I had the, ahem, pleasure, of listening to Ellen Foley, the Editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, speak to a group of non-profit representatives at a Community Shares of Wisconsin meeting this morning. Two things she said kind of got to me: one old, one new.
The new one was . . .
Ellen started off her talk this morning offering to help non-profits learn how to write press releases and lamented that she has been offering this service, but that no one seems interested. Then she goes on to tell us about how in the age of email the press release is a thing of the past and its really all about personal relationships, how we need to make sure that all our personal contacts are in their database, and how we need to provide them with people willing to tell their stories and be photographed . . . and she ends by offering, once more, to help with a training on how to write a press release . . . what? Did she read her little speech before she gave it or listen to herself?
The old one was . . .
The Wisconsin State Journal has changed their focus. Their focus is on the University, Quality of Life and Economic Development. No surprises there, she’s been out saying that to everyone who will listen and clearly they play a huge role in continuing the anti-Progressive Dane, anti-business rhetoric. (I don’t even know where to begin to provide links here.)
She went on to talk about what her middle class readers wanted – she said 74% wanted shopping news – i.e. advertising. Really?
She explained that life has gotten complicated and we don’t know when a suicide bomber might walk into the supermarket . . . so she said that the role of the newspaper was to make sure people were entertained, that the newspaper had to be fun and inspirational and an entertaining break in the day. She suggested if we wanted to get our stories out there we should have a high profile person with an interesting story and we should call Melanie Conklin and get them in her gossip column. Her theory was that if we could feed people this “fun stuff” that will draw readers in, then they might read that serious story about sexual abuse.
If you looked at the WSJ lately, this next suggestion won’t surprise you at all, she emphasized that we needed to provide pictures, visuals and charts so they could print “charticles” for busy people.
Anyone get the sense they are dumbing down their paper to the point where it won’t even include news anymore?
Finally, she explained that they had reduced their government coverage – which has been clear to me for some time – apparently government isn’t fun and entertaining. All I could think was, isn’t this the same paper that doesn’t understand why people don’t run for office and have been voting in lower and lower numbers . . . don’t they see the connection between lack of information from the newspaper and lack of interest . . . geez, 90% of the people I talked to today didn’t even realize there was a school board primary today . . . I wonder why . . .
