The past week has been really challenging for me. Although there never seems to be enough time in the day, and I am always busy, last week seemed to be even busier.
If being extremely busy was the only thing I had to worry about last week that would have been all right with me. Unfortunately that wasn’t the only thing I had to worry about…there was something else that consumed my thoughts and made me angry.
One primary reason last week was so challenging is because a local entity that the Recorder has supported for years refused to advertise with us. I was completely taken aback. Without getting too specific, this entity had an advertising budget, yet they opted not to advertise with us…despite the fact that the Recorder has supported them for years.
Now can you understand my frustration?
There are instances when one can be disrespected or blatantly disrespected. I think the latter applied in the situation last week.
It was a blatant form of disrespect; a hard slap in the face and I was angry. Actually, I was fuming.
After expressing my disdain to a representative of this particular entity, I was still angry. As I tried to calm myself down, I thought of something. Though this was the first time I had endured such an impudent form of disrespect for the paper by an entity I considered a partner of the Recorder, it wasn’t the first time I felt this publication has been taken for granted by an entity or individual in the community.
The Recorder’s mission is to “Prepare a conscious community today and beyond.” Our staff takes that mission very seriously and we understand that it is our specific business to educate the community. As a newspaper, that is our job.
Our job consists of writing articles, publishing pertinent information about various functions, events, sporting activities, etc, and providing an outlet for consumers to also promote their products and services. We also try to make our paper more visually appealing by publishing a variety of photos from different events throughout the city.
In addition, we also work hard to maintain solid relationships with various organizations, businesses and individuals.
In short, we consider ourselves a service provider. It’s our responsibility to provide a service to our consumers: readers and advertisers.
Sometimes in our attempt to provide service to the community and maintain relationships, people seem to forget that we are a business that not only produces a product that costs money weekly, but that we are also a business that has financial responsibility to its employees. The bottom line is, as with any other business, we need money to survive.
Don’t get me wrong: everything published in the Recorder does not cost money – most of it is part of our service to you. However, there have been countless times when we provided “complimentary service” and people still complained that it wasn’t enough. Or, maybe they complained that they didn’t like the way they looked in a picture or that they wanted to have a longer article. My point is this: generally, it’s the people who don’t support the Recorder financially who complain the most. People who aren’t subscribers or who never designate funds for us.
What ever happened to the “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” way of living that people used to implement in their daily lives? Once upon a time people actually looked out for those who looked out for them; they supported one another. Things used to be more give and take, rather than take and take.
It frustrates me when there is an obvious disregard for the Recorder. This publication has been around for 116 years. During that time, the Recorder has never missed a publication date: not when the Ku Klux Klan threatened to bomb the building, not when natural calamities struck, such as the infamous blizzard of 1978, and not when we were burglarized 10 years ago and all our computers were stolen. There’s history to this paper and a fierce determination that has been passed down decade after decade. By no means am I trying to toot our own horn, I’m just asking for people to support this publication. Some of the things we publish and the articles we write would never see the light of day at traditional media outlets because we provide a perspective that not everyone embraces. We offer insight on things that other media outlets don’t want people to know about. We are the people’s paper and I ask that the people support us and not take this product for granted.
So often I hear from people who tell me they read the paper faithfully, many have implemented it into their Friday night family routines. Others read it over breakfast on Saturday mornings. I sincerely appreciate every individual and entity who has supported this paper over the years… I’m truly thankful for your dedication.
Anyone who knows me or even someone who doesn’t know me personally can walk up to me and tell me their thoughts about the paper. I welcome it all: the good, bad and the ugly. Everyone I meet, I make sure they understand that. Communication is key. That’s why I wanted to write this editorial. Not to publically degrade the entity that didn’t support us, but to remind the public of the true essence of the Recorder; our voice, our value and our influence.
You can e-mail comments to Shannon Williams at shannonw@indyrecorder.com.
