Archive for December, 2008
December 31st, 2008
Each year editorial page editor Wally Haas asks the board members for their New Year’s resolutions, predictions or general wanderings. So I “predicticated”: We’ll publish every day; the paper will likely be fewer pages; local news will be our focus; digital delivery will gain momentum. Yawn.
Frankly, I can’t predict much about next year. As sure as I am sitting here on New Year’s Eve, come Monday, it’ll change again. So, I’m going to do two things: predict five years out and ask you to suggest some choices.
First, we’ll start with a brutal fact. The next six months are going to be terrible, as the global economy contracts and sheds jobs, cash, security and sanity. By mid-year, we will begin to adjust to the new realities though we will remain hunkered down; by the end of October, we’ll begin to think we will be able to manage; by Christmas we will have traded multiple gifts for a single one that means something.
By March 2010, we will be adjusted to the new way and by Christmas of 2010, we’ll understand that peace on earth is a far better goal than a new iPhone or X Box. We will make less, spend less, value quality, chose charitable over capital, and begin replacing cars, repairing the roof and buying a home.
When 2011 rolls around, we’ll feel we are back in control — sort of — and that we can handle what’s thrown at us — sort of. By 2012, assuming we do not blow ourselves away in some nuclear snit, we will begin to build again. By 2013, new normal will be “the way it’s always been.”
It will be five years of hanging on as best we can, letting go of any thought that the future will be like the past. But, we will do it.
A former Register Star managing editor, now editor in Canton, Ohio, shared this with me today from his column.
Jeff Gauger says it perfectly: ” ‘Sure we have problems in Stark County. … Yet I also know that solutions spring from clear-eyed optimism. We have lots to be optimistic about.’
“That’s what I wrote in this space a year ago. It’s harder, now, to stay optimistic, after a year that brought economic difficulties not seen in decades. Yet I still believe optimism is part of the cure. For the alternative is to grumble and sulk, but solve nothing. We must imagine a better future, then grasp it.
“This isn’t a dreamer’s approach. It’s hard-headed and practical. We won’t find that better future by living in the past or complaining about the present. We must go get it.”
We must go get it. Over the next 12 months, I am going to make many “hard-headed and practical” decisions about what we can do here in the News Tower — and what we cannot. Those decisions, ranging from what gets cut to what gets covered, will involve a Salomon’s Choice.
So, tell me: What 10 things that we do today could you live without and what 10 things can you not live without?
Can you live without the TV Book? What about the stocks listings? What about the pro sports agate page? The daily GO section? Sunday comics? The weather map? What else? What must we add to over coverage — even if it means cutting something else.
Now, tell me what and why. Let’s go get it.
December 30th, 2008
OK, I don’t really mean it, but we need a new lottery game in Illinois. We can call it “bet on when the governor is going to do the next head-shaking thing.” I’m pretty sure we could make a bazillion bucks because this thing would go global.
I’d have won if I had chosen today at 2 p.m. That’s when Gov. Rod Blagojevich named Roland Burris to the vacant U.S. Senate seat. I don’t have a thing against Burris; I am sure he’s a fine, upstanding guy with normal political aspirations. But what was he thinking when he agreed to let Blago use him as the stooge for the governor’s latest antics?
I hear Burris really wants to be the senator, and, why not? The perks are great, the limelight warm and seductive, the pension terrific, and, if you keep your head down, you don’t have to work too hard. Just vote the way the rest of the Democrats are voting and you’ll get by for a couple of terms before retiring.
Burris might make a wonderful senator. But I have to question (a) the smarts, and (b) the sanity of anyone who would agree to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Blago these days.
My dad always said, “swim in blue water, you get blue.” Well, Burris chose to swim in Blago’s pool. No one’s going to be willing to reach in and save him now.
Anyone want to bet on the next Blago stunt?
December 30th, 2008
I fess up: I pulled a Republican ballot in the last primary. And, you thought I was a Democrat. Oh, that’s right, I pulled a Democratic ballot the time before.
I hate Illinois’ system of partisan primaries. Primaries ought to be open, just like the general election. I hate going to the primary polls and having to “declare.” Not because I want to be known as a Republican or Democrat, but because I prefer voting for the best candidate in a race. I don’t give diddly for the party badge.
So, on primary day, I am forced to decide which ballot to pull that will give my vote the greater chance of making a difference. I pulled the Republican ballot this last time because I was pretty sure Illinois would choose Obama not Clinton in the primary, and I wanted to cast my vote in the Republican primary for state’s attorney. That’s just not the way voters should have to choose.
Pulling that GOP ticket does entitle me, though, to an unintended perk: I can now attend the Winnebago County GOP caucus at 5 p.m., Jan. 13 at Flinn Middle School. Care to join me?
December 19th, 2008
Don’t blame the Rockford snow plow crews when you hit Second Street (Rt. 251) this morning. That’s the state dudes and they aren’t getting the job done well. They told our reporter around 8 a.m., that they were doing their best and blamed the fast and furious snow for the challenges.
OK, but that means I have to believe it’s snowing more over state roads than over city ones. I drove downtown to the News Tower about 7 a.m., from my house near Rock Valley College on the far east side of the city. That meant mostly city streets, a couple of patches of county (decent; not as good as the city) and then that Spring Creek cloverleaf at the Rock River and south onto the state’s Second Street.
What a mess with at least one car off in the drifts. One lane in each direction appeared to have been plowed once. The rest was deeply drifted over and getting considerably rutted as traffic increased. I swung off at Y Boulevard; it and Madison along the railroad tracks were in better shape that Second Street.
I accept that in the rural county areas keeping the roads clear can be a challenge because of the wind, but smack in the middle of the city? Nah, the state guys just weren’t prepared.
Kudos to the Rockford crews. Once again, you’re making it easy for me to get to work.
December 17th, 2008
And, thanks to my newspaper carrier — and, in advance, to the mail carrier and the Christmas-present-delivery-guys.
I am not a fan of winter. Too many coats, gloves, hats, slippery streets and sidewalks. Doing anything that involves going outside requires twice as much time and is just a hassle. Winter makes me cranky.
So, I am doubly appreciative of the folks who have to do their jobs outdoors in the winter. My side-street was plowed this morning, my newspaper was on time, and I’m pretty sure the mail will be in the box when I get home. Thank you.
Oh, and don’t forget: Shovel your drives and walks. Make it safe to deliver the goods. If it’s too slippery for you to go out, it’s too slippery for them to deliver.
December 16th, 2008
Follow these numbers: There are two newspapers in Detroit. Their two owners share one Joint Operating Agreement. Between the two, they published 13 editions a week and shared a Sunday newspaper. They support two news Web sites: freep.com and detnews.com
Beginning in early 2009, the two newspapers will radically remix the products in their portfolio by upping the stake in online and lowering their holdings in newsprint. And, if you haven’t already heard this: They will deliver a newspaper to your doorstep three days a week. On Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, subscribers get a newspaper. The other four days? Buy it at the newsstand or read it online.
There have been rumblings throughout the industry that this model was being explored for Detroit’s hugely troubled metro newspapers. I suspect few believed it until the formal announcement today. The traditional mindset just can’t wrap its head around the idea that news wouldn’t be delivered seven days a week to the door.
Detroit’s plan is to deliver the newspaper three days a week, pump up single copy sales, offer an e-edition (full newspaper online); and beef up their Web sites. The strategies are bold ones, and Detroit, with little left to lose, may be the right place to test them. And, frankly, if Detroit doesn’t do this or some version of it, one or both of those newspapers might not be around much longer. Detroit is not the most thriving of cities, nor Michigan for that matter.
So, you ask, will Rockford do the same thing? Nah; not likely; not now; but maybe someday. We are not the same kind of market as Detroit. Look for the “do not deliver every day” models to spread first in the big cities. It could happen out of Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia. All newspapers are hurting, but the metros are in serious hurt.
The pain of mid-sized papers, like Rockford, is a teensy headache compared with those metros. They’re cutting off their heads; we’re taking some serious pain relievers. The day will come — and I have written about it many times — that we don’t do a printed newspaper everyday. Just not likely to be right away. But, I’m playing around with possibilities, just in case.
December 12th, 2008
Tucked at the bottom of a Register Star story about Thursday night’s Winnebago County Board meeting is this nugget: “(Scott) Christiansen also asked for opinions on purchasing laptops for board members. The idea is to get rid of the paper packets members receive each meeting. The chairman said he could have a resolution read by the next meeting in two weeks.”
You want an opinion? How about this: Are you freaking nuts? That’s my tax money you’re thinking about spending on 28 laptops. That’s at least $14,000 for a bottom-end model with some sort of county discount. Load ‘em up enough to actually function and we’re talking double that. Provide maintenance (not to mention training for the dudes some of whom likely don’t know what a laptop is and don’t want to), repairs, peripherals and all the other stuff, and the county’s going to have to hire a full-time IT staffer to support those laptops. Oh, yeah, and the software has to be updated and the hardware replaced pretty regularly. And, when a board member looses his, we get to buy him a replacement? Does he get to keep it if he doesn’t get elected? I repeat: Are you nuts?
I’m all for saving paper; buying laptops isn’t the solution. How about this totally cheap-maybe-even-free — idea: Scan and post the documents to the county’s Web site. The information is public record, so it ought to be up there anyway. Board members can use their own personal laptops or computers to access the information, read it and download any important piece they want. Heck, go ahead and buy ‘em each a ream of printing paper once a quarter; if they use more than that, they pay for it themselves.
If they have to see documents at a board meeting, project them on a screen. You can buy a nifty overhead projection system for $5,000 give or take a bit of change that accesses the documents via the Web site. I know it’ll work; we do it here in the News Tower all the time.
For crying out loud, I came out of my chair when I read that paragraph this morning. We’ve got an economy imploding, people loosing their jobs left and right and the county board is considering buying itself laptops? We pay these people?
Is that enough of an opinion for you? Geesh…..
December 11th, 2008
Yo, Rockford mayor and assorted other Winnebago County movers-and-shakers: Here’s a reminder for ya: If that Chrysler plant all the way over in Boone County shuts down, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.
Tuesday, Belvidere Mayor Fred Brereton and various suits from Boone’s public-private planning arm, Growth Dimensions, went to Washington to lobby Congress on the auto industry bailout. Like the bailout or not, one has to wonder where the heck was the Rockford-Winnebago County contingent?
Did the invite not come through? Did you get one and have something better to do? Did you not think about it? OK, the Boone folks’ trip to Congress is just so much window dressing; there’s about a snowball’s chance in the kitchen that anything those guys said would change one vote. But, darn it, they did it. They made the grand gesture; they showed the flag and made sure we all understood this was about the folks back home. Good for them. Someone in Boone County’s got some smarts.
This is the Rock River Valley, admittedly a moniker the newspaper made up and used so often than everyone else started using it, too. But, made up or not, the Rock River Valley is Boone and Winnebago and a touch of Ogle and Stephenson counties. The Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA for short) is officially Winnebago and Boone. The people who work at the Chrysler plant (and the GM plant right up the road in Cheeseland) live, shop, go to school, have their hearts repaired and generally do most of their business in Rockford and its surrounds. It’s a region, darn it, and as a region we can thrive.
But, we’re going to all go down if the two counties don’t present a united front. And, that D.C. trip needed Rockford and Winnebago County people at the podium. You were conspicuous by your absence.
On the same day that the Register Star’s front page had the Boone folks in D.C. pleading for the auto industry, Rockford folks gave us yet another artist’s watercolor of a downtown mall that’s supposed to be a “cool, hip image.”
Give me a car plant any day.
December 11th, 2008
Three words describe the baby boomer generation: rigid, righteous and reactionary. We get our teeth sunk into some cause, campaign or ideology and we’re as tenacious as a rat terrier.
Born roughly 1946-64, as teenagers and young adults we didn’t like the Vietnam War, so we got it canceled. We didn’t like big business (big anything, for that matter) so we tore it all to shreds. When we arrived in our getting-spending-and-child-rearing years, we got, spent and reared with a vengeance. Kids first was our mantra, right up there with spend every nickel we made (and could borrow) until a couple months ago when our profligate greed finished off Wall Street and all those “big” things.
Which brings us to today and my prediction that we boomers are going to decide that saving money — not spending it — is what everyone ought to be doing. We’re going to go all rigid, righteous and reactionary about it. The out-of-control consumer society we doted on in 1975 and then gorged on for the next three decades, died in October.
Boomers, rather than wallowing aimlessly in the passing of our 401ks, will demand (probably to the point of making laws) that everyone must save. We’ll try for means tests for how many children one can afford. We’ll limit new home construction to one car garages (well, maybe two), but definitely not three or, heaven forbid, more. We’ll demand high-density housing, not McMansions on sprawling lawns that require riding mowers. Invest in mass transit now because suburbs is going to become a dirty word.
We’ll make it fashionable to drive an old(er) car; downsize possessions (great for garage sales, except no one will be buying more stuff); wear for-real cheap jeans and not designer ones that just look cheap. We’ll cook and entertain at home, and look askance at those who flaunt their cash in any way. We will demand quality goods and services for reasonable prices — no show-off stuff. We’ll expect that an impressive portion of our cash be donated to charities that take care of those who can’t take care of themselves — and we will tax ourselves (and you, of course) to make sure government can provide health care, roads and bridges, vocational education, jobs and defense.
We will wear our newly found fiscal conservatism and social responsibility with pride and we will expect everyone else around us to do the same. If you don’t we’ll make a law. We will be rigid, righteous and reactionary about it, too, so don’t even think about questioning how a generation that spent itself into another Great Depression could now be so cautious about its remaining cash.
Boomers are already painting the first brush strokes of this new-found fascination. Give us another year or two, and we’ll be the artful masters of profligate savings. Waste not, want not.
December 9th, 2008
On Jan. 13, 2003, Associated Press photographer Charles Rex Arbogast grabbed a shot of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich speaking from the podium at his inauguration. Seated behind him are former governors Jim Edgar and George Ryan and the wives of all three.
There are dozens of Blagojevich-and-family photos over the years. The two little girls with smiles across their faces and their hands tucked safely in daddy’s. Pictures of the governor and his wife, Patti, dancing at the inauguration and showing off their youngest daughter right after she was born. They are the photos of which scrapbooks are made, the photos that make these powerful men and their families look just like ours do.
Do you think Ryan and Blogojevich ever asked themselves what their wives and children would do when their political misdeeds were outed? Did they ever challenge themselves simply to do the right thing?Â
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