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To the Memphis Flyer and Contemporary Media, Inc.

You claim you don’t endorse a candidate …

well maybe not in so many words!

Your recent November 10, 2016 Memphis Flyer cover with

Trump’s photo and WTF? is “deplorable” at best and reflects

poorly on your paper and your firm.

My comments here in this document are NOT related to your

position on Trump and/or Clinton but on your failure to

represent the City of Memphis, Shelby County and the Mid-South

in a positive and progressive manner. You owe your readers,

your advertisers and your distribution network an apology as

well.

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Newspapers have the right to espouse their liberal and/or

conservative views as they see fit, but your “WTF” message

crossed the line of decency (it rivals Trump’s 2005 remarks with

Billy Bush at Access Hollywood)! You are NOT publishing some

social media rant or Facebook posting or twitter remark online,

but you are representing the city of Memphis and Shelby County

and the people who reside here.

If you bother to read the remainder of this document, you will

understand why the media in general and the newspaper

industry is in decline. Yes…the technology of the INTERNET has

given citizens alternate choices to get their news and

information (often on a more-timely basis), but that is not the

primary reason that newspapers in general are suffering from

subscriber and readership loss. Consolidation in the industry has

led to “one paper towns” and the owners of these surviving

papers have elected to use their papers as a forum to “preach”

and “lecture” to their constituents about what they should

believe, how they should act as well as who they should vote

for.

Newspaper personnel have somehow decided that their role is to

dictate to their readers and/or subscribers rather than SERVE

THEIR NEEDS! I should like to point out to you that the

newspaper business is a SERVICE business that should be focused

on providing timely, factual news and commentary that

represents multiple points of view. When your staff all

represent a SINGLE VANTAGE POINT, you are more likely than

not failing to serve a significant portion of your target audience.

While this might make the few editors and writers feel good

about being able to preach and promote their personal agendas,

it does little to serve the needs of your readers, subscribers and

advertisers.

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Let’s Look at some facts about the

newspaper industry, the city of Memphis

and the market area you serve …

Newspapers, more than any other media form, play an

important role in providing the public with meaningful

information about the world around us. The chart below shows

the major categories where newspapers can be most effective in

communicating news events and facts.

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U.S. Newspaper Decline

This graph presents data on the total number of daily newspapers in

the United States from 1985 to 2014. Per Statista, the number of

daily newspapers shrank by nearly 400, from 1,730 in 1981 to 1,331

in 2011. Source: Statista

After a year of media companies spinning off their newspaper units into stand-alone

companies, the newspaper industry including the Memphis Commercial Appeal

saw a wave of consolidation between spring 2015 and spring 2016. E.W. Scripps and

Journal Communications, both of which had been spun off as newspaper-only units

from larger media conglomerates, merged into a new company called Journal Media

Group. The merged company was then purchased by Gannett, itself a newly formed

stand-alone newspaper company after Gannett’s television and digital holdings were

incorporated as TEGNA.

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You might wonder why these downward trends persist?

Most people want to BLAME the Internet, Social Media or some other new trend. Yes…these reasons may be contributing factors but business consolidations and a FAILURE to SERVE their customer base is at the HEART of the problem!

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Let’s Look at Some Demographic Data

Newspaper Readership by Age Groups

The percentage of adults who report they read a newspaper “yesterday” declined again in 2012 for all age groups except 18-to-24-year-olds. The biggest decline was for 35-to-44-year-olds, down three percentage points. Those 65 and older again were most likely to be newspaper readers.

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Newspaper Readership by Education Levels

Frequency of newspaper readership increases with the level of education, but all levels of readership are declining.

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Newspaper Readership by Income Levels

Newspaper readership also correlates with higher income levels. In 2012, the two highest categories, $100,000 to $149,000 and $150,000 or more, showed, by a slight margin, the biggest declines.

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Newspaper Readership by Racial Groups

Whites have the highest level of daily newspaper readership, followed by African Americans. Whites decreased readership by 5% in 2012 and Asians dropped by 7%. African Americans and Hispanics remained at the same level of readership in 2012.

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Where does Memphis stand in all of this?

Males: 312,755 (47.6%)

Females: 344,106 (52.4%)

Estimated median household income in 2013:

Memphis: $36,722

TN: $44,297

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Unwed Mothers … no fathers present to provide financial or family support!

Memphis has some issues…and no one is addressing the “root cause” problems plaguing the city!

As a newspaper, have your examined your current readership and subscriber base to determine what their metrics are and what their interests and needs are?

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Newspaper Market Penetration

Market penetration for Print and Online measures the number of

newspapers sold in each market as a percentage of households and

includes unduplicated audiences as well.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal is one of the top 25 papers by

Market Penetration and has shown gains from 2011 to 2012 but still

reaches only about 50+% of the households in essentially a single

paid daily newspaper city.

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Top 100 U.S.

Newspaper

Endorsements

Here is a summary of the

general election

endorsements by the 100

highest-circulation

newspapers in the

country (2012 and 2016)

… [only 1 paper endorsed

the Republican candidate

in 2016 compared to 16

papers in 2012]. Source:

Mother Jones

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So – Do YOU think there could be any MEDIA BIAS?

Almost 1.2 Billion votes cast in 2016 Presidential Election and 49.9% of

them were for Trump … now who is going to represent these voters’

viewpoints?

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Here is how we voted in the Mid-South… Tennessee

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Mississippi

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Arkansas

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Summary

What is YOUR game plan now … are you going to continue to

“blow off” and/or “alienate” half of your potential market?

What about your advertisers … don’t you think they will want to

utilize an advertising medium that responds favorably to ALL

their potential customers?

Here are some factors for success:

Know your customers

Serve ALL your customers

Know your customers’ needs

Meet or Exceed all your customers’ needs

Place your customers’ needs FIRST

Make sure your newspaper staff represents differing points

of view that mirror the community that you are serving

I will end this dissertation with a “fast food story” analogy.

Listen to this two-minute video message about this very

successful company…in all likelihood you have eaten there!

http://wealthyretirement.com/videos/one-company-proves-courtesy-boosts-

bottom-line-two-minute-retirement-solution/?src=email

Chick-fil-A Success Story

You might wonder why I would compare a newspaper firm

with a fast food chain … but after you have listened to the

above message I think you will find some worthwhile parallels.

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Some Takeaways from the Chick-fil-A message…

Restaurant companies are being measured in new ways… by manners, courtesy and customer service. I kid you not.

Take Chick-fil-A for example. It currently generates about $4 million in revenue per restaurant, which is more than any other fast-food chain. That’s almost double McDonald’s revenue per store, and it beats KFC by four times.

Analysts say that it’s because the people who work at Chick-fil-A smile more and say “please” and “thank you.” They seem to understand that you (the customer) are the reason they’re there, not the other way around.

Chick-fil-A has half as many franchises as other fast-food companies but generates more revenue per store than all others. And its formula is shockingly simple…

It invests more money in training its employees than its competitors do.

Chick-fil-A employees take your order using tablets while you’re sitting in the drive-thru line, that way your order is ready when you get to the window.

And when you dine in, polite and friendly employees serve you your food at your table if they can’t immediately fill your order at the counter.

But most importantly, Chick-fil-A employees look you in the eye and smile when they’re talking to you.

And one of the key reasons this politeness model seems to work so well is Chick-fil-A franchisees can own only one restaurant.

The company wants franchisees present in their stores, leading the way with hands-on supervision, training and politeness.

And it shows… The lines to get into Chick-fil-A are always ridiculous.

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Document Author

Woody Savage

savageman3tn@gmail.com

901-757-8349

8926 Cedar Mills Cove

Cordova, TN 38016