Comments on: Visalia Times-Delta Struggles to Keep Autonomy

By: Judy Harmon Smith

Judy Harmon Smith — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 01:37:34 +0000

So sad to read about the state of community journalism in Visalia today. When I was the Lifestyle editor at the T-D in the late 1970s, we transitioned from 36-pound old manual typewriters to networked computers, and from a family-chain ownership to Gannett. The newsroom crew included veterans and younger people, all sharp, all local. The shame is, the business model for all traditional news outlets everywhere, is BROKEN. The ad dollars started going to cable TV in the late ’70s, and eventually ended up with internet- based companies, social media in particular. Same everywhere, but smaller towns are the most affected. Who’s going to be left to keep the spotlight on government? Heck, many public officials don’t even bother to return reporter calls these days. I dont know how we can survive as a free nation, without a vibrant free press.

By: George Lurie

George Lurie — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 17:18:07 +0000

A lot of good people have been — and continue to be — chewed up and spit out by the dysfunctional, cancerous machine Gannett has allowed the T-D to become. Folks in Tulare County deserve better. A local daily MUST care about the community it covers — and encourage and support its news-gathering team. Emphasizing digital platforms and worrying about metrics are a smoke screen. Teamwork, accuracy and positive morale are what make newspapers work and these ideals have got to be emphasized in building any newsroom of the future. Community journalism, while far from lucrative, is still very important and necessary in our 21st century world. Ten years ago, in another company-wide initiative, Gannett rechristened its newsrooms ‘local information centers.’ With regard to the T-D’s orientation then, the moniker could not have been further from the truth. Keep up the good work there Catherine (and Joseph)!

By: Jordan Righi

Jordan Righi — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 03:28:07 +0000

Great article. Another thing that has changed is that the VTD and Tulare-Advance Register are designed and paginated in Arizona. The so-call “local” editor and publisher, or any of the VTD’s shrunken staff, have no input regarding the selection of wire copy. Local editors used to select national and international stories based on their knowledge of the community and what might be of interest to readers here — agriculture stories, for example.
But I guess editors in Arizona know more about what we, who live here, are interested in.