How "Not" To Sell Papers

So, in these days of declining subscriptions and revenue, newspapers are doing all they can to get readers.

Which makes this sales call from the Cleveland Plain Dealer (to yours truly) almost inexplicable.

Let me recreate as best I can:

RING

Me: Hello?

PD Saleswoman: Hi, I'm calling from the Plain Dealer. (laughs). Before you hang up ...

Me: (laughs). OK.

PD Saleswoman: We're just calling to see if you're interested in subscribing to the Plain Dealer.

Me: No, I'm really not interested.

PD Saleswoman: Well, we've made a lot of changes. We've added a lot of new sections ...

Me: Sorry, I'm really not interested at this time.

PD Saleswoman: CLICK. Dial Tone.

That's right ... the PD saleswoman hung up on ME when I turned her down.

There was no "Well, thanks for letting me take a few minutes of your time."

There was no "Sorry to have disturbed you this evening."

There was no "Well, if you reconsider, just log on to Cleveland.com or call this number and we can hook you up."

It may actually have been the first time in my life that a telemarketer hung up on me. I was actually the nice one in this relationship.

Hey, Plain Dealer, if this woman works in-house, it might be time for a discussion.

And if she's outsourced through a call center, you might want to find a new provider.

A dying industry shouldn't rely on rudeness to sell papers.

The Follow-Up

First of all, thanks to Eric Mansfield for linking to my blog yesterday.

I didn't feel my words on the Stephanie Tubbs-Jones reporting were all that strong, but it was certainly interesting to watch.

I feel as though I should post a quick follow-up.

The Plain Dealer wrote about it's erroneous reporting here. Here's a excerpt:

"We are deeply distressed that we got this wrong, and sincerely apologize to the congresswoman's family and to our readers," Goldberg said. "Obviously, we believed we were on solid ground, or we would not have gone with the story."

Also, The PD says it reported the "death" at 1:49 pm ... if that's true I got it wrong in my original post. However, it felt MUCH earlier than that to me.

I did not see it myself, but I am told that Fox 8 News read a lengthy on-air apology as well. I could not find the statement on their website.

I'm a little unclear on the actions of Channels 5 and 19.

As I said before, WKYC was the only station to get it right. And I want to explain a little something I wrote in one of my updates to the previous blog post.

I'm happy the station showed restraint in it's reporting. However, I was a little turned off by the fact that they went out of their way to TELL me they got it right. At that point in the proceedings, Tubbs-Jones was obviously still in very grave condition.

When I worked in television, I was a big fan of letting the work speak for itself. I still believe that.

In a situation like this one, I would have downplayed the "we got it right" chest-thumping out of respect for the Congresswoman, and let others (bloggers, columnists, etc.) give the station credit for doing their jobs the right way.

I'm all for tooting your own horn ... but not in a situation like this one.

The Tubbs-Jones Incident

Wow. Quite a day to watch from my post as a currently ex-member of the news media.

In case you haven't heard, a prominent Congresswoman from Northeast Ohio ... Stephanie Tubbs-Jones ... was hospitalized after being found unresponsive in her car last night.

Well, at around 12:30 this afternoon, the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper broke some somber news on its website that Ms. Tubbs-Jones, a key player in Hillary Clinton's campaign, had passed away.

The PD quoted "sources" saying the Congresswoman had succumbed after life support was removed at a local hospital.

Her family then scheduled a 2 pm news conference at the hospital. 3 of the 4 local television stations pitched live to the presser saying Tubbs-Jones had died.

That's when the assembled members of media found out the surprising news.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones wasn't dead.

Instead, the hospital told reporters that Tubbs-Jones was in very critical condition, after suffering a brain aneurysm.

The Plain Dealer quickly pulled it's original story replacing it with this. Here's a quote from that article.

"Officials updated her condition this afternoon after conflicting reports that the congresswoman was dead. Numerous media outlets - including The Plain Dealer on its Web site cleveland.com, CNN and the Associated Press - reported that Tubbs Jones had died."

So, here's a question ... where do you think CNN and the AP picked up on Tubbs-Jones' "death" in the first place? I'm guessing from the original article on the PD's website.

The paper has also disabled the "comments" section of its story, I'm guessing because of the sensitive nature of the Congresswoman's condition.

I'm sure, though, that they also don't want anyone calling them out on today's shoddy piece of journalism.

On a side note, I want to give some kudos to my former employer WKYC. They showed restraint as the only television station in town to hold off reporting on the Congresswoman's condition ... until they had confirmation.

Also, to the Congresswoman's friends and family ... my thoughts and prayers are with you as well, during this difficult time.

(UPDATE: After initially writing this post, I discovered this story on wkyc.com. Sadly, I can't say as I like the chest-thumping for not screwing up the story. Seems a little much for what remains a very grave situation for a local politician. The station loses a couple points for that one. Just do your job, and let others write about how you did it.)

(UPDATE 2: Just learned shortly after 6 pm that the Congresswoman has, indeed, passed away at the age of 58. Condolences to all who knew and loved her.)