Claremont Villager to close

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 15, 2009 -- After 11 weeks of publication, the Claremont Villager is calling it quits. Today’s issue (Nov. 13th) is its last. All 4,500 subscribers will receive a full, $12 refund in the mail by year-end.

Salmon Press decided to close the paper down because sales of advertising did not meet expectations. “We needed $5-$6,000 dollars of advertising a week to break even,” according to Richard Piatt, head of the Meredith-based chain of eleven other weeklies in New Hampshire.

“But we only sold $3-4,000 a week of ads,” he said. “At any of our other weeklies in New Hampshire, we typically sell at least twice that much.”

Subscription sales did meet the Salmon publisher’s expectations. The re-entry of the daily Eagle-Times on October 12th from its July 10th bankruptcy was decisively bad for the Claremont Villager, according to the Salmon publisher.

“Advertisers liked our weekly paper, but were relieved to have the daily back,” he said. “Bell weather clients expressed fear that if they did not fully and exclusively support the Eagle-Times, it would go out of business again.”

The paper’s six-person staff will be retained at full salary until the end of the year, and their office over the Connecticut River Bank building on Broadway will remain open for them to use to find new jobs. All were former Eagle-Times employees before the bankruptcy.

The publisher, who has been in newspapers for 40 years, said, “I have never worked with a start-up staff of such maturity, competence and drive. From the get go, they jumped in and sank their heart, soul and teeth into it.”

“We loved publishing a paper here; it’s a good town with great people,” the Salmon publisher concluded. “I’m glad we gave it our best shot. Defeat is never easy, but regret at never having tried would have felt even worse.”