Jackson Free Press

Todd Staffer

This past week we flipped the switch on a new "product" that's been brewing in the JFP labs for the better part of six months: JFP Daily. This e-mail newsletter blast happens every day at 1 p.m. with the unofficial slogan: "Today's News ... Today." The JFP Daily e-blast builds upon our (more-or-less) weekly e-newsletter—called the LoungeList—which has been going for right at seven years.

JFP Daily is designed to do a few different things. First, while the Jackson Free Press certainly has limited resources for reporting, those resources (by which I mean our editorial team and freelancers) are pretty darn good. They're on the streets (or on their phones) every day reporting stories, receiving tips and digging deeper.

While their most in-depth stuff will continue to be written for the JFP weekly print edition—or for breaking Web exclusives—JFP Daily gives them an opportunity to get information out quickly with more of a "just the facts" mentality. That's why you'll find one full story at the top of every edition of the Daily—grab your after-lunch coffee or tea and plow into it—within five minutes, you'll know something new.

Second, JFP Daily will enable us to explore some topics that we don't have room to run every week in print. As we continue to ramp up JFP Daily over the next few weeks, you'll find some new, provocative columns and analysis. For instance—this week we begin regular syndication of a column by Radley Balko, editor of Reason magazine, offering a libertarian perspective on the day's news every Tuesday. Likewise, the Daily will enable us to run some stories that otherwise wouldn't find a home in the print edition for lack of space, including more Your Turn perspective pieces. We also feature a "person of the day" in each edition and, most days, we break news about local business and development.

Third, JFP Daily enables us to send you timely content when it's relevant. Every week we publish stories on art, music, books and other cultural stories. While we know many of you read those stories in print, we've found that they are sometimes overlooked on the JFP Web site because of the constantly updating content.

Now, with JFP Daily, you'll get a blurb in your e-mail box about today's book signing and a link to the review, or information about a big concert that's happening tonight—and a link to the interview with the artist. The goal is to present you with arts coverage when it's most valuable, in order to help you plan your nights and weekends.

Fourth, every edition of the Daily offers JFP Best Bets—our picks for must-see events that week—for today and tomorrow, along with tonight's music listings around town. As always, that's our way of encouraging you to set your DVR to record your favorite TV shows and, instead, get out tonight to mingle with friends, make new ones and support 
local businesses.

Fifth, the Daily offers the same prizes and contests that the LoungeList did—this week we're giving away tickets to the ArtRemix event that happens this Friday at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

(Jackson Free Press is a proud sponsor of this creative venture being put on by the MMA—if you get a chance, get out and show your support for music, art and downtown Jackson this Friday, July 17, starting at 
5 p.m.)

Sixth, the JFP Daily offers a new option for local advertisers. Our goal is to make it possible for any metro-based local business to "compete with the big boys," reach a motivated audience of readers on particular days that make sense for your business and use new media to reach your marketing goals at extremely reasonable rates.

That's what JFP Daily does now; what JFP Daily does in the future depends on you—as a reader or as a local businessperson.

If you're not getting JFP Daily now, head to http://www.jfpdaily.com and sign up. As we deliver the Daily over the next few weeks, we'll be sending out electronic surveys to our readers to learn what else you'd like to see from JFP Daily as it grows. If you'd like to see us get into new areas of coverage, offer different stories at different times, or even make changes to what and how we're delivering this product, we'd like to hear those suggestions.

And please forward JFP Daily to your friends and colleagues (there are links in the e-mail to do that) and urge them to subscribe. As we build a large readership for the Daily, it will become a more useful tool for the community—we can get more people to respond to news items, consider analysis pieces and get out to local events and businesses.

Three things make JFP Daily possible. One is the effort of our editorial newsroom, which is tiny, underpaid and easily one of the hardest working in journalism today.

Hat tip to Adam, Ward, Donna, Maggie and ShaWanda, not to mention a whole host of interns this summer.

Second is Ronni Mott, who now has the title Daily Editor. (We estimate it's at least her fifth concurrent title.) Every day she's gathering the news, writing a lot of it and making sure the trains run on time. (Just today she delayed Adam Lynch's birthday cake because the Daily had to get out by 1 p.m.)

Third is Vince Falconi, Events Editor and "Web Guy." Vince has single-handedly written what we call "The Builder"—the back-end system that makes it possible for Ronni to pull together the different elements of the newsletter from our existing Web CMS and from stories that are not yet published, then arrange them, format them, place the ads in the right places and go live five days a week. Huge kudos to Vince for his hard work ... and for diving right back in to solve problems, add features and work on the next big thing.

While we joke around the office that we've just launched Jackson's first "afternoon daily" in two decades, it's really only half-joking.

We were very proud of the day that a placard that says "Jackson Free Press" replaced the one that said "Jackson Daily News" at the press table on the floor of the Mississippi House of Representatives. We've worked to live up to that every week that we've been publishing.

Now we'll be working to live up to it every weekday, as well. Who knows where—with your support—that will lead?

Send breaking news tips and ideas for Person of the Day to: [e-mail missing].

Previous Comments

ID

149656

Comment

Y'all subscribe now, ya hear? http://www.jfpdailynews.com

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-07-16T12:08:30-06:00

ID

149663

Comment

I have been enjoying the daily so far, keep up the good work. ;-)

Author

WMartin

Date

2009-07-16T14:42:55-06:00

ID

149672

Comment

Thanks, WMartin!

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-07-16T15:59:56-06:00

ID

149704

Comment

As the Clarion Ledger's "flyer" continues its rapid descent to a Mimeohgraph Magazine (loved that Rexograph ink...my first and only high), JFP's liberating,fair,non-greedy and locally based business model continues to grow. Congratulations Quoting George Bush when congratulating a woman who would rather continue working three jobs to pay her insurance premiums and does not want a communist socialized government run universal health care system. Bush Amazed - "You now work three jobs?" Lady Proudly - "That's right" Bush Equally proud - "Only in America!: Bush Amazed AND sheepishly confused, as usual - "When do you sleep?" SOURCE Bush Town Hall Meeting Video from Michael Moore's Health Care film "Sicko" When do you guys sleep?

Author

FrankMickens

Date

2009-07-17T05:53:29-06:00

ID

149706

Comment

Sleep? Define.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-07-17T06:45:27-06:00

ID

149707

Comment

Seriously, Casual, we sleep. The question is always what you do when you're at awake, and when you're at work. Do you work hard? Do you motivate? Do you have high standards? Do you hire good people there for the mission, not just for a job? Do you hold your staff to high standards? Do you have goals and a mission? Are you working to serve the community? And there's good advice to help do all that, such as David Allen's "Getting Things Done." Google "GTD." Among others.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-07-17T06:52:31-06:00