A paper, by any other name, is not OUR newspaper
I hate to do this, Don, but I have to make this post…. We couldn’t help but notice, tucked down in the corner of one of the middle pages of this month’s Multnomah Village Post, the announcement (with explanation of the header redesign) that as of November, “our” paper will be called the Southwest Portland Post. We do not approve. Mrs. V, in particular, does not approve. This subject came up at Journeys Monday night (I didn’t bring it up) and TJ does not approve.
I understand the business reasons behind making such a change, and I know that your editorial mission pretty much has to stretch beyond the confines of the Village proper. But it feels like we’re losing “our” paper - one of the things that makes the Village unique and cool. I’m sure I’ll still grab a copy when heading to breakfast on the weekend, but it won’t feel the same.
Just had to say it.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:09 am
I didn’t notice the announcement, but I must concur with Mr. V… It comes too close to the SW Comm. Connection and it loses the identity of the paper as ORIGINATING in village. Business often outgrow their boundaries (especially successful ones) yet keep their name intact. Of course, many change too, accompanied with the obligatory grumping by guys like us :), and eventually are accepted, which we probably will too. OK, now i’m rambling…
July 16th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Change is good!
But if you want the honest truth, the reason we are changing our name is simple. We need to bolster advertiisng revenue to survive. For better or worse, readers don’t (and won’t) pay for the paper they read–at least not The Post.
With less than 100 paid subscribers we have no choice but to depend on advertising for our revenue. Many potential display advertising customers have told us over the past 15 years (we started in 1992) that if we were not called The “Multnomah Village” Post, they would be more than happy to advertise with us.
At a retreat several years ago, staff members at the time rallied around a name change to the “Southwest Independent” to expand our mission and deal with the financial woes. But I had already spent several years branding The Post, and didn’t think that an entire name change was feasible.
You may recall that the Southwest Community Connection began as the “Hillsdale Connection” in 1994. In fact, Rick Seifert, the former editor and publisher and I had many conversations about merging the two publications before he eventually sold the publication to Community Newspapers, Inc., which was later sold to the Pamplin Media Group.
While I am changing the name to The Southwest Portland Post, I am keeping everything else including the logo font (Prose Antique) and look of the paper the same. So hopefully you will enjoy reading the NEW Post as much as you enjoyed reading the OLD Post.
Warm regards,
Don
July 17th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Don,
Why didn’t you and Rick decide to merge the papers? I’m curious why SW has two papers.
July 18th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Actually Southwest Portland has three (3) community newspapers. Don’t forget the Southwest Neighborhood News (published monthly by Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc.), which many consider to be the newspaper of record in Southwest. Personally I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the folks at SWNI for helping me to make the right connections and get The Post flag flying back in 1992.