City Paper: In [Blank] We Trust

The new owners of the Waco Tribune-Herald, a newspaper run for the last three and a half decades by Cox Enterprises, greeted their Central Texas readers with a note on Saturday to explain why in God's name they would want to run a newspaper in this day and age, when, as we all know, newspapers are dying.

As it turns out, God may well be behind it: The paper, from here on out, will print the words "In God we trust" on its front page.

Here, in part, via Romenesko, is the introductory message from Clifton Robinson, chairman of Robinson Media Co.:

This is the first edition of the Trib under the ownership of the Clifton Robinson family. The new experience of newspaper ownership is exhilarating, exciting and entered into with certain trepidation, remembering quotes of “Stick with what you know” and “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

... The newspaper business is currently undergoing what can best be described as the perfect storm: The failing U.S. economic conditions coupled with the digital age have caused advertising revenues and subscriptions to decrease.

Change is the byword of our modern society, and such is the case of the Trib. It's time for a change, and hopefully our values and opinions will be well received by our advertisers and readers. It will come about slowly but surely with the first change being printed on this paper's front page, where it will remain during the tenure of our ownership: In God we trust.

Clearly, that's the answer to all of journalism's woes: Get God to back your enterprise.

But more importantly: What declaration might City Paper put on its front cover? In whom - in what - do we trust?

Tags: City Paper, Clifton Robinson, In God we trust, Waco Tribune-Herald