Category Archives: Business – Opinion

WTF Six Apart?

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I've hosted this blog (and a few others) on Six Apart's Typepad service for four years.  In general I've been very happy with the service, I've received responses to all customer service inquiries, the downtime has been relatively minor and I've been very happy with the fact that it's enabled me to focus on the creative side of blogging without having to learn too much about the technical side. Heck, I even got to meet one of the co-founders, Anil Dash, at ConvergeSouth and I found him to be one of the sharpest, if not the sharpest person there.  So why do I find myself irked with them today?

Because of this announcement that they're giving recently laid off journalists the service for free, and calling it the Journalist Bailout Program.  Now you might think it's cold of me to begrudge someone who's been laid off a helping hand, and maybe it is, but I've been paying for the service for four years and I've helped the folks at Six Apart get where they are.  Why should I be happy that some newcomer is getting appreciation and I'm not?  Really I have no problem with them helping out the journalists, but where's the love for me and my fellow paying TypePad-ers?

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a rep at Register.com a while back.  Before I knew any better I registered my domain names with them and paid some crazy rate like $30 a year, and they sent me renewal notices for that same amount.  I shopped around and got a much better deal at GoDaddy.  Unfortunately I had to call Register.com to finalize the transfer of the domain and that's when the rep offered to best the GoDaddy price.  I told him no thanks and when he asked why I said, "If you really appreciated my business you'd have offered me the better price before I called you.  The fact that you treat me better when I threaten to leave simply tells me that I'm a number, not a valued customer." To put it simply I get irked at any company that offers better deals for new customers than for existing customers.

The reality in this case is that Six Apart is gaining much more than they're giving up.  They're getting the journalists' audiences which means that their ad network will get more views which means more revenue for them.  That's fine for Six Apart, but what kind of appreciation are they showing to me and all the other customers who've been with them as they've grown?

I also find this ironic because a few years ago I tried to contact Six Apart to see if they had a program that would allow someone like me to re-sell their platform.  I knew several small businesses, local politicians and, yes, journalists who would benefit from blogging but needed hand holding.  I had no interest in setting up a platform, finding a host and providing tech support, so I thought if I could re-sell Typepad as the platform and then act as the "rep" who held the clients' hands through the process then it would be a win-win for me and for Six Apart.  I never heard back from them and I moved on to other things.  I guess now I have their answer.

It’s How You Say It

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Yesterday I took the Winston-Salem Journal to task for offering higher quality reprints of Wednesday's "Obama Wins" front page to people who bought the Thursday paper over the counter, but not to subscribers.  I emailed managing editor Ken Otterbourg and he essentially replied with the same rationale he used in his blog post about the issue:

Several bloggers, including my friend Lucy Cash at Life in Forsyth, are criticizing the Journal for its decision on publishing a special reprint of our election results front page that is only available in single-copy sales, rather than in the papers that go to subscribers.

It’s still a free country, and they have the right to criticize. And it’s all well and good to have conversations and disagreements about what we should have and could have done. My personal belief is that it’s a bit of a tempest in a teapot. I wasn’t part of the decision on how to reprint, but from what I’ve been able to glean, the logic was as follows: Subscribers got the real thing, the actual paper printed on Nov. 5. Many folks who buy the paper one day at a time didn’t, because we sold out. So this was something for them. The subscribers’ anger is that they are loyal and they should be rewarded for their loyalty with the special reprint. That makes sense, too, although from my standpoint, the real thing is more valuable and intrinsically historical than a reprint. 

My response to Ken was that subscribers wouldn't see this as an "either or" issue.  If they were simply making another newsprint run of the front page then maybe a subscriber would buy the rationale that they got the real deal the first time around so there's no reason to send them the new copy.  But that's not what the Journal said.  Here's the text of their announcement:

A special souvenir reprint of today's front page, printed on high-quality paper, will be inserted tomorrow in all single-copy papers — those sold in racks and at retail outlets. Papers containing the souvenir front also will be on sale at the front counter of the Winston-Salem Journal at 418 N. Marshall Street.

They themselves call it a "special souvenir reprint."  So as subscriber's we're not special?  Also, they offer it free to anyone who buys the regular Thursday paper over the counter.  Why wouldn't a subscriber expect to be treated as well as an over the counter buyer?  Heck we're the ones who make a long term commitment to the paper, and we're the ones who agreed to pay a certain rate and actually had the product shrink in the meantime.

Now compare the Journal's approach to the Greensboro News & Record's announcement of their special extra run of their Wednesday edition:

The News & Record printed about 10,000 extra copies of Wednesday's front section.

The copies will be available Thursday for 50 cents at some stores and at the News & Record's office at 200 E. Market Street in downtown Greensboro.

The News & Record is also selling a commemorative copy of Wednesday's front page mounted on a marble or wood plaque for $75.

Visit our online store to purchase your copy today.

First of all the N&R reprint is simply a duplicate run of the original newsprint front section.  Second, they are selling it separately so all readers are treated equally.  Finally, they wisely promote their mounted copy service, which is similar to what the Journal does.  Almost all major newspapers offer mounted high quality commemorative reprints of almost any page; where do you think all those plaques with newspaper reviews that you see at restaurant entrances come from?

Quite simply the Journal screwed the pooch in how they structured their reprint offer and how they communicated it.  I'm sure from their perspective it seems like "no big deal" but I've worked in environments where businesses have had to reduce services due to budget constraints, asked their customers to hang with them and be pleasantly surprised when many do, and then face a surprising amount of criticism over a seemingly innocuous announcement.  The scary part is you only hear from a small minority of the folks who are pissed, but in the following months you continually see the offending action offered by now-former-customers as one of the main reasons they are leaving.

They can pooh-pooh it all they want, but I'm telling you that the mere fact that the bloggers even paid attention is that the paper has made lots of moves that have irked and annoyed them (us).  This was easy to criticize because it seemed so emblematic of how the paper seems to view its subscribers.  Instead of pooh-poohing us they might want to consider us the canaries in the gold mine. 

This whole thing had me thinking about the newspaper folks in general last night, and what I've begun to understand is that alot of the people in the business have deluded themselves. Sure, they know they're business is in trouble but I seriously doubt that they truly understand how much of it is actually within their control.  Yes ad revenue is down and classifieds are in the tank thanks to large industry shifts, but they are the ones who didn't foresee the changes and have been too slow to react.  They are also the ones who cut back on editorial staff which resulted in a diminished capacity to generate local, original content.  So guess why we can now turn to the intenet and get essentially the same product we used to get from the paper?  Finally, they still control the relationship with their customers.  They have every opportunity to take advantage of new media outlets and expand and deepen their relationship with their customers, but they take half-ass measures like enabling comments on their website and then offer zero moderation or discussion.  Essentially they speak down to us and then say "shout among yourselves, we're above the fray."

I'm pretty sure Journal folks don't see things this way, but as a customer I can tell them that I do see their attitude this way and I know that I'm not alone.  If they're wise they'll take this kerfluffle as an object lesson and vow that from now on they'll look at things from their customers' perspective in the decisions that they make.  They need to remember that perceptions matter and that in situations like this the customers' perceptions matter more than their own.  If we feel like we've been screwed then we have, whether the wise men at the Journal agree or not. 

Customer Appreciation Winston-Salem Journal Style

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Here's the scenario: You're running a business, the local monopolistic newspaper, that by all accounts is struggling mightily against the tide of alternative media. Lucky for you the first black American has just been elected President of the United States which leads to an incredible demand for your issue that documents the historic occasion.  So here's the question: What do you do to celebrate? Do you:

  1. Create a commemorative re-print of the historic front page and bundle it in with every copy?
  2. Create a commemorative re-print of the historic front page and give it to your dwindling supply of loyal subscribers?
  3. Create a commemorative re-print of the historic front page and insert it only in the copies that are sold in news racks or at retail outlets, thus snubbing your bread and butter subscribers in exchange for a few extra dollars in extra single copy sales?

Thanks to Esbee we know that our friends at the Journal opted for the third choice.  With management decisions like that is it any wonder they're struggling?

I'm waiting to hear the justification, probably something to do with logistics making it near impossible to get the insert into all subscribers' hands.  Of course that would be BS, and I think we can all discern the real logic behind the decision: keep the print costs down, and juice the single copy sales.  But why?  Why risk alienating subscribers? 

Here's another question for the Journal's management: why not sell a special sponsorship for the piece?  Surely you'd make more money by producing the piece for 100,000 readers and selling a sponsorship based on that volume than by producing a few thousand pieces for a couple of percentage points bump in single copy sales. 

So how many subscribers will the Journal lose over this?  Probably not many in the near term, but these are exactly the kind of things that customers remember and as the newspaper continues to diminish in size, and as subscribers continue to struggle to find reasons to continue their subscriptions, I can guarantee you that many will be saying to themselves, "They've completely eliminated half the things I care about, they barely cover any local news, and there was that time they screwed us subscribers on the Obama cover.  Why would I write a check for that?"

If the paper had an ombudsman it would be interesting to hear what he has to say about this, but alas they don't have one.  Maybe Ken Otterbourg will address it on his blog.

Update 11:10: I could swear that when I first visited the Journal page with the announcement that there was at least one negative comment there.  I went back to check the language of the announcement and it said that the page had been updated five minutes earlier and there wasn't a comment anywhere to be found.  Actually there isn't any way to leave a comment now. Hmmm.  Can someone else visit the page and let me know if it's just my browser or has the comments function (been) disappeared for everyone?  

After double checking it looks like I'm not crazy.  The screen shots below show:

  1. The Journal home page that clearly shows the article about the reprint and says "1 comment".
  2. The announcement page without the comment or any way to comment.
  3. The page of another article with a comment as it's supposed to appear.

In other words from my browser it looks like that's the only page you can't comment on.  I'm guessing it's coincidental, but I feel like being a conspiracy theorist today.  So here goes: The Journal's scared of us!  They don't want us to spread poisonous verbiage about their lame customer service!

Okay, I feel better.

JournalPhantomComment

JournalAnnouncementPageWOComment

JournalPageWithComment

Civics 101

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One of the advantages of working at home is that when I take a lunch break I can whip up a quick bite to eat in my own kitchen and then plunk myself down and read the paper or watch the news on TV.  Today I took a late lunch around 1:40 and snapped on CNBC to see what was going on in the market and with the government bailout.  What I saw was fascinating on multiple levels.

First, I saw the bailout vote appear to fail which caused the DJIA to plummet 300 points in about five minutes.  It was nuts and it was something I’ve never seen before, but I was even more interested in watching and listening to the Wall Street pundits react.

What became apparent very quickly is that as smart as these people were about markets they were equally dense in the ways of Washington.  They had no clue how Congressional votes worked.  Luckily they had a reporter that could explain what it meant to leave the vote open and how it was possible for votes to change even after they’d been cast. That news caused the Dow to recover a couple of hundred points.

Then it got really good.  They decided to listen to the House vote live and they came in just as a member of the House asked a parliamentary question and asked the Chair for guidance.  Well I think that caused the commentators’ heads to spin off because when the vote was actually closed a few moments later and the House moved on to another bill they didn’t realize it. They had to wait for an explanation from the reporter and once they got it and relayed it to the audience at large and the Dow and other equity markets took an instant plunge.

I don’t expect people who normally don’t cover government to know every intricate detail or parliamentary procedure, but if I knew I was going to be covering one of the most important stories of the day as it affects my area of expertise I’d make sure I understood at least the fundamentals of how things proceed on the Hill.   It’s pretty obvious that didn’t happen in this case.

I don’t want to be too critical of the financial pundits. Their day-to-day existence requires they be highly versed in finance, not in government.  However, I do find it interesting that they were temporarily flummoxed by things they should have learned in high school civics class. 

For what it’s worth I’ve found CNBC to be some of the best television news going these days. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s head and shoulders above the rest of the "news" channels.  Watching CNN gives me nausea, MSNBC and Fox should drop any reference to news since they’re essentially televised versions of the Daily News, and the networks are pretty much DOA.  I like public television for the overall news, but CNBC seems to be the best for business and finance. 

Worse Than Not Getting Your School Supply List In Time is…

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A little while back I wrote what seems to be becoming an annual feature: the "We didn’t get our school supply list in time for the tax-free weekend" post.  Well, I think I discovered something even worse than not getting the list: a store that pretends to have your school’s list and uses it to shill stuff that might even be on the school’s banned list.

According to blogger Kelby Carr her local Wal-Mart provides shoppers with school supply lists that purport to be from the schools and/or teachers themselves.  And in the comments to her post you’ll find just a few people with their own, similar stories.

As Kelby points out it’s one thing to provide a "suggested list" and quite another to position your school supply list as being "official" when in fact it’s not.  She also makes a great point that many families that shop at Wal-Mart may not have a lot of disposable income, so if they end up buying some unnecessary items it could really hurt them.

Esbee wrote today that she finished up her school supply shopping with relatively little damage to her pocketbook, and she also points to a Letter to the Editor in the Winston-Salem Journal that asks why our public education system isn’t able to provide supplies for children despite all the money we spend on it.   Although I think the letter writer was a little too snarky and the letter was written in such a way that he sounds like he’s blaming the poor for their problems (he wrote "needy" children), he has a valid point when he asks why we can spend so much money on education yet not find a way to make sure kids have paper, pencils, protractors, compasses, etc.

I can still remember the kids who showed up on the first day in clothes they were embarrassed to wear because they were old, out of style, torn up, etc.  The kids’ families literally didn’t have the money for new jeans so they wore their older brothers’.  Those same kids were on assisted lunches and tried to hide the fact.  So you can imagine the stress their parents were under when it came time to buy supplies, and I’m sure it made this time of year that much harder on them. I’m also sure that today there are many families feeling that same kind of stress.

So let’s ask our leaders why things are the way they are, but let’s also make sure that our community’s children get what they need for school.  It’s only right.  Esbee also points to an article about organizations and individuals who are helping kids get what they need.  Let’s all do what we can to help.

Netflix Customer Service Message

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I logged into Netflix today and this is the message I found at the top of our personal home page:

Our Shipping Centers Are Mailing DVDs

Delayed DVD Shipments Are Being Sent Today (Friday)

   


   
       

We’re
happy to report that all of our shipping centers are resuming normal
operations (after 3 days of issues). If you should have been shipped a
disc Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, it will ship today (Friday).

We
apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. To all of you whose
shipments have been delayed, we’ll be automatically applying a 15%
credit to your next billing statement. Or, if you are new to Netflix
and your first shipments have been delayed, we recognize that this is
not a good way to begin your Netflix membership and we’ll automatically
extend your free trial by a week.

Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding.

The Netflix Team

Netflix had some well publicized issues with their distribution system this week, but since we haven’t had a chance to watch any DVDs since our vacation it didn’t really affect us.  Still, I like how they handled this.

Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce Insults Our Intelligence

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On the front page of today’s Winston-Salem Journal there’s an article titled "Groups Lobby City for Break"
and the thrust of the article is that the Chamber and the local realtors and developers are asking the city for a moratorium on new development regulations.  From the article:

Winston-Salem should impose a moratorium on any new business
regulations, including a proposed tree ordinance, because of current economic conditions, say the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce,
real-estate agents and homebuilders.

The chamber’s request, sent to the city last month, says that
Winston-Salem has enacted too many ordinances in recent years that add
to the cost of doing business. The letter specifically mentions
ordinances that affect sidewalk and street standards, storm-water
regulations, sign regulations and even an ordinance that requires
business owners to remove graffiti.

Okay, I understand that the Chamber’s job is to advocate for businesses in the city so I don’t begrudge it the position it’s taking.  It’s a later paragraph that they use to help justify their position that just blew my mind:

The number of zoning cases coming before the planning board is down
about 50 percent from last year, a measure that the chamber says is
evidence, in part, of "the difficulty doing business here."

What?  The Chamber wants us to believe that adding sidewalks and other such regs are going to keep developers from building?  I have to call "BS" here, because developers build anytime they think there will be a buyer.  You could require them to plant 100 pink ceramic elephants on every acre and they’d do it if they thought they’d have a buyer.  No, I’m thinking that perhaps our country’s epic housing decline and credit crisis might have just a little to do with the decrease in zoning cases.  Heck, Paul Norby, the director of the City County Planning Board, says exactly that in the article.

Like I said, I have no problem with the Chamber doing what they think is in the best interest of their members, but they should at least assume that the good citizens of Winston-Salem aren’t all a bunch of dumbasses and refrain from condescending arguments such as this.  And if nothing else they should realize that it makes them look like they’re the realtors’ and developers’ lap dogs, which they may very well be. 

BTW, I joined the Chamber last year and unfortunately I’ve only been able to make an event or two due to the fact that all the events seem to conflict with other obligations.  They did a wonderful job of outreach to me when I joined and it’s through no fault of theirs that I haven’t been able to do more with them.  I’m hoping to get more involved over the next couple of months.  On the other hand, I often find myself disagreeing with their public policy initiatives so I’m thinking they may not like having me around if I start piping up on the issues and letting them know what I think about many of their government affairs positions.  I don’t think that will win me the Dale Carnegie "How to Win Friends and Influence People" prize.

Wal-Mart HR

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I was in one of the circles of hell, the Wal-Mart on Hanes Mall Blvd., when I spied two signs by the doors to the employee section. One was "motivational" and the other a sign posted above the computer terminals to be used by job applicants.

First, motivational: Today’s Stock Quote, 57.67. Tomorrow Depends on You!

Second, the job applicant (I’m paraphrasing): As part of its selection and hiring process this company engages in drug testing of otherwise qualified employees. These tests are very sensitive and will detect any trace of illegal substance. If you have used illegal drugs recently don’t waste our time, or yours, by applying. Any positive result will also prevent you from being hired in the future.

Questions I have, and I’m being serious here: How many retail workers at Wal-Mart are shareholders?  How many Wal-Mart retail employees are motivated by the company’s performance on Wall Street?

Also, what kind of atmosphere does a company have that they feel they need to have a sign worded like the drug warning?  Sure it’s a good idea to tell them that you have standard drug tests, but why be so belligerent with the "don’t waste our time" stuff?  You think Costco approaches their hiring the same way?

You reap what you sow.

links for 2008-07-17

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Is Ford Really This Stupid?

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I think
most businesses would love to have a little word of mouth advertising,
but it seems that the folks at Ford (or at least their law firm) are
more interested in protecting their trademark than cultivating a
relationship with some of their most avid supporters.  From Boing Boing:

Josh sez, "The folks at BMC (Black Mustang Club) automotive forum
wanted to put together a calendar featuring members’ cars, and print it
through CafePress. Photos were submitted, the layout was set, and…
CafePress notifies the site admin that pictures of Ford cars cannot be
printed. Not just Ford logos, not just Mustang logos, the car -as a
whole- is a Ford trademark and its image can’t be reproduced without
permission.
So even though Ford has a lineup of enthusiasts who want to show off
their Ford cars, the company is bent on alienating them…

"I got some more info from the folks at cafepress and according to them,
a law firm representing Ford contacted them saying that our calendar
pics (and our club’s event logos – anything with one of our cars in it)
infringes on Ford’s trademarks which include the use of images of THEIR
vehicles. Also, Ford claims that all the images, logos and designs OUR
graphics team made for the BMC events using Danni are theirs as well.
Funny, I thought Danni’s title had my name on it … and I thought you
guys owned your cars … and, well … I’m not even going to get into
how wrong and unfair I feel this whole thing is as I’d be typing for
hours, but I wholeheartedly echo everything you guys have been saying
all afternoon. I’m not letting this go un-addressed and I’ll keep you
guys posted as I get to work on this.

I’m sorry, but at this point we will not be producing the 2008 BMC
Calendar, featuring our 2007 Members of the Month, solely due to Ford
Motor Company’s claim that THEY own all rights to the photos YOU take
of YOUR car."

You can read the predictably irate comments of club members on the BMCForum here.

Cross posted at Lowder Enterprises.