Rochester Writers

   You might as well start the clock on the demise of one or more zoned editions of the Messenger Post Newspapers now that they've started begging for money in a fashion that makes public television membership drives look dignified.

   I picked up my free copy -- yes, that would be problem number one -- of the Gates Chili Post this morning, and it contained a four-page insert, the front of which was an ad from MPN. The verbiage made it look like a request for suggestions on improving the chain of suburban Rochester weeklies, but it concluded with a solicitation for $5 donations to "further enhance the quality news and advertising product you've been accustomed to and make continual improvements . . . "

   Aside from the fact that the cost of the newsprint will undoubtedly be higher than the donations that the ad generates -- problem number two -- this was a horrible idea. Undignified and desperate, a plea in search of a plan.

   While some editions of the MPN remain solid, the Gates Chili Post has long been awful. Its coverage of Gates is sparse, letters to the editor dominated by a handful of community gadflys and its sports "news" just painful to read. If not for the weekly columns from the respective town supervisors to keep us abreast of the spectacular job they're doing, it would be a total loss.

   It's an edition that deserves to die and perhaps soon will. Going from a 75-cent newsstand price to free distribution wasn't so much a business strategy -- make up the circulation revenue loss by jacking up the advertising rate card on the premise that more people will pick up the paper -- as much as it was an admission that there was little that the reader would be willing to pay for.

    Put this dog out of its misery and sign me up for the local pennysaver instead.