Newspaper Doom: Journal Couldn't Hold The Front Page?

These are the headlines blaring out of newspaper boxes all over Santa Fe this morning.

From the Santa Fe New Mexican: "

." (Nice photo, too.)

And from the

, or whatever it's called now:

Ouch

. That's too bad.

I'm not at all familiar with the Journal's deadlines, but I do wonder why an editor didn't make a decision to hold the front page until the City Council vote, given the importance of

to the Santa Fe's future and overall economy. Maybe it would've cost

too much money

. Maybe everybody wanted to get home in time to

.

Worse, the Journal's website—which could be updated at any time, mind you—still features the

now-incorrect "hangs in the balance" story

.

Seriously: Why?

This is 2009

. The story could be updated in five minutes.

Now, this might seem trivial:

The Journal misses a story. Big whoop

. Actually, for reasons that might not be immediately obvious, it's pretty important.

Santa Fe is lucky to be one of the few remaining American cities with two daily newspapers.

That may not be the case for very long

, if one of them continues to operate like this.

For all their limited resources, occasional screw-ups and

, The Journal and the New Mex serve to check and balance one another. (SFR plays that role, too, but the fact is, this paper has two full-time reporters—and comes out once a week.) I'd say on most days, the Journal beats the New Mex on depth. So it would be a real shame if the Journal rendered itself irrelevant, as it did with today's top story.

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