Jackson Free Press

Funny. Within a week of our parody of The Clarion-Ledger supposedly purchasing the JFP in order to steal reporter Adam Lynch, in which we ripped on their horrendous online logo, The Clarion-Ledger replaced the Reagan-era-font logo on its re-re-re-designed Web site. Like the last ugly-ass logo, the new clarionledger.com (all lower case, presumably because that's what the kids are doing) has nothing to do with their actual newspaper logo, which is also on the front page of the site, showing that they are caught in logo-limbo.

What is up with them? It couldn't possibly be that they are trying to come up with a "younger" logo, could it? They are going to have to do a sh*t-ton more than come up with a juvenile-looking logo in order to revive readership among new generations.

The funniest part is the dot-com on the end; don't they get that online readers, uh, know they're online?!? Newspapers have no reason to have a different online logo; go look at nytimes.com (or the new JFP Web site; first re-design in years and years) to see how real papers do it. At this point, doing the dot-com jig is like referring to the Web as the "Information Superhighway." Wonder if they do that in staff meetings!? Don't answer that. We really don't want to know.

The Ledger also now has logos for their suburban newspapers on the front page, too—seeming to co-opt the news section. The front page is now more frustrating to navigate than ever with junk everywhere. And notice how sections of the Ledger ("Outdoors," "Mississippi Moms") are somehow "sponsoring" the paper's Web site.

How does that work exactly?

Alas, though, they did not retire the baby-puke yellow. Sigh.

They Are Fam-i-ly]
Speaking of suburban newspapers, our last Snark column got some response from readers who were befuddled that the Ledger's claim to reach 79 percent of metro Jackson actually included all their free rags and Rankin and Madison offshoots. It seems that the Ledger's tone is louder when they say the "79 percent" part and they cough a little when they get to the part about it being the "family" of papers that they push on people who don't ask for them (in mail and in yards). One woman wanted to know how many copies of The Clarion-Ledger—the daily newspaper one—actually go to people in the metro. Our suggestion: Ask them for a breakdown of the 2007 Market Study results. Be specific: What is the circulation of the daily print edition in the Jackson metro? How is it trending? Up or down?

After all, they brought it up.

Your Fallacy, or Mine?
The Mississippi for McCain Web site is truly acting like a cyber-moron at the moment. A Google alert turned up this general swipe at "another lefty"—who, it turns out, is a guy with radical, inconsistent (at best) views at best who wrote a letter to the Ledger the McCain crowd doesn't like. George Lambus wrote to the Ledger complaining that: "Carroll County in Mississippi has been from its inception a hotbed of Klan activity, now if Sen. John McCain's great-grandfather was once a sheriff there, what does that say? Apples don't fall far from the tree!"

So, the McCainians apparently did a search and found a letter from the same gentleman in the JFP, in which he shocked our sensibilities with his lambasting of young, black males (and Kamikaze and others) even as he stated that he is himself black. This letter is one of the more notorious that we have ever received here, and even drew a heated response from our former assistant editor, Natalie Collier, who is black.

The fun part, though, is to watch the Mississippi McCain crowd try to use these whacked-out letters to paint the whole "lefty" crowd (who is presumably anyone not supporting their guy).

Listen up, Mississippi Republicans: This kind of illogical, ignorant witch hunt, coming from the party that perfected the southern race strategy in Mississippi, is why your party is in trouble with younger generations who have some edumacation. This is not real; it is stupid, and it is reminiscent of the "communist" and "liberal" bashing of past years. It is icky. It won't work.

Try something new, please.

Previous Comments

ID

118748

Comment

Just found an intriguing Clarion-Ledger diversity report from 2005. The part I find most intriguing is the chart at the bottom that broke the Ledger weekday sales down by zip code for the whole state (and showing what the racial breakdowns for those zip codes are). My math shows that, in 2005, the Ledger was reporting 25,546 weekday sales in Jackson zip codes -- which I'm assuming is subscriptions plus newsstands. Last year, they reported 22,000 subscribers in Jackson. Then adding up the reported non-Jackson metro zip codes, I get 26,925 in weekday sales. That would be 52,471 weekday metro sales in 2005, and it's probably dropped since then. It's no wonder that they are rolling in all their freebies in order to say they reach 79 percent of the metro. Sounds like a lot of freebies.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-04-18T16:52:06-06:00

ID

118749

Comment

It's kind of crazy to look at those "penetration" percentages as of three years ago, especially 39.9 percent of households in Ridgeland, 47.5 percent in Clinton, low 40s in Brandon and 27.7 percent in Pearl. They do great in the small 39216 Jackson zip with 92.2 percent (or 1,478 households), and 68.1 percent n Madison (5,561 HH), and so-so with 55.8 percent (5,908 HH) in Jackson 39211. Except for wacky percentages in Jackson 39201/business district (494.9 percent or 975 because so few people live there) and 87.7 percent in Fernwood (57 HH), the penetration in every county is under 50 percent, most way, way under. Vicksburg is 10.2 percent, Meridian 3.2 percent. The one that seems really crazy is Oxford, which lists 6.4 percent of households. Can that be right? Do most people in Oxford read The Commercial Appeal?

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-04-18T17:19:07-06:00