Over the last two years, I have done several posts on what I believe is Robert Nutting’s business model for his newspapers and his baseball team (“on the cheap”). (I first described the model here.) The plan entails spending as little as possible while producing a less-than-mediocre (at best) product. Here are some very recent events that may impact that model.

Reporters at Ogden Newspapers’ Lawrence (KS) paper organize

Earlier this month, I wrote about how the union at Ogden’s Maui (HI) newspaper was trying to prevent local jobs from being outsourced by Ogden to the mainland. Yesterday, Ogden workers at its Lawrence (KS) newspaper announced that they were organizing with the NewsGuild:

Staff at the Lawrence Journal-World, a paper owned by Ogden Newspapers, have decided to organized with the NewsGuild. https://t.co/gJvocC9edW

— Nolan_Rosenkrans⚔️ (@NolanRosenkrans) September 28, 2020

From that statement:

The sale of the Journal World to Ogden Newspapers, which is based in West Virginia, has continue to result in even more cuts, which are noticeable to our readers and detract from our mission to inform the community. Despite having a billionaire owner, the company’s actions have not demonstrated a true commitment to quality journalism or adequate support of the people who produce it.

We are organizing in order to have a seat at the table and to protect our community’s interests when decisions are made about its local news source.

We are organizing so that our colleagues can be fairly compensated for their increasing workloads and able to afford to live and raise families in the community they cover.

We are organizing to rededicate this newspaper to the words in its mission statement, including “accurate and fair news reporting,” “safeguarding the rights of all citizens regardless of race, creed or economic stature,” and “sympathy and understanding for all who are disadvantaged or oppressed.”

I will try to follow what happens in Kansas.

Worst-in-baseball Pittsburgh Pirates may need only to improve to mediocre to make playoffs

Robert Nutting’s Pittsburgh Pirates did not win one-third of their games this season and finished with the league’s worst record. However, recent reports suggest that major league baseball is looking at the possibility of keeping the 16-team playoff system that was approved for this year’s pandemic-shortened season. (With only 30 teams, the system almost ensures that teams that did not win half of their games, as Milwaukee and Houston did this year, will make the playoffs.) To add more perspective, the terrible Pirates were not mathematically eliminated until one week before the end of the season and that happened only because they lost 12 of their previous 13 games.

This is good news for Nutting and bad news for Pirate fans.