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Subject: Re: left field/BobD
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 11:23:02 -0600
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----- Original Message -----
From: 
To: 
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 7:38 AM
Subject: Re: left field/BobD

Hi, Snow Lady!


> -> width and inches in depth, meaning to compose to fit what advertising
was
> -> running for a particular edition.  Information of that sort came down
from
> -> the composing room, daily.
>
> That's interesting.  Around here they seem to gather the news, pictures
and
> ads and then fit the stuff into the pages.. As far as I can see, it's the
ads that
> take precedence.

Well, pictures surely play their part.  The average reader looks at every
picture but often only skims headlines to many of the stories.  Photos and
ads break up the sea of printed characters to make it more appealing to
read.  Otherwise, a page of pure print looks daunting and portends to be a
laborious task to read.  Psychology!  

While it's nice to think of the fourth estate as the eyes and ears of the
public, it's really a business which is operated to make money, in most
cases.  Good business habits dictate the number of pages that can be run at
a profit on any given day.  To ignore the costs of publication would insure
a very short life for the average paper.

And it's not even REAL news, moreso than new officers or some society
Belle's garden creation that becomes their objective in print.  For those
times when there is something of great interest to cover it boosts
circlulation only briefly.  Few of us buy the paper just for the news
because most days there really isn't much of importance to make it
worthwhile reading.  More want to know the grocery prices or what's on sale
at the furniture store, hobby shop, etc., and it's the ads sold to fill that
need that keeps the presses running because this does happen most every day
in some phase of the local business world.  Aside from that, it keeps the
books in black ink, too.

Sure, local interests sell papers.  Maybe one to ten copies for each person
whose pet interest is pictured with a brief story of their success, but it
hardly makes a ripple in overall circulation.  That's public relations
material and most all papers indulge to some extent, but with a practiced
eye on the bottom line.  You either make money or go broke!  

>It's not as bad as it used to be,
> but when I questioned that years ago, they told me that without ads there
> could be no paper.  It told them that without news, nobody would bother
> buying it, so the ads wouldn't be seen anyway.

At first blush it seems you've discovered another catch 22, but it really
isn't.  The publisher told you the truth.  The occasional big news story is
icing on the cake!  If you get into the issues behind the scenes you might
find that more people buy their paper for the movie and/or TV listings than
for its world news value.  TV today may provide more of the news impact but
it's shallow on filling in the details.  That's where the local newspaper
shines.  

> ->
> -> >On one occasion, when some big event was happening here, three
> -> > of us were issued film by mistake.  The publisher was not thrilled,
> ->
> -> Sounds like his budget was tighter than a new pair of shoes!
>
> It was more like 5 rolls of film and that was just for one event.  Budget
> or not, that's excessive.

OKay, I concede.  Five bucks instead of just one would make a difference!
O:-)

> But hey, the editor can't say he had nothing to choose from, eh. 

The redeeming grace!  That part seems to thrill the editors but makes it
much harder for them to make a decision!  (If any editors are reading, I was
only fooling!)   Such things happen with lack of organization.  Far more
than the cost of film, if those were staff people the salaries of three,
when one would do, would qualify as excessive.  If all were stringers,
that's another story.

> ->
> -> > ..but I was as I was thrilled to discover
> -> > they printed more of my pictures than they did of those taken by the
other
> -> > two...official photographer included..

> -> There are scads of semi-competent people holding down jobs of all sorts
so
> -> it isn't surprising that photogs are included, too!  

> Was there an insult in there somewhere?  Sounds like you didn't think I
> could get a better picture unless the guy was incompetent.

LOL!  Only that it was a sufficient statement had you ended with "the other
two."
Since you included that one was a photographer, I couldn't help but point
out the most logical conclusion!!!!!  (Madly cackling and running like
"L"!)

>Ah, but I'll consider the source, and the grin, and believe you really
didn't mean it
> quite the way it came out. :)

You'd better believe it!  It did sort of come out the way I way wrote it,
but there is NO chance I'd slice on you but I will pull your chain!  

> -> > It was only after that that I became more interested in photography
than
> -> writing.

See?  Photographers are good for something, after all!  

Kidding aside, I'm happy that something brought you to all of us, Karen,
because you are a joy to the group.

> -> > Shooting what other people want has never been my idea of fun.
> ->
> -> True, but it enables us to do a lot more of the kind of work we really
want
> -> to do, and still pay the rent plus eat regularly, too
>
> Luckily, I'm a kept woman  :)

Uh, was that line meant to be for the paper's Single Ads????   O:-)

BobD

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