Hotrod can you sticky this post please.
From another message board !
Everyone I need your help !
To All,
It appears those of us in the fishing/boating world will soon have one less source of information available to us. As many of you already know the Newark Star-Ledger almost went down the tubes and many concessions by represented and non-represented employees/writers had to be made under threats from management to sell or shutdown the largest newspaper in the Garden State. One victim of this down-sizing by management at the paper was the reduction of Al Ristori’s column from several days a week to only one day a week. Al’s column is now scheduled to only appear on Friday though he will continue his daily blog on the web site
http://www.nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing/.
For decades most of us have read and enjoyed Al’s column and some have also used it to promote a charter business, tournament, boat show, seminar, etc. Some of us have also had the pleasure of knowing Al personally and fishing with him aboard our boats where he then wrote about the trip.I spoke to Al the other day and he indicated to me if there was enough outcry from the fishing/boating public, management may reconsider their action and allow Al to continue writing his column as usual. One would think the ad revenue generated from the Friday charter/party boat ads would more than offset Al’s salary for the year.But as with most big corporations, top-level management reaps the benefits while the working-class Joe gets the short end of the stick.
I hope you’ll consider dropping a letter or fax or making a phone call to Tom Bergeron, Sports Editor, The Star-Ledger, Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, NJ 07101.
973 392-4023. Fax- 973 392-5845. Tell him how important Al’s column is to not only the paper but also to the economy as well since it helps promote fishing/boating here in New Jersey.
Let’s do what we can to keep Al’s column around for as long as he wants to write it.
