I'm sorry I find it necessary to post here, but on advice of our corporate attorneys I find it necessary to request that you remove the above post from your forum immediately. It is totally untrue. As publisher of the AIM, I can assure everybody that we remain solidly positioned to emerge from the current recession and continue publlication well into the future.
I have enjoy reading this forum since we severed ties to it last spring, but this rumor needs to be squelched immediately. Thank you.

Sorry, Butch, but I'm going to have to let that one stand for now pending a formal confirmation or denial from your corporate offices. That's where all corporate and local decisions are being made for the AIM anyway, isn't it? And y'all are an "outlier." (Outliar?)
     JDTippett isn't known to spread rumors, and neither am I. But I guess, under certain circumstances, it could happen. If it turns out to be untrue, I'll be more than happy to issue a correction and an apology for both of us.
     I'm glad you've started to take notice of whether something is true or not. Is this a recent epiphany for you? You certainly don't seem to care about such things on the AIM forum.

ZING!!!!!!!!!

NEWSFLASH!!!!!

EXTRA!!!   EXTRA!!!!   READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!!
NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER OBJECTS TO EXERCISE OF 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHT BY OTHERS TO PUBLISH RUMORS!!!!

Your news search results for:  rumor

Tech blog, Singapore startup feud over tablet PC

... reminiscent of a giant iPod Touch — something Apple Inc. itself is rumored to be working on. While Rathakrishnan was showing off the JooJoo
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/dec/11/tech-blog-singapore-startup-feud-over-tablet-pc/

Tiger Woods scandal is the biggest story in the history of the world

... nder the influence of drugs or alcohol during his crash. There are rumors of empty pill bottles. A week after the crisis is uncovered we learn ...
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/dec/08/tiger-woods-scandal-biggest-story-history-world/

World War Two veterans share same history, differing perspectives on Pearl Harbor and war with Japan

... d poisoned the water supply, stuff like that. There were just lots of rumors. We didn’t know what was going on.” Because martial law was d ...
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/dec/06/world-war-two-veterans-share-same-history-differin/

Tiger’s wild ride

... his Web site to rumors about him and h ... ot to dispel any rumors about how those ... ld help to quiet rumors that naturally ... ing increase the rumors and make the ta ...
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/dec/02/tigers-wild-ride/

FSU coach Bobby Bowden to retire after bowl game

... shopping scam; quarterback Adrian McPherson's dismissal in 2002 amid rumors of gambling; and now the cheating scandal. Bowden, native of Birm
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/dec/01/fsu-coach-bobby-bowden-retire-after-bowl-game/

Tigers, Yellow Jackets refocus following stinging rival defeats

... berth, likely to the Orange Bowl. There’s no truth to that nasty rumor that they’ve been replaced by Georgia and South Carolina; SEC commi ...
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/nov/29/tigers-yellow-jackets-refocus-following-stinging-r/

Police: Woods, wife unavailable for interview

... was he going at that hour? — and rumors circulating on the Internet, one ... on him and is trying to avoid the rumors.” Nordegren, a former model ...
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/nov/28/police-woods-wife-unavailable-interview/

Police: 911 tapes of Woods’ crash to be out Sunday

... an Sgt. Kim Montes said investigators are “trying not to get on the rumor mill.” Police said the world’s No. 1 golfer smashed his Cadill ...
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/nov/28/police-911-tapes-woods-crash-be-out-sunday/

Solving Williamston teen’s death No. 1 priority, police chief says

... had not issued a statement saying it was a homicide. He also said rumors that Rucker may have killed by a close friend or family member were ..
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/nov/24/solving-williamston-teens-death-no-1-priority-poli/

Community gathers at vigil for Williamston teen

... eens who were sharing details of what they were hearing — pieces of rumors passed around a community wanting to understand the loss of one of t ...
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/nov/21/friends-fellow-students-attend-vigil-williamston-t/

Showing 1-10 Stories of 224 for rumor

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.......and then there is this reported rumor....

Judge says Moore must sign affidavit on issue of hit list

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/oct/28/judge-says-moore-must-sign-affidavit-issue-hit-lis/
The existence of such a hit list, which has never been established, but has been rumored since the council took office in January, was raised during a March deposition of an investigative accountant who works on the council’s behalf.
JK

Sorry, Butch, but I'm going to have to let that one stand for now pending a formal confirmation or denial from your corporate offices. That's where all corporate and local decisions are being made for the AIM anyway, isn't it? And y'all are an "outlier." (Outliar?)
     JDTippett isn't known to spread rumors, and neither am I. But I guess, under certain circumstances, it could happen. If it turns out to be untrue, I'll be more than happy to issue a correction and an apology for both of us.
     I'm glad you've started to take notice of whether something is true or not. Is this a recent epiphany for you? You certainly don't seem to care about such things on the AIM forum.

-geraldgarrett

Contrary to popular belief I have only used the thumb feature on ONE person (who is no longer with us,BTW), but I just made it two.

Kudos to you, buddy.

If the AIM is struggling to remain a viable member of Scripps, it has nothing to do w/ how the AIM is running it's forum and everything to do w/ what is occurring in the newspaper/newsprint industry.  The likes of the Chicago Sun Times, Minneapolis Tribune, a large Philly paper, to name a few have filed for Ch. 11 Bankruptcy protection.  Due entirely to the transition from people preferring to have a newspaper thrown in their front yard to reading their news online.  Also impacted in a major way by the reccession and significant declines in advertising revenue as Mr. Hughes is alluding to.  As I understand it, if you look at a list of Companies that filed for Ch. 11 Bankruptcy protection in 2008 - 2009, you will also see a number of paper companies that produce newsprint that is supplied to the newspapers across the globe.  It's an industry issue, not an Anderson, SC or Butch Hughes issue, no matter how it is spun.
 
Gerald, I don't know if your source is reliable or not, but I think you are participating in the same thing you accuse the AIM of participating in sometimes, w/ a less than definitive source.
 
Here is what I posted on this subject over at the AIM, and included a link to an example of a large newspaper that filed for Ch. 11 Bankruptcy protection:
 
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/dec/22/parent-company-easley-powdersville-newspapers-reor/

Thanks, Scratchy, but let's hold off on the thumbs until we see if David gets the stuffings knocked out of him by Goliath here. This may well be the end of ATZ, much to the delight of a bunch of liars who would stop at nothing to destroy anybody who disagrees with them.
        Before anybody starts passing out kudos to me or anybody else here, you should know that I believe the following:
        1. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects speech from GOVERNMENT censorship. It has nothing to do with protecting what is said on a private or corporate website, or in a private business. Those who claim censorship because they are restricted in what they can say on a privately-owned forum like this one are simply clueless about the First Amendment.
        2. Free speech does, indeed, have limits set by law, both civil and criminal. No one should be free to spread unfounded rumors, deliberately set out to damage a person's reputation or business through lies, rumors or innuendo. That's called slander. Or libel. Or defamation of character.
        3. No one should be allowed to impersonate another person with the specific intent of harming that person's reputation or business. That's called "fraud." 
       Unfortunately, Butch Hughes apparently disagrees with me on all of those things. Since he's publisher of a mid-sized daily newspaper that is part of one of the larger newspaper chains in the United States, I'm assuming he knows what's best for the overall health of the community - and that, apparently, is to allow lies, slander and fraud to stand unchallenged on his own website. Butch and I have talked about this several times. His response each time was about as useless as tits on a boar.
       He certainly has no legal responsibility to do anything about what's posted on his site (and we likewise have no legal liability for anything that appears here), but I think there is a MORAL responsibility involved. You simply cannot allow people to be destroyed by lies.
       In any event, I'm just going to play by his rules for awhile. In fact, I'm almost inclined to attack that washed-up, recovering alcoholic dick of an editor he hired after he fired Kausler for disagreeing with the direction the AIM was taking. (Washed-up recovering alcoholic? Hey, I believe I was characterized that way on the AIM site not too long ago, and they thought it was just fine and dandy to let it stand. What a coincidence! It's not true about me, either.)
       But I'll hold off on that for later, just to see what's going to happen here and to see if he really does have a clue about fraud, slander, defamation, libel, etc., etc., etc.
       Come on, Butch. Those professional standards I honestly do still have won't let me keep this up for very long, but I'll play as dirty as you want to play just to make a point. You've already callously allowed reputations of a lot of people to be destroyed over on the AIM site. How much more harm could I possibly do to mine than you've already allowed to be done?
        It's YOUR reputation at stake now, and I think that's sad because I really do have a lot of respect for you. Are we having fun yet?

        And, DWade, I am doing the same thing I accuse the AIM of doing, although from the standpoint of their news site, I've never accused them of using a less than definitive source. I think, overall, they do a very good job of covering local news.
        It's only their forum that's destructive to the public discussion. What's your point? I know it's clue mating season (as SSHM likes to say) and you're standing in the middle of pack of clues while fresh out of clue scent, so I'll give you one I have left over: Read the signature line at the bottom of the first post on this thread. Make of this thread what you will, but there's often a lesson to be learned from madness.

I'm glad you've started to take notice of whether something is true or not. Is this a recent epiphany for you? You certainly don't seem to care about such things on the AIM forum.

-geraldgarrett

Gerald,

What I find fascinating about his reply here is this:

Hughes/EW Scripps/AIM/et al have been fighting these rumors of solvency and the ability to stay afloat for some time. Until this evening, such discussion has simply been shrugged off, usually with a multi-slide presentation from Butch explaining how the diversity in the portfolio of the local AIM is enough to sustain it if not make it thrive.

Waving the specter of "corporate lawyers" is certainly a new tactic, especially when dealing with "rumors" (excellent job C-V).

Honestly, the actions of that one post validate what many of us have know for quite some time: ATZ is THE NEWS SOURCE when you really need to understand local issues and don't want the truth sugar-coated, censored, or delayed.

- SSHM

Here's a link to E.W. Scripps' third-quarter financial reports. I'll leave it to the CPAs and business geniuses among you to determine how long a corporation with financially improving holdings in radio and television is willing to bleed red ink on its newspaper holdings. Scripps can afford to do so for quite some time. But will they? They've already shut down the Rocky Mountain News, which back in the 70s before John Denver screwed up Colorado with his Rocky Mountain High was a place almost everybody I knew wanted to go to.
      That's the dilemma for the AIM. If a century of tradition means nothing in Denver, what does Anderson have as a defense?
 
      http://pressreleases.scripps.com/downloads/pressreleases/1132/1132.pdf
 
     As for my sources (somebody asked), I still have a few friends in San Angelo and Corpus Christi TX (remnants of the old Harte-Hanks chain that owned the Independent and Daily Mail when I worked there), Knoxville TN and Cincinnati, despite the ongoing effort by uncaring Scripps employees in Anderson, SC, to allow the trashing of repuations. You might want to consider zipping your corporate fly.

http://scripps.com/

Financial Reports
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=98686&p=irol-reportsannual

2008 Annual Report
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MzQ0MzEzfENoaWxkSUQ9MzMxMTMzfFR5cGU9MQ==&t=1

page 4
Newspapers managed solely by us —The markets in which we publish and solely manage daily
newspapers and the circulation of these daily newspapers is as follows:                            
                                       
Anderson (SC) Independent-Mail
2008 2007 2006 2005 2004
     (In thousands)
 29   34   35   36   37
(15% decline from 2007 to 2008)

page 5
Circulation information for the Sunday edition of our newspapers is as follows:

Anderson (SC) Independent-Mail
2008 2007 2006 2005 2004
     (In thousands)
 32   38   40   41   43
(19% decline from 2007 to 2008)

With declining circulation numbers like that, you'd think that the Publisher of the Anderson Independent-Mail would have jumped at the opportunity to be the coupon printer/supplier/distributor for a coupon program that would have raised $1 million annually for Anderson District 5 schools, and five to ten times that amount of revenues for participating Anderson businesses.  (In this case, the idea of 'shopping locally' extended to starting with a local coupon provider.....the local newspaper.)

It might have helped some of his now shuttered business advertisers stay open this year.
JK

Those are distressing numbers, Centrist. I wonder if their gross revenue is available during the corresponding time frame?
       Hey, Butch, are we ready to get this thread in "context" as you like to say about posts on your AIM site when somebody complains? I'm assuming "context" is all that matters, huh?
       Don't worry. I'll wait. Dodeedo dedumdode ... hummmm ...

Sorry, Butch, but I'm going to have to let that one stand for now pending a formal confirmation or denial from your corporate offices. That's where all corporate and local decisions are being made for the AIM anyway, isn't it? And y'all are an "outlier." (Outliar?)
     JDTippett isn't known to spread rumors, and neither am I. But I guess, under certain circumstances, it could happen. If it turns out to be untrue, I'll be more than happy to issue a correction and an apology for both of us.
     I'm glad you've started to take notice of whether something is true or not. Is this a recent epiphany for you? You certainly don't seem to care about such things on the AIM forum.

-geraldgarrett

It is nice to see Butch concerned with the content of what is published under his banner, Gerald. Now, if the same thing happens to this forum, what a wonderful world it would be! Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year.

Wow, I guess all those nuts that listen to Rick Driver have been right when they were saying that the Independent's relentless carrying of Joey Preston's water was dragging them down and destroying their credibility. Any possible lessons there for this forum, Gerald?

Here's the point Gerald, and after a very quick look at their financials (I'm rushed for an 8:30 meeting I need to get to).  I'll point you to a few things.  If you look at their statement of operations for 2008, the primary reason Scripps was not profitable was a very large non-cash charge to writedown Goodwill and long-lived assets (approx. $806 million).....very important point.....a NON-CASH charge.  Take that out and they were essentially breakeven.  There are literally hundreds of media outlets that would have taken break-even 2008 results.  That's how hard this industry has been hit. 

Move over to the Cash Flow statement.  From a Cash Flows from operating activities, Scripps is cash flow positive.  Moving further down the c/f statement, it would appear they paid off $544 million of long-term debt in 2008.  Now, I didn't have time to read the detail discussion around their cash flow statement, but it looks like this is a company that is trying to manage it's debt/financing and avoid Ch. 11, and is doing better than many in its industry, though may eventually cave.

Centrist, regarding why the AIM might not have done the District 5 flyer/fundraiser printing.  W/o seeing the #s, if it was not cash flow positive to them, w/ the distress the newspaper/newsprint industry is in, they are just not in a position to do charity printwork these days.  What I recall reading in the 2008 timeframe was suppliers of newsprint to newspapers, managing their inventories cut back production, which made demand outstrip supply for a period of time, and allowed newsprint producer to steadily raise prices during 2008 (this was in the Wall Street Journal....I also have a friend that works in the industry).....so the price of that paper those flyers would have been printed on in 2008 and 2009 (at least early 2009) was very expensive, and I would bet it was very much a losing proposition for them to print these flyers, thus they passed, which would have been a good business decision. 

Gerald, fake JDTrippett and fake SSHM blamed the AIM's plight on you.  You blamed it on the AIM's mismanagement of their blog forum.  My point is both of you are wrong.  The decline in circulation and advertising #s you are seeing for the AIM is no different than any other newspaper in the U.S.  Go find a list w/ increasing #s......can't find it...doesn't exist.  Why will they keep running....well, if they, in the newspaper business can get it to be cash flow positive, while working on revising/downsizing the business model to match current and future business levels, possibly they can survive. If not, possibly they head to Ch. 11.  I did not look to see if they have separate legal entities for newspaper vs. radio, but if they did, they could, if business continues to decline file Ch. 11 on the newspaper/newsprint side of the business only while continuing to operate the rest of the business outside of Ch. 11 proceedings.  It's odd to me if they were thinking Ch. 11, why they would pay down so much debt, unless it was all secured debt and they had no choice or could not get it refinanced. 

I stand by what I said....I think your sources is wrong.....if they can figure out a way to keep the newspaper business c/f positive, the overall corporation benefits, vs. having assets sitting idle producing no positive cash flow. 

Now, if the same thing happens to this forum, what a wonderful world it would be! Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year.

-sweethomealabama

Ah but you see there SHA, THIS enterprise does not rely upon subscribers, or positive cash flow, or a editorial board that obfuscates the news and articles that are "chosen" to print. This forum exhibits a greater level of responsibility to the community as a whole that the paper has in at least TWELVE months. Is it any wonder that this forum is loved by many yet remains firmly in the cross-hairs of the Chronically Dependent and W-Low-IQ?

New Media? It's the single best thing that can happen to the old news papers and old radio stations.

- SSHM

Centrist, regarding why the AIM might not have done the District 5 flyer/fundraiser printing.  W/o seeing the #s, if it was not cash flow positive to them, w/ the distress the newspaper/newsprint industry is in, they are just not in a position to do charity printwork these days. 

-dwade

Not charity print work.  They were approached to be a coupon vendor, and expected to make a profit. 

Businesses get hit up all the time for donations. Businesses can be charitable all year long if they can make a profit through their charitable acts.
JK

You can get into the more technical aspects of the failing newspaper business but what it comes down to is simply that people aren't going to pay for something that they get online for free.

The same thing happened to the music industry.  It's happening to DVD sales too.  I know several people who have canceled their subscriptions for that reason.  And what makes it even worse for AIM is that their website sucks.  I rarely even go there anymore.  Anything important enough to read will be on Fox Carolina or WYFF or something.

One way to cut costs at AIM is to STOP printing and delivering those free HOMETOWNERS that Mr. Microphony b*tches about!!!  Dont know the exact costs, but imagine they are substantial.  Deliver ONLY to those who PAY for that service.

As for Butch being threatened by posts "alledgedly" doing damage....
Well Mr. Hughes, your paper also allowed heinous and liabelous posts to stand without fail for over  a year.  Even after being contacted. Even after "requesting removal".  Even when it came time for slander suits, those posts stood.

So, welcome to the club!

Wyatt said:  "One way to cut costs at AIM is to STOP printing and delivering those free HOMETOWNERS that Mr. Microphony b*tches about!!!  Dont know the exact costs, but imagine they are substantial.  Deliver ONLY to those who PAY for that service."

Don't know what these are, but suspect full of advertisements, the advertisements which pay the cost for producing these.  Probably for vendors that advertise in them, a way for them to reach customers that don't take the AIM or maybe do not access the AIM's website for any advertising done there?  In good times I suspect these generate more revenue than they cost the AIM to produce.   Maybe not in these trying times, which might require them to cut back on the # distributed.