Bowie (Star) Invades College Park

In case the latest “Bowie Star” at your doorstep 2 days ago made you thinking of a planned new year printed media invasion from our neighboring city, here is the inside story – it was a “printing” error.

That acknowledgement came from the Gazette’s College Park staff writer David Hill

In case you missed the drama, the title of the weekly Gazette issue this week was misprinted as “The Bowie Star” (please see the picture above).

In explaining the mishap, Gazette’s David Hill wrote to me:

Yes, it was a printing error. We printed a single countywide edition over the holidays (so you got the right paper), but their mastheads were all printed as “The Bowie Star,” when most should have read “The Gazette.”

An error? Yes, indeed, but a huge one! 

The impersonation drama puzzled many regular long time Gazette readers. One resident said: “I have lived in my house since 1961 and this is the first time I ever got a Bowie paper instead of the Gazette.”

But the title mishap is only one concern about the Gazette paper among the city residents; many have other issues about the paper. Here are two major ones:

  • Content: The paper covers little to no news about College Park. I think part of the reasons is that the Gazette you get is not for College Park only any more, it covers many other neighboring cities of College Park. For example, the current issue has at least two news items about College Park, but everyone knows, there are more than two events that happened in the city last week. 
  • Delivery: The paper has been delivered to houses where nobody lives. As one resident complains “Gazette still delivers every week to vacant houses and nothing will ever stop them from doing it – I have tried calling many times, talking to managers of managers of managers in Gaithersburg (giving specific addresses, especially the house next door to mine which has been vacant since 2007) and they all promise and they all claim they do not deliver to houses a Gazette already out (such as not picked up from previous week).”

 That said, the Gazette remains the single printed media that covers and gets distributed in College Park. True, there are a few other online media who does even a better job (the Patch IMO), but many residents, especially those from the older generations, depend on the Gazette for their weekly source of local news.