30 March—Hearst Republican-American readers in the Litchfield-Region 20 area found an unexpected treat in this morning’s number: two whole stories relevant to the town and region, one by a former reporter who’s now called a “staff writer,” the other by a former reporter who’s now a pieceworker called a “correspondent.”

When I bitched last week about the lack of coverage around here to a Republican-American editor who appears to have survived the Hearst annexation, he touted the Region 20 story, which reinforces the high hopes we have for the region’s new superintendent. But he also confirmed that with the voluntary departure of the Litchfield reporter (for what I consider good reason but the surviving editor doesn’t) we won’t be getting regular coverage in the foreseeable future—at least not until Hearst can scrape up a pieceworker to cover the area.

Watertown is another beat that Hearst made reporterless. So the former Litchfield reporter was offered the Watertown beat—even after he’d rejected Hearst’s terms on the Litchfield beat. Suffice to say, Watertown still lacks regular coverage. And with reassignment of staff writers and correspondents, other local beats also have been reduced or eliminated. Do Hearst’s strategically insulated executives give a damn?

Hearst’s notorious business model—in which bean counters outrank journalists—has effectively told readers in places like Litchfield and Watertown to like it or lump it. In fairness to the Hearst Connecticut Media Group, the Hearst Republican-American now prints some excellent statewide coverage.

But lots of statewide (and national) coverage can be found at no charge on numerous websites on the internet. Moreover—and more to the point—since the demise or Hearstification (much of a muchness) of virtually all truly local printed newspapers, the remaining Hearst Republican-American readers around here have depended on the Republican-American primarily for timely local coverage.

If those readers don’t get the desired content, then, let Hearst lump it. In spades. So regardless of what Monitor readers choose to do about the Hearst Republican-American, they’d do well to spend 40 dollars for online subscriptions to Litchfield.bz. The Buzz, as it’s known, has always offered more complete local coverage than the Republican-American (and Hearst’s equally deficient Register Citizen and Litchfield County Times) and now it offers the only local coverage.

And that’s just for starters . . .