Great advertising transcends time. With the Super Bowl being this weekend, we tend to see greater advertising this time a year than the remainder of the year. Or at least we see messaging that aspires to be ‘great’ advertising.
In 1989, United Airlines launched their “Old Friend” campaign. The gist of the ad was that the featured company had cut back on business travel, relying on phone and fax (remember this was airing before email). As a result, they were losing their connection with their customers. The “Old Friend” had been a 20-year customer and called up the company to tell them that they were going to use another business for their needs.
The story in this commercial is just as on point today as it was when it debuted. That legendary spot was produced by a legendary advertising agency, Leo Burnett. Much has been written about the lasting impact of the messaging from the spot that first aired almost 34 years ago. One of my favorite articles I found was by blogger Thomas J. Lee who was inspired by the message of the haggard manager Ben, trying to reconnect with his customer base before it is too late. What Lee learned was, “Don’t lose touch with people. Don’t rely on email and telephone. Don’t think of social media as synapses or nutrients of relationships; they are neither. Remember that human beings thrive in community with other human beings. The more you nurture and strengthen that sense of community, the better your leadership will be.”
I only wish that Thomas, or even the character Ben from the commercial could reach out to the decision makers at Paxton Media, who are running in the wrong – opposite direction. Rather than trying to nurture a sense of community, Paxton is severing ties with some of the communities they serve. In late January, Paxton announced that they were closing some of their local offices to the public.
At a time when newspapers are struggling to stay relevant, stay profitable and be a meaningful part of communities, Paxton is turning their back on their “Old Friend” – to steal a phrase from the old United Airlines commercials.
Spin the press release however you want, the reality is Paxton is making this decision to save money. Finding opportunities to save money should be on the minds of every publisher, including Paxton. But locking the door to customers does more harm than good, and I would suggest it really doesn’t save Paxton any money. Paxton will still have employees in the office doing work. Yes, the occasional local who wants to pay their circulation bill, purchase a classified ad or deliver a letter to the editor in person will need to be dealt with. But isn’t that connection worth it? I hate the thought of a newspaper’s customers bothering staff to engage and use the product. How rude of customers!
What does the decision to close the offices to the public signal to faithful subscribers, many of which have few or no interactions with the newspaper’s digital product? The newspaper is shutting them out, in affect telling them that they just don’t matter. Every newspaper I’ve worked at had a steady stream of people that visited regularly. It never occurred to me that they were an inconvenience.
One of my favorite newspaper offices I’ve visited throughout the years was in Danville, Illinois. The building, right downtown and on one of the main streets in town, makes a majestic statement of a building. Whenever I visited, I could just imagine the number of meetings convened at this office throughout the years to make critical decisions for that community. The newspaper office was a focal point of Danville, and those meetings at the newspaper office were critical to the growth and success of that Illinois city. Thankfully, that newspaper is not a Paxton property, and hopefully the Commercial – News is still welcoming people into their building.
If I ran a radio station in a Paxton newspaper market, I would make an announcement today. Instead of closing our building like the local newspaper, I would be opening my radio station lobby for community hours. Free coffee in my lobby is an inexpensive investment to building community good will, and to build a connection with individuals in the community I serve. Local media must be intentional in building a connection with its audience especially in today’s business conditions. It starts by tearing down walls and opening doors – and saying hello to their “Old Friend” – not be locking out customers.
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