Double Trouble: The Ostrich digs a deeper hole

Maine Papers Hit With More Circulation Losses

Let’s briefly recap past items on this subject.  In May of this year, we reported in this post as follows:

The Times Record in Brunswick was no exception to the trend. It went from a daily circulation of 8,673 a year ago to 8,091 now, a loss of 6.7 percent. The weekend edition dipped from 10,366 in 2009 to 9,583 in 2010, down more than 7.5 percent.

Now we come across a recent update (Mon, 11/08/2010) from Al Diamon, noted Maine curmudgeon, on the same subject.

Another round of down: The statistics for the six months ending September 30, 2010, range from poor showings – the Times Record in Brunswick saw daily and weekend circulation both drop by 5.3 percent from a the same period a year ago – to seemingly disastrous ones – the Maine Sunday Telegram was off by 10.8 percent, while the Portland Press Herald suffered a 9.9 percent loss.

It’s no secret that “traditional media,” both print and electronic, are suffering major declines in circulation and viewership.  In Brunswick, the loss of a large population segment (BNAS families) is a contributing factor. 

The fact remains that media dinosaurs are, like defeated Democrat incumbents in the recent election, convinced they have a birthright to a powerful and prosperous position in society, and they are slow to see the writing on the wall.  Especially in the town of Perfect, otherwise known as Brunswick, where Bowdoin students frolic, and retired big city lawyers and bureaucrats parade in their feathered finery at art walks and poetry slams.

We’ve seen some evidence of late that papers like the Lewiston Sun Journal and the Portland Press Herald realize they can’t survive by appealing to a rabid 1/3 of the population while ignoring the rest, and they’re beginning to moderate their editorial policies. 

Expecting The Ostrich to follow suit is folly. They love Krugman and the other Kool-aid gurus from the NY Times, and the house editors are as true blue as they come.  They’ll keep on serving us Doug Rooks and the rest as they plod their way to the dung-heap of failed media.

Unless their tax problems do them in first.  And we have new information to report on this subject,  but before we do, let’s refer to our prior reports.

Ostrich Tax Delinquencies

Here are the links in case you want to refresh your memory, or for new readers, get the goods for the first time:

First, the original report:

http://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/2010/09/ostrich-not-looking-too-good-taxwise.html

Then we updated the story with this item:

http://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/2010/10/update-ostrich-property-taxes.html

It’s really tough to believe those reports are not much more than a month or two old.  How time flies.  Especially when we’re having fun.

To bring you current, we provide these updates, all based on publicly available information.

Brunswick Publishing still owes a portion of their 2009-10 personal property taxes.  That amount is $18,085.40.  The town has placed a lien against their personal property for the 2009-10 tax balance.  They owe all of their 2010-11 personal property taxes.  That amount now stands at $42,243.39.

As for real estate taxes, Brunswick Publishing did not make the October payment of their 2010-11 taxes, which, including interest was $37,230.76.  They will owe an additional $37,081.42 in April 2011. 

These are the amounts billed to Brunswick Publishing. 

There are also taxes assessed to Alliance Press, and they are delinquent for 2009 and 2010 personal property taxes, in amounts with interest of $6,365.71 and $5,550.82 respectively.

Without getting out Side’s calculator, it looks like The Ostrich enterprise owes our beloved town $100,000 plus in taxes.  And that’s without considering upcoming payments that would add further to the total amount in arrears.

But hey, they’re leading advocates for social and economic justice and fair share taxation, so we’re confident they’ll cough up the amounts owed soon,and accompany them with written testimony that confirms their undying commitment to shared responsibility for the common good.

We’ll publish it here when they do.  Lord knows we can all use the inspiration.

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