How is the newspaper business different from the laws of nature?
Answer: It isn’t. Nature abhors a vacuum just as much in the sales rack as it does in outer space. For example, no sooner had the Gazette’s space in the VONS rack been emptied (due to 11 weeks of non-payment from the market) than the void was filled with a new rack, twice as large, pregnant with Ventura Star papers. Adding a little insult to injury, the sign adorning the newly expanded edifice reads “Fillmore. Your town. Your paper” – a weaselly way of kinda-sorta saying “hometown paper”. When I think of the 7-day weeks and frequent 18-hour days the Gazette has spent publishing local news for the past 20 years, that pretension seems just a little curious. Curious, not surprising or unexpected. Let them spend the hours to earn the spurs. The spectacle of a small town weekly like the Gazette competing head to head with two billion-dollar corporations seems almost lugubrious to me (I’ve always enjoyed that word). I’ve just been in this business too long and seen too much to be surprised.
While the Gazette has had to abandon its long-standing spot at the market it will continue to serve its loyal readers at the Balden Town Center as best it can.