Austin’s Daily Commentary – July 18, 2023

Austin: [00:00:01] Piggybacking this morning on what John and Mary Liz were reporting about the way that newspapers have changed their coverage of sports events. Box Scores is going away and many of the major newspapers, entire sports departments, for instance, The New York Times giving up its positions and so much so many changes in the newspaper business.

I don't think we could cover them in a year's worth of commentaries. But the bottom line, you would think that newspapers struggling to get attention and to get readers would continue to do what is most wanted and most needed. And I would say locally, the obituary pages would be the number one draw for most newspapers. Guess who's not doing obituaries for free anymore? The Augusta Chronicle. That's right.

A basic mention of a passing used to be absolutely free. Now they're making you pay for any mention of any death in the obituary pages, no matter what. I just found this out the other day. What's the Augusta Chronicle trying to do except for speed up its own demise? I mean, seriously, you're going to make profit off of people announcing the deaths of their family members. Well, at least the Augusta Chronicle is honest about it.

By the way, the Augusta Press, from what I've been told, will continue to run obituary information free of charge at the funeral homes. Let them know about it. They're more than happy to share the news. Sad news as it is, but it is important news. The Augusta Chronicle, a step closer to extinction by more stupid decisions. Very sad. And it's come at a cost. Austin Rhodes, AM 580/95.1 FM News Talk WGAC. [00:00:01][0.0]