The Omaha World Herald

mistergutierrez · Post by **mistergutierrez** » Sun Sep 11, 2022 6:59 am

This is the main reason I stopped being subscribedd to OWH. I understand that the Huskers played yesterday but, if your main page is full of Husker news, you become a sports newspaper. I am sure more things happened in Omaha yesterday that deserve the reader's attention.

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Sun Sep 11, 2022 11:34 am

It’s why I’m thinking of dropping my digital subscription too.

jag42 · Post by **jag42** » Sun Sep 11, 2022 1:38 pm

Wonder if the OWH will discount its Scott Frost comic book hyping his return??

damonhynes · Post by **damonhynes** » Sun Sep 11, 2022 8:38 pm

Greg S wrote: Sat May 07, 2022 12:42 pm OWH wins regional award:

https://omaha.com/news/local/world-hera ... 4439d7a9e0

When I worked at Amerischwab, there was much crowing about us winning a consumer satisfaction award from some group, JD Power, I think. Only later was it revealed that we had paid the firm for the 'privilege' of being considered. Pay-for-play.

I think it ironic that the story in the link above is behind a paywall.

Bob from Omaha · Post by **Bob from Omaha** » Sun Sep 11, 2022 8:49 pm

I hate to rain on the parade of kudos for the owh but seriously? Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota? I get that it's the great plains but I'd be hard pressed to find a more laughable group of states for journalistic competition. The owh brags that it has some Pulitzers in the trophy case and that's nice. This? Yeah, whatever Melvin. Now go back and fire some more from the newsroom.

Greg S · Post by **Greg S** » Mon Sep 12, 2022 9:57 am

Bob from Omaha wrote: Sun Sep 11, 2022 8:49 pm I hate to rain on the parade of kudos for the owh but seriously? Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota? I get that it's the great plains but I'd be hard pressed to find a more laughable group of states for journalistic competition. The owh brags that it has some Pulitzers in the trophy case and that's nice. This? Yeah, whatever Melvin. Now go back and fire some more from the newsroom.

KC Star is a very good paper.

Greg

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Mon Sep 12, 2022 4:25 pm

mistergutierrez wrote: Sun Sep 11, 2022 6:59 am This is the main reason I stopped being subscribedd to OWH. I understand that the Huskers played yesterday but, if your main page is full of Husker news, you become a sports newspaper. I am sure more things happened in Omaha yesterday that deserve the reader's attention.

Ironic to your comment, but the Sunday September 11 OWH front page was the first time since Moses parted the Red Sea that the Husker game was NOT discussed at all on the front page! My guess is that was because the front section was pre printed earlier in the day on Saturday. I don’t believe that the Sunday newspaper is still actually printed in Omaha. Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Post by **Brad** » Tue Sep 13, 2022 7:55 am

nativeomahan wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 4:25 pm Ironic to your comment, but the Sunday September 11 OWH front page was the first time since Moses parted the Red Sea that the Husker game was NOT discussed at all on the front page! My guess is that was because the front section was pre printed earlier in the day on Saturday. I don’t believe that the Sunday newspaper is still actually printed in Omaha. Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

I believe its printed here (Along with the Lincoln paper and others). But I'm not sure its put together or edited here anymore on the weekends? I also believe their deadline for submitting stories is much earlier than in the past so the game was probably not over. I couldn't tell you for sure, I really don't see OWH employees like I did in the past.

Bob from Omaha · Post by **Bob from Omaha** » Thu Sep 15, 2022 1:28 pm

I paid a dollar for either a 3 month or 6 month subscription. I called to cancel because that is the only way to cancel. I've been on hold now for 24 minutes. It said currently there is higher than normal call volume. I'm guessing that the one person who handles cancellations handles them for the entire Lee empire and he or she can only handle one call at a time. Since the script is to lose as few subscribers as possible it's not just a matter of cancelling. You have to be promised pretty much anything to stay on. 26 minutes now. I'm wondering what I should do for dinner and maybe breakfast.

skinzfan23 · Post by **skinzfan23** » Thu Sep 15, 2022 2:02 pm

Haha, I had a similar wait time 2 weeks ago. They had charged my credit card $0.17 each day for over 2 weeks, first they showed as pending and then the charges went through. At first I thought it was a scam. After I was finally able to talk to someone they stated that I owed a charge of $18 that was past due and these daily charges would continue until it was paid in full.

I think a letter showing the past due amt would probably have been better than these daily charges.

Either way, I just renewed for $1 for 6 months for online only.

Bob from Omaha · Post by **Bob from Omaha** » Thu Sep 15, 2022 2:15 pm

Bob from Omaha wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 1:28 pm I paid a dollar for either a 3 month or 6 month subscription. I called to cancel because that is the only way to cancel. I've been on hold now for 24 minutes. It said currently there is higher than normal call volume. I'm guessing that the one person who handles cancellations handles them for the entire Lee empire and he or she can only handle one call at a time. Since the script is to lose as few subscribers as possible it's not just a matter of cancelling. You have to be promised pretty much anything to stay on. 26 minutes now. I'm wondering what I should do for dinner and maybe breakfast.

34 minutes, 37 seconds. He asked for reasons I wanted to cancel. I said because there was very little news in the paper. He said "Yeah. I get that a lot." and laughed. He asked if I wanted to cancel as of tomorrow or at the end of the subscription. I asked when it ended and he said February, 2023. I figure since I paid a buck I wouldn't see a refund and what on earth would I do with it even if I got it.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Sat Sep 17, 2022 6:02 pm

Now the full page of color comics has morphed into just a few comics no longer printed in color.
I guess the rest of the paper is funny enough on it’s own.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 5:06 pm

As someone who has been a regular consumer of the World-Herald print and online newspaper since the 1960s I’ve seen it ebb and flow, going from an ultra conservative editorial voice with a strong stable of local journalists to an organization with a more mainstream editorial voice but a noticeably downsized number of people working in the newsroom, the features and culture sections, etc. I’ve seen the comics section expanded, now contacted. Same with the Living section (never good but now a joke), Arts and Entertainment reporting (virtually gone), Travel (gone), TV and Radio listings (gone), movie times (gone) and even the Sports. The only thing they have expanded is quite literally the Obituary section. How fitting.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s when they were just about the only game in town the W-H Sunday newspaper circulation stood at close to 200,000 printed copies per Sunday, and maybe 140,000 for weekday editions. Figure 2 or 3 people typically shared a single copy of the paper and you see where maybe 500,000 or more people actually read the Sunday paper to some degree or another each week. And that is when a lot fewer people lived in and around Omaha and Lincoln. It was a common source of trusted information pretty much everyone turned to. The print version of Walter Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley.
Yesterday the W-H published their annual ownership, management and circulation statement, as all newspapers are required to do on an annual basis. It showed that the AVERAGE Sunday paid subscription number for the preceding 12 months (September 2021 - September 2022) was 47,153. But by the end of the 12 month reporting period, in September 2022, that had shrunk to 41,350. Digital subscriptions averaged an additional 27,470 for the past year, and rose to 29,842 in September 2022.
At that rate digital only subscriptions will exceed print subscriptions in less than 2 years. But perhaps more significantly, the W-H will continue its rapid descent into increasing irrelevance.
(I also noted that ZERO Nebraskans own even 1% of the corporate stock in Nebraska’s largest paper.)
I say all of this with sadness, as it’s been like an old friend to me for more than a half century. Yes I cursed it and rolled my eyes at some of the nutty things the paper said or did or didn’t do over all those many years, but they far more often got it right than wrong. It was the one local voice that people more or less trusted to give them the important news of the day. Now it more or less resembles a paper tiger.
When historians write about the devolution of civility and indeed of democracy in the United States in the 21st Century there will no doubt be many causes identified. I believe one key cause will be new technologies that allowed for the proliferation of hundreds of channels of cable and satellite TV, huge increases in the number of terrestrial and satellite radio channels, and of course the Internet itself, which allowed most anyone with fingers to become a source of information without by sort of professional filter. The technology that so many of us (me absolutely included) counted on to foster and nurture democratic society unwittingly led to its demise.
End of sermon.

skinzfan23 · Post by **skinzfan23** » Tue Oct 11, 2022 8:59 am

Thanks for those numbers, I remember delivering newspapers for both the Nonpareil and the OWH, at one time our family had about 12 routes total. It is sad to see the declining numbers, but news just isn't sent out the same way that it once was. I remember waiting for the newspaper to see sports scores because we didn't have cable. That was one of my favorite things to do, check the box scores and standings daily in the paper.

I did receive a print copy up until last year, but with the price going crazy, I was forced to switch to digital, although I still miss reading the print paper.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Wed Oct 12, 2022 8:48 am

nativeomahan wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 5:06 pmThe technology that so many of us (me absolutely included) counted on to foster and nurture democratic society unwittingly led to its demise.

Add me to that list. It never crossed my mind that stupid would win, yet here we are.

Side note, cancelled my OWH subscription today after repeated requests to them to police their racist-|expletive| comments section went unheeded. I'll sign back up when they want to take that seriously.

Bob from Omaha · Post by **Bob from Omaha** » Wed Oct 12, 2022 12:07 pm

It's not just the owh obviously. Newspapers as a whole are and have been declining for decades. Of course some are doing better than others but as a group the vast majority are guilty of two things:

1) Failure to embrace the internet and capitalize on it, believing that printed newspapers would continue to be the media of choice

2) The egotistic idea that their op/ed page continued sway the unwashed masses

"Today everyone wants instant gratification no matter how long it takes"

bigredmed1 · Post by **bigredmed1** » Wed Oct 12, 2022 1:30 pm

Bob from Omaha wrote: Wed Oct 12, 2022 12:07 pm It's not just the owh obviously. Newspapers as a whole are and have been declining for decades. Of course some are doing better than others but as a group the vast majority are guilty of two things:

1) Failure to embrace the internet and capitalize on it, believing that printed newspapers would continue to be the media of choice

2) The egotistic idea that their op/ed page continued sway the unwashed masses

"Today everyone wants instant gratification no matter how long it takes"

Additionally that their users would never catch on to their bias even as it spread off the op-ed pages. Homers on the sports page, uselessly corrupt food and arts critics that never gave even just an OK review, and straight news reporters that walked through life with their left eye closed.

Just became a source that had to be counter checked so much that it became useless.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Wed Oct 12, 2022 5:59 pm

I don’t think it was (alleged) bias that is sinking print media. Each publisher has a right to take a point of view, and share that with their readers. People are smart enough to see it for what it is. I don’t agree with the Editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, but I enjoy reading that paper. It’s rather like visiting a salad bar. I may not ever select the mushrooms or beets but there are enough other things that I will still be a happy customer.
What is sinking print media (magazines are in the exact same boat) is the iPad and smart phone, and smart homes. I can get the news headlines without even turning on a light or getting out of bed. Alexa reads me the news headlines from the sources I choose. Paper media can’t do that. I can listen to podcasts while in my car.
Times have changed….remarkably quickly. When the cakewalk song ended print media couldn’t find a chair.

bigredmed1 · Post by **bigredmed1** » Wed Oct 12, 2022 6:41 pm

Certainly technological changes were fast and against the print papers. What differs between the WSJ and the OWH and USA Today is the bias got really out of control in the OWH and USA Today so they became not worth the money while the WSJ still has real news and if you don't like some editorial, you can still count on it as a source of useful info.

Again, for my money, the bias in the OWH got to a point where it just useless. Even the food critics and the sports reporters became useless. Try looking for a hockey score for UNO. Even if they play the #1 team and win, The OWH is still going to put Creighton beating the running wheezers of Some Small School Back East Tech above the fold. I can get better coverage off Google.

Food and the arts? Sorry, not even close to useful and has been bad in the arts for 15 years. Food has been ridiculous for 10 at least. My late wife and I had a running joke that if the OWH didn't run a review of an opera on Thurs/Friday, the show would stink. We were never wrong. The print media has too many compromises. CU bball fans are wealthy and good marketing targets. Restaurants that serve bad food will go broke but if they get shelled in a month, they don't buy enough ads. The rich patrons of the arts don't want their friends to make fun of them at the next soiree. The paper couldnt compete with Google and reddit where crappy reviews are tolerated. Even this site has better balance and the people who run it are practically married to Grow Omaha.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Wed Oct 26, 2022 10:30 pm

That is a somewhat fair assessment. The WH was known to sack critics who gave too many negative reviews of restaurants and theatrical performances. I’m guessing other hometown papers did the same. They sold their souls for a bit of advertising revenue.
Of course now no one advertises anymore, so they don’t even run movie times.

Bob from Omaha · Post by **Bob from Omaha** » Fri Oct 28, 2022 11:55 am

How long has this been going on? The owh includes letters to the editor but nothing as far as an Editorial on a daily basis? Literally too cheap to have an opinion on a daily basis? Shame on them.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Sat Oct 29, 2022 10:24 am

Bob from Omaha wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 11:55 am How long has this been going on? The owh includes letters to the editor but nothing as far as an Editorial on a daily basis? Literally too cheap to have an opinion on a daily basis? Shame on them.

I think this started about a year ago. Not quite sure as we quit getting the print edition except on Sundays.

On a side note, I have 1 friend who admits to reading the Public Pulse. I told him (as a joke) that my doctor instructed me to quit reading the Public Pulse as it was detrimentally effecting my blood pressure.
Years ago (and I mean like 25 or 30 years ago) a co-worker kept noting that a prominent Omaha criminal defense attorney had his crackpot letters published in the paper’s Public Pulse section. He ran into the attorney in court one day and pulled him aside to tell him “Bill, I think you should know that someone is writing incredibly stupid letters that get published in the Public Pulse, and they are using your name!” My co-worker friend told me that no more letters from the attorney were published in the paper.

damonhynes · Post by **damonhynes** » Fri Nov 04, 2022 3:11 pm

The OWH endorsed Don Bacon! Paint me red and call me a barn...

To be honest, I don't make my voting decisions based on the legacy media, so while it is strange that a progressive outlet endorses a quasi-conservative, I'm not going to be hypocritical and now put the OWH in my good graces all of a sudden.

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Sat Nov 05, 2022 11:35 am

damonhynes wrote: Fri Nov 04, 2022 3:11 pm The OWH endorsed Don Bacon! Paint me red and call me a barn...

To be honest, I don't make my voting decisions based on the legacy media, so while it is strange that a progressive outlet endorses a quasi-conservative, I'm not going to be hypocritical and now put the OWH in my good graces all of a sudden.

The OWH has endorsed Don Bacon continuously since 2018. Couldn’t find their 2016 endorsement but it may have been him too. They consistently endorse Republicans more often than Democrats, including in 10 of the last 11 governor elections, just for some reason since they didn’t endorse Trump certain people take that to mean they’re wildly leftist now despite endorsing Romney in 2012

jag42 · Post by **jag42** » Sun Nov 20, 2022 7:44 am

No print edition of the Omaha World-Herald on Thursday 11-24-2022 (Thanksgiving Day). Black Friday ads to be included with Wednesday 11-23-2022 print edition.

https://omaha.com/news/local/black-frid ... -top-story

HskrFanMike · Post by **HskrFanMike** » Sun Nov 20, 2022 1:48 pm

I finally pulled the plug on the daily paper this week. Last winter, it was about $46 a month, which was expensive, but we grinned and beared it. Then it went up to $67 and we started talking about dropping it, but never made the call. This week, we got an email that said it was going to $94 a month. That's got to be about $1 for each sheet of newsprint, presuming that they put 4 pages on a single sheet.

I get technology has made the printed newspaper somewhat obsolete, but now it's llike they aren't even trying to compete anymore. I fear for the elderly who aren't technologically capable of getting their news online.

jag42 · Post by **jag42** » Sun Nov 20, 2022 1:57 pm

Well they have to figure out how to keep paying the 10 or so reporters/columnists in the Husker sports beat.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Sun Nov 20, 2022 4:45 pm

I’m getting Sunday print and online digital for about $56 for 26 weeks.

nativeomahan · Post by **nativeomahan** » Sun Nov 20, 2022 4:46 pm

The Parade magazine is now a E-zine. Not like there was ever much to it.
And the elimination of a Thanksgiving Day print edition…well, I just didn’t see that one coming.

Post by **nebugeater** » Sun Nov 20, 2022 6:54 pm

HskrFanMike wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 1:48 pm I finally pulled the plug on the daily paper this week. Last winter, it was about $46 a month, which was expensive, but we grinned and beared it. Then it went up to $67 and we started talking about dropping it, but never made the call. This week, we got an email that said it was going to $94 a month. That's got to be about $1 for each sheet of newsprint, presuming that they put 4 pages on a single sheet.

I get technology has made the printed newspaper somewhat obsolete, but now it's llike they aren't even trying to compete anymore. I fear for the elderly who aren't technologically capable of getting their news online.

Their website says 7-day print delivered plus digital is 49.95 a month and renews at 49.95

https://subscriberservicesdsi.lee.net/s ... 68EALw_wcB

Print + Digital: 7 Day Delivery$49.95 for 1 Month
(renews at $49.95/month)
Cancel anytime

Enjoy these exclusive benefits:
Convenient home delivery of the Omaha World Herald
Unlimited access to our E-edition
Unlimited articles on omaha.com with no surveys
Members only email newsletters
Enhanced digital news content: E-Edition Plus and E-Zines
No paper renewal fee

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Sat Dec 03, 2022 10:19 pm

I got an electronic subscription to be able to dodge the paywall but at this point I’m tired of 6 of the top 7 stories on the web page just being sports stuff that I’ll probably drop it.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Sun Dec 04, 2022 11:28 am

FWIW, if you right click on the page w/a OWH paywall blocked article and choose "view source" you can still read the articles. It's in the markup in plain text. It's not pretty, but will work in a pinch.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Sun Dec 04, 2022 4:52 pm

Not sure if they fixed it but you could also select “show reader” on an iPhone and bypass paywall as well.

jag42 · Post by **jag42** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 10:16 am

For the second time in a little more than a month, the Omaha World-Herald will not have a print edition (tomorrow, Monday January 2, 2023).

https://omaha.com/news/mondays-world-he ... 4db18.html

JDJase · Post by **JDJase** » Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:56 pm

I subscribed to the online edition in mid-2021 only because of a deal of $20 for a full year. When my year expired this past summer it went to $33 every 13 weeks. Even though I rarely find myself reading anything in the OWH these days (due to, as many have mentioned, the over emphasis on sports), it was still an okay price just to keep it for the convenience when I did want to read something. I just received an email today that it is nearly doubling and will now be $63 every 13 weeks, so I will be cancelling. The Examiner fulfills my local news needs for the most part, supplemented by the local tv news station websites.

bbinks · Post by **bbinks** » Thu Jan 12, 2023 6:59 am

jag42 wrote: Sun Jan 01, 2023 10:16 am For the second time in a little more than a month, the Omaha World-Herald will not have a print edition (tomorrow, Monday January 2, 2023).

https://omaha.com/news/mondays-world-he ... 4db18.html

So grandma and grandpa won't get their paper edition.. hopefully they get a day refund.

Post by **BRoss** » Sat Jan 21, 2023 10:44 am

Got an email the other day saying they are raising the online-only subscription to $125.94 every 26 weeks!

I finally cancelled. They offered to keep it at the old rate when I called, but I just don't think it's worth it even at that. I really couldn't care less about the sports articles, which now makes up a vast majority of content. The Nebraska Examiner is so much better and they have Cindy Gonzalez, who tends to write the things I'm actually interested in.

jag42 · Post by **jag42** » Sat Jan 21, 2023 1:53 pm

I called the OWH a few days before my online subscription was about to auto-renew and cancelled. Then a few days after that, I renewed for 26 weeks for $1. I figure I might as well take advantage of it since they have been bombarding my email with this offer for a long time, even while I was an active subscriber. If I allowed it to auto-renew, it would have been something close to $70 for another 26 weeks.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:00 am

almighty_tuna wrote: Sun Dec 04, 2022 11:28 am FWIW, if you right click on the page w/a OWH paywall blocked article and choose "view source" you can still read the articles. It's in the markup in plain text. It's not pretty, but will work in a pinch.

Or you can just delete your cookies.

Post by **nebugeater** » Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:57 am

Not sure it is pretty if you pay and go through the paywall

Big E wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:00 am
almighty_tuna wrote: Sun Dec 04, 2022 11:28 am FWIW, if you right click on the page w/a OWH paywall blocked article and choose "view source" you can still read the articles. It's in the markup in plain text. It's not pretty, but will work in a pinch.
Or you can just delete your cookies.