Cedar Point Denies Sandusky Register Access to Annual Media Day Event

The corkscrew and water tower at Cedar Point Credit: Jeremy Thompson/FlickrCC

Cedar Point today will host its annual Media Day, with this year’s main draw being the preview of Top Thrill 2, the park’s new, record-breaking ride.

It’s the sort of event The Sandusky Register, the local hometown paper, would normally cover. After all, the paper dutifully details just about everything having to do with the park, from real estate acquisitions to new dining offerings to ticket prices to, yes, new coasters.

But, presumably because of previous stories the paper has written about the amusement park, reporters from the paper will not be in attendance.

Plenty of others will, of course, and you can expect to see clips of TV anchors screaming with hair blown back and wide smiles beaming coming to a newscast near you and blow-by-blow pics and video from trade magazines, Cleveland.com, various and multitudinous online forums and blogs, etc.

The sort of coverage, in other words, that you can find anywhere .

What you can’t get everywhere is critical reportage on the amusement park beyond its rides. The sort of stuff you can read in the Sandusky Register.

The small paper has, for example, in recent years doggedly reported on park’s refusal to release public records from its police force, which while private, operates functionally as a public institution, as the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in December of last year. It’s likewise examined how that police force was created and operated within Sandusky, dove into angles of the impending merger with Six Flags, called out the park in editorials when needed and generally done vital journalism to serve those who live and work in the shadows of the city’s most powerful institution and or all those who visit the park.

That coverage has, ostensibly, irked the park enough to do something about it.

“Cedar Fair executives recently approved a plan to block the Sandusky Register from its annual Media Day,” editor Matt Westerhold wrote on Wednesday. “It’s the first known instance in which the park prohibited the local newspaper from covering the annual event. Park officials provided no explanation for the decision.”

Likewise, Cedar Point officials didn’t respond to messages for Scene seeking clarity on the decision, though the move smacks of petty retaliation done with little thought or care about the coverage that would ensue.

The paper has never shied away from stories involving the coaster giant, and didn’t this week, with its leaders expressing disappointment that the landmark institution would choose to exclude it, simply for honest reporting, as residents and readers gear up to learn more about the park’s new attractions.

“It has been a long-standing tradition of the Register to cover Media Day through our digital and print platforms. It is no exaggeration to say we have brought hundreds of thousands of eyeballs to Cedar Point over the years through the annual Media Day event,” publisher Jeremy Speer and general manager John Kridelbaugh said in a statement published by the Register. “Being purposely excluded from attending this event is an unacceptable move from a fellow community pillar. No media organization has been more of a cheerleader for Cedar Point since Day 1 than the Register.”

The paper asked Cedar Point to reconsider its decision. No word, early Thursday, if there was a response.