Rhinoceros Times closes, Greensboro NC Rhino Times conservative weekly, Free paper and internet site money woes, God bless John Hammer, The truth in print in NC

“But, February made me shiver with every paper I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep – I couldn’t take one more step
I can’t remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside the day the music died”

“Satan laughing with delight the day the music died”...Don McLean “American Pie”

“The function of the press is very high. It is almost Holy.
It ought to serve as a forum for the people, through which
the people may know freely what is going on. To misstate or
suppress the news is a breach of trust.”…. Louis D. Brandeis

With a bit of sadness I report and mourn the loss of the Rhinoceros Times, a conservative weekly newspaper and website published in Greensboro, NC.

The truth in print in NC.

However, as the saying goes, every closed door leads to an open door.

Let’s hope so for the sake of publisher John Hammer and the truth.

From the Greensboro News Record May 1, 2013.

“The Rhinoceros Times newspaper in Greensboro closes”

“After more than 21 years, Rhinoceros Times publisher John Hammer says Greensboro’s conservative weekly newspaper has published its last issue.

“We just ran out of money,” Hammer said in an interview Tuesday.

In a post to the free weekly’s website Tuesday morning, Hammer wrote that the paper is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. He asked for reader donations to help pay off creditors.

The paper’s website will keep going for as long as it can, Hammer said — but having laid off all his paid staff Tuesday, he isn’t sure what it will look like.

“I’m still enormously interested in local politics,” Hammer said. “That hasn’t changed just because we’ve run out of money.”

Hammer said print advertising just dried up. An aborted attempt to expand into Charlotte also lost the company a lot of money, Hammer said. The paper pulled out of Charlotte in 2008.

Hammer said he met with a series of potential buyers and investors but couldn’t put together a deal to save the paper. It isn’t yet clear what will become of the paper’s offices on Market Street, he said.

Scott Yost, the paper’s Guilford County editor and columnist, said staffers will land on their feet but the community will feel the loss of the Rhino.

“I feel like we’ve been a real asset,” Yost said. “I feel like we’ve uncovered a lot of scandal, and a lot of politicians and leaders didn’t get away with things because of us.”

The Rhino freely mixed news writing with editorial comment and came at every story from a conservative point of view — something Hammer said they never denied.

But the paper also crusaded for more transparency in local government, Hammer said, reporting on politicians meeting in secret and publishing an annual salary list of every county and city employee.

The Rhino’s combative nature and conservative message made it popular with area Republicans, a number of whom it championed for local office.

“The Rhino was very important for conservatives and how we got our message out,” said Linda Shaw, the chairwoman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

“I hate to see them go,” Commissioner Jeff Phillips said in agreement.

“I’ll miss the constant presence of their conservative message and Scott Yost at all our meetings,” Phillips said. “It’s hard to imagine Guilford County politics without the Rhino.”

Not everyone was sorry to hear about the paper’s demise.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/home/1149017-63/the-rhinoceros-times-newspaper-closes

“Not everyone was sorry to hear about the paper’s demise.”

A compliment if ever I heard one.

I can hear satan laughing with delight, but we must not let the truth die.