Jackson Free Press

The Clarion-Ledger is reporting:

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton said Wednesday night he would veto the awarding of the city's legal advertising contract to The Mississippi Link and recommend giving the contract to The Clarion-Ledger. Melton said the exposure the city would get in a newspaper that circulates statewide and has a Web site would be critical to the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "It's the right thing to do for the taxpayers," Melton said.

The Link has a circulation of about 4,000. The Clarion-Ledger's circulation is nearly 100,000.

In a 5-1 vote last week, the Jackson City Council chose the Link to publish all of the city's legal publications for a calendar year.

The Link bid $5 for a 100-word ad published three times. The Clarion-Ledger's bid was $5.10.

Ward 6 Councilman Marshand Crisler said he would continue to work to make sure the contract goes to the newspaper with the lowest bid. "I'm not going to change my position on that," said Crisler, who voted for the Link.

Crisler said he would not comment on whether he would support an override until a veto happens.

Local newspapers have fought all the way to the state Supreme Court for the right to publish the city legal notices in the last decade.

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What's interesting, of course, about this story is that these are the *city's* legal ads, and the Ledger is using their statewide circulation here.

The Link does have a tiny circulation, if those figures are true.

Previous Commentsshow

Aside from the political quid pro quo that might be in place, here's MY question of the day: Why can the C-L report on this controversial little dust-up in which they are a party, but they could never report or comment on the Melton/Ledger defamation lawsuit until they were no longer "a party" to it?

Rex

Feb 16 2006

Excellent question, Rex.

DonnaLadd

Feb 16 2006

I think Melton has a problem with the Link because of some of the articles they have written about him. Do a search on the Link Web site and you'll see what I mean.

LatashaWillis

Feb 16 2006

Rex, The C-L didn't write the report. It came from the AP (which is not surprising considering, disappointingly, a lot of the C-L's news comes straight from the wire...there's no shame in that, generally speaking, but the C-L uses wire for even local stories sometimes...). Just a side note from a fellow (non-local) journalista.

emsy

Feb 16 2006

I have a great deal of respect for the Mississippi Link, and I would say that even if I wasn't a contributing writer for their Arts/Entertainment section (I felt I needed to say that so my opinion didn't seem biased later). Though I love the paper and stand behind their right to be bothered by the proposed veto---- I think one thing that should be looked at is the circulation issue. If business is to stay within the city, I think it would be good for it to stay with a paper that has a great circulation in the city. Which brings up the question to me--- why wasn't the Jackson Free Press considered? Did they not bid? There circulation and website visits runs rings around the Mississippi Link.

c a webb

Feb 16 2006

This is Melton's way of helping the C/L for all the "cover your ass" they did for Melton during the election and during this lawsuit - (Besides his obvious distain for certain Johnson supporters.) Tell me why the states largest paper would forgo on a front page article about a mayor from the capital city being sued for defaming a state employee and then lying to a judge about it? This is as obviously biased as Fishers desire to have Motorola radios with no regard to the desires of the public, the State, and their elected officials.

pikersam

Feb 16 2006

No, we did not bid.

DonnaLadd

Feb 16 2006

I would agree that Mr. Melton owes The Clarion-Ledger big.

DonnaLadd

Feb 16 2006

I saw the council hearing on this matter, and I think the C-L is right on this one. First, it included free online publication of legal ads in its bid; the MS link did not. With that taken into account, the C-L seems to be the lowest bid to me (more per dollar). Second, the C-L argued that the MS link doesn't meet the definition on "newspaper of general circulation" provided by state statute. It referred to a case in the past where the council threw out the bid of another small newspaper (can't recall which one) that had a circulation of slightly more than the MS Link and the MS supreme court upheld that decision.

Justin

Feb 16 2006

To me it seems like a matter of I am screwing you because you supported my foe in the last election. I wonder if the JFP would get the bid if they had entered the bidding war. Too bad we will never know as the JFP is what its name says free.

suspended2

Feb 16 2006

The interesting issue about the "free" part is that ALL of the publications that have been bidding on the legal ads are moving toward the free model as the entire newspaper industry is. We're just ahead of the curve, by being a "controlled" circulation newspaper (meaning free to readers, although audited). The Sun, the Link, the Advocate and now The Clarion-Ledger are all increasingly giving their papers away because people are stopping paying for newspapers. And, in some of their cases, they are resorting to the very desperate "forced circulation" model where they throw their publications in your yard to try to keep their circulation numbers, and thus their advertising rates, at a certain place. We will watch in amusement as they all start pushing for various changes in laws and press association rules and the like as they are forced by the market to give their papers away for free, or be sh!t out of luck. That is, all of them are going to have an increasingly harder time pointing to "paid" circulations. The business is changing, and damn fast, as you can by them trotting all their free racks out next to ours.

DonnaLadd

Feb 16 2006

Great Point! Most news is going to the the free and web based model. I wonder how long will it take before podcasting and totally web based news is king er... or queen (smile).

suspended2

Feb 16 2006

And, in some of their cases, they are resorting to the very desperate "forced circulation" model where they throw their publications in your yard to try to keep their circulation numbers, and thus their advertising rates, at a certain place. This is true. I've gotten a few copies of the Hinds Ledger, and I read articles about loft living and JPS students who've received awards (which is what used to make the C-L great - my mom still has some clippings of me, I think. :-)) The business is changing, and damn fast, as you can by them trotting all their free racks out next to ours. Uh-huh. I saw a stand with some kind of weekend paper the C-L put out. I didn't look at it, though. I know that some dirty tricks are being played. I went to get a copy of the JFP a couple of weeks ago and all of the copies were turned face down. This was at the Food Depot on Northside Drive. I flipped them right side up. (By the way, why is the stand next to the phone booth? I think the stand would generate more traffic if it were closer to the door or even inside the store.)

LatashaWillis

Feb 16 2006

Well, this ended badly for the City! Kidd’s ruling, signed Monday, orders the city to immediately begin publishing all future legal ads for 2006 in the Link and pay The Link “all funds it would have received from the beginning of the contract up to today’s date” by Oct. 13. The ruling also awards The Link reimbursement for its attorney fees and legal expenses. Kidd’s ruling said there “is absolutely no question that The Mississippi Link was the lowest qualified bidder.” According to state law, bids must be awarded to the lowest bidder. Kidd also called the mayor’s veto “arbitrary and capricious.” Oh well... He's learning! I really don't care what paper carries these things. Don't have a dog in that hunt. The Clarion Ledger makes more sense; but they should have bid $4.90. You would think they could afford it! Maybe if they spent less money on distribution schemes then they could afford to give the City better rates!

pikersam

Sep 26 2006

Ah. Well, it was obvious they were going to lose this one. They need to change the law if they don't like that it works out this way. Also, interesting that The Clarion-Ledger admits this circulation figure again in print: The Link has a circulation of roughly 4,000. The Clarion-Ledger has a circulation of roughly 100,000 - about 22,000 inside the city limits. 22,000 inside the city limits. The 100,000 figure is statewide, you know. I guess you can see why successful weeklies get on their nerves so, eh?

DonnaLadd

Sep 26 2006

I'd always heard it was bad form to have AP stories on the front page. Not that CL would know good reporting, but...

Ironghost

Sep 26 2006

all right, where is the george allen thread? Can't find it on forums and the last 100 posts STILL takes me to the home page. aaarrrggghhh

Kingfish

Sep 26 2006