REICH COMMUNICATIONS

Final Edition

 

I was going to write about a special insert that was in the New York Times two Sundays ago, but then the nation got caught up in the horrific events in El Paso and Dayton, along with the aftermath of accusations, denials and the usual "thoughts and prayers" that too often seem to replace any meaningful action.

The Aug. 4th editions of The Times included a standalone section titled "A Future Without the Front Page."  The lead story began with some important questions:

"What happens when the presses stop rolling?  Who will tell the stories of touchdowns scored, heroes honored and neighbors lost? And who will hold mayors, police officers and school boards accountable?  Local newspapers, starved for advertising and subscribers, are closing across America, leaving a void that the splintered threads of Facebook and Twitter may not be able to fill."

It's happening at a time when the nation is in turmoil, with a government that's out of control and trying to operate in the dark, outside the vision of its citizens.  In many cases, it's been newspapers that have exposed lies, self-dealing, and many things the administration has tried to do outside the public's view.

The section tells the story of the last days of The Warroad Pioneer, a weekly paper that's served the people in northwestern Minnesota for 121 years.  And it tells the larger story of local newspapers nationwide struggling to keep people informed of local happenings.

A sidebar cites some sad and alarming numbers...  Over the past 15 years, 2,100 local papers -- nearly a quarter of all newsrooms -- have closed or merged.  It's not only the small papers like the Warroad Pioneer that have been hit, but also dailies in major markets like Denver, Cincinnati, Tucson, Tampa and New Orleans.  More than 200 counties throughout the U.S.now have no newspaper to inform of local happenings -- local politics, local businesses, local issues and the ultimate local news -- deaths in the community.

There are still about 8,600 local newspapers, but many are a shell of their former selves.  To save money, publishers often decimate the newsroom -- the place that creates the product that gives a newspaper its value. 

A few large media companies like Gannett have swallowed local newspapers, often rolling them up under one regional masthead.  But inevitably, local news coverage suffers.  One example close to home for me is The Journal News.  The northern New York City suburbs had been served well for decades by a few small chains like the Macy newspapers.  But when Gannett bought them, it shut down more than a dozen truly local mastheads and lumped them as one as The Journal News, covering three counties that include several sizable cities including Yonkers (population 185,000) and Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and White Plains, each with upwards of 65,000 residents.

Where the local papers each had reporters dedicated to the local city hall, school board and police, the combined papers now have one reporter who covers the education beat for the entire area -- an area with more than a dozen cities and several dozen towns and villages, each with its own school system.  Coverage of local schools, understandably, is almost non-existant.

The Times section refers to papers like these as "ghost papers."  They are now little more than a means to carry national and regional ads for area car dealers, supermarket chains and department stores, and the big healthcare systems.  Gannett provides pared down national and international stories via its USA Today, and it runs some regional stories that it picks up from other regional Gannett papers.  The Journal News has a handful of feature and local reporters who tell me they are hard-pressed to cover any but the biggest regional stories.

Many areas now have regional cable news channels.  But TV news is a different animal and it's costly to produce local news stories that do more than skim the surface.  And logistics make it impossible for a local news channel to do truly local reporting, since they cover large regions in order to be economically viable.  NY1 News is an exception, but it covers all of New York City, with 8 million-plus inhabitants.

A house ad on the back page of the special section explains why we need local newspapers.  It says...

   Securing one more interview.

   Fact-checking claims.

   Listening to unheard voices.

   Triple-vetting sources.

   Braving intimidation.

   Reporting from multiple angles.

   Asking the right questions.

   Following the full story.

And the tagline... 

      The truth is worth it.

 

This is why we need newspapers.  We need to be informed if our Democracy is to function as a democracy.  Newspapers do a crucial job. 

We need to support our papers so they can continue that crucial work for us.

 

 

Is this America?

 

 

 

"Thoughts and prayers" are not fixing a very big problem in this great country of ours.

 

The problem, actually, is two-fold.  While racial, religious and ethnic prejudice has long been an undercurrent in American society, the blatant and unacceptable rhetoric of hatred spewed constantly by our president has contributed to a documented rise in acts of hatred and violence.  The tacit acceptance of such damaging presidential talk by conservative Republicans leaders who are afraid of tweets serves to further embolden those whose minds are poisoned by hatred.

 

The president MUST reign in his treacherous and treasonous talk.  And our elected leaders...all of  them...must strongly call him out for his dereliction of duty.  As president, his role is to represent the interests of all Americans and not only his base.  His job is to promote peace within our borders, not to stoke hatred and violence.

 

The other part of this problem continues to be our leaders' reluctance to deal effectively with gun control.  I'm not advocating for a change in the right to bear arms, but rather for a sensible system that makes it more difficult for people to get weapons without proper background checks and waiting periods, to do what we can to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. 

 

Our elected officials MUST stand up to the big money of the NRA and change laws.  The vast majority of Americans recognize and support the need for true gun control.

 

Haven't we had enough of our children and neighbors being killed in schools, stores and nightclubs, synagogues and churches?  I don't want to see another politician send "thoughts and prayers" unless it's followed by real outrage and strong calls for real legislative action.  Otherwise, the words ring hollow.

 

Is this our America today...a nation fueled by talk of hate and violence from our top leader, with senseless mass killings coming, to some degree, from that hate?

 

 

It's not the America I know and love, and I demand our leaders fix it... quickly.  We need action, not just talk.

 

 

 

More tax breaks... for the super-rich

 

More tax give-aways to the super-rich.

How ironic that many Republican leaders criticize what they call “entitlements” like Social Security and Medicare (which we pay for throughout our working lives) and other programs like Food Stamps and school lunch programs designed to help our less-fortunate brothers and sisters.  

The irony is that these same Republican leaders are giving wealthy individuals and big corporations who are their financial supporters huge tax cuts that do nothing for the rest of us other than add more than $400 billion to the national debt, which we all end up paying for through interest on that debt.

Now the administration is considering another huge tax cut for the wealthy in the form of lower taxes on capital gains from the sale of stocks and bonds.  For some of the middle class, such a tax break might mean a few hundred or maybe a few thousand dollars, while it could reap millions for the very rich.  Remember, most Americans don’t have stocks or bonds, so the price of the Dow or the proposed tax breaks will have no direct impact on them.  Instead, it would burden us and our children with another $100 billion in national debt.

We’ve already seen the administration give the super-rich a $1.5 trillion tax cut, which has added to an already-ballooning national debt.  Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, writes in today’s N.Y. Times that neither tax cuts nor tariffs are working.  In fact, he says, there’s evidence that the new tariffs are actually hurting American business while pushing prices up for American consumers.  Trump likes to say the tax cuts have helped boost economic growth to 2.9 percent last year, but a closer look shows that growth doesn’t come close to offsetting revenues lost to the Treasury by the tax cuts.

It would be nice to see our elected leaders doing something to help those of us in the middle, but their focus clearly to make the super-rich even richer.  Time for a change, I would think.

Using AI to write ad copy...good or bad?

 

Adweek reported this week about banking giant Chase using artificial intelligence to draft ad copy.

I had two initial thoughts when I saw the headline....

    Will it really work?

    Might it eliminate jobs?

The article talks about a three-year pilot Chase undertook with Persado, a Manhattan-based AI company. Persado's website says it unlocks the power of words by "applying mathematical certainty to words."

Very simply, the company uses algorithms to determine what words resonate with target consumers and/or increase the likelihood of a click to open a marketing email or a link.

It's an interesting concept, but I hope Chase and other marketers don't use it to write final copy unchecked. I can see it being helpful to show what words do a better job than others to attract attention or motivate consumer action.

The Adweek story cites an example of human vs. AI-created copy where the computer's copy performed better.

The human copy for the digital ad:. "Access cash from the equity in your home."

The computer-generated copy:. "It's true -- You can unlock cash from the equity in your home."

I like the second take, but I also wonder about the first take -- what direction the human copywriters were given and also, how sharp is the agency that let that dull copy go through to the client?

My second concern was about how many jobs might be replaced by the computer. When Adweek posed that question to Chase, they got a horrible PR non-answer..."Our relationship with Persado hasn't had an impact on our structure."

This response does not say anything about future job cuts due to the AI tool.

Time will tell, on both the copy and the job fronts.

What We Do: Driver Ed for Safer Roads

 

At the American Driver Training & Safety Education (ADTSEA) conference in Vermont this week, we represent The National Road Safety Foundation, which sponsors an awards program for driver ed Teachers of Excellence.  We were proud to present the Teacher Excellence Award to five great teachers from Missouri, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota and Vermont.

We also arranged for two TV stations to come and cover the event and, hopefully, the local daily paper will be here today.

Here are links to the stories that aired last night on CBS3 and NBC5 here in Vermont.

ADTSEA Executive Director Brett Robinson being interviewd by WCAX-TV CBS3.

If It Quacks Like a Duck ...

 

There cannot be room for words of racism and hate in our public dialogue and from our elected leaders... especially from the very top.

A big part of the president's job is to unite and heal, not divide and hurt. The person in the White House is supposed to set a high moral example that the rest of us would strive to follow, rather than demean the office and this nation with hateful racist words.

Congress was right to issue a statement condemning the president's racist words. Yet I can't help but wonder how 187 legislators in the House could, in good conscience, sit on their hands when it came time to officially and publicly call out racism. I understand party loyalty, but this issue should rightfully go beyond whether a Congressperson has a D or an R after their name.

The Republicans in Congress have allowed themselves to sink to a new low that belies one of the core values upon which this great nation has been built. Whether you chalk it up to fear or spinelessness, it still is so wrong and so damaging. Other nations are watching and noting that Americans -- or many of our leaders, at least -- implicitly support racism and hatred.

This is not good and it must change.

We have the power to bring change. I just wish we didn't have to wait another 16 months to implement that change. Serious damage is being done every day.

Helping Keep Democracy Alive

 

It’s no exaggeration that newspapers are helping keep democracy alive in the U.S. these days.

 

Attacks from the highest levels of our government, tweet by tweet, have been aimed at undermining a crucial pillar of democracy – a free press.  In the face of taunts from the president that the major media are “fake news,” journalists strive to remain unbiased as they uncover and report the truth about what’s happening in our government.  It’s no easy task, since this administration – led by the president – spouts a steady stream of outright lies.  

 

Newspapers and, to some degree, broadcast and online news outlets continue to expose lies, misdeeds and incompetence that we, the taxpaying public, should know about.  Our leaders at the very top seem to have forgotten that they work for us and that we pay their salaries and their expenses – even expenses such as constant travel to private golf clubs.

 

Our news media are so important -- especially in these crazy times.

 

That’s why it’s so troubling to see that newspapers continue to trim their newsroom staffs – the very people we rely on to find and report the truth to us.  These are the people who keep us informed and analyze what's happening not only in Washington, but around the world and around the corner. 

 

 

The latest “State of the News Media” report from the Pew Research Center shows that newsroom jobs at U.S. newspapers dropped by 47 percent in the ten years from 2008 to 2018.   The number of employees handling digital reporting for newspapers more than doubled during that time, but the addition of 6,100 digital reporting jobs put only a small dent in the overall loss of 33,000 newsroom jobs over the ten-year period.

 

Employment in all newsrooms, including newspapers, broadcast, cable and digital, dropped from 114,000 in 2008 to 86,000 last year.

 

Local news coverage, especially, has taken a major hit as smaller newspapers either fold or get bought out and homogenized by the big media conglomerates like Gannett, who then cut back on their local reporting staff. Most major cities now have only a single newspaper serving them and a few, like New Orleans, no longer have a newspaper that publishes seven days a week.

 

A big part of the problem for newspapers has been dwindling readership and less ad revenues.  It's kind of a catch-22 -- as circulation declines, advertisers look elsewhere to invest their marketing dollars.

 

What can we do?  The most important thing is to read newspapers, either in print or online.  Growing online readership is helping to keep The New York Times and The Washington Post economically viable.  It's a win-win: read a newspaper to stay informed and help newspapers do what they do best -- report the facts and shine a light on our government and our elected officials.

 

The voice from Ipanema

 

We lost a musical giant a few days ago when singer and guitarist Joao Gilberto passed away at the age of 88.

He was considered “the father of bossa nova,” singing softly in Portuguese while playing his quiet guitar.  Gilberto helped popularize countryman Antonio Carlos Jobim’s songs in the early 1960s.

In 1963 he recorded with Stan Getz, and a song from the album became a giant hit that launched bossa nova here in the U.S.  – “The Girl from Ipanema,” with his wife Astrud Gilberto singing in English and Joao singing in Portuguese.  I used to enjoy playing it and other songs by him on my jazz show on my college radio station in the late 1960s.

Listen here to bring back good memories.   

Little Red Car

 

Time to say goodbye to my little red car...a 1999 Saturn 2-door coupe.

 

It has 112,262 miles on it.  I was hoping to see it hit 113,000, but I'm afraid that's not gonna happen.

For a car owned by me, though, 112,000 thousand and change is pretty good.  It's the first car I've owned that's seen over 100 thou. 

My Ford Fairmont wagon, back in the 1980s, made it to about 85,000.  My Ford Probe didn't make it that far, which was my own doing.  I forgot to check the oil and let the car run dry, destroying the engine.

By the time I got my Chrysler Sebring convertible, which was so much fun to drive, I had learned my lesson and took good care of that car.  But the engine gave out anyway, shortly after I bought it off the lease and the warranty expired.  Just a bit under 80,000 miles.

I bought the Saturn used, with only 7,200 miles after three years.  Most of the time, it was our second car.  But it took us to Montauk and made many trips to Maine.  It was a three-door -- with a small door to the rear seat on the driver's side.  Loki, our big black Lab, liked that car, maybe because he considered that small back door to be his personal door.

For the last few years, the car was used just for local errands.  I resisted getting rid of it out of curiosity -- wondering how many miles I could get out of it.  Now I know.

To pass inspection next November, I'd have to spend thousands for new brakes, a whole new exhaust system (after the muffler fell off as I was driving in the neighborhood a few months ago) and, most recently, an alternator after it drained the battery a few times.

So finally, it was time.  The tow truck took it away Monday. 

Thanks for all the rides, little red car.

Now the street in front of my house looks empty.

 

Happy 4th...from NY City