Jackson Free Press

Clarion-Ledger Publisher Larry Whitaker sent the following letter to employees this week, talking about the challenges and changes the paper faced in 2007:

Dear fellow employees,

As we prepare for a new year, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for the wonderful year that you have given The Clarion-Ledger and its family of products in 2007. Without question, 2007 was a challenging year, but it is one where we have built a solid foundation for the future.

The metro Jackson area is poised for an economic development explosion. You can drive in almost any direction and see new homes, new retail businesses and new office space under construction. We are blessed to live in an area that is booming. That bodes well for the future. Our challenge is to make the right strategic decisions to help connect advertisers with their customers and, of course, to fulfill our First Amendment responsibility of being a watchdog of government and the dominant local news provider.

While economic realities certainly affected our industry this year, I believe we fared better than many in the news and information business. That is largely because of your commitment to making our operation a success. We probably don't say this enough, but thank you for caring so deeply about The Clarion-Ledger and all of its many parts.

We have just endured perhaps the biggest year of change that we have ever seen in our industry and in our company. Early on in the process, Sue Clark Johnson, president of the Gannett's News Division, told us to strap on our gym shoes and prepare for a year like no other. Sue's prediction came true.

Newsrooms across Gannett transformed themselves into Information Centers, with the stated mission of disseminating news quickly across multiple platforms. That simply means that our newsrooms had to respond faster to the reader. They had to be first to provide breaking news on the web. They had to continue to provide a print news product that was timely and relevant as more people turned to online as their primary news source.

Our most comprehensive readership survey to date showed that we were doing just that. Just as I told you in July, I remain proud that The Clarion-Ledger and its family of products reach an astounding 79 percent of the three-county area. Coupled with that great news is the phenomenal growth in clarionledger.com, which in 2007 will shatter previous records set for page views.

Just as the newsroom transformed into the Information Center, our advertising department underwent one of the biggest reorganizations in recent history. We changed our approach and developed strategies for audience-based selling, which required our sales team to know their customers better in order to help grow their businesses. Our company introduced the TIDE program to our sales team -- Think, Innovate, Develop and Execute. These are more than buzz words but a directive requiring us to develop a deeper knowledge about the competitive forces our customers face. We must produce customized advertising programs to help them grow market share.

While these programs were launched in 2007, much work lies ahead as we approach a new year, which will present its own set of challenges. Our best strategy to combat unpredictable economic forces is you, our employees. Like never before, we will need your creativity, your ideas, your initiative and your hard work to make 2008 a success.

Our industry today is very different from what it was five years ago. In fact, our operation has changed significantly from even a year ago. We are using advanced technology in ways like we never have before. We are leaner. At the operating committee level, we have changed the way we do business, eliminating the marketing director and information technology director positions and giving those responsibilities to other top managers.

In circulation, we have outsourced customer service operations to the Centers of Excellence (COE) in Greenville, S.C. After initial startup issues, we are now seeing stabilization of those services. Our circulation complaints, which used to be among the highest in Gannett, are now among the lowest. That's because of the pride and hard work our circulation staff has taken in addressing this key customer issue.

Our production team took the lead in successfully launching a new process for toning photographs called the Regional Toning Center. The RTC has been a tremendous success, with only a few exceptions. Again, that is attributable to committed employees who made sure proper training took place to avoid potential problems.

Our latest project involves the launching of a new redesign for clarionledger.com. That our page views are still more than 20 percent higher than the previous year during such a dramatic change is testament to the dedication of our online staff members who provided the technical expertise to build the new site and the Information Center, which must seed it with local content.

As you can see, 2007 has been an extraordinary year. Many words define it: Challenging, difficult and transformational. We can look back at 2007 and dwell on the challenges that it presented. I choose to look at it and see the opportunities that lie ahead.

While much of the country is reeling in a subprime real estate debacle and deep job losses that have wrecked some economies, we are fortunate to live in metro Jackson where there is seemingly no end to the growth and development. That makes me bullish on the future and excited to be a part of this wonderful team.

Let's look to make 2008 our year!

Respectfully,

Larry K. Whitaker
President & Publisher

Previous Comments

ID

97931

Comment

TIDE, Centers of Excellence (COE), Information Centers -- it's an Orwell kind of day, ain't it? Also, this part is a funny twist of reality: Just as I told you in July, I remain proud that The Clarion-Ledger and its family of products reach an astounding 79 percent of the three-county area. He is talking about the "family" of freebies such as VIP Jackson and all the Ledger clutter that they put in those TDN boxes and throw in people's yards. Is it really so "astounding" that they go out to 79 percent of the county and throw papers in people's yards whether they want them or not? That's called "push circulation," and newspapers like the Ledger are desperately claiming that means their "readership" is high. It's more interesting to hear the numbers of the people who are actually *choosing* to read their publication -- like the little over 20,000 circulation in the city of Jackson. He also mentions their "most comprehensive readership survey to date"—that survey showed that the Jackson Free Press was read by 64,332 people, a higher number than we even knew about—and that's one paper, not a "family" of publications tossed into people's front yards. So we appreciate the Ledger doing that survey that showed where the real growth in newspaper publishing lies in the Jackson area! ;-)

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-01-03T15:45:09-06:00

ID

97932

Comment

Our challenge is to make the right strategic decisions to help connect advertisers with their customers and, of course, to fulfill our First Amendment responsibility of being a watchdog of government and the dominant local news provider. Confused. How is it the Ledger's "First Amendment responsibility" to be the "dominant local news provider." With the Ledger's track record on reportage and endorsements, the idea that their news coverage should be "dominant" is downright revolting. They gave us Melton, remember??? (With a little help from television, of course.) It is nice of Whitaker to notice, however, that Jackson has a lot of positive development underway. Finally, what newspaper's page views wouldn't be "20 percent higher" than last year? They are hilarious.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-01-03T15:53:35-06:00

ID

97933

Comment

I don't say much about the C-L, but I wonder how many customer service jobs they could have provided right here in Jackson if they did not outsource.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2008-01-03T18:41:49-06:00

ID

97934

Comment

Ladd, Thanks for the info and in-sight. In my opinion, it is obvious from the President and Publishers (PP)comments above that Gannet sees Jackson first and foremost as a corporate profit center. No where does the P/P mention any obligation, inclination, assignation, intention or aspiration of the CL to contribute to the improvement in the quality of life in Jackson. I've had intense (on my part at least) conversations with several Clarion Ledger writers, and editors about their perception of the responsibilities of a news organization to the community the news organization serves (sucks the life out of?) and I got the same drivel cited above about the first amendment and reporting the truth. They could not quote neither a vision statement, mission statement, nor a values statement that addresses their responsibility to the community they serve. Only the mantra (I paraphrase here) : We serve the The Truth and the 1st Amendment!, . In my casual observation, the CL has no declared editorial bent or even a cliche that you could use to characterize its' "soul". Even during the golden age of yellow journalism (whenevetr that was...Ladd help me here!) papers often presented themselves as populist or investigative, or new age, or applepie or...something. Could the CL be characterized as a a parisite to our community? I'm sure thay donate enough to the usual causes and provide their employees opportunities to volunteer with "this walk" and "that fest", but in my opinion, that's just icing on the cake. In my humble opinion, the corporate CL is having its cake and eating it too...to the detriment of the City of Jackson. And now their sending the icing to South Carolina!

Author

FrankMickens

Date

2008-01-03T21:08:13-06:00

ID

97935

Comment

Definitely a parasite. They're here to make as many corporate bucks as they can for their shareholders. This letter was remarkable to me. Didn't hide a thing. He even pretended that having to morph from a newspaper into an "Information Center" is a good thing. Maybe he's such a corporate loyalist that he thinks it is. No real newspaperman would ever think, though. I wonder if he even gets the morale crisis he has on his hands of all this doublespeak. They really should have given the staff a gift certificate. Or passed around some eggnog. Or some free coffee. Instead, he gets hardware floors.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-01-03T21:37:40-06:00

ID

97936

Comment

I don't say much about the C-L, but I wonder how many customer service jobs they could have provided right here in Jackson if they did not outsource. How ironic, when in that memo, Whitaker tried to point out the positives about the metro area.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2008-01-03T22:55:55-06:00

ID

97937

Comment

I have just removed the Clarion-Liar from my favorites. Scum. Total, complete, assholery scum. The Metro area is so good, so wonderful: yet they move customer disservice to South Carolina? A pox on all their houses.

Author

Lady Havoc

Date

2008-01-04T13:56:32-06:00

ID

97938

Comment

If only the JFP could be a daily paper. The C-L would really go under.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2008-01-04T14:24:05-06:00