Wonderful. In Memphis we now have newspapers designed
for people who don’t read newspapers and special elections for people who don’t
vote.
This is progress in journalism: a daily newspaper, The
Commercial Appeal, chopped up
into so many sections that it is as annoying to read as an online newspaper with
pop-up ads on a slow computer with a dial-up connection.
“Honey, you mind handing me the front page?”
“You mean the front front page, the second front page, the front of the Greater
Memphis section, or the front of the Memphis and Region section?”
“Hell, just give me the remote.”
Judging from the e-mails I get from CA
employees and the letters to the editor in the CA,
I’m not alone in my confusion. I’m pulling for the print edition of the daily to
survive and even prosper. I’m sorry to see them lose another good reporter,
Oliver Staley. But I think they should quit pandering to their non-customers and
start leveling with their loyal customers and share some of the financial
realities that are driving the design changes.
As
consumers, we know what Northwest Airlines earned and spent last year, what its
CEO earned, what its pilots and mechanics and flight attendants earn in
salaries, what its fares are, even more than most of us probably want to know
about its pensions and benefits and debt load. We know the same things about the
financially troubled companies in the auto industry, General Motors and Ford. So
when we read about layoffs and plant closings and union contract negotiations,
we can put things in perspective.
“Old Reliable” (the hoary self-imposed nickname for the CA
hauled out of the attic last weekend by way of softening the shock of the
changes) and its parent company, E.W. Scripps, don’t disclose financials and
profit margins for individual newspapers, although the Scripps newspaper
division earned over $200 million in profits last year. Where are the numbers in
those times-are-tough columns from the editor and publisher? What are
advertising revenues for classifieds and displays ads? How much have they
fallen? What is the profit margin? What does it cost to keep a reporter or
editor? What is the daily and Sunday circulation? This is a business story of
local interest, and it should be covered like any other business story, with
facts not fluff.
Newspapers have to deal somehow with the loss of young readers. A former
colleague, Rheta Grimsley Johnson, told me she spoke recently to college
students interested in writing careers. She could understand them not knowing
about Ernie Pyle and Mike Royko. But they’d never heard of Maureen Dowd, either.
So I’ll go along with any design change for a while, but don’t shortchange me on
the story.
Meanwhile, this is progress in democracy in Memphis: A recall campaign is
officially under way to boot Willie Herenton out of the mayor’s office. Backers
need slightly less than 65,000 valid signatures of Memphis voters. That’s more
than twice as many as the 31,183 people who voted against Herenton in the 2003
mayoral election and well over half the number of people who voted, period
(103,226, or a 23 percent turnout).
I
don’t think they will get them without a more broadly organized effort. Some of
the current backers are mainly and perhaps exclusively interested in making a
noise. Herenton fatigue is one thing; Herenton removal another. The language of
the city charter indicates that Herenton’s chief administrative officer, Keith
McGee, would replace him. If recall supporters believe the mayor guilty of gross
malfeasance and fiscal mismanagement, it’s hard to see how installing his CAO or
the survivor of a deal brokered by the City Council make things any different.
And Herenton himself could run again in 2007, if not sooner.
Then there is the still unresolved matter of Ophelia Ford’s seat in the
Tennessee Senate. Challenger Terry Roland, the Republican who lost by 13 votes
in a special election last year, says he was robbed. A do-over election is
possible. But nine out of 10 voters eligible to vote in last year’s special
election stayed home. If either the Ford side or Roland side had expended as
much energy getting out the vote as they have fighting over the results, the
issue would have been settled long ago.
