Tuesday’s city council agenda has an item that proposes to extend the contracts that the city has with two local newspapers.
The city must by law publish certain things in a local newspaper. This is a mandatory expense.
The proposed contract extensions are for two years and will cost us $225,000 per year.
Play nicely
The agenda item does not explain how the money will be split between the two publications. That will be up to city staff.
Would the city punish a newspaper that was critical of the city administration?
I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
I do know you get what you pay for.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
What about the other side of this coin? Do these newspapers fail to pursue or report critical issues and do they turn a blind eye and support some wrong-headed City moves in exchange for the financial consideration they receive from the City? Even if Inc. and the Times split the money, this amount of money is meaningful to these newspapers given the dismal financial condition of most newspapers. Plus, the City and its affiliates such as museums, downtown management district, etc., purchase a significant amount of other advertising throughout the year.
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Seems like conflict of interest. The Times will never be objective or honest in their reporting
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Yep. When you add the real estate transactions on top of the advertising transactions, the Times has been bought and paid for. It’s now just the PR firm for city council and Mountainstar Sports, which it definitely plans to benefit from.
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