HotelChatter || The Las Vegas Review-Journal Gets No Love from Harrahs Casinos

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has been relentlessly printing some hard-hitting investigative articles examining the failure by one of the city's major hotel and casino companies, Harrah's Entertainment, to secure proper permits for various construction and renovation projects.
It wasn't that big a stretch, then, to imagine that retribution could be in play when the company quietly decided to discontinue selling the hometown newspaper in the gift shops of its eight casino-resorts, and to stop providing free copies to guests in suites who receive complimentary papers.

Of course a Harrahs spokesperson blames the move on "cost-cutting priorities" and they say no guests want to read the local paper when they are in Vegas.

Yet the LVRJ counters that since being dropped by Harrahs, their single copy sales on the Strip have increased thus indicating people are buying the newspaper when in town.

Personally, we're a big fan of the local newspaper. The LVRJ is always a pretty good read and it even has a special tourist section for its hotel editions.

As for our most recent hotel stays, when we stayed at the Palazzo we were given the Wall Street Journal, which we didn't mind. Over at the Bellagio, they were still using the LVRJ back in September.

But when we hit up the Hyatt Regency Denver we were given USA Today when we would have preferred a local newspaper. There's just more interesting stories inside the local papers, so we think.

Now you tell us: would you rather prefer a national newspaper or a local newspaper in your hotel room? Or do you not even read the paper when traveling? Put your thoughts in comments below.

[Photo: Side Salad]

8 Comments - Add Yours by juliana

Comments

Comments on The Las Vegas Review-Journal Gets No Love from Harrahs Casinos

juliana
HotelChatter

Re: The Las Vegas Review-Journal Gets No Love from (none / 0)

i forgot to add one of my all-time favorite hotel newspaper experiences. At the Observatory Hotel in Sydney, they brought up the Sydney Morning Herald along with like 3 of the tabloidy, NY Post-style newspapers. Heaven!

by juliana on 4/17/2008 at 11:40 AM

mytwocents
HotelChatter Member

Re: The Las Vegas Review-Journal Gets No Love (none / 0)

I say when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I prefer a local read with my morning coffee. The rest of the world I get on TV or my laptop.

by mytwocents on 4/17/2008 at 2:01 PM

annie0007
HotelChatter Member

both (none / 0)

As a traveler, I wanna see what's happening around town, but I still want to be hooked into the national news stories -- I don't have a laptop.

by annie0007 on 4/17/2008 at 2:05 PM

amandak
HotelChatter Member

give me the local stuff ... (none / 0)

... I'm on holidays. I don't want to care about world politics or what's happening back home - give me the cutesy local so I know where the mayor's appearing or who's giving away free cookies :-) See , it's always about food.

by amandak on 4/18/2008 at 3:46 AM

Stan
HotelChatter Member

Always the local paper (none / 0)

I can read USA Today or the Wall Street Journal anywhere in the world. And this way I can find out where the free food is so I can get there before Amanda finishes it.

by Stan on 4/18/2008 at 8:12 AM

Tim L.
HotelChatter Member

Re: The Las Vegas Review-Journal Gets No Love from (none / 0)

Another vote for the local rag. Always more fun to see what people are talking about in that town and to see what's going on around the area. The local entertainment weekly would be a nice thing to get too--and I'm not talking about the glossy ones that only write about places that are advertisers. The Creative Loafing/New York Press kind of thing. Hey, they're usually free anyway, so how hard can that be?

by Tim L. on 4/18/2008 at 10:07 AM