The El Paso Times versus The El Paso Inc.

I confess I rarely read the print edition of the El Paso Times. Last week one came with the Wall Street Journal. And if I’m painting, I might empty the local vending machine to sop up spillage. But I do get the crossword puzzles, Thursday through Sunday, courtesy of a subscriber. And the issues I’ve seen lately seem to have fewer ads from car dealers.

This week What’s Up, the El Paso Inc.’s entertainment weekly, had car ads from five major dealers. Now those dealers may also be advertising in Saturday’s Times. (I think Saturdays are the car issues.) But the fact that car dealers are diverting at least some of their advertising budgets to What’s Up indicates that advertising in the Times isn’t as effective as it used to be.

I appreciate that print media is getting squeezed by the ubiquity of information on the interwebs. But how can the Inc., a weekly with two investigative reporters, consistently scoop the much larger El Paso Times?

The Inc. doesn’t editorialize on controversial issues, but it does report them. The Times seems to avoid any subject that might portray the local power structure in a negative light. The Times comes off like the dweeby girl that wants to hang out with the cheerleaders. And at the end of the day, even the cheerleaders realize that she’s a dweeby girl.

3 comments

  1. i have been told by a prominent local businessman, whose name i cannot reveal, that those in the know project the death of the el paso times to take place in a couple of years.

    only trouble is, dammit, that i will die first.

    jesus b ochoa jr

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