RealFastNews.MOBiClick here to get right to it OR continue reading the brief, but informative, backstory info below to describe the trainwreck of local news & media that follows it.
NOTE: RFN has always been operated by ONE person & is part time. This sole operator is NOT what is considered a "real" or trained journalist or a reporter & has NEVER claimed to be, unlike some other local want-to-be posers that have lied & failed trying to pass themselves off as such. However, RFN's operator has worked with & around authentic high level journalists as a crewmember where some newsgathering skills were picked up. Additionally, RFN's operator has extensive technical & video / cinematic experience at the broadcast / cable network & feature film levels in reality / news television & production operations but admittedly was naive and completely blindsided by the level of cheapness & acceptance of the "good enough" environment in small markets. Therefore, RFN is taking longer to develop into a high quality local news platform without becoming sterile & selling out resulting in the heavily shaped news by influence, agenda & bias delivered in Rome / Floyd each day >> RFN Bio
Behind the scenes and in the open, there's alot of mouthrunning going on between competitors in any industry and the media world is no different, even in Rome. Occasionally there's a public outbreak of criticism but just because it's not mentioned on their pages, doesn't mean they're not saying it. These people are obnoxious, arrogant, eccentric & hypocritical behind the scenes & occasionally in the open on their sites folks. They don't like new & fresh ideas, especially new technology they don't understand, which means they certainly don't like newcomers that threaten their longtime power & control of the distribution of local news when & how they want to deliver it. RFN has had enough and is going to talk about what's really going on. So, check this page often for new entries exposing the ridiculous antics, gimmicks, tactics and manipulation of local news content along with mistakes made by the providers. There's always a backstory with some things being too sensitive but the info below is what can be mentioned. The best part is that all of this is the truth and not necessarily an opinion although some might be. And NO, RFN is NOT jealous of these yahoos, just frustrated because the opportunity to provide unbiased local news is squandered by unhealthy relationships and agendas. The listings below are from newest to oldest where the really good stuff is located. And now the news . . . about local news!
The following video is a great parody of how ridiculous and over the top the media can really be, even at the regional and national levels.
>> Breaking News: Some BS Happening Somewhere! (strong language advisory)
SCROLL DOWN FOR THE LATEST NEW ENTRIES
Quotes of the DECADE in the world of 24 hr news access! The following is regularly posted in any given online RNT story, "For more details, see TOMORROW's Rome News-Tribune" AND "Details were unavailable at press time" . . . that's right RNT, bring attention to your ineptness and then wonder why you are failing. Other than those without internet access, the scary part is that there are those that will deprive themselves and wait 24+ hours later to PAY & see it in print like good little newspaper trained sheep. The bottom line is that YOU are being manipulated & deprived of already available information on a regular basis.
RNT gets the Decade of Local News Manipulation award for successfully obscuring and/or outright holding confirmed available info from the public online and selling the few to 24 hrs old news in print much later. This happens on a regular basis but in late January 2013, there was an incident where an official police press release was provided to ALL local media & RNT intentionally posted a vague report withholding the specific details to sell it in print 24 hrs later. RFN & other local sites had posted ALL the info as soon as it was released but there were instances of people reading the brief on RNT's site and on other sites that linked to RNT's brief that were asking where more specific details could be found about the incident. It's like newspapers that do this have a life ring in hand while watching someone drown saying they'll throw it to them when they feel like it.
MID February, 2015 ID fraud reports continued to grow with even more victims coming forward after a records theft at a local college. Although RNT has its moments of idiocy, it still manages to provide useful information every now & then but there was not a single word about those record thefts among all the canned, copy & paste press releases in the daily Crock Report on Rome's "news center" Hometown Headlines or its "strategic partner" radio station's news lineup, who both can't afford to speak the truth about that sponsor they both share. Unbelievable. And no, RFN is not jealous of tail kissers. HTH not reporting about a few other local nonadvertising untouchable elites has happened a few other times in the past probably because of affiliation conflicts or requests to not run it. RNT has taken plenty of this school's ad money over the years & they still posted it. Thanks RNT! Maybe we'll see more of this if the new owners are not or don't become as close to local powers as the previous leadership. If the local public only knew what was not being revealed because of favors or fear of retaliation & sponsor loss, which could also happen if a friend of a sponsor is affected or offended. Just scroll down to see past stories that Rome's "news leader", HTH, chose not to mention. UPDATE: The radio station mentioned actually grew some guts and reported on the stolen records but as expected, there was never a peep about it in the HTH Crock Report.
EARLY February, 2015 As expected, staff reduction began under new ownership at the bankrupt & recently sold Rome newspaper. Of course, even after successully running RNT into the ground, RNT's former exiting "executive" will still collect his $10K/month for 20 months ($200K) checks serving as a "consultant". Then imagine how sweet the financial package must be to have lured the former RNT publisher, Otis Raybon, to abruptly resign in Mississippi & rush back to Rome after fleeing from RNT back in '13. According to the most boring name in local news & RNT's other biggest fan, Hometown Headlines, ALL staff has been procedurally terminated with all contracts & past benefits voided & so far, at least two employees are out the door for good. As for the remaining staff under the new ownership, they should be wary for the axe to swing in their direction in the near future >> HTH
LATE January, 2015 TRAFFIC ALERT! ... TRAFFIC ALERT! Mr Hometown just doesn't seem to know what to do with the power of this thing called the internet. It appears as though he forgot that he lives in Rome along with most of his viewers when he posted a traffic alert for a road closure . . . IN CEDARTOWN! It's not the first time either. His excuse would be that EVERYBODY in Cedartown, 25 miles away, makes it a point to look at his website featuring daily copy & paste press releases about his friends & sponsors in ads disguised as news. If it's not Cedartown, it's Cartersville. This is right up there with RNT posting breaking news about a fast food restaurant chain closing a store in CEDARTOWN or yet another WalMart opening in Ft Oglethorpe. Just scroll down for that.
LATE January, 2015 In an apparent attempt to actually be useful, the typically most boring name in local news, Mr Hometown Headlines, decided to "report" the location of several police motorcycle units presumably actively writing traffic tickets at a focused location but his plan to be cool, backfired. He forgot that his self described "affluent" audience is much older & therefore found that type of "news" to be irresponsible & probably immature. He received a good o'le smackdown on his Facebook page by several people. It probably wouldn't have been as noticed if it had been mentioned after the fact. What's more surprising than anything is that he didn't delete the critical comments or the entire post like in the past, at least not yet. And just in case he did, RFN got this screenshot first >> CONVERSATION SCREENSHOT
LATE January, 2015 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not really. But that's what RNT wanted you to believe. Out of the frying pan & back into the fire. In a surprise twist, former RNT publisher, Otis Raybon, who resigned a while back, presumably from disgust & embarrassment & headed to Mississippi to the Daily Leader (scroll down for that backstory), resigned from his position there & announced his return to Rome with a "deal he just couldn't refuse". From RNT, "The Daily Leader of Brookhaven, Mississippi, is reporting that Otis Raybon is returning to Rome for a position at the Rome News-Tribune". So RNT, how is it that he resigned & already had a deal to work for you & the story in that paper is how you found out about it? Do you really expect everyone to believe that? Just how did the deal at the Daily Leader link below occur before RNT discovered this & decided to share it with Floyd County? There seems to be alot of money being thrown around to "executives" for a newspaper that's had ongoing layoffs in the middle of a long drawn out bankruptcy owing millions to hundreds of creditors who should probably be asking some interesting questions about all of these pre-sale deals going on. Just scroll down to see more detailed posts about the unusual increase, double the original buyout offer, in a last minute auction that effectively shut out two other bidders, the $10K per month for 20 months ($200K) "consulting" payout for the exiting executive, the long familial relationships with the buyer & seller, the premature announcement of the sale along with the unusual confidence of the sale's success even though the bankruptcy judge had not yet approved the deal at that time and on and on >> DAILY LEADER
LATE January, 2015 If it's not a new sign, a newly paved lot, new building paint inside and/or out or a bake sale, etc., as ususal, Mr Hometown Headlines could not resist informing you about a local company known for recycling its products also choosing to "recycle" its sign. Well, not exactly. Mr HTH worded the "story" as if the company was recycling the sign to be environmentally friendly by not leaving it behind after they moved when in fact, they were simply moving the sign to the new location to save money which makes sense, doesn't it? Now that's a real newsworthy event if there ever was one but is to be expected from the most boring name in local news. He's got to justify his existence to those sponsors by creating something out of nothing. Just scroll down for more HTH absurdities.
LATE January, 2015 If it's not informing us of out of town fast food restaurant closures, wifi availability in other cities, etc, RNT thought it would be nice for you to know about the graaaand opening of yet another Walmart store in case you could not find what you needed in the TWO stores that Rome already has, except, this one is in Ft Oglethorpe! But it was an event worth noting where "Walmart employees danced & celebrated as the crowd gathered". Here is just a sample of what the new store features, "The new store will provide Fort Oglethorpe residents with low prices on an assortment of merchandise including fresh produce & meats, frozen foods, groceries, fuel & pharmacy & will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week". Yep, that basically describes what you will find at EVERY Walmart! With enterprise "stories" like this it's no wonder RNT is bankrupt >> RNT
MID January, 2015 Well, Mr Hometown Headlines finally made himself useful again by posting the latest update to RNT's bankruptcy process. He reported that in addition to the out of town newspaper, at least two other bidders were interested in buying out RNT's assets but at least one creditor expressed concerns about a significant debt still owed to them by RNT. All this while the RNT boss was to be paid $10K per month for 20 months (that's $200K!) as a "consultant" by the first out of town buyer (see post below). Unbelievable! >> HTH
EARLY January, 2015 Among the many other daily copy/paste releases & "stories" he posts, AKA: ads disguised as news, Mr Hometown Headlines must have confused himself with his ad-soaked website by blurring the lines of story headlines & ads even further when he slipped up while introducing a local bank's new mobile website & mobile banking features. The irony is that the advertiser that "courteously brought you that story" was another local competing bank! That's right, another competing bank that is a paying HTH sponsor actually "sponsored" that "story" featuring its competitor's new services. Because Mr HTH is so comfortable with copying & pasting everything, he probably didn't even know that he had done it. And the bank that PAID for its competitor to be mentioned must not have caught it either because it was never corrected or removed. It appears that Mr HTH may need to go back to advertising school. But it kind of shows that nobody is really reading any of that drivel anyway, not even the ones that are paying for it. The names of the banks were removed to protect the innocent.
LATE December, 2014 In another desperate attempt to salvage what's left of its >> sinking ship by once again "Jumping the Shark" before it sells out to a company that actually knows how to run a newspaper business, the bankrupt Rome newspaper reached an all time low by thinking it would be a great idea to recall all of the local tragic deaths of 2014 to brag about how many views each of those stories got on its website. Not only that, they made it the top front page headline story in their print edition AND chose to do it only one day after Christmas. It's hard to say what's worse, using personal tragedies to promote its delusional, perverted "success" or bragging about incredibly low viewer numbers considering the size of the local population & a potential worldwide audience. To see RNT's obscenity, click >> RNT - RNT did not post this story on their Facebook page more than likely to prevent getting slammed with comments telling them how demented they are.
EARLY December, 2014 RNT posted a story with the following headline, "Rome & Floyd County residents should have a new, less-confusing local government website to visit soon". Maybe RNT should consider doing the same to their own confusing, layered, cluttered mess of a website. This is right up there when RNT lectured a local museum having "money troubles" as if RNT should be dispensing financial advice amid its embarrassing $10 million bankruptcy with several hundred creditors.
EARLY December, 2014 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not really but RNT sure thought so & felt compelled to let you know about this: "The Wendy's in Cedartown is no more after the restaurant closed its doors this week". Yep, that actually appeared as a "story" in the Rome newspaper. RFN can't decide what's worse, the fact that RNT posted this at all or that it was a store in ANOTHER DAMN COUNTY! What's even more ridiculous is that instead of posting important info about an MVA with injuries backing up traffic for you to avoid, RNT chose to post that during that same time with absolutely NO mention of the MVA, ever. Unbelievable folks!
LATE November, 2014 Well, it happened again folks. In a contest to outperform the bankrupt local newspaper RNT, Mr Hometown Headlines outdid himself with yet another round of continued, ongoing, extended, expanded, complete, dramatic, over the top, wall to wall, back to back to back to back smotherage of an incredibly common thing, the construction of an already widely known fastfood restaurant chain! This time, we were spared from a slideshow, just scroll down for past info. It seems the two are in a neverending contest to see who can give new local businesses the most FREE advertising weeks or months before their doors even open, all while their current PAYING sponsors subsidize the free ads disguised as news & don't seem to get it or care. But Mr HTH still hasn't figured out that RNT is the only local ad entity that will benefit from any revenue from these "stories" (AKA: pre-ad sales pitches) with future coupon ads, etc after they open. This time, Mr HTH informed all of his followers about a sign on the door that said "Opening Soon". Assuming it was not a commonly borrowed, lifted, contributed &/or unattributed picture (imagine that) (AKA: someone elses work & effort), in his typical "good enough" style, he even posted an illegible drive-by picture of it from a car 15 ft away because nobody expects him to make any effort by getting out of his car! But his loyal viewers of ads disguised as news (AKA: media releases) by his sponsors & friends weren't left wondering what was to come from those two brief words on the sign. Oh no, as usual, Mr HTH delivered his typical supplemental & compelling storytelling that only HE can compose to enhance the readers' experience as to what it's really like to witness the creation of a fastfood restaurant. See for yourself >> HTH
LATE November, 2014 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not really, because we all get the following & other safety lectures every year from multiple media sources but doesn't is sound informative? Well, RNT sure thought so by posting yet another canned annual FYi "story" with a headline that said, "The key to surviving severe weather is being prepared". Really? Did you really need to be told something that should be common sense? That is so ridiculous that RFN is not even going to link to that most informative story because the headline sums it up just fine. The most disturbing part is that there are still plenty of people willing to PAY for a daily newspaper that fills its pages with that & other worthless content just like it.
MID November, 2014 Another financial "restructuring" (AKA: BANKRUPTCY) court hearing for RNT got them a little closer to selling their newsgroup to an interested buyer. Here's RNT's watered down coverage of their legal proceedings >> RNT - And as expected, the most boring name in local news AND RNT's other biggest fan has more to tell >> HTH 1, >> HTH 2 AND >> HTH 3
EARLY November, 2014 It's really no surprise but it's worth mentioning AGAIN how RNT's rush to be first & their extensive use of inexperienced interns has burned them yet again. This time it was RNT's hasty cut & paste of a media release either without reading it first or reading it & just not understanding what should have been omitted which probably caused RFPRA to run out of cookies & Kool-Aid after RNT invited the entire county to a media-only event. The beginning of the release was an invitation to all local media & NOT for the public to see stating, "The Rome Floyd Parks and Recreation Authority respectfully requests your presence at a press conference on November 13 at 11A . . .". RFN & the other 2 local media sources removed that part but RNT did not and will not because they have already forgotten about the entire thing because they have moved on to copy & paste hundreds of other news stories (AKA: media releases) that nobody ever reads. In the past, RNT has also posted private cellphone numbers & other info from a media release sender's e-mail signature because they just copy & paste everything & don't pay attention.
LATE October, 2014 The bankrupt Rome newspaper group was being considered for a buyout by a Marietta Media Group. RNT finally learned a while back that they can't hide the details of their $10M bankruptcy debt & all kinds of other embarrassing financial information before other local media posts it so they now at least make a modest but pitiful attempt to inform you of their current status when they choose to. Of course & as expected, during rolling, ongoing layoffs since the internet began eroding traditional media delivery & amid many other examples of extreme cheapness, RNT's top top "executive" gets a "consulting" fee for 20 months after the sale, if approved >> RNT - RNT wasn't even the first to break the news of their own bankruptcy declaration back in January of 2013. But if you think RNT has told you the whole story, they have not. The most boring name in local news AND RNT's other biggest fan has more >> HTH
EARLY October, 2014 >> CONVERSATION SCREENSHOT - The most boring name in local news, Mr Hometown Headlines, finally took some public heat from someone other than RFN recently. This time, it was for his repeated "biased" coverage of a local high school football game. He explained that because he has a student at that school & therefore attends their games, that is why he posts more content about their games. He also reminded his critics that his main site has a number of links to other games' info. The fact that he had to tell them about that additional game info is indicative of the lack of knowledge of it by that person & others demonstrating the lack of exploration and/or the low amount of click-throughs, reaches or engagements from FB to HTH's main site to see that other info. A fact that ALOT of Facebookers either don't know about and/or don't like to admit. RNT would like to think that most, if not all, of their 23K FB & Twitter followers actually click on the story links in their FB & Tw posts, but they don't. The percentage of successful click-throughs is very small. Just because there are alot of "LIKES" or followers, that doesn't guarantee click-throughs. RNT's & HTH's PAYING sponsors should take note of that because their ad presence & money is being spent on the main websites, NOT on Facebook or Twitter which is where most of the viewers are staying. It's surprising that the critical posts of HTH have not been removed as another earlier post on another topic that questioned HTH's typical overzealous hype was when he described 150 views of a recent local video as being "VIRAL". It doesn't matter if he deletes the comments now. RFN has the screenshot.
MID September, 2014 In order to appear relevant & technically savvy, the usual press-releasing, no-news media suspects, RNT, Mr Hometown Headlines & WRGA made sure YOU knew about the release of the SIXTH generation of a popular smartphone. RNT sent a top level reporter to take a picture of the 15 person "crowd" to include it in a "story" that had only one sentence. Not to be outdone, Mr Hometown Headlines went as far posting a two-image slideshow with a more detailed description of this incredibly common thing starting with "we’re getting reports this morning of lines around the proverbial buildings ...". Really? WE? Doesn't he mean I, as in himself? So, people in Rome have nothing better to do than to contact Mr Hometown Headlines to inform him of a 15 person "crowd" at any given store location to buy a cellphone? He then went as far as noting the anticipated traffic jams caused by these overwhelming crowds. That guy is UNBELIEVABLE with his overzealous reporting. And finally the radio station, Mr HTH's "strategic" media partner, gave their version of the same momentus event but their angle was at a different location! None of them are even worth linking to or screenshotting this absurdity to prove it, so please take RFN's word for it. It's bad enough that RFN wasted the time to write all of this but Romans need something good to laugh at every now & then.
MID September, 2014 RNT >> jumped the shark once again to save its >> sinking ship. Instead of a typical meaningless "story" about a chain grocery store's GRAND OPENING (AKA pre-ad sales pitch), this time it was a slideshow to let YOU know about an incredibly common thing, the construction of an already well-known fastfood chain restaurant! Yep, there's heavy equipment, a concrete slab, wood, scaffolding, an assortment of other building materials & dirt. But multiple angles of the location are provided to make sure you get the complete picture. There may or may not have been an accompanying "story" about this unique event but RFN didn't even bother to look >> RNT SLIDESHOW
Of course, don't look for any criticism about this from Mr Hometown Headlines. He considers that slide show as some more FREE intelligence imagery to prepare his much anticipated continued, ongoing, extended, expanded, complete, dramatic, over the top, wall to wall, back to back to back to back smotherage of its grand opening! Mr HTH may even post his own slide show since he discovered that amazing technology a short while ago. The difference betweeen RNT & HTH in the battle to inform the public about this highly anticipated event for FREE is that HTH will NOT make any money from future ads. But why should he worry about that when he already has several PAYING sponsors that have been subsidizing other businesses' stories (free ads) posted on his site for years?
Until that time though, Mr Hometown cannot be outdone. Yep, the most boring name in local news chose to show a TWO-image slideshow of not construction, but the empty lot of a soon to be built Mexican fastfood restaurant chain with a big bell in the logo. Hmmm? You heard right, a TWO-image slideshow. The absurdity just never ends.
MID September, 2014 This happens every now & then but when it does, it never makes sense. Whether it's an over-the-top detailed "story" about a wreck with a dented fender or bumper, no injuries, no charges and/or no police report, it's something like this: RNT: "Police responded shortly before 11P to a report of an armed robbery at a local bank's ATM in West Rome. However, officers on the scene determined that the third-party call was the result of a misunderstanding and no robbery had occurred." Yes folks, that, in its two sentence entirety, was actually posted & not removed from RNT's site when found to be absolutely pointless. It's not known if it was actually printed in their paper but probably was since it's down to about 3-4 pages recently. RFN removed the business name & location to protect the innocent.
LATE June, 2014 RNT posted the following comment on their Facebook page, "Thanks for visiting our facebook page and commenting! We've reached 20,000 likes this morning!". Has the bankrupt RNT AND its creditors that it owes millions to overlooked the fact that a VERY large percentage of that 20,000 people don't buy their newspaper because they get the info for FREE on RNT's Facebook & website pages? And yet creditors continue to give RNT money or "work" with them to manage their massive debt load of $10M to several hundred creditors. Unbelievable.
EARLY June, 2014 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not really. But RNT wanted to make sure you knew about yet another grocery store chain that was coming to town by showing you crews erecting the store's sign. This would've typically been "slow news" content provided by RNT & HTH whether it's a new sign, paving their lot, getting new paint, floors, ceiling, total remodel or whatever (see other examples below), but not this time for RNT. This was actually a typical RNT pre-ad sales pitch in yet another attempt to save its >> sinking ship in the form of early FREE advertising to make it easier for RNT's ad sales team to get that new account when that store eventually opened. Then there's the eventual and typical continued, ongoing, extended, expanded, complete, dramatic, over the top, wall to wall, back to back to back to back smotherage from Mr Hometown Headlines about their grand opening. The only difference between the two is that RNT will eventually get paid for it & as usual, all of HTH's current PAYING sponsors will subsidize this new store's free ads disguised as news. And they still don't see what's going on.
Early June, 2014 HEY! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING! It seems as though the thought police at Rome's premiere AM news radio station, W...R...G...A had seen enough trash talk on their Facebook page & decided to tell the offenders a thing or two with the threat of being banned from their page if they continued. Just like at RNT, some power hungry teenage intern at this radio station must have gotten a thrill to tell all 20 of its commenters to cool it, OR ELSE! Would somebody please remind that twit that they work at a little bitty AM radio station in Rome, Ga & nobody really cares about their kindergarten scare tactics? If the viewers of both only knew what was on the other end lecturing them. Here is the warning that was posted: "It has been a while since we have posted so please let this serve as a warning but in the future, violations will be an automatic ban from our site. Please refrain from using abusive language or cursing when commenting on stories. We all love a good debate but please keep it civil. Again, this is a warning and any future cursing or abusive language will result in an automatic ban.
LATE May, 2014 RNT wanted to let YOU know several hours after an annual concert event started that "the crowd was still rocking just after 9:30P at the fairgrounds". That's right folks, somebody at the paper actually took the time to post that one sentence about something that nobody but the participants would actually care about anyway. Seriously, would anybody at that event really go to the paper's site to find out that they, in fact, are still rocking or might they already know that they are still rocking because they are, in fact, actually there in the act of rocking?
EARLY May, 2014 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not really. A local police agency accidently re-sent a media release about a missing child that was lost and found safe FIVE days earlier. As usual, RNT, the media release copy and paste machine, mindlessly re-posted the SAME release they got earlier as if it was new information. At least RNT didn't apply the BREAKING NEWS banner to it as they and another local news source are known to do for hours or days-old content. RFN caught the error right away and notified the police agency to confirm its validity.
MID April, 2014 Mr Hometown Headlines made sure you knew about a local restaurant (a chain) was offering a new sandwich. Oh, and it happens to be one of his top level sponsors, by the way. Just another example of his shameless advertising disguised as news >> HTH
MID April, 2014 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not exactly. Berry's mother eagle disappeared for about 1.5 days & Mr Hometown Headlines got hysterical about it during a radio show. But when is he not hysterical & over the top about anything? When he saw that she had returned, he actually interrupted an interview with a guest to make note of this momentus event calling it BREAKING NEWS. He even left the room to tell the radio news staff. Then, the social media fanatic, that has a well known, ongoing terminal case of SMD (Social Media Disease), immediately posted the BREAKING NEWS not once, but twice and consecutively to ALL of his platforms, in case you missed it. If Ga Power could figure out a way to harness Mr HTH's hyperactive energy, we could have a completely green bio-energy source >> SCREENSHOT
MID March, 2014 One of RNT's teen club Facebook "managers" really showed their age, inexperience & idiocy when they paraphrased a local police lookout which had a misspelled word. Someone commented on that error & the brilliant RNT FB admin replied saying, "you'll have to speak with the police department about that". Like that RNT twit couldn't have easily corrected that word that they copied off the PD's FB page since they had already cut down the amount of original content anyway. Yep, THAT is what's taking over America's newsrooms folks. This entry is not about the misspelled word. It's about the fact that RNT just doesn't care, even while its in the middle of bankruptcy. Take a look at some of RNT's teen-speak Twitter post examples below trying to capture a younger audience.
SOMETIME IN 2014 RNT decided to include a section on its website called "What We're Reading". . . . . WHO CARES! Maybe RNT should be more concerned about its multi-million dollar bankrupcty, paying its hundreds of creditors & paying its staff liveable wages rather than telling its shrinking audience what it's reading.
MID March, 2014 Did an RNT intern actually believe this or did they post it because it sounded unusual and might get some much needed clicks to help save RNT's >> sinking ship? . . . Yeah, they probably did believe it considering the poster originally spelled the location as BattERy Dr, which is actually Battey Dr, in the title AND the body of the report. However, it was corrected later. The report stated a woman's house was burglarized within five minutes of her leaving. Really? You may agree that it takes at least five minutes to get in your car & back out of the driveway. According to what the victim said she did during that time, more than likely she was gone longer than she thought while this happened. See for yourself >> RNT
MID March, 2014 A newspaper's FB page paraphrased a police BOLO which had a misspelled word. Then someone commented on that misspelling. A brilliant newpaper representative then replied saying, "you'll have to speak with the police department about that". Like they couldn't have corrected the word that they copied off the PD's FB page since they already cut down the amount of actual content anyway.
MID March, 2014 The following demonstates the dangers of copy & paste newsgathering. WRGA noted that a vacant store at the corner of Shorter Ave at Marigold in W Rome would soon become another business. The location that was listed in the radio station's report was Shorter at Magnolia Ave. The problem with that is that location does not even exist because the roads mentioned are nowhere near each other. Mr Hometown Headlines, WRGA's "strategic" news partner, is known for paraphrasing, sampling and copying & pasting their content and this was no exception. He copied that incorrect info & further propagated the wrong information. This is not about the mistake of the primary source posting the wrong info because mistakes happen. This is about mindless copy & paste journalism with little to no proof-reading. But who cares? Nobody really reads that stuff anyway, right? What more would you expect from a serial press release vending machine.
MID March, 2014 Mr Hometown Headlines is usually really good about falling in line and not making waves so as not to upset Rome's royalty but this time he really went out on a limb, grew a spine & some guts. Not really though. Just when you thought he did some real, home grown, investigative reporting, he actually tailgated the AJC so they could take the fall for openly exposing it first then he could claim it was already common knowlege. This is a common tactic for media sources that don't want to make enemies or upset sponsors but still feel the need to mention a touchy subject. It should be noted that RFN sometimes tailgates as well, but RFN links & does not paraphrase and/or copy & paste other media sources' work, with or without consent. The subject matter involved a Rome native's / House Representative's support of a bill that involved mandating local government entities to use licensed members of an industry that her family is heavily involved in.
EARLY March, 2014 RNT actually took the time to post the following "story" on their website: As expected with the new teen-like staff running the night shift, the story's title was "No worries about sirens in Coosa" and stated, "Residents in the Coosa area were disturbed shortly before 11P by a number of rescue vehicles racing by with sirens blaring. An FCPD official said they were responding to a serious medical call at a private home." That's right folks. The sirens on that night were somehow different than any other night. So much so, RNT just had to tell you about it. You have to know just how often late night emergency calls occur to truly appreciate just how insignificant & unnecessary that RNT "story" was to post. But it's just one more to add to artificially inflate the story count at the end of the year to impress current & potential naive sponsors.
LATE February, 2014 As Mr Hometown Headlines was posting his daily, obligatory, extensive list of local press releases (AKA: free advertising subsidized by paying advertisers), what seemed to be a standard media release from a new candidate announcing an intent to run for a position on the Floyd Schools Board of Education was also in the mix. But in this release, Mr HTH intentionally removed one important part that was included by the sender. It was the fact that the candidate was a reporter working for another local news website. It's obvious that Mr HTH removed that info because he considers them a local news competitor but it was important to include that info because it showed a possible conflict of that candidate serving on the board of education and potentially having to report on his fellow board members and himself. The candidate even went as far as saying that as a reporter, he was going to make sure everything was transparent. Suprisingly, RNT actually posted the entire, unedited media release. Way to go Mr HTH! That's some real objective journalism right there.
LATE February, 2014 Even though it was a while since his last report, Mr Hometown Headlines came through again by providing an RNT bankruptcy update about the failing paper. This time RNT's bankrupcty attorney was seeking $37K in legal fees >> HTH
LATE February, 2014 RNT >> jumped the shark again with a new low to attract viewers attempting to save its >> sinking ship by posting a second "story" about an habitual teen runaway just to stir up more conversation on its Facebook page . . . and it worked. What made this time even worse was that the previous incident had only happened just a few days earlier and with nearly identical circumstances. Make no mistake, a missing teen with issues is nothing to trivialize but it's almost comical that RNT would post this type of "story" twice and just days apart as if they were some trade magazine for runaways.
LATE February, 2014 Once again, RNT fell victim to the clock-in, copy & paste press release, clock-out & then forget about it routine by posting a release about the pending hatching of a local eaglet without checking the actual status of the much anticipated event. So they missed it! Because of the haste & not checking further, RNT was unaware that the actual media release was already old news because the eaglet had already hatched an hour earlier. Because they never bothered to check, that pending, old, irrelevant info was on their site until the next morning. Even the Atlanta tv stations & probably other out of town media posted the hatching info before RNT. And again, banks just keep on funding these incompetent, bankrupt idiots. It's a good thing someone's life never depends on RNT's decisions.
MID February, 2014 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not really but WRGA, Rome's premeire AM news radio station, must be using the same teenaged staff pool as RNT to operate their Twitter page because it looks as the poster thought the following announcement was worthy of that priority title & posted it on their Twitter page during the second snowstorm of the year: "BREAKING! Xxxxx College campus closed on Wednesday!" Then they did it again a week later for a high school. These are the same folks that post BREAKING NEWS in BIG two inch tall letters on their website for stories that are sometimes hours old. But if their audience had not heard of it yet, maybe it is breaking.
The same radio station also posted the following on their Twitter page: "A listener says 5 inches of snow is already on the ground in Armuchee today!". As if it only snowed that much in Armuchee and not in Rome just a few miles away. However, it could have started in Armuchee then moved into Rome but did it really dump 5 inches in Armuchee and then move into Rome? Probably not. So, why in the world would they have posted that?
MID February, 2014 Once again, Mr Hometown Headlines, Rome's premiere amateur meteorologist, did not disappoint laying waste to all the local competitors, his "strategic" AM radio partner & probably the Weather Channel too with his continued, ongoing, extended, expanded, complete, dramatic, over the top, wall to wall, back to back to back to back smotherage of Rome Snowfall 2014 Part Two! And as usual, there were serial posts of the SAME info dominating his main page to make sure you got it! Scroll down for more examples of this overzealous behavior.
EARLY February, 2014 RNT's teenaged staff did it again. This time they redefined how fires are fought in the following Twitter post: RNT "They're closing Alabama Highway for a few minutes while they hook up the hoses". Really? So it only takes a few minutes to hook up hoses & fight a fire now? Then they posted this on their website more than an hour later, ". . . closed down part of Alabama Highway for more than an hour . . .". Left hand, meet right hand >> SCREENSHOT - Just scroll down for more unbelievable RNT teen club tweets.
EARLY February, 2014 RNT DATELINE: RNT's Facebook population, also known as a FREE viewing audience, reached singularity by meeting or possibly exceeding their PAID print subscriber base of around 14K +/-. With leadership like this they ought to be out of business in no time. An RNT management meeting may have sounded like this, "how can we increase our online presence, engage & retain a paying online audience to ensure that we stay in business? Well, since our main website is so boring & confusing, let's create a Facebook & Twitter page where we can pre-empt our print edition, when not withholding it for later, informing the public of local news for free & lure viewers away from our website that has our PAYING sponsors many hours before we deliver our print-for-pay edition filled with old news." That's just brilliant! The question is, how do RNT, their paying sponsors & the banks that continue to provide them with financial support not see this?
The dual FB & Twitter followers that actually count as one person, along with automated, parasitic, pseudo "followers" that plague alot of accounts, would reduce RNT's artificially inflated FB & Tw numbers. The question is, what happens when RNT's non-paying Facebook & Twitter following significantly increases in the near future continuing to lure viewers away from their main site with paying sponsors? Even though FB & Tw are typically used as previews or sources of discovery for followers, successful click-throughs from them to a main site are not guaranteed & have a higher abandonment rate than most site operators would want to admit. This is a scenario that ALL media website operators and their sponsors should be investigating.
EARLY February, 2014 In a rush to tell it first, it seems coherency was low priority in this report from WRGA, Rome's Premier AM radio station and other news leader, second only to its "strategic" media partner Mr Hometown Headlines. WRGA posted a story more confusing than father's day on seal island. From top to bottom, note the red & yellow boxes that link the conflicting "facts" in this breaking news event >> SCREENSHOT
LATE January, 2014 "We're being flooded with calls & texts", stated Mr Hometown Headlines, Rome's premiere amateur meteorologist, who once again outperformed all the local competitors, his "strategic" AM radio partner & probably the Weather Channel too with his continued, ongoing, extended, expanded, complete, dramatic, over the top, wall to wall, back to back to back to back smotherage of Rome Snowfall 2014! And as usual, there were serial posts of the SAME info dominating his main page to make sure you got it! As for being flooded with calls & texts? Seriously, do you really believe that a significant number of people actually contact somebody like Mr Hometown for critical information and advice? Scroll down for more examples of this overzealous behavior.
LATE January, 2014 RNT Snowjob: Yes folks, the Rome newspaper did it again, by actually posting the following to ONLINE viewers about their PRINT edition's delivery being delayed because of heavy snowfall. "Road conditions likely to hamper newspaper deliveries tomorrow . . . but updated delivery information will be posted online throughout tomorrow". So RNT can post info about the paper's delivery status on their website but NOT the actual news, huh? Then, the very next day they did it AGAIN with this, "The Rome News carriers are in the process of delivering today's & yesterday's newspapers to homes & businesses around Floyd County". It went on to list a circulation department number if you needed help but they were closed! Left hand, meet right hand. Just how many people would read that on RNT's website then wait & pay for 24-48 hr old news that they already saw for free the day before on RNT along with every other local news website? Does RNT expect you to un-know what you discovered the day before? That's right up there with RNT's occasional excuse for incomplete online story info by saying "further details not available at press time". Really, there's a press time cutoff for a website? And yet banks continue to give this bankrupt "news" operation financial support.
MID January, 2014 RNT continued in desparation to save its >> sinking ship attempting to be relevant & attract younger viewers by instructing their new teenaged staff to compose RNT's Twitter posts as if they were talking to their friends on their personal accounts. It's hilarious to see RNT's serious side in print & on the main website, then their teen club side on Twitter. See for yourself with RNT wishing YOU a good night and >> Sweet Dreams SCREENSHOT and the original >> Hey Man! SCREENSHOT
MID January, 2014 "Watch a video of eagle hatching an egg, more on the way?" Well not exactly because the egg had only been laid 24 hrs earlier. But that was the Headline for the duplicate story posted by Mr Hometown Headlines only 12 hours after the first one, in case you missed it >> SCREENSHOT - Posting duplicates of stories is a common practice for Mr HTH. Just scroll down for examples.
EARLY January, 2014 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not really but RNT did >> jump the shark again trying to save its >> sinking ship by posting a "story", actually just a single picture, informing all of Rome & Floyd county that the fire department was removing all of the 2013 Christmas decorations. That single picture with no accompanying story counts toward their monthly & annual story count that helps determine their ad rates. That's why you'll see alot of out of town or non-sensical "stories" mixed with local content. They also think that tactic makes their site look busy. That more-is-better trick was also tried by producing 100s of worthless videos & it failed. But it all adds up. Yep, it's as ridiculous as RFN taking the time to post this info about it.
EARLY January, 2014 Mr Hometown Headlines, Rome's premiere amateur meteorologist, outperformed all the local competitors, his "strategic" AM radio partner & probably the Weather Channel too with his continued, ongoing, extended, expanded, complete, dramatic, over the top, wall to wall, back to back to back to back smotherage about the cold weather that is usually typical for this time of year. Yep, FOURTEEN out of fifteen consecutive posts counted on the SAME page were about the freezing weather telling YOU to stay at home along with info about the temperature, school closings, business closings, etc. complete with a "relief center round-up" post in case you missed the other fourteen posts. Has Mr Hometown thought about the fact that those that need that kind of assistance probably don't have internet access or wireless devices to see his "helpful" information? He even went as far as telling everybody in Rome about schools in several out of town surrounding counties being closed. Just more evidence of his terminal case of SMD (Social Media Disease).
EARLY January, 2014 This is co-incidental but also shows how the RNT drones consistently post content on their site without thinking. On the very same day RNT posted a story about a downtown business suddenly closing without notice & then posted a story just a few posts up on the same page with a heading that read "Downtown Rome not just surviving, but thriving". Unbelievable!!! It's as bad as copying & pasting statistics that nobody ever verifies showing unemployment rates being up, then down, then up, then down, and on and on. It should also be noted that not one word was mentioned about this business closing from Rome's News / Business News LEADER, Mr Hometown Headlines. But he can tell us about yet another fast food chicken restaurant chain & many other duplicate businesses opening in neighboring towns & counties even though we have them here in Rome as well as posting multiple, sometimes 3-4, nearly identical dramatic weather reports complete with CAPITAL LETTERS and BOLD type all on the same page to ensure everybody knows about the pending doom from rain drops or cold weather.
EARLY January, 2014 RNT wants to make sure you know it was NOT done intentionally, three times in three consecutive sentences.
"'There was moderate damage to the side of the barn & the shed,' he explained. 'There were no injuries reported and we know the fire was not set by the occupant or the owner of the property.'"
"While the fire marshall's office is still investigating, Johnson does not feel the fire was intentionally set."
"'It is hard to say, we are still looking into it, but I do not feel this was an intentionally set fire,' he said."
LATE DECEMBER, 2013 Mr Hometown Headlines again won the award for the most borrowed content along with the highest number of pre-written press release posts of all local media. Yep, it was an absolute shutout HTH win for copy & pasting or embedding copyrighted content with or without consent from the respective owners.
MID FALL, 2013 A local AM radio station started running heavy promos stating "the world is changing along with the way people get their news . . .". Just a little late & naive but what an observation! Kind of like RNT's desperate attempt to be relevant & attract younger viewers by instructing their new teenaged staff to compose RNT's Twitter posts as if they were talking to their friends on their personal accounts. It's hilarious to see RNT's serious side in print & on the main website, then their teen club side on Twitter. See for yourself, MAN! >> Hey Man! SCREENSHOT | >> Sweet Dreams SCREENSHOT - And that's one of many with more likely to follow. RFN welcomes them all to the 21st century!
MID December, 2013 Mr Hometown Headlines demonstrated his ongoing skill at product placement (AKA: ads disguised as news) by informing all of Rome that a new chain restaurant was just about to open in W Rome. And to make sure you knew the exact location, he was sure to include a nearby landmark, also an HTH sponsor, as a reference. This could have been an unintentional random coincidence but he also took the extra step to create a hotlink to this landmark reference's website. If he was really trying to help you find it easier, why not mention the longtime & better known national chain store on the other side of that new restaurant that is NOT an HTH sponsor? Or perhaps mention the even better known huge strip mall landmark reference across the street as the reference? The answer is clear with HTH's documented history in previous similar incidents noted below with future examples sure to follow.
EARLY December, 2013 RNT >> jumped the shark again desperately trying to stay relevant by attempting to outdo Mr Hometown Headlines in an ongoing contest to see who can inform everybody in Rome about the most out-of-town news. This time RNT thought it was necessary to tell everybody that an SUV caught on fire in Calhoun.
EARLY December, 2013 Mr Hometown Headlines felt the need to remind everyone in Rome about the rescheduling of not one, not two, but three OUT OF TOWN Christmas parades due to bad weather. Yes, the internet reaches everywhere but why would people in Rome want to know about this? It is quite possible that Mr Hometown actually believes that there is a significant audience in those other counties that like to look at out of town news too like he thinks Romans do. Actually, Mr Hometown likes to post things just because he can, whether anyone reads it or not. It satisfies his terminal case of SMD (Social Media Disease).
LATE November, 2013 First tried by RNT back in the middle of 2013 copying the Associated Press & under the name of "10 Things You Should Know This Week", with no apparent effect, RNT has once again tried to save its >> sinking ship by resurrecting the same type of top stories gimmick. This time RNT called it the "Top Ten Most Read Stories" of the week, complete with what they consider impressive viewer numbers for each story. Rest assured, the numbers they're touting are not impressive, especially considering that RNT is a household name in Rome & Floyd. The totals have to be manually listed by them now because ever since RNT dumbed down their website again in late October, the realtime story view counters went away. Although it's pure speculation, the removal of view counts was probably to prevent current & potential sponsors from seeing just how few viewers actually visit RNT's site. A few months back Mr Hometown Headlines tried copying RNT's gimmick with his "X number of things you should know" but he got real creative by making up a magic number each day. Yep, it was hilarious, 4 things you should know today, 6 things ..., 3 things ...,7 things ..., 5 things ..., etc. and some days there just wasn't anything you needed to know about. Then there was the morning edition, the "mid" morning edition, etc.. He eventually gave up as with most of his past failed gimmicks.
LATE November, 2013 RNT's >> sinking ship lost a staffer back in February and among others, this one allegedly came back with a vengence threatening other staffers & planning a future act. It has to be hard for anyone to work in that oppressive environment surrounded by absolute ineptness, cheapness, idiocy & overpaid incompetent management but couldn't that person have just walked away? Yep, RNT ate one of its own by wasting no time posting the info on its website going as far as quoting the arresting officer that said "***** made violent threats & planned to perform an act in January". That's right, RNT quoted what the officer said even though they obviously already knew it first hand since it happened there. So, why were there no dramatic interviews with those that were threatened like they more than likely would have included in a story for an outside incident like this? This is speculative but it could be that some of the notoriusly miserable working conditions would be exposed or RNT probably felt the need to keep it objective since they are known for maintaining their distinct objectivity . . . . not really. But posting the info so quickly online despite the embarrassment was probably to show the "suspect" who was really in charge or . . . . . to make sure that they (RNT) were the first to report it because they couldn't even "break" the news about their own bankruptcy in January 2013 before it was leaked hours earlier >> RNT
LATE November, 2013 Oops, he did it again! Another "in case you missed it "story". But this was no accident because it wasn't an identical post. Yep, Mr Hometown Headlines posted info about the grand marshal for the 2013 Christmas parade but just had to make sure you knew about it by posting it again just a few hours later the same day. This was clearly an ad disguised as news which is typical for Mr HTH. In one of the versions it stated "The ADVERTISER sponsors the grand marshal for the parade each year and has done so since 2003". Although it was obvious, maybe he probably should have also disclosed that the parade sponsor was also a longtime HTH sponsor. He openly disclosed another "story" / ad campaign in a week+ marathon for a commonly sponsored event weeks earlier by prefacing them with "sponsored ad" (see below). When Mr HTH mentioned his "new" sponsored story feature for his website back in August, he wasn't kidding. Names, pictures & logos have been removed to protect the innocent >> SCREENSHOT 1 and >> SCREENSHOT 2
LATE November, 2013 Mr Hometown Headlines got "scared" & made sure everyone knew that a gold star representing a future outdoor life retail location, 20 minutes outside of Rome by the way, had disappeared from a future store locator map. He then did some investigatin' and was relieved to inform everyone with an UPDATE, complete with a typical full scale HTH graphic comparison display (with & without a gold star), that it was just a website error & had been reposted to the site. The real question is just how many "affluent" HTH followers are interested in Bass Pro Shops anyway? >> HTH
LATE November, 2013 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not really but a Rome radio station just had to be the FIRST to let you know that a popular event was going to appear in Rome, again. That's right, it has become an annual event, 3 yrs now, and occurred only 1.5 months prior to this posting but they just had to be the first to tell everybody that it was coming back ELEVEN MONTHS LATER! Then of course, not to feel outdone, RNT had to follow with their report. Suprisingly, Mr Hometown Headlines, Rome's press release vending machine and the mentioned radio station's "strategic" media partner, had not said a word about it, at least at the time this was posted here. He was probably still digital dumpster diving reading his endless supply of daily social media feeds to inform you of "tomorrow's Rome news, today" & to satisfy that terminal case of SMD (Social Media Disease).
MID November, 2013 Once again, in a desperate attempt to post something, anything to appear relevant, Mr Hometown Headlines >> jumped the shark by stepping down from his mountain top of upper echelon news taking a moment to inform his self-described "affluent" audience about some grungy street level news. This time it was another traffic alert associated with a structure fire but what made it odd was that it happened in another county and what made it even more odd was that it only involved an outbuilding >> SCREENSHOT - This is almost as insignificant as a dumpster or barrel fire. This isn't the first time that he has posted useless out of town info like this on his Rome site either, just scroll down for more. This type of behavior is stranger than RFN taking the time to complain about it.
EARLY November, 2013 Mr Hometown informed everybody in Rome/Floyd that a large outdoor retailer was coming to ACWORTH! RFN must have forgotten that the anyone anywhere can access Hometown Headlines on the internet & HTH may have felt that the people of Acworth would discover their local news on his website in littly bitty Rome, Ga.. It appears as though Mr HTH's SMD (Social Media Disease) has mutated into post-anything-you-see disease whether it's locally relevant or not. Just scroll down to see several other examples of HTH posting out of town info that makes absolutely no sense.
EARLY November, 2013 After intoxicating itself with pre-voting lectures to the public for weeks prior to voting day, RNT celebrated the SPLOST "victory" with a followup "story" to remind and educate everyone about just how important the benefits of this package are to the area >> RNT - RNT also went as far as posting a poll asking viewers what their first out of three other choices would be to start the spending with the tennis center as the first one listed. Aren't the media suppose to remain neutral reporting the news instead of being a part of it by giving their unsolicited opinion/agenda?
EARLY November, 2013 RNT and HTH both >> jumped the shark out of desperation to stay relevant and of course, be the first to tell it but as expected, it was "news" as usual from these two. A chain restaurant that has been in the mall's food court since it opened twenty-plus years ago got a cosmetic change to its space along with a new sign with a slightly altered name and POOF, it was reported as a "new" restaurant complete with a ribbon cutting and appearance of Rome's top leader.
EARLY November, 2013 RNT managed to escape another bankruptcy hearing extension, at least partially. This time it was until late November >> HTH
LATE October, 2013 As predicted earlier by RFN & HTH (RNT's other biggest fan), RNT launched a "new" website shortly after the publisher resigned, which is not necessarily related (see info about that below). The only problem is, it's not new at all but it is more confusing than father's day during the salmon run in Alaska. The domain (.com) name NorthwestGeorgiaNews.com was registered back in 2012 & was in use for RNT's online sports content since that time. It is now RNT's main hub for all of their regional news content platforms which is the only new thing about it. The view counters for each story are gone which will help RNT hide from sponsors the fact that no significant amount of viewers are seeing their ads, as if they actually checked. One new feature boasted by RNT is the integration of Facebook allowing viewers to submit articles & pics for RNT to use for FREE, of course! Yep, just another way to pull viewers from their main site where the paying advertisers are, stupid! This comes after RNT's media content director openly pandered to sports kids' parents to submit FREE pics & video from their sports events because of RNT's limited staff, see that info & link below. So basically, this "new" site is the same useless, mostly out of town, drivel but with a different name containing enough syllables to rival the entire alphabet along with a different & an even more cluttered layout with smaller text. It is unknown if this has anything to do with RNT's bankruptcy restructuring but surely their creditors & the courts will not be fooled or impressed by this cosmetic change.
MID October, 2013 Mr Hometown Headlines outdid himself and broke a previous record of his for continued, ongoing, extended, expanded, complete, wall to wall smotherage of a local event complete with a GRAND FINALE and a mile long ticker just to make sure you got the message! (see the "Druck" Dynasty-fest entry below). This time HTH posted an obviously spoofed story with fictional characters which was actually a notice about the event that was produced by a local government department and sponsored by a big local name that is also a sponsor for HTH as well. The rub wasn't the spoof, because it's good to know the old windbag has a since of humor, it was the fact that it was prefaced with a disclaimer as a "sponsored post" and was posted daily with only a slight difference in content each time. So what's wrong with saying it's a sponsored post? Well, nothing if that is a rare occurance and it doesn't happen to include one of your existing sponsors ensuring that viewers know its context but HTH is known for posting ads disguised as news on a daily basis so why bother noting that this "story" was any different? This "sponsored ad" was posted daily, sometimes twice on the same page along with mile long ticker that nobody reads (see ticker-test entry below) crawling across the page slower than a turtle in an arctic freeze with one instance posted three times on the same page more than a week before the event. He then finished the campaign off with >> THIS, a superimposed graphic overlay complete with a dramatic annoying faux newspaper story to once again make sure you knew about this event. Did you notice the postings just underneath that overlay? Yep, it was TWO MORE postings about the SAME thing! It's not clear if Mr HTH's overlay trick was an attempt to show off a recent addition to his "new" content display technology or a preview to yet another annoying gimmick to serve up ads on his website. That's old tech, by the way. This comes shortly after Mr HTH criticized RNT for running a one-day full front page notice/ad for an ongoing awareness campaign. But for HTH to post this daily and expect viewers to not start rolling their eyes? This is not the first, and likely not the last, time that Mr HTH has or will post something again within a short time to remind everyone "in case you missed it" as he put it. Yep, a few weeks earlier, he posted a "story" about one of his major sponsors offering a unique procedure and then re-posted it again a few days later with the tag "in case you missed it". You just can't help but wonder did Mr HTH really care that much for people to know about that info to compell him to post it again on his own or did a little birdie possibly land on his shoulder & whisper a suggestion that maybe he should run that "story" again? After all, they are paying him. And Mr HTH says that his sponsors don't shape his news, yeah right. Of course, it is quite possible that Mr HTH genuinely wanted to help promote the event described above because of its true value to the community and/or wanted to reward its sponsor with a little extra exposure for being his sponsor too. But with his predictable history, the latter is more than likely the reason. Just scroll down this page to see many more examples. In other words, if that event's sponsor was not his sponsor too, you may have heard about it once or possibly not at all.
MID October, 2013 RNT posted a short slide show of crews installing a new roof over an exterior dining area at a longtime Broad St restaurant & RNT advertiser. So did RNT use an x-ray vision device to discover that this activity was in progress in an enclosed hidden area? Well no, "somebody" more than likely called RNT and said "hey, this is the owner/manager/etc of ??? on Broad St and we're installing a new roof. Why don't you take some pictures and talk about it in your paper?" RNT, "sure, we'll send a photographer right away. By the way, you haven't told anyone else about this have you? We want this to be an exclusive story".
MID October, 2013 For some strange HTH reason, Mr Hometown Headlines thought it was necessary to post a notice to tell people in Rome about a road that was closed in Cartersville because of a bad wreck. Just Google Map HWY 113 at Lucas Rd in Cartersville and ask yourself how info like that more than 40 minutes away out in the middle of nowhere could possibly be of use to someone in Rome. This isn't the first time he has posted useless out of town info like this on his Rome site. This type of behavior is stranger than RFN taking the time to complain about it.
MID October, 2013 Since the opening of the new ?ublix dominated the local "news" sources by posting non-stop ads disguised as news, the two biggest offenders, RNT & Hometown Headlines >> jumped the shark AGAIN by providing endless smotherage of a new downtown hotel. Who needs to pay for advertising when you've got these two giving it away for free. Why don't the other PAYING advertisers on both sites, especially HTH's, question why THEY are subsidizing all of the other free ads?
MID October, 2013 Although Mr Hometown Headlines did come through with his obligatory mention of the ?ublix grand opening, he provided less than the expected dramatic, continued, ongoing, extended, expanded, complete, wall to wall, live smotherage of the momentus event after getting the reputation for crying wolf by teasing the local citizens over the last several years with hollow reports of its pending arrival in Rome. Surely all of Rome was disappointed to not get hourly, second by second or minute by minute updates on all 100 HTH news platforms leading up to the ribbon cutting complete with relentless reminders of HTH's groundbreaking slideshow technology, HOMETOWN SEEN! Maybe Mr HTH's ego was deflated because he didn't measure up to being an ad platform worthy of their requirements therefore not did not secure an advertising contract like RNT (see RNT's ?ublix bailout below) AND his "strategic" radio partner did. Either that or his radio partner told him to stay away from that revenue source. It has never been understood why that radio station would actually pay someone that competes with them for local ad revenue.
MID October, 2013 BREAKING NEWS! ... BREAKING NEWS! Well, not really. Rome's new ?ublix opened its doors & RNT made sure all of Rome & Floyd county knew about it along with its other 10 "stories" yapping about it in the 1 to 2 weeks prior to the big event complete with an appearance from Rome's mayor! Yep, there was plenty more "news" smotherage about it the day it happened too. But after reaching the fourth paragraph of this unbelievable "newsworthy story" it was quite clear what RNT was really up to. These free ads/stories were the least RNT could do to thank ?ublix for the much needed ad revenue infusion to at least temporarily keep RNT's >> sinking ship afloat. The following infomercial was strategically placed close to the beginning before most viewers would stop reading because of overwhelming boredom: "You’ll notice a BOGO (buy one, get one free) ad in today’s Rome News-Tribune. The first of what will be regular ?ublix insert circulars featuring weekly specials will be coming in the Wednesday edition of the Rome News-Tribune". It was also noticed that RNT had disabled the comments section, as they do with arrests & other touchy content that they don't feel like babysitting, to ensure their new cash cow is not offended. This may be what RNT has needed to keep its >> sinking ship afloat because they surely can't afford to lose this infusion of revenue to pay off millions to hundreds of creditors during their bankruptcy >> RNT
MID October, 2013 Amazingly, RNT managed to be the first to post this info but as expected, it was quickly scrolled out of sight on their website where it's now only available in a search. But of course, RFN has the direct link secured below. As suspected, RNT's former publisher, Otis Raybon, who resigned amid seemingly endless bankruptcy hearings through 2013, resurfaced at a Mississippi newspaper called the Daily Leader after rumors and that company's jet was reported to have been spotted at the Rome airport a few times weeks earlier. This defies all logic to hire someone who is so far out of touch with new technology and obviously does not understand the production process of quality digital content and delivery by clearly demonstrating the inability to manage a small newspaper and then be expected to manage an even larger operation efficiently. As of this posting, a quick look at the "Leader" website revealed that they don't produce any video content which means they are even further behind than RNT. Then add the fact that they have just hired this person that does not have a clue about new technology. the eventual result will be another failed operation >> RNT
EARLY October, 2013 RNT got another bankruptcy hearing extension. This time it was until late October >> HTH
EARLY October, 2013 Well, better late than never! But TWO YEARS late? RNT finally discovered & more than likely thought that they informed all of Rome & Floyd county for the first time that RCPD has a dedicated vehicle tag scanning unit as well as quoting RCPD's chief as saying "We have gone into the 21st century". Among many other examples, this late discovery clearly shows that RNT has not caught up to the new century yet. This may have been relevant back when it was actually put into service waaay back in the year 2011, but, of course, that's when RFN first posted the detailed info, images & a demo video of how the system works >> RFN - RNT's tag scanning story also mentioned an online local >> Crime Mapping service which RFN posted & has been promoting for the last several years. Next thing you know, RNT may even mention that RFD has "new" red fire trucks that are now 2 yrs old, by the way. And RNT wonders why they're in bankruptcy.
LATE September, 2013 RNT's year in review and another update on its bankruptcy status gets a feature story on >> HTH
LATE September, 2013 STOP THE PRESSES! If you are a local parent, you may not have to take pictures of your kid's sports event and send them to RNT for FREE (see RNT pandering content below), at least not until after the "new" staff arrivals quit. RNT responded to longtime staffers abandoning their >> sinking ship by announcing some "new" faces to the organization >> RNT - But in reality, they're not really new to RNT at all, with this being the "new" sports editor's SECOND announcement to mention himself reminding everybody of his promotion >> FIRST TIME - As for the others, they're just recycled and renamed from interns to fulltime, complete with the same long hours, low pay & pittance of reimbursement for the use of any personal gear or their cars just as the ones who left because of the those same conditions. Interestingly, these "new" staffers seem to have stronger resumes than the "new" (drop-in) sports editor that introduced them. As RNT's staffing history and huge turnover rate shows, these fresh faces will have an RNT service life of about 1.5 to 2 yrs before they too burnout and leave, only to be replaced by another set of "new" very young, ambitious and naive interns converted to journalists.
LATE September, 2013 If all the RNT staff falloff was not bad enough, RNT kind of followed the lead of the Miami Herald's desperation but has not asked for voluntary donations, yet >> Miami Herald (once there, pick a link). So far, RNT's "new", more like drop-in, sports editor >> jumped the shark by pandering to all local sports kids' parents for FREE pictures from events due to low staffing at the paper >> RNT - That's right, RNT wants you to work for FREE, just like when they tried to recruit bloggers to work for free several years ago. If you're not aware, most regional & national media platforms solicit the public for free content but at least they don't expect you to work for free on an ongoing basis. But RNT essentially wants parents to be their "temporary", more like full-time, surrogate photographers for all seasonal events at least until they (RNT) are solvent again. This will become standard procedure if continued long enough. RFN knows all about this having pitched video to the regional affiliates & national networks regularly competing with free and cheap quite a bit. It should be noted that because RFN has no staff and IF it used citizens' content for free, it could be significantly more efficient in covering local news too. But RFN is not cheap. In fact, RFN has been offered FREE content from its viewers numerous times but has declined to accept it because of the inability to pay a fair licensing fee. RFN also does not borrow or lift content from other sites with or without attribution like others do. If RFN uses your content, you will be paid for it! What do you have to say about being asked to work for FREE by a company as financially irresponsible as RNT while their "executives" live the high life running up huge unpaid debts and paying incredibly low wages to an overworked understaffed workforce? >> COMMENTS
LATE September, 2013 Well, it was just a matter of time. In addition to the lead sports writer leaving in the recent past (see entry below), yet another key crewmember jumped from RNT's >> sinking ship amid another bankruptcy court hearing. This time it was the advertising director >> HTH
MID September, 2013 It seems like all hands on deck were jumping from RNT's >> sinking ship - The newspaper lost another key writer from its staff. This time it was the longtime sports editor >> RNT & >> HTH SCREEN SHOT - An ad was placed on an industry job board looking for a fresh writer that apparently would not mind working in conditions that prompted the former writer(s) to leave >> SCREEN SHOT - Oh, and for anyone reading this that is interested in that highly sought position, RNT has requested that "no calls" be made when inquiring about it. But that's how it has to be when you're busy running a successful newspaper. RNT finally decided to post this announcement more than a week after HTH did. The new media director / sports writer did take the sports editor position within days. More than likely, the decision had already been made but was posted to conform to employment laws. An ad was placed for a new sports writer with the added benefit of working on an Emmy nominated football show that, according to the view counters, nobody watches along with various other meaningless job descriptions that sure didn't impress the banks & other creditors owed millions amid bankruptcy filings >> SCREEN SHOT - This now means he'll actually have to make some effort to manage the video and sports departments and if insider info is correct in addition to the low quality of RNT's video product, look for his departure next because he's not known to actually do much of anything.
MID September, 2013 IF you are a fan of a certain Duck, not Druck, Dynasty castmember that made an appearance in Rome, the dramatic, continued, ongoing, extended, expanded, complete, wall to wall, live smotherage of the pending and actual arrival of the reality show's "star" by Mr Hometown Headlines did not disappoint. After being incessantly reminded ad nauseum by HTH over the weeks prior to his arrival, he managed to post SIX separate sequential "stories" >> 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 about it on the SAME page of his main site complete with a multimedia barrage of text posts, NEW / UPDATED image galleries along with low quality pixelated phone video dominating his Facebook page, all within 12 hours. At least RNT spreads out their spinoff/duplicate stories a few days apart. But RNT does that to appear busy whereas Mr HTH is just maniacal about posting something, anything and then pressing a send button, a classic symptom of SMD (Social Media Disease). You would think a world leader had arrived. Mr HTH has not been this excited since the rumor started about Publix having plans to build in Rome 8 years ago! One can't help but wonder if the sponsors actually know what they're paying for on that website. This kind of fanatical behavior has gone from a little comical and annoying to just plain creepy. Just wait until Mr Hometown is made aware of the Duck Dynasty Chia Pet collection.
MID September, 2013 Mr Hometown's head just got a little bigger. Yep, Mr HTH recently posted a story about a former politician reacquiring a radio station with some alleged questionable activity in a nearby city. He then proceeded to make a comment on how that radio station was "tiny" >> SCREEN SHOT - Aside from that story's core information, is it also possible that the station in question is a competitor of another station that HTH occassionally collaborates with in that area? But while we're on the topic of "tiny" radio stations, Mr HTH needs to be reminded just what and where he comes from while broadcasting his little bitty insignificant AM radio show. And yes, RFN can not only talk the talk but can also walk the walk because quite a bit of RFN video content has been purchased for significant licensing fees and distributed around the world by top broadcast & cable tv networks. Has any regional or national media platform EVER picked up or paid for Mr HTH's fine journalistic pieces? NOPE!
MID September, 2013 It was only a matter of time, just two weeks after the BIG format change at HTH that essentially transformed it into an even bigger nauseating ad platform than before. But now Mr Hometown has >> jumped the shark in desperation by not only teasing this "newsworthy" announcement all day but also by posting a promotion for FREE biscuits offered by a local food chain restaurant as a standalone news story >> SCREEN SHOT (names removed to protect the innocent) - And if that premium news wasn't bad enough, it was followed by a link to "expanded updates" of the promotion to, you guessed it, their Facebook page! Expanded updates of free biscuits? Oh, was it mentioned that this is one of HTH's new feature sponsors? Why bother, it's typical shameless HTH behavior to post ads disguised as news. Just scroll down to see other examples. What a travesty suffered by the journalism profession.
MID September, 2013 RNT >> jumped the shark again with a story like no other, the trash collection and porta-potty pickup after any given event in Rome. Yep, with enterprise storytelling like this, RNT has secured its success for decades into the future >> RNT
EARLY September, 2013 Mr Hometown Headlines introduced some ground breaking technology to Rome, Floyd and the world! Actually, it's nothing new and has been heavily used on most modern websites, even RFN, for quite some time. For some reason, judging by his overzealous promotion of his new picture gallery feature, Mr HTH apparently thinks he's introducing a new technology to his audience under the name Hometown Seen. This excitement doesn't make much since though since he has imposed the use of several SMD (Social Media Disease) sites on his audience for the last several years with any new services sure to follow.
EARLY September, 2013 Oops! Mr Hometown Headlines, the reigning king of borrowing or lifting and altering images of others' work from websites, more than likely without their knowledge & with rare attribution, recently posted a screenshot, among countless others. This time though, he forgot to crop out all of his browser's open tabs and shortcut icons at the top while in a rush to post it on at least one of his many social media platforms, guess which one. So now everbody gets to see what Mr HTH likes to view online. It's kind of like getting caught nekked or in your underwear but is probably what you'd expect from the most boring name in local news. Just take a look >> SCREENSHOT
LATE August, 2013 RNT's publisher, Otis Raybon, resigned from his >> sinking ship amid the newspaper's ongoing, embarrassing bankruptcy filings & court procedings >> RNT - Who wants to bet that Mr Raybon will stay associated with RNT as a "consultant", at a distance and wearing a designer lifevest, of course? Unfortunately, among the other RNT "executives", he is a HUGE reason for RNT's failure by being so aloof and arrogant by not learning, implementing or hiring competent management that fully understands new technology for delivering news that has overrun RNT making it obsolete. Check back for more info.
LATE August, 2013 Somebody needs to tell Mr Hometown Headlines that NOBODY reads news tickers, especially very slow, jerky, minute-plus tickers. How does RFN know this? Well, RFN tested a short 6 inch long news ticker window years ago, when tickers actually were innovative, cool & relevant, and placed a message in the middle (about five seconds into the message) offering $200 CASH to the first person to spot it. Although several thousand people visited the page with the ticker in plain view over a period of time, NOBODY responded to that offer for FREE cash. Apparently he thinks because it looks neat, people must read it just like all the other gimmicks & crap that is silently downloaded in the background from the HTH site. Don't believe it? Well, the next time you visit HTH, take a look at the lower left of your screen to see all the external website names and URLs loading widgets, advertising trackers, scripts, etc. into your browser from all kinds of strange website sources that he "trusts" as safe. The truth is, he more than likely doesn't even know all that is happening. Unfortunately, this is the case for alot, if not most, heavily ad and social media loaded websites infected with SMD (Social Media Disease).
EARLY August, 2013 Well, RNT's idiocy continues with more desperate creative writing. It seems the failing newspaper has an issue with the Floyd jail's online daily jail reports as well as a live dynamic report showing the current jail population at any given time. In addition to the many other ridiculous comments made by RNT, the following statement was made, "The database can be accessed along with daily arrest records on RN-T.com". Really? Is RNT so out of touch as to not know that this "new" live jail report was publicized & posted on several other local websites weeks before RNT decided to even mention it? Has RNT forgotten that it repeatedly posts quite a bit of the "frivolous" arrests on its own website AND in a weekly publication called the Roman Record? See the absurd blog for yourself >> RNT
EARLY August, 2013 Well, RNT has >> jumped the shark again. This time, the newspaper that filed for bankruptcy restructuring in early 2013 and should be making every effort to retain PAYING subscribers decided to attack a local CRBi environmentalist using some rathy sh!tty wording. This kind of behavior even makes RFN appear sane >> RNT
LATE July, 2013 Mr Hometown Headlines announced BIG changes for his website. Well, if it's anything like the other "BIG", overhyped "enhancements" in the past, get ready to be forced to view, sign-up or participate in yet another wave of social media gimmicks as he flaunts his case of terminal social media disease. Check back for detailed comments about these nauseating feature "improvements" but for now and if you can stand to read it >> SCREEN SHOT
LATE July, 2013 Did Mr Hometown Headlines actually make some effort to drive to a meeting and grow some guts to cover something controversial other than the posting a smothering daily dose of copy & paste happy press releases and free ads disguised as news? Well, absolutely not. But what he did do, to keep himself insulated as usual, was to recap what someone from his "strategic" A.M. radio partner reported concerning the heated debate between the CRBI and a local commercial property owner wanting to further develop the Riverside Pkwy area.
EARLY July, 2013 The spring and into the summer of 2013 provided an abundunce of rainfall. And in a desperate attempt to stay relevant, more like stay in business, RNT showed its determination to be competitive by going head to head with Mr Hometown Headlines to dethrone Rome's top amateur meteorologist who, once again, hosted a radio guest to inform all of us just where these water drops came from. If it's not daily nauseating repetitive weather reports from both sources with an assortment of confusing, useless, dramatic graphs, charts and technical terms, it's recycled radio guests from out of town that nobody has ever heard of just so the interviewer can try to look impressive. RNT went as far as posting an article to tell us that soggy ground makes trees highly prone to falling.
EARLY July, 2013 For some bizarre reason, Mr Hometown reminded everyone in Rome / Floyd that it was free slurpee day offered by 7-Eleven stores. But wait, there are NO 7-Eleven stores around here! Well, he followed the notice with an even more bizarre comment, "the trick, finding the nearest 7-Eleven" >> SCREEN SHOT. This is not the first time Mr HTH has made such bizarre statments, such as the several mentioning chain stores opening in surrounding counties that are already here in Rome. Just scroll down to find those.
EARLY July, 2013 A popular local bakery scored bigtime before & after re-opening but it surely didn't worry about much advertising costs to promote it because two local news titans, RNT & Hometown Headlines (complete with typical "contributed" photo, of course), tried to outdo each other with endless stories (AKA: FREE advertising) for at least two weeks prior to its re-opening. RNT managed to create FOUR spinoff "stories" with an obligatory slide show about this momentous event. That's right folks, this stuff is typical TOP news in Rome, Ga., depending on where you're informed. The bakery owner should prepare for a future call from RNT's desperate ad/sales department to return the unsolicited "favor".
EARLY July, 2013 Mr Hometown posted the following on his website, "Rome Police are warning the public about a scam related to fake calls from UPS and FedEx about delivery of bogus packages" >> SCREEN SHOT - What? UPS & FedEx are making fake calls? No, actually scammers were posing as these carriers to verify if residents were at home. During the intense wave of local news that day, Mr HTH must have overlooked the wording, when rewording the release that was very clear. Maybe he should have stuck to the typical copy & paste procedure to ensure the info maintained the correct wording while posting his daily crush of press releases, AKA, ads disguised as news.
EARLY July, 2013 Well, "Rome's BUSINESS news leader", Mr Hometown Headlines failed to report a significant local business story once again. This time, it involved a longtime lumber company filing for bankruptcy owing around $450K+ to several creditors as reported by RNT. Scroll down to see several other high profile business news stories that went unreported by Rome's "leader" in business news. Maybe if that business had gotten a new sign, painted their building or had the gravel changed in their lot it would have been typical HTH headline news.
EARLY July, 2013 During an ALL DAY rainfall, RFPRA's media relations person sent out the following release, "The Northside Swim Center will be closed today because of the weather". If that's not ridiculous enough, what's worse than that? The copy & past press release machines RNT & HTH actually posted it on their sites! And what's even worse than that? RNT posted that info buried inside text about weather postponements for Cave Spring events!
LATE June, 2013 Ooops! They did it again! Why does RNT continue to bring attention to the fact that a print edition of news or anything is quickly becoming an obsolete delivery method? RNT posted a note about a print insert being discontinued because everything is now available online. It's not clear what is more ridiculous, the fact that they are just now admitting that fact or that they are actually bringing attention to the obsoleteness of their entire print product. See how prophetic the parodied text below really sounds when their entire print edition is substituted into that note. And it may very well happen too.
PARODY: If you are into saving things, today's "RNT" might be one for the 'who remembers this?' category. Today's "RNT" will be the last one that you ever see. The final appearance is because of a number of changes in how most of our readers figure out what’s in the news each day. Most of today's local and national news is available with the click of a button. That instant access can tell you what's happening right now, while the print version is limited by 24 hrs or more. For those who will miss the publication, do not fear. We will continue running full online versions each day that offer a glimpse of news, sports, business, etc.. (RFN: As if it matters if it's in print or online, drivel is drivel)
LATE June, 2013 A popular local bakery that had alot of its equipment stolen during a location move got the Hometown Headlines drama treatment. Yes, in yet another bakery "story", among others posted by Rome's "news leader" RNT, Mr HTH, had to give his assessment adding that this was worthy of "national attention". Yeah, he's probably being facetious but considering all the other HTH antics on this page, maybe not >> SCREEN SHOT - At least this bakery got some typical free HTH advertising subsidized by the other HTH paying sponsors! This story was followed by much needed info about local donut "wars". Welcome to smallville.
June, 2013 Why RNT will go out of business sooner than later. Heavy storms ran through Rome/Floyd resulting in a tree falling on a house & causing an area power outage. During that same time, RNT not only failed to mention that incident but managed to post a "story" about a few wrecks reported on I-75 near Cartersville, at least 40 minutes outside of Rome. By the way, RNT also posted that in their LOCAL news section.
June, 2013 RNT had another go at trying to save itself from inevitable failure during its long bankruptcy "restructuring" by yet again >> jumping the shark, this time using a live Twitter feed as a way to keep its dwindling audience interested in a typically boring RNT news article, whether online or in print, for a trial involving an ex-judge. Yep, just that subject matter alone dramatically cut down their audience's interest, not to mention the ridiculous short bursts of boring info on the feed due to the 140 text character limit per entry. The only "brilliant" move with this tactic was for them to embed the feed into that story's page thereby keeping their website audience on their main site instead of offsite at Twitter where most would stay anyway as it's the same drivel just a different location. But according to the before & after count of their Twitter followers, it failed miserably and quite honestly as expected.
June 2013 RNT, "Studio Central’s Face to Face is back from a short spring hiatus . . ." Hahaha, hiatus?! Does anything else really need to be said about that statement? Yes ... yes it does. RNT's entire video lineup is in constant viewer hiatus status, according to the ZERO viewcounts.
May 17, 2013 The following notes were spotted by RFN printed in RNT's paper & may appear randomly or daily but RFN just caught it while doing a spot check. Either way it's still ridiculous. The following info printed in the paper tells people who already PAID for a paper about other places to find the same news for FREE, thereby hastening RNT's eventual & inevitable failure! RNT: "Looking to get your news in a different way? Check our Facebook & Twitter pages". What kind of bank(s) gave loans to business minds like these & what bank(s) continue to give loans to minds like these during their current bankruptcy "restructuring"? One thing's for sure, in the near future a few banks are going to be out of ALOT of money & becoming real estate agents to manage all the seized RNT assets because they trusted a bunch of yahoos that still live in the dark ages not having a clue about 21st century technology.
Here's RNT talking to their print readers as if they were kindergarteners. In reality, because most of the 55 & below readers do not bother with print, especially if there's a fee, it's probably RNT's pitiful attempt to convince their oldest & most loyal 65+ demographic (no offense to seniors) to convert to the online edition through a paywall which will NOT happen. That group will go to their graves with a print edition in their hands. And now boys & girls RNT, "you can easily see what stories other Romans are reading on our website. A list of MOST READ STORIES appears just below the "top stories" box at the top of the home page. It displays the headlines that received the most clicks in the past couple days. You can see the number of views for any story by clicking to read it". Does anybody really care about the most clicks or how many views a story gets? And finally, RNT proceeds to describe their website's search tool as if it is a breakthrough in technology. Much to their dismay, the search results actually reveal a list of the SAME stories with different titles that are recycled over & over passed off as originals when one continued, updated story about the same topic would suffice. But they've got to appear BUSY for those sponsors & the naive newspaper sheep that fall for it every day.
May 8, 2013 - Mr Hometown Headlines and his "strategic" partner WRGA both found it UNnecessary to mention that a prominent local attorney, & former Ga House Rep / Senator, was arrested on felony charges while still in the courtroom area. This is one of a few other incidents that Mr HTH has gone silent with over the last few years. Yep, it's either silence or a very brief, generic mention or followup buried among alot of other boring press releases and "news" about his friends or their businesses, etc.. So why is this significant? Well, if this arrest had never happened & that attorney was still a sitting rep or senator and had done something "notable" like attending a ribbon cutting or buying some land on Broad St, he would surely have made the HTH/WRGA "talkshow" lineup featuring the daily recycled, patronizing crap (AKA: the Crock Report) promoted as "local news that everybody will be talking about all day" for sure. Yet another travesty and local media fail!
May 2, 2013 - WRGA joins the 21st century, after RNT then HTH recently did, & decides to bring the rest of us there by informing the public about their discovery that RCPD has been using a website called Facebook as a crime fighting tool. A full TWO years after it was launched! Of course, RFN has not only been aware, but has been linking to it since the beginning. Maybe WRGA has known about it but had to use the infamous tactic of >> jumping the shark in order to make their canned, monotone, boring press release / police report news lineup seem interesting. NEWSFLASH WRGA! Although launched much later, FCPD & FCSO also have faceyspace pages.
March 25, 2013 - Oops, they did it again! But it's no accident. Just like when caught before, RNT has again posted the SAME story THREE times on their main page. This has probably happened many other times too but just wasn't caught before it was scrolled off to further create the illusion of being busy >> SCREEN SHOT
March 18, 2013 - In his typical overzealous hyperdramatic style to provide "continuous weather coverage", Rome's premiere amateur meteorologist, Mr Hometown Headlines, tweeted a message that Silver Creek residents should have power restored by a specified time. Well, if Mr HTH had left the safety of his house/office and actually made the effort to get to the scene himself, like most other local media, instead of what he typically does by copying/posting/borrowing other agencies' work (pictures, text, etc) with obscure & sometimes no attribution, he would have seen for himself how unrealistic that time frame was going to be. What made it even worse is that the Floyd County Community Emergency Response Team retweeted that information >> HTH RE-TWEET
2nd Week of March 2013 - Mr Hometown, AKA: the Vatican's Rome St Mary's Church / School News Bureau, went wall to wall with COMPLETE coverage of the announcement of the new Pope along with a simulated ceremonial colored balloon release by the local Catholic school's students with multiple links, pictures and not one, but two 5 second videos!
March 8, 2013 - Oops! RFN sent out an RCPD media release about a St Patrick's weekend DUI notice to the public. The only problem was that it was sent out to RFN subscribers & posted on RFN's site on March 8th but the actual provided release was pre-dated March 11th. Well, it ain't called realFASTnews for nothin'!
March 7, 2013 - EXTRA! EXTRA! Why is RNT going out of business? Well, after filing for bankruptcy in January of 2013 due to millions in unpaid debt to numerous creditors, Rome's premiere newspaper tries a desperate tactic to attract new print subscribers. Yep, in a time where most EVERYTHING, especially news, is ALL moving online, RNT launches its secret weapon targeting those that must not know about the internet or like to read 24 hr old news. YES folks, it's a whole FREE month of the RNT! (with an exclamation point too!) What a brilliant move by a company that is absolutely hemorrhaging cash. Take a product that is already NOT selling & give it away for FREE in addition to paying for its production & delivery costs losing even more money! >> FREE RNT PROMO - Maybe RNT could try asking for voluntary donations like the >> Miami Herald (once there, pick a link) did back in 2009.
LATE January, 2013 - Amid massive devastation, destruction & death from severe weather resulting in a tornado, Mr Hometown Headlines had an outbreak from his social media disease (SMD) posting a link to a Facebook storm damage page and TWICE just could NOT resist mentioning how many "Likes" it had racked up in the following description "Adairsville GA Tornado Recovery Facebook page launched; already at 1859 likes". UNBELIEVABLE FOLKS! It's actually VERY believable.
LATE January, 2013 - RNT loses another longtime staffer. It's not clear if this person left or was laid off due to "reorganization" after the failing paper's bankruptcy announcement in early January. Yep, less people to do more work with at least one department head getting way overpaid to produce amateur video content that nobody watches. Video that is so bad, even the top automated search engines ignore it!
MID January, 2013 - RNT publicly, but obscurely, launched a new domain (.com) name that has replaced the former name for its templated blanket sports websites that cover multiple area counties operated by parent company, NPCO. The new domain name was registered back in July of 2012 and has NOTHING to do with sports so it may be a hint as to what is to come as far as renaming or rebranding the failing, uhh struggling, newspaper since its multi-million dollar bankruptcy announcement.
January, 17 2013 - RNT informed its online audience that the following day's paper may be delayed because of severe weather. How is this different from any other day of RNT's old news delivery? Yes, RNT really did this. Have they forgotten about their own website and the fact that whoever read that notice online probably does not read their print edition anyway? Do they think there are people that will read news on their site & elsewhere for free & then pay for it again later? Unfortunately, yes, there are those that will do just that.
January, 17 2013 - HTH experiences another outbreak of social media disease (SMD) during its typical drama filled severe weather TEAM coverage! Yep, Mr Hometown "recommends", AGAIN, that you follow him on social media as well as on the web in case of power outages or you're away from your computer. Then at the very bottom of an exhaustive list of CRITICAL weather data, only moderately mentions the AM radio station as another weather info source, the station that has essentially made him who he is locally.
January, 9 2013 - RNT informed all of Rome that a business supply store in Midtown Crossing shut down momentarily because of a computer network issue. So, if you own a business and need some free advertising, just put a "temporarily closed" sign on your front door, along with a good reason, and then call RNT so they can tell everybody about it. It's a wonder HTH didn't jump on this BIG story too. But then, HTH likes to talk more about new signs, freshly paved lots, painted walls, big screen tvs and of course, new facebook & twitter posts. So just do those things & you'll get free ad space on RNT & HTH while all the other paying advertisers subsidize it.
EARLY January 2013 - HTH informed Romans that a large clothing chain store wass closing in a town 25 miles from Rome. Then, a couple days later mentions the closure of a huge discount retailer in the same town. This, despite the fact that Rome already has both stores which will remain open.
January 2, 2013 - Hometown Headlines and RNT try to outdo each other to see who can be the first to post RNT's detailed bankruptcy documents. RFN beats both of'em by posting the announcement online AND informing thousands before they went outside to get their morning paper to read it. However, it should be noted that Mr Hometown did make some effort the day before by calling RNT for comments but according to HTH, got the phone not just hung up but slammed in his ear. At least RNT allows HTH to follow its Twitter page and maybe FB too.
January 1, 2013 - RNT finally comes clean attempting to beat everyone else to the punch with a front page headline on new year's day stating that it filed for chapter 11 "reorganization". That, along with alot of wishful thinking in the article as the failing paper lists huge debts for millions as if all of Rome and Floyd didn't already know about it months earlier! This announcement was supposed to be a secret but being the buffoons that they are, they can't even be first at breaking the news about their own bankruptcy. A perfect example of why they will eventually fail. The "secret" meeting with employees was leaked on another site the previous day. The story was held from RNT's website all day to make sure people paid to see it in print. How about that? Getting people to pay you to read about your own bankruptcy >> RNT
January 1, 2013 - Hometown Headlines, the site that leaked the "secret" meeting info and takes every opportunity to rake RNT over the coals as much, if not more, than RFN, must have been sleeping under a rock all new year's day because it didn't have the new Chapter 11 info posted until much later that day. Then HTH seemed to think people really cared 36 hours later by promoting discussion about it on a local A.M. radio show that has no significant audience.
December 2012 - RNT ends its 6th year continuing to produce and post live and on-demand "news" and sports videos even though the view counters remain at ZERO. Their video producer has to justify his position somehow even though RNT has had a huge turnover of video staff, been in serious recent financial trouble and lost alot of assets.
MID Dec 2012 - RFN's EMPTY Facebook page recently got TWO "likes". RFN created a Facebook page in 2010 but has intentionally never posted any content there. And yes, MUCH more that two people visit RFN's main website everyday. >> RFN Facebook
November 29, 2012 - Hometown Headlines added yet another groundbreaking gimmick to its lineup that requires users to register. This time, it's an automated service that alerts users about new local college sports info when it's posted, yep, from all FOUR of them. However, he forgot one important thing, to see if it works. The link to the new "service" has resulted in an error page since its launch >> SCREEN SHOT. It's pretty bad when you don't even test your own links. Does HTH not wonder why nobody is registering for that service? Also, has the Social Media Diseased (SMD) HTH forgotten about endlessly pounding his visitors over the head about FB, Tw, etc, etc, etc. for the last few years? Are those info platforms not good enough to deliver new info about local college sports info and more?
November 29, 2012 - Hometown Headlines, Rome's "Business News Leader" does not say ONE word during or after federal agents raided Rome Children's Dentistry. RFN, RNT and CBS Atlanta had to tell everybody about it instead. What a travesty!
November 28, 2012 - Once again, Hometown Headlines, Rome's "Business News Leader" fails to mention new info about one of Rome's top realtors declaring bankruptcy. HTH did not say ONE word about the initial report weeks earlier either. Instead, HTH waited for RNT to break the news and then quietly mentioned the info on its site. What a travesty!
September 14, 2012 - In addition to being the most boring name in local news, the fast talking, mumbling, mushmouth, rattletrap, windbag Mr Hometown Headlines, insulting professional broadcasters everywhere, has absolutely no business being an on-air radio broadcaster. How insulting to all the experienced staff with real broadcast voices at that station that they're paying an amateur outsider to do what they should be doing. There's no doubt that Mr HTH is a real, accomplished, talented journalist and wordsmith but it is hard to believe that anybody could fully understand what that guy says among all those breathless run-on sentences & mumbling going on. HTH's talk radio show sounds alot like this
Mumbles >> VIDEO
The following statement found on the website of the radio station that PAYS Mr Hometown Headlines is ironic since they themselves repeat the SAME newscast for 24+ hrs from 6 a.m. that morning? WRGA's Hometown Headlines Radio Edition Bio statement says: "The goal of Hometown Headlines: The Radio Edition is to get you ahead of the news and not just repeating a headline you've heard or seen before." So, the radio station's news department is doing exactly what their HTH edition claims to not be doing. Left hand, meet right hand.
September 14, 2012 - Somebody please tell Mr Hometown Headlines if he's going to use the tag line "Your Home for Local Sports" the use of a link to CURRENT high school football scores should NOT be from two weeks prior! He's obviously not checking it himself before posting it. Everybody makes mistakes but this happened several weeks in a row! Check your links! All that press release copy & pasting each day must be confusing.
September 2012 - Hometown Headlines, Rome's "most connected" media source now offers a crime watch section. Yep, a crime watch section that looks strikingly similar to RFN's collection of local crime links, including the Crime Mapping service that's been available on RFN for the PAST - TWO - YEARS! After offering a crime watch feature as just described, is it not also hilarious that Mr HTH thinks that his "affluent audience" would be interested in daily jail booking reports? Additionally, HTH labels the FCSO 10 Most Wanted as a Facebook page but it is actually FCSO's main website and NOT Facebook >> SCREEN SHOT. That Social Media Disease (SMD) is powerful stuff! Weeks later, for some unknown reason HTH removed the Rome Crime Mapping link from its CrimeWatch lineup.
Some time in August 2012 - Mr Hometown Headlines discovers and gets very upset about RFN's media website feature comparison chart and asks "what's all this about?" and "what do you think I do all day?" especially referring to RFN's observation and opinion about Mr HTH rarely leaving a desk to cover news. So, what's that all about? Well, you do ALOT of copying & pasting of press releases and rarely leave your desk to gather news content, instead, relying on and using a huge amount of contributed content such as graphics, images, video, etc. that is NOT yours, even though you may or may not have permission. That's what it's about. HTH seems to overlook or just not know that some entities are very specific about their logos and/or content being altered to fit its needs. He also seems to have forgotten about repeatedly publicly pitting RFN against RNT on his website for weeks back in late summmer of 2008, even though RFN kind of liked it. But then cut all association with RFN after it exposed a scandal at the Rome library, by his own admission, one of Mr HTH's biggest fans, of course! "Ohhhhh, the library loves Hometown", he said. Not to mention the same place where he got alot of FREE tv time and backpatting for being such a friendly, noninvasive, easy going hometown news source. Ohhh, it just goes on and on.
Some time in August 2012 - In addition to other past instances, Mr Hometown Headlines again vows to not use video within his news content because he believes nobody watches internet video and yet he created and maintains a Youtube page, although its content is not very current and not many have viewed his content. The fact is, he doesn't use video because he doesn't and never will know how to professionally produce and manage it which is the real reason. And yes Mr HTH, people do watch internet video, when it's done correctly. RFN does not produce, license and sell it to regional and national networks just for the fun of it.
LATE July 2012 RNT shoots itself in the foot, adds another nail in its coffin, etc by posting daily Floyd Jail reports on its website for FREE instead of keeping it exclusively in their weekly Roman Record that is NOT free. How dumb is that? It did this to "compete" with other local news websites that, according to RNT, supposedly don't exist.
July 2012 - RFN reveals a goldmine of 12 candid internal RNT video interviews featuring RNT executives and department heads making buffoons of themselves with absurd, eccentric comments and answering prophetic questions like "what would be the effect if your newspaper were to close and not be replaced?" replying with statements like "The biggest problem is that people just wouldn't know about anything . . . If we go away, you lose all of it. Because no matter how someone tries, they're not going to be able to do what we do." This is among significant embarrassing financial problems RNT experienced along with many other staffing and operational issues in 2012.
>> VIDEO
Summer 2012 - In addition to many past incidents like this, an RNT reporter gal actually called Floyd 911 requesting (damn near demanding) that an FCPD official call her to provide details about a serious wreck with injuries. The problem was that she called just minutes after the first responding officer was notified about it by 911 so he had not even arrived on the scene yet. This is just one of many ridiculous incidents in RNT's quest to be first in reporting something as their paper slowly dies.
EARLY 2012 - RNT lays down the law with the following comment posting rule for their beloved website. Somebody needs to tell RNT that nobody really cares and using big words like "discourse" does not impress anyone. They may want to concentrate more on their airhead interns because they often forget to deactivate the comment feature. NPCOMASTER: "At this time RN-T.com is no longer allowing our web readers to post comments on arrest reports. While we realize the importance of public discourse, many of the comments have been abusive of both the arrest subjects, police and other readers."
EARLY 2012 - RNT and Mr Hometown Headlines (the social media addict) discover RCPD's Facebook page more than a YEAR after it was launched! You GO crimefighters! Yeah, the same page that RFN had been promoting and linking to when it was only weeks old.
At some point, Mr Hometown Headlines classified his audience as the "most affluent". Well, at RFN, you can come as you are.
At some point, Hometown Headlines proclaimed itself as the "most trusted" local news source. Says who? Wonder what the radio station that pays you thinks about that statement because they claim to be the most accurate and dependable themselves.
January 2012 - >> SCREEN SHOT RNT manages several different websites for their other regional papers. The brilliant website manager or intern at RNT forgot which template to use when posting an update for their Rome website. The site's title was gone, the graphics and menus were displaced, the text was oversized and on and on. This "issue" lasted for quite a while and when RFN called RNT to ask if they were aware of it, the gal that answered the phone just giggled and said, "no".
June 2011 Even though nobody watches the other "shows" RNT produces, for some reason, it decided to produce yet another one called Seven Hills Spotlight. Wait a minute, isn't RNT a newspaper? After RNT's head video "producer" described the obligatory "it's a great new show about ..." in the promoted newspaper "story", he went on to describe the 3 - 4 other "producers" (AKA unwitting volunteers), most or all of which are no longer at RNT. Which helps to explain the utter failure of the homemade trainwreck after only two episodes. Why RNT management has continued to fund the production of their other "shows" before & after declaring bankruptcy, owing millions to a huge list of creditors, and paying low wages to an overworked skeleton staff treating them as if it was a privelage to work there is beyond comprehension.
May 2011 - RealFastNews, the most technically advanced news info site in Rome / Floyd county, heavily promoted a live video webcast of the local annual Law Enforcement Memorial Service downtown. However, because of one link that was not updated at the last minute before going live by the everlasting know-it-all RFN owner/operator, only mobile viewers were able to view the live video webcast and PC viewers loaded a page with a dead link. Yes, even RFN has made a mistake.
LATE 2010 - Hometown Headlines, the premiere name in local BUSINESS news, not only did not cover it but did not even mention the procedings for the foreclosure of the Music Room in Rome. Only after all the property was sold off was it even briefly mentioned. But let RNT or any other business fall on hard times or face foreclosure and you'll see current and followup paragraphs, documents, links, graphs, etc.. Hmmm?
Sometime late in the first decade of 2000 up to the present, Mr Hometown Headlines contracted a serious case of social media disease and what's worse is that he tries to spread it to his "affluent" audience. Some of these gimmick breakouts of SMD include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, about.ME (imagine that), Pinterest, Groupon, Save Local, Rebel Mouse, etc.. and on and on and on . . .
Sometime in Mid 2010s Mr Hometown launches, you guessed it, a Facebook page and posts the following notice to any that may dare to try to emulate the highly sought after internet property, the brand that is, HOME...TOWN...HEADLINES! "This is the official Facebook home of Hometown Headlines." That's right folks, the "official" Facebook home of HTH! To ensure that nobody is confused by all the other Hometown Headlines FB pages in Rome & around the world. Then there's the additional scary warning that says, "We invite reader and guest comments. However, we do not allow promotions or advertisements on our page or timeline." After all, Mr HTH, the king of canned press releases (AKA: FREE ads disguised as news) will not be outdone by driveby spammers. But maybe he hasn't heard that spammers, automated or not, don't give a damn!
May 2009 - RNT's New Media guru extraordinaire video "producer" debuts on Twitter by tweeting the following two of three total tweets since then. For those that aren't aware, Matchbin is the startup company that makes RNT's low end templates for its "high tech" website! These messages were from an expo for RNT's new website tools and modules, really exciting stuff as you'll see. Of all things, the following thoughts are what were running through this guy's head so he decided to share it with . . . nobody. Just how boring can one's life be? >> SCREEN SHOT TWEET 1: "Hanging out in Utah at Matchbin is definitely cool". TWEET 2: "Matchbin version 3 of Marketplace looks great." And then about a month later, TWEET 3: "Patiently waiting at the Emmys". Yes, and you will keep waiting. A special category was created just for small newspapers because they could not win or be nominated for an award any other way. It should be noted that RNT gave up on chasing the elusive specially categorized "Emmy" after getting one nomination and then falling off Emmy's radar completely for the last few years. RealFastNews has never even been nominated for, much less won, an Emmy. No, RFN has had to settle for working for top national broadcast & cable tv networks viewed by millions.
LATE 2008 - Already previously dabbling as Rome's premeire amateur meteorologist, Mr Hometown Headlines steps up the drama by posting "complete weather coverage" using exhaustive statistics, oversized, cluttered graphs, charts and animated weather maps with scary words and colors. Apparently he thinks nobody knows about weather.com and is not aware of the potential liability if/when he gets it wrong.
LATE 2008 - Mr Hometown Headlines loosely refers to other local media as copy and paste journalism. Really, HTH?
August 2008 - Mr Hometown Headlines discovers that RFN actually gets paid by regional and national broadcast and cable television news networks for its video content after asking RFN with much amazement, "they pay you to do that?". Yes Mr HTH, RFN does not allow anyone to use and/or manipulate its content for FREE like those that you borrow from on a regular basis with or without their knowledge and with random or obscured attribution for their images, graphics, video and/or text content.
EARLY 2008 - Hometown Headlines, RNT, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, local realtors/property owners and probably others got duped BIGTIME by a delusional man claiming to be the CEO of Silverware Studios Inc. looking for a LARGE tract of land to build a BILLION dollar movie, audio, animation and motion capture production facility complete with a helipad and commissary in Floyd county that he said was going to rival George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch. His website, now long gone, was littered with mispelled words, cheap clip art, amateur animation demos and the tagline, "do you feel the multitude?". This guy was an absolute fraud producing silly homemade Youtube videos with a palmcorder and making claims that were never confirmed by anyone. But all the local, rubber stamp, press release vending machine media just couldn't wait to break the big news. RNT still doesn't know it was fake because it's still in their archives. This guy couldn't buy a cup of ice much less build and manage a billion dollar production facility. Just do a search on the info to see for yourself.
Mid 2007 - RNT launched its new "technically advanced" website. The only problem was that it wasn't much different other than displaying kindergarten style bubble menu buttons, a clip art logo, oversized text and a layout with different categories that usually contain the SAME story posted multiple times on that same page >> SCREEN SHOT. Then, to top off RNT's ineptness, their recently hired website "expert" asks the public how they should organize & operate their new creation. However, the most interesting new feature was that each story provides a view count. Ironically, this actually shows how many people are NOT looking at RNT's website considering the size of Rome/Floyd's population. Then there's the facts that RNT doesn't like to talk about, especially to advertisers, such as the automated search hits from web crawlers, spiders, bots, etc. that artificially inflate view counts.
MID 2000s - HTH, Rome's business news leader, realizes that local business news is about as interesting as a commission meeting & just ain't gonna cut it. So he diversifies & begins to offer fill-in news along with a new suite of internet gimmicks to make this "new" info even more interesting than it already is NOT. But still refers to the operation as Rome's business news leader.
EARLY 2000s - Hometown Headlines gets the website ad sales of the decade award for convincing local businesses to PAY for advertising on a website whose SOLE mission it is to talk about them anyway, for FREE! On a daily basis, other multiple small businesses that pay absolutely NOTHING get mentioned as stories located directly under, or in close proximity to, the premium advertisers' banner ad that is paying a few hundred dollars per month. Unbelievable! None of the PAYING advertisers seem to get this. Not only that, but they are paying for inneffective ads displayed to the SAME daily audience. And no, RFN is not jealous. Just because a website has multiple advertisers (some being tradeouts) does NOT mean the operator is not barely getting by. There is almost always some type of unrelated, secondary income involved. RFN does not and will not work for free or next to free. If the viewers only knew what's really going on in the news business.
Since the launch of the internet as we know it or maybe even sooner, some or maybe all local radio stations repeat the same news block from 6 a.m. all day for 24 hours. In addition to automated programming, they post stock graphics along with mostly out-of-town news and other content links on their websites. Why do they bother? So because their operating behavior has not and probably will not change, there will not be much, if any, listings about them on this page.
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Summer 2012 - In addition to many past incidents like this, an RNT reporter gal actually called Floyd 911 requesting (damn near demanding) that an FCPD official call her to provide details about a serious wreck with injuries. The problem was that she called just minutes after the first responding officer was notified about it by 911 so he had not even arrived on the scene yet. This is just one of many ridiculous incidents in RNT's quest to be first in reporting something as their paper slowly dies. [ >> back to top ]
Early 2000s - Hometown Headlines gets the website ad sales of the decade award for convincing local businesses to PAY for advertising on a website whose SOLE mission it is to talk about them anyway, for FREE! On a daily basis, other multiple small businesses that pay absolutely NOTHING get mentioned as stories located directly under, or in close proximity to, the premium advertisers' banner ad that is paying a few hundred dollars per month. Unbelievable! None of the PAYING advertisers seem to get this. Not only that, but they are paying for inneffective ads displayed to the SAME daily audience. And no, RFN is not jealous. Just because a website has multiple advertisers (some being tradeouts) does NOT mean the operator is not barely getting by. There is almost always some type of unrelated, secondary income involved. RFN does not and will not work for free or next to free. If the viewers only knew what's really going on in the news business. [ >> back to top ]
Early 2000s - Hometown Headlines gets the website ad sales of the decade award for convincing local businesses to PAY for advertising on a website whose SOLE mission it is to talk about them anyway, for FREE! On a daily basis, other multiple small businesses that pay absolutely NOTHING get mentioned as stories located directly under, or in close proximity to, the premium advertisers' banner ad that is paying a few hundred dollars per month. Unbelievable! None of the PAYING advertisers seem to get this. Not only that, but they are paying for inneffective ads displayed to the SAME daily audience. And no, RFN is not jealous. Just because a website has multiple advertisers (some being tradeouts) does NOT mean the operator is not barely getting by. There is almost always some type of unrelated, secondary income involved. RFN does not and will not work for free or next to free. If the viewers only knew what's really going on in the news business. [ >> back to top ]
September 2012 - Hometown Headlines, Rome's "most connected" media source now offers a crime watch section. Yep, a crime watch section that looks strikingly similar to RFN's collection of local crime links, including the Crime Mapping service that's been available on RFN for the PAST - TWO - YEARS! After offering a crime watch feature as just described, is it not additionally hilarious that Mr HTH thinks that his "affluent audience" would be interested in daily jail booking reports? Additionally, HTH labels the FCSO 10 Most Wanted as a Facebook page but it is actually FCSO's main website and NOT Facebook. That Social Media Disease (SMD) is powerful stuff! Weeks later, for some unknown reason HTH removed the Rome Crime Mapping link from its CrimeWatch lineup. [ >> back to top ]
September 2012 - Hometown Headlines, Rome's "most connected" media source now offers a crime watch section. Yep, a crime watch section that looks strikingly similar to RFN's collection of local crime links, including the Crime Mapping service that's been available on RFN for the PAST - TWO - YEARS! After offering a crime watch feature as just described, is it not additionally hilarious that Mr HTH thinks that his "affluent audience" would be interested in daily jail booking reports? Additionally, HTH labels the FCSO 10 Most Wanted as a Facebook page but it is actually FCSO's main website and NOT Facebook. That Social Media Disease (SMD) is powerful stuff! Weeks later, for some unknown reason HTH removed the Rome Crime Mapping link from its CrimeWatch lineup. [ >> back to top ]
Late July 2012 RNT shoots itself in the foot, adds another nail in its coffin, etc by posting daily Floyd Jail reports on its website for FREE instead of keeping it exclusively in their weekly Roman Record that is NOT free. How dumb is that? It did this to "compete" with other local news websites that, according to RNT, supposedly don't exist. [ >> back to top ]
November 29, 2012 - Hometown Headlines, Rome's "Business News Leader" does not say ONE word during or after federal agents raided Rome Children's Dentistry. RFN, RNT and CBS Atlanta had to tell everybody about it instead. What a travesty!
November 28, 2012 - Once again, Hometown Headlines, Rome's "Business News Leader" fails to mention new info about one of Rome's top realtors declaring bankruptcy. HTH did not say ONE word about the initial report weeks earlier either. Instead, HTH waited for RNT to break the news and then quietly mentioned the info on its site. What a travesty! [ >> back to top ]
Sometime in Mid 2010s Mr Hometown launches, you guessed it, a Facebook page and posts the following notice to any that may dare to try to emulate the highly sought after internet property, the brand that is, HOME...TOWN...HEADLINES! "This is the official Facebook home of Hometown Headlines." That's right folks, the "official" Facebook home of HTH! To ensure that nobody is confused by all the other Hometown Headlines FB pages in Rome & around the world. Then there's the additional scary warning that says, "We invite reader and guest comments. However, we do not allow promotions or advertisements on our page or timeline." After all, Mr HTH, the king of canned press releases (AKA: FREE ads disguised as news) will not be outdone by driveby spammers. But maybe he hasn't heard that spammers, automated or not, don't give a damn! [ >> back to top ]
Early January 2013 - HTH informed Romans that a large clothing chain store was closing in a town 25 miles from Rome. Then, a couple days later mentions the closure of a huge discount retailer in the same town. This, despite the fact that Rome already has both stores which will remain open. [ >> back to top ]
Mid January, 2013 - RNT publicly, but obscurely, launched a new domain (.com) name that has replaced the former name for its templated blanket sports websites that cover multiple area counties operated by parent company, NPCO. The new domain name was registered back in July of 2012 and has NOTHING to do with sports so it may be a hint as to what is to come as far as renaming or rebranding the failing, uhh struggling, newspaper since its multi-million dollar bankruptcy announcement. [ >> back to top ]
Why does RFN not post as much "news" (AKA: filler) on a daily basis like others do?
Let's face it, thankfully, the Rome and Floyd county area is a very safe place to live. Therefore, sometimes it can be kind of boring. RFN gets the same load of press releases that RNT and others get but RFN actually knows its audience content preferences therefore knows what is and is not consistently viewed preventing an oversaturation of press releases. In other words, RFN is not a generic press release vending machine and because of this, RFN will sometimes appear not as "busy" as the others. This means even when there are slow news days you should not expect RFN to post endless press releases or what's on whoever's faceyspaces, bliggidy blogs or tweety pages, pretend that stories are newsworthy and not a favor for a friend or advertiser, overstate "significant" announcements, post annoying, oversized, animated weather maps for simple drops of rain, post stories and/or video and send alerts for kindergarten plays / circuses / weddings / playground parties, easter egg hunts, kite flying, garden club meetings, flower pots, etc. stolen from porches, businesses that change their sign, ceiling, flooring, roofs, parking lots, or paint their building, etc.. Those are just a few examples of what RNT & HTH have been reduced to and it's only getting worse. So, just because you don't receive RFN news alerts on a regular basis whether it's daily or during the week, does not mean you are not subscribed or missing anything. It just means nothing significant is happening. [ >> back to top ]
Now see how prophetic the parodied text below really sounds when their entire print edition is substituted into that note. And it may very well happen too.
PARODY: RNT: If you are into saving things, today's "RNT" might be one for the 'who remembers this?' category. Today's "RNT" will be the last one that you ever see. The final appearance is because of a number of changes in how most of our readers figure out what’s in the news each day. Most of today's local and national news is available with the click of a button. That instant access can tell you what's happening right now, while the print version is limited by 24 hrs or more. For those who will miss the publication, do not fear. We will continue running full online versions each day that offer a glimpse of news, sports, business, etc.. (RFN: As if it matters if it's in print or online, drivel is drivel) [ >> back to top ]