The Cincinnati Post 2007

Some thoughts on The Cincinnati Post, whose final edition will be December 31, 2007. (My grandfater, Eddie Halloran, was a former Post editor, and legend).

Basically Scripps (the company that owns the Post) and Gannett (the company that owns the Enquirer) signed a joint-operating revenue sharing agreement between the two papers back in 1977. Even then, the afternoon Post was struggling financially (as were most afternoon dailies at the time, many which have already gone out of business elsewhere). The JOA was a way to keep the Post alive, and for the Enquire some greater reach.

The joint operating agreement basically meant that the Post and the Enquirer would share advertising staff, printing costs, etc., but the Post and the Enquirer would maintain seperate editorial staffs. The JOA was set as a 30-year deal, meaning 2007, and the agreement was never extended.

While it will be sad to see the Post go, even the editorial staff itself realizes that this was inevitable. The Post is simply a good news organization stuck in a business model that disappeared a long time ago.