…get’s pulled out with the lint.
Apparently after cheering on JCI and the closing of the Orr School the Cook News-Herald is finding ad revenue hard to come by. That at least is what this letter sent to the rival Timberjay suggests:
4/4/12
Publisher should consider his positions
I read with some amusement that Gary Albertson, editor and publisher of the Cook News-Herald was upset that the Orr City Council decided to award the bid to print the council’s minutes and other official business to the competitor Timberjay. I’ve had a good relationship with Mr. Albertson, but what in the world did he expect?He supported the closing of the Orr School. The Orr retail community is realizing the fallout from the closing now and the future in my mind doesn’t look bright. Orr has a mayor that supported the closing of the Orr School and sided with the school board and Johnson Controls because they had an exclusive contract with his employer, the 49ers Union. Between the two of them, and board member Zelda Bruns, Orr is struggling. There is no advertising money available to buy ads in Mr. Albertson’s newspapers and shopper. He should have given this more thought and reserved his fervor for the new JCI/Albertson school in the hayfield north of Cook. But no, instead of keeping his thoughts on the editorial page, he chose to editorialize his news coverage of the issue. Orr apparently voted their pocketbooks and decided Mr. Albertson was no longer a booster of the community and denied him the advertising revenue he could have enjoyed by continuing to print the Orr public information.
But don’t worry, Gary still has the St. Louis County School Board in his back pocket and they will continue to pay him monthly to print their newsletter that goes to the mailboxes in the district. I wonder how he might feel if the school board pulled the plug on this revenue source? Would he then think the new, needless, useless new teacher’s union school was worth his effort?
And Cook, don’t think you are immune from this economic disaster. Wait until your school closes this spring and watch how dead your downtown will become.
Jim Saranpaa
Orr, Minn.
