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The Price of News
The ads on the front page of the Millennial Arizona Republic get more garish every day.
And the Republic‘s editors stray farther onto dangerous ground. They create memos like the one by Venita James, senior editor for suburban news, dated January 22 and headlined, “REVENUE POSSIBILITIES/Community editions.” [read memo]
Just a few of her nifty ideas, which obliterate the normally distinct line between the ad and news departments:
“Strip ad across the bottom of the cover, preferably a coupon. Buck off for coffee at Starbucks?”
“How We Met. Engaged couples tell their romantic stories, for a fee.”
“Congratulations. Along those same lines, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, major awards. Pay certain basic amount, then more if want to add more. . . . Shifting this area from free to paid, much as we did with obits, is a good way to have our cake and eat it, as well.”
“Intermittent features, such as school campus safety and school test scores. Advertising has expressed some interest in knowing when we will run test scores because (they) believe they can offer some buys with such content.”
Venita should get a new job. Or a commission.
Confidential assurance to conscientious yet paranoid Republic employee who leaked the memo: Don’t worry. The Flash protects sources.
Cliff Hanger
Before it became Buzz (“the original funbar”), the building at Scottsdale Road and Shea Boulevard was the Windmill Dinner Theatre. The Windmill was where Bob Crane was performing in the play Beginner’s Luck at the time of his murder in 1978.
In a July 1997 New Times story about an attempted séance for Crane’s spirit at Buzz, M.V. Moorhead described Buzz thusly: “. . . an upscale dance club and gin mill, decorated in a vague, not-too-rigorous jungle motif — native shields on the walls, leopard-skin tights on the waitresses. It’s the type of place athletes go to get arrested.” (Italics added by the Flash.)
Phoenix Sun Cliff Robinson, who spent some time bending his elbow at this very establishment on Monday evening, apparently did not read this story. He got busted, which is still considerably better than being bludgeoned with a camera tripod.