I have some other video snips I did from the meeting the other day (February, 2008) but I wanted to put this one on a line by itself because the poltiics involved in this are kind of fascinating. I have a bias, which ought to be obvious from anyone reading here. I don't subscribe to the new paper in town and don't intend to, plus I very much like the changes that the Glen Rose Reporter newspaper has done since being sold a couple of months ago. So I find myself in a bit of a quandary regarding legal city notices because I like to read them but it's not worth subscribing to the newbie newspaper to do it.

What I found really surprising was how the choice for which paper would get the legal notices was based on lobbying from a couple of city council members and not on factors which I would have chosen. One is that the circulation of the Glen Rose Reporter is 2000 more than the newbie. Listen to the video (which is edited a bit to keep it under 10 minutes) and you'll hear that the other newspaper has 1500 circulation, NOT subcribers, but circulation, where the Reporter has circulation of 3500 and 2036 subscribers-even the number of subscribers, much less circulation is greater than the entire newbie circulation.

And the Glen Rose Reporter was cheaper on display ads. The other paper wanted to charge $4.00 per column inch, versus $2.76 per column inch. The costs for classifieds was more confusing, only because one paper charged by the word versus by the line,but instead of the Glen Rose City Council deferring their decision for another month to give time to do a cost comparison, they voted on it anyway. Money must be no object to the council.

I do think that there were some people there that bore a grudge against Dan McCarty for the way he ran the paper, which everyone knows is the not only the oldest newspaper in town but the oldest business institution in Somervell County. Rocky Terry expressed some anger that the 4B sales tax wasn't touted more heavily in the paper, compared to the other newspaper which has said before will print whatever comes its way. (My personal opinion is that the townies, at least in the first election, didn't like the potential deal that was going to be made, and that influenced the results.)

There is no official newspaper for the county (the city is required to have one) so right now notices for Somervell County are being placed in both. And in a year, the vote will come back up again for who should be the official newspaper of the city and that will be another interesting political fight.