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Murphy's Law is the adage that "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” Coined in the 1940s, it highlights that if there is a possibility for failure, that failure will occur – and often at the worst possible time.
As I’ve been saying for years, Murphy must be Ground Zero of that particular law, because everything that could go wrong to stub the toe of quality did just that last week at the Cherokee Scout.
The smaller height and width of the newspaper is still a bit jarring. The print job was too dark. The photos looked muddy. The pages didn’t properly line up. The new design and layout was poorly implemented. Popular features – like the arrest report and part 15 of “52 Things to Celebrate About Cherokee County” – were completely left out of print. Delivery didn’t happen until the other side of midnight. Some addresses didn’t receive their mailed copies. Even the e-edition showed up late online.
As Arnold Bennett once said, “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts."
These changes have all taken place since Paxton Media Group purchased the Scout and eight other newspapers at the end of March. The family owned company uses a very specific business model that’s implemented at all of its 110-plus newspapers, giving them all the same look and feel. Scout associates have spent the last three weeks working diligently to learn new computer systems, along with a completely different way of producing the weekly local newspaper.
What that means is instead of ads and pages being built at the office in Murphy, they are built at a hub used by the entire company. We are now printing in High Point along with many other newspapers. Bills and payments are being sent from or to the corporate office. Work life is a lot different nowadays.
On the bright side, I had no idea how many readers enjoyed our former design and layout until it was gone. As the person who redesigned the Scout in 2004 and has won multiple design awards, it was my baby, so of course I didn’t want to change it. I may be the publisher, but I am not the owner, which has its privileges.
While these decisions were not made at the Scout, it is our responsibility to learn the best ways to use the new system and hub to create the best possible version of your local newspaper. We will figure out how to better prepare items for the press plant, and they will get used to having us in their schedule. Things will improve week by week.
However, one very important thing does remain the same. Local people still tell stories and take photos about other people who live in, work in and visit Cherokee County. Local people still sell advertising. Thankfully, the new owners believe in having people at the local level create the content that goes into print, and through this process we are more committed than ever to the important crafts of reporting and writing.
None of us like change, and it’s never easy, so please give us a chance to make it right. I pray the words of Robin Sharma ring true in the future: "Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.”
David Brown is the publisher of the Cherokee Scout.