Several of us had lunch today at a Thai restaurant with Alive In Clive, who -- as usual -- was pissed off about a number of things.
The only thing Alive [a likeness of whom is pictured at the left] wasn't upset with was the food. He was the only one at the table who cleaned his plate/ The rest of us took some food home.
Alive In Clive -- which, by the way -- is not his real name, reads the paper thoroughly every morning. That's what gets him riled up most of the time.
To get into a better mood, he watches Giada De Laurentis on one of the network morning shows. If he misses Giada in the morning, he tries to remember to see her Italian cooking show at 3:30 p.m. on the Food Channel.
He probably won't be able to see Giada [pictured at the right] today because he's playing golf with his grandsons, so I said I'd fill in for him and tell him what she [Giada, I mean] was cooking.
One thing Alive In Clive wanted to talk about was the Monday edition of the Des Moines Register. He wonders why the company keeps charging him the full price for that skimpy paper, which has one editorial page, sometimes half a business page, sometimes no business page.
"What's the matter, can't they find any parttimers to work on Sunday so they can put out a Monday paper?" Alive In Clive asked.
"No advertising," I said. "Ad sales are down across the board. They've got everything but the sports section and the Shawn Johnson section stuffed into one front section. What gives?"
"I think the Register has become a test paper for the Gannett Co.," I said. "They want to see how little can be put into a daily paper before readers stage a protest and drop their subscriptions.
"If the Monday paper gets any smaller, they're going to put the baseball scores [at least the ones that are in before the 11:10 p.m. Sunday deadline] on a mimeographed sheet of paper and tack it to the bulletin board at all Dahl's supermarkets."
Another thing Alive In Clive was mad about was the story in the Register about the Des Moines guy who said the killing of a Kansas abortion doctor could be justified.
"I get upset about enough stuff that happens at the paper," I said. "I didn't read that crap about what the nutcase said about the abortion doctor. Try to calm down. I didn't read that story because I knew I wouldn't like it. But maybe the reporter, or his editor, had a bad day."
"I think a lot of reporters and editors down there have a lot of bad days," Alive In Clive said.
"Now about Mike Gartner..."
"Now you've done it," I said. "It's time for you to play golf."
*
The newspaper business was also on Don Clasen's mind when he sent me this e-mail:
Ron:
"I agree with your response to Mark Robinson's comments about newspapers. Yes, there will be--or at least I sincerely hope there will always be--newspapers. The world would be worse off without a paper to read, preferably in the morning.
"I've mentioned to you several times how much I enjoy reading the Chicago Tribune since I retired in Chicago. Although Sam Zell, the real estate guy who owns, but is trying to sell the Trib, has strongly hinted that home delivery of the paper may be ended in the future. However, I noticed in my last bill that a $10 'home delivery' fee was added. I have no trouble with that. Maybe an additional cost for delivery is the solution.
"Unfortunately, many of the nation's current economic woes can be traced to greed. Greedy realtors, bankers, those who produce gasoline and fuel oil are among the many to blame. The problem is they are mainly out to rake in millions of dollars without attempting to solve problems that have been responsible for their losing money. Home delivery of newspapers is costly, but charging a few bucks to enable the reader to get his paper in time for breakfast is a solution. However, as Robinson pointed out, the product produced by reporters, editors and photographers must have quality. Cutting corners isn't going to do it. You and I know that 20 years ago the Des Moines Register was a quality newspaper that did virtually everything possible to cover the news and provide good reading along with features and more.
"I consider the Chicago Tribune to be a quality paper, despite its laying off a number of newsroom staff members. Nevertheless, you hardly find any news from the night before in the paper. Deadlines are unrealistic. Of course, if the Sox or Cubs play a night game on the west coast, a game story is included in the next day's edition. But the scores of other games are kissed off with a "late game" listing in the scores and standings.
"Newspaper owners don't need to be extremely brilliant to realize that they are causing the demise of their products. The Des Moines Register appears to be leading the way with its unrealistic shortcuts. Give the reader something good and complete to read and they will return to reading the news their way our parents and grandparents. Today's young people, who avoid getting their news from newspapers, will return to reading them if they get an appealing, well-written and edited product. Subscribers will soon learn that accurate, in-depth coverage of the news along with fascinating features and more is much more appealing than the graphic product send for viewing on TV.
"Most of today's newspaper executives are looking for ways to make coverage via the computer pay. I predict that efforts to get viewers to pay for this type of coverage will eventually fail and once newspapers realize that a quality product sells, they will come back to reading news that is printed and can be cut out and retained.
"Continue to comment on the future of newspapers, Ron. Maybe someone at the Register and other papers that are only interested in making a huge profit will realize that they've got to do a good job to insure that readers will continue to purchase their product."
Don Clasen
[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Your comment that the Des Moines Register was a quality newspaper 20 years was very accurate, Don. Thanks for writing].
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Rich Harden will pitch five innings in a rehab start Saturday at No-Name Ballfield in Des Moines, snd the Chicago Cubs hope he's ready to pitch for them June 12 against Minnesota.
