinews" like Ray did for so long.
I wish them luck, giving up your baby is not easy.
It's getting better here.
Ray Clark is RETIRING!
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