September 2007 - The final edition
of Deaf Rochester News.
Deaf Rochester News (DRN) subscribers received a postcard this week stating that the newspaper will no longer be published.
Here is the complete text of the postcard:
Dear Readers,
After nearly 10 years of your loyal patronage towards Deaf Rochester News – we are saddened to announce that Deaf Rochester News will no longer publish newspapers monthly due to heavy usage of the Internet and the increasing cost of printing newspapers.
We will continue to provide you with news, events, and informations by going to www.DeafRochester.com where you will find much more features than what a newspaper can offer.
Deaf Rochester News have and will always be there for you and the Deaf community so please do not think that we are no longer going to be around! The only difference is we will be more visible, and out there!!
Thank you,
LeeAnne Valentine
Editor-in-Chief
Tom’s Commentary – This development was both predictable and preventable. I wrote about the problems with DRN and nepotism on my advocacy blog, but the situation only worsened with time.
Ms. Valentine inherited about a dozen staffers when given the editor’s job in 2004; by the time the final issue was printed last month, only three remained: Ms. Valentine, Weston Andrews and Cliff Andrews, all from the same family.
Sadly, in three years, DRN went from being a broad-based community publication to one that was run by one family. Along the way, the publication lost its focus, with non-deaf-related topics like ghosts and male rape showing up on the front page, and videogame reviews by the editor’s son and recipes appearing inside.
The departure of longtime layout editor Val Nelson Metlay led to a period of inconsistent design during which DRN moved from a magazine to a newspaper format. Adding to the inconsistency was Ms. Valentine’s announcement, just three months ago, that DRN would change from a bimonthly to a monthly schedule. This decision, made despite the departure of most staff and the inability to sell new ads, appears to have been the final nail in DRN’s coffin.
Ms. Valentine’s comment about DeafRochester.com rings hollow, given that the website has been down for several months. The site says it is “undergoing major changes,” but most businesses would have left the old site up and worked on the changes behind the scenes and then switched the old and new sites at the same time.
It’s a sad thing, but what it means for the Rochester deaf community is that we now have the opportunity to do something better. As they say, when one door closes, another one opens.
