Fri 4 Aug 2006
YOU CAN ONLY GET THE SHIT SO SHINY WHEN YOU POLISH A TURD
Posted by admin under Detriot Lewis Bio, My View
1 Comment
Through the dirty little grapevine here in Sux Falls, I found out that our local newspaper will become the NEWSPAPER OF THE FUTURE in September. Trust me, this rumor didn’t come without some laughs. It’s the usual dog and pony show, NEW flashy layout, shorter cut sheet (you now, like the NY Post). But as I have said before, there needs to be some internal changes before anyone will read that thing, besides for humor, irony and cynicism.
Here’s a few suggestions, to truly make it the NEWSPAPER OF THE FUTURE:
• Help your employees form a union so the production artists, full-time carriers, pressmen and reporters make a living wage.
• Hire experienced, articulate, positive reporters that are not afraid to ask tough questions, Hell, any questions.
• I don’t know if this currently exists, I would assume not, but a research department would be helpful.
• Stop printing magazines that serve no purpose, and put all of the staff’s energy into creating a great daily.
• Stop discriminating. Give your special inserts to all of your subscribers, not just the ‘wealthy neighborhoods’. Do they pay more for a subscription? Does poor people’s money spend differently. *(NOTE: One of there periodicals was only being delivered in the newspaper to neighborhoods of 50K and up. How do I know this? They had an ad in the mag saying just that and when I had a short lived subscription to the paper, I never received the mag.
• Deliver the paper on time. Don’t tell subscribers that the paper will be there by 7 AM if it’s not. My paper came after 8 AM almost 50% of the time. I only had a subscription for three months before I cancelled it.
• Retention. When I cancelled my subscription, the only thing the operator said was, OK, Thank you. I asked her if anyone there was concerned as to why I cancelled my subscription. She says “Sure, I can write something downâ€.
• Stop stealing your competitors periodical racks and claiming you had a right to because of bogus contracts. Oh, yeah, and come clean on it in your paper.
• Keep the Opinion page ‘Voice of the People’ just that. Stop editing important content from the letters.
• And lastly, stop cheating the public. Report current events when they happen, and take a stand – this makes great newspapers.