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Your connection to industry & member news | Oct. 7, 2021
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SCNN Ad Networks fiscal year sales top $1 millionThe S.C. Newspaper Network’s fiscal year ended Sept. 30, and for the first time in nearly a decade, combined ad network sales topped $1 million. This total includes sales from the Classified, Small Space and QuarterPage+ ad networks.
Growth in network sales this past year was fueled in large part by surging QuarterPage+ ad network sales, but Classified and Small Space sales showed some resilience as well.
“To see such growth in ad sales during such a difficult environment for advertising illustrates both the value advertisers see in our ad networks and the trust they place in our member newspapers throughout the state,” said Randall Savely, Co-Executive Director of SCPA and SCNN. “As excited as we are about how increased network sales benefit our bottom line, it is just as exciting that our member newspapers have also benefited from the greatly increased ad network payouts during the past year.”
SCNN is the advertising division of the S.C. Press Association. Every daily newspapers and virtually every weekly newspaper participate in SCNN’s ad networks. If your newspaper is not currently a member of these networks, contact Randall to see how you can join.
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Sumter Item sister company splits; current Item leadership expanding rolesOPC News LLC, formed by Graham, Kyle and Jack Osteen and a sister company to The Sumter Item, has split into two companies, the Osteens announced this week.
In the agreement, Graham Osteen, his wife, Julie, and their son, Hugh, now own two weekly newspapers based in the Jacksonville, Florida, area and another in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Jack and Kyle Osteen co-own a variety of weekly newspapers making up Gulf Coast Media in Baldwin County, Alabama.
Osteen Publishing Company, which owns The Sumter Item and has been owned by five generations of the Osteen family since its creation in 1894, remains in the Osteen family.
Several members of The Sumter Item's leadership team are taking on expanded roles within Gulf Coast Media as part of the company reorganization.
Item Publisher Vince Johnson has been named group publisher of The Sumter Item and Gulf Coast Media, Jack and Kyle Osteen announced Monday.
In corresponding moves, The Item's executive editor, Kayla Green, will serve as executive editor of both organizations, and Micah Green has been named chief digital officer of both.
"In a challenging time for local newspapers across the nation, The Item has been able to survive and remain an important part of the community in the last several years, and we're looking to expand on that success," Jack and Kyle Osteen, both Sumter natives and residents, said in a joint statement. "We're excited to ensure leadership continuity at The Item that will serve our readers and advertisers for years to come."
From Staff Reports, The Sumter Item | Read more
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News Contest entry platform live Friday; Entry deadline is Dec. 3 The 2021 News Contest rules and digital entry platform will be live Friday. The site will accept entries until Friday, Dec. 3.
Contests include the News Contest, Associate and Individual Member Contest, and the Collegiate Contest.
Each member editor will receive an email from SCPA this week with your newspaper’s log in credentials and a copy of the rules. Reporters and other staffers should get the log-in credentials from their editor.
The contest period is for work published between Nov. 16, 2020 through Nov. 15, 2021.
Contact SCPA if you have any questions about the rules or if you have any trouble with the digital entry platform.
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SCPA can run SLED Checks on your local candidatesA reminder that SCPA is able to run SLED criminal background checks on candidates for local races. To obtain a SLED check, you must provide the candidate's full name and date of birth.
Please call our office during business hours at (803) 750-9561 to request a SLED check.
SCPA can run SLED checks for all news stories, including crime/public safety reporting. Here's more about obtaining a background check.
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There's still time to register for free Google Advanced Search, Trends and Pinpoint training There's still time to register for today's 2 p.m. session on Google Advanced Search training where we'll explore search modifiers, and then go into specialized search engines, including Google Scholar, Dataset Search and Fact Check Explorer. RSVP by 1:30 p.m. if you'd like to attend.
Mary Nahoriak, Google News Lab’s U.S. teaching fellow, will be back on Oct. 14 from 2-3 p.m. to cover Google Trends. We’ll uncover search trends, term comparisons, Trends resources, and do a live demo, all with a focus on finding new stories and understanding local digital audiences. RSVP here.
Our last session in this series will be Google Pinpoint training. Join us Oct. 21 from 2-3 p.m. as we talk about analyzing documents and transcribing audio using Pinpoint. We’ll explore public collections, as well as learn how to upload your own document sets to examine through powerful search functionality. RSVP here.
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| "Rest Stop" by Robert Ariail
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|  If you can't get enough of award-winning Camden cartoonist Robert Ariail, enjoy his new strip featured every week in the Charleston City Paper, which has granted us ongoing permission to republish it. Called "Lowcountry," the weekly feature, which is available for syndication in South Carolina newspapers, focuses on politics, human nature, the environment and public policy. More: Contact publisher Andy Brack.
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 | The Sumter Item's front page is blank today, illustrating the importance of reliable local journalism for National Newspaper Week.
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Here's the National Newspaper Week content we've seen so far. Please share your newspaper's stories, Op-eds and more.
Opinion: It's National Newspaper Week, but The Sumter Item is here for the community every day
Newspapers keep closing, yet we produce most of the news you read, even if you don't read it from us.
More than a fourth of the country's newspapers vanished in the 15 years leading up to 2020. So did jobs for half of all journalists. Since 2018, 300 papers closed. Studies from UNC's Hussman School of Journalism and Media show private equity firms and hedge funds continue to merge large chains, while advertisers continue to make hard decisions about their spending.
All this while local newspapers outperform local TV, radio and online-only outlets in news production. According to a Duke study, while local newspapers accounted for nearly 60% of the local content in the 2019 study, they accounted for only 25% of the outlets sampled.
We need local news.
Social media isn't news. It's a platform on which we share news. When Facebook went down earlier this week, where did you go to find out what happened? Maybe you went to Twitter for the funny reactions, but you likely went to a news outlet's website to learn what was behind the digital meltdown.
This week marks the 81st rendition of National Newspaper Week, a time when we recognize the service of newspapers and their employees across North America.
By Kayla Green, The Sumter Item | Read more
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 | The Index-Journal illustrated its point through the use of empty space, represented here in print via the deep void.
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| Editorial: Imagine there's no paper
Imagine today you could not pick up an edition of the Index-Journal and read it. Or flip through the electronic replica edition of the paper. Or visit indexjournal.com and read much of the print content online.
Imagine if all you could rely on for information about your community is what you are told by friends and neighbors or, worse, only what you read on social media platforms.
Imagine that instead of attending your kids’ sporting event, dance recital or just enjoying an evening out with family or friends, instead you had to attend the meetings of city and county councils, school boards and the like.
Imagine that you would have to regularly visit the police department and sheriff’s office nearly daily to keep tabs on crime.
Imagine that you would have to visit governmental websites routinely to find out about the meetings you’d now need to attend, were you so inclined, or to learn who has applied for a business license, what legal ads and public notices had been logged and that might affect you and your neighborhood.
You might not care for or about every item we publish six days a week, but you have to admit that we provide something you cannot get easily on your own — information that’s relevant to you and your life.
From the Index-Journal | Read more
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Newspapers provide vital service to community
It’s National Newspaper Week.
At the Aiken Standard and The Star of North Augusta, every week is newspaper week for us. It’s our job and for many of us it’s our passion to deliver news and information on multiple platforms in a timely manner.
Today marks the start of the 81st annual celebration that recognizes the “service of newspapers and their employees across North America and is sponsored by Newspaper Association Managers,” according to the group’s website.
“Community Forum” is this year’s theme, and I think that’s an appropriate one. Newspapers often drive the conversation and promote dialogue on important topics in their communities.
The past year has been a busy one. We are still dealing with COVID-19 and all the turmoil it has caused. There was a presidential election and a new administration sworn in.
The First Amendment and freedom of the press are essential to our country. According to literature prepared for National Newspaper Week, journalists “act as trusted watchdogs of government transparency.”
By John Boyette, Aiken Standard | Read more
Related: Aiken Standard’s Public Service and Investigative Fund supports watchdog reporting
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Editorial: Newspapers vital to health of communities
A week ago today, The Times and Democrat marked 140 years since the first edition of the newspaper was published on Sept. 29, 1881. This week we have another observance in National Newspaper Week, a time to put emphasis on the key role newspapers play in their communities.
Our coverage a week ago focused much on the history of The T&D and its transformation over the years. The Oct. 3-9 national observance is a time to shine more light on what we are today and into the future.
For nearly 20 years, The T&D has been part of Lee Enterprises, a publicly traded media company that publishes 75 daily newspapers in 26 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is based in Davenport, Iowa.
The two decades in Lee has brought changes in technology that have revolutionized The T&D’s ability to reach audiences. We are today a complete digital agency, providing audience solutions that go far beyond the traditional newspaper. While still printing on our press in Orangeburg the print edition seven days a week, The Times and Democrat through its website TheTandD.com, but more importantly through its Amplified Digital Agency and the resources in Lee Enterprises, can now reach bigger audiences and highly specific targeted audiences. Video has expanded audience engagement, and breaking news is pushed out of The T&D newsroom all day every day.
From The Times and Democrat | Read more
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P&C, Uncovered partners to discuss future of journalism in SC at 'Beyond the Headlines'
In honor of National Newspaper Week, Post and Courier Watchdog Editor Glenn Smith and Senior Projects Reporter Tony Bartelme will talk to two Uncovered partners – Travis Jenkins, Editor of The News & Reporter in Chester, and Matt Hensley, Managing Editor of the Greenwood Index-Journal during an Oct. 7 installment of "Beyond the Headlines." The discussion will take place from 12-12:30 p.m. Panelists will discuss the work they’ve done together and the state of journalism in South Carolina. Here's more details.
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|  | Staff of The Newberry Observer participated in the City of Newberry’s Oktoberfest Saturday. The paper offered visitors a free map and festival info.
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The Island Packet creates database to track people who have died in SC jails since 2009
At around 2 a.m. on a May night in 2017, a knock on her door roused Lila Crow. It was the coroner. Her son, Adam Crow, had left her house that afternoon to check himself into a crisis hospital in Aiken. Instead, he ended up in a jail. In a holding cell, he covered a camera lens and used his pant legs to hang himself. It took 61 minutes for jailers to realize, Crow said.
“Why was no one looking?” she asked. “That was the one place that always kept him safe from himself.” “They took that safety away.”
That night, Adam Crow became one of at least 253 lives lost in the custody of S.C. jails during the past 12 1/2 years, according to a public tally of these incidents by The Island Packet that aims to fill a void left by inconsistent government tracking of inmates’ deaths in the state’s detention centers.
By Lucas Smolcic Larson, Special to The Island Packet | Read more
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Cracked windshield, confusing laws surround death of man shot by trooper in Horry County
A cracked windshield, case law from over 100 years ago and an incomplete investigation have lawyers and legal experts analyzing the legality of the police shooting that killed a Horry County man. Tristan Vereen was shot and killed by Whitney Benton, a South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper who was pursuing him, first by car then by foot in the Red Bluff area of Longs. The reason for the initial traffic stop is still unclear but Vereen’s lawyers are alleging it was due to a crack in Vereen’s windshield. South Carolina Department of Public Safety has only said the cause was an “equipment violation.” Jimmy Richardson, Horry County Solicitor, confirmed the windshield had a crack in it, based on photos SCHP sent him, but did not know if that was the reason for the stop. ...
In dashcam footage of the incident, obtained by The Sun News after a Freedom of Information request, audio is cut from the first 34 seconds of the video when Benton starts to pursue Vereen in his police cruiser. It is unclear why the audio was left out, and why Benton was pursuing Vereen. It is also not clear from the video how severe the crack in Vereen’s windshield was. The two men get into a shouting match on the highway as Vereen pulls over then drives in a circle and Benton yells for him to pull over. Vereen yells back before driving away but it is not clear what he is saying due to the quality of the audio.
By Gerard Albert, The Sun News | Read more
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Caslen calls coming to USC ‘biggest regret of my life’ as emails show split over departure
More than four months after resigning as president at the University of South Carolina amid a plagiarism scandal, Bob Caslen remains bitter about how his 21-month tenure ended.
“The biggest regret of my life is that I went to University of South Carolina,” Caslen told The Post and Courier on Sept. 30. “If I had to do it all over again, I would never have gone to the University of South Carolina.”
Caslen’s statement was prompted by the release of emails from a week in May when he delivered commencement addresses with uncredited material, resigned after a barrage of criticism and was replaced by former USC President Harris Pastides. ...
Under a public records request, The Post and Courier received nearly 3,800 pages of emails to Caslen, Pastides and the USC board covering a nine-day period from Caslen’s Columbia commencement speeches and just after trustees formally hired Pastides as interim president.
By Andy Shain and Jessica Holdman, The Post and Courier Columbia | Read more
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Investigation alleges raucous, ‘over-sexed’ behavior at Columbia firehouse
A sprawling internal affairs investigation alleged an “over-sexed,” frat house style environment at a Columbia Fire Department station house where five firefighters were fired earlier this year. The employees were fired on May 7 in connection to an internal investigation into fire Station 8, located at 933 Atlas Road. The dismissals were the result of what had been a nearly month-long investigation. Initial documents provided to The State in June alleged a raft of workplace policy violations against the now-dismissed firemen, including conduct unbecoming of city employees, dereliction of duty, horseplay and unsafe activities, insubordination and more. On June 15, The State filed a Freedom of Information Act request for internal affairs documents related to the Station 8 investigation. Those documents were provided Friday morning.
By Chris Trainor, The State | Read more
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Attorney accuses SC business embroiled in Murdaugh case of selling information to reporter
An attorney representing the mother of Mallory Beach in a wrongful death suit accuses someone affiliated with the Parker’s convenience store of selling confidential information to a New York-based reporter. Attorney Mark Tinsley accuses an unknown person or people involved with Parker’s of selling a mediation video and notes to former CNN journalist Vicky Ward, he said Monday. ...
In a statement through her attorney, Edward Fenno, Ward denied having bought any information. ...
Charleston-based attorney Fenno, who’s representing Ward, filed a motion Friday attempting to quash Tinsley’s subpoena. Fenno argued that Ward does not have to testify because of South Carolina’s shield law — which protects journalists from disclosing information gained while reporting. Fenno, in his motion, did not concede that Ward obtained the confidential information that Tinsley accuses Parker’s of selling. The motion called Tinsley’s subpoena a “fishing expedition” and an attempt to “piggyback on the press’s hard work.”
By Kacen Bayless, The Island Packet | Read more
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Alter joins Kingstree News staff as editor
Brandon Alter joins The News of Kingstree as the new editor. Alter, 22, graduated from the University of South Carolina in May 2021 with a bachelor’s of arts in journalism and mass communications. He is a native of Olney, Maryland, a Washington D.C. suburb.
“I’m excited to join The News staff and look forward to covering Williamsburg County for the dedicated readers,” Alter said. “Growing up in the suburbs of a big city, there was always something to do. I am looking forward to the challenge that comes with the change of pace covering a smaller community.”
While at the University of South Carolina, Alter focused primarily on sports. He covered a multitude of Gamecock athletics including football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball in his four years in Columbia. Alter also wrote stories on Holocaust education, statehood for Washington D.C., and the legacy Steve Benjamin left as Columbia’s mayor. He also covered the Black Lives Matter protest in Columbia in the summer of 2020.
From The News | Read more
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Milner named food editor of The Post and Courier
Parker Milner has been named food editor of The Post and Courier.
Milner joined the staff Oct. 4 after leading the Charleston City Paper’s food section for a year and a half. He succeeds Hanna Raskin.
“This is a very important position for The Post and Courier and for this city,” said Executive Editor Autumn Phillips. “We conducted a national search to fill it, but in the end chose to hire someone who has been living and working here and understands how much food means to us in Charleston.”
Milner, a Pittsburgh native and Boston College graduate, started his journalism career in Charleston after a seven-year professional hockey career. He spent four years playing in the Washington Capitals organization as a member of the South Carolina Stingrays from 2016-2020.
From The Post and Courier | Read more
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Anderson University features Jonathan Vickery of The People-Sentinel
Jonathan Vickery, a graduate of the Anderson University College of Arts and Sciences, is the new owner of The People-Sentinel in Barnwell.
Vickery has been on staff at The People-Sentinel since 2010, after graduating in December 2009 with his Communication degree. He feels strongly that community-minded journalism is essential to running a newspaper in the digital age. He bought a weekly newspaper that serves the small town of Barnwell from the previous owners, Gannett, a major mass media company that owns USA Today and other newspapers across the nation.
Since assuming ownership from Gannett July 1, 2021, Vickery says The People-Sentinel has received “a ton of support” from the community.
“We’ve gained over a hundred new subscribers in just the first two months and several new advertisers. It’s been an exciting time,” Vickery said. “It’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s been very rewarding.”
Born and raised in Barnwell, Vickery isn’t a newcomer to the newspaper or the community. Members of his small staff are also Barnwell County natives. The People-Sentinel has been a big part of his life, starting in high school.
From Anderson University | Read more
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 | The Newberry Observer building, shown here in a sketch from the late 1980’s, will eventually become the home to the Newberry Arts Center following approval of its purchase by Newberry City Council.
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| Newberry Observer building sold
Newberry City Council voted unanimously at their meeting on Sept. 14 to purchase The Newberry Observer building for the price of $200,000 with an additional $100,000 likely needed for renovations.
The city plans to use the building to house the Newberry Arts Center, which currently occupies most of the Main Street frontage of The Old Newberry Hotel. ...
The approximately 16,000 square foot Observer building, located at 1716 Main Street, has been used only for a small amount of office space since printing was moved off-site to sister paper The Robesonian in Lumberton, N.C. Champion Media, The Observer’s parent company is currently negotiating a lease for a property in the immediate downtown area of Newberry.
“I want to make sure everyone realizes that The Newberry Observer is not going anywhere, we simply do not need the space that the old building provides” said Andy Husk, publisher of The Newberry Observer. “I am excited to be moving more into the downtown core and to be visible for community events like Oktoberfest and Pork in the Park. My goal for the paper is to be as involved in the community as possible, and this move will help us attain that.”
From The Newberry Observer | Read more
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Savannah Morning News names Jill Nevels-Haun as executive editor
Editor's Note: Bluffton Today, The Jasper County Sun Times and Hampton County Guardian are part of this Gannett region.
Veteran news organization leader Jill Nevels-Haun will join the Savannah Morning News as executive editor on Nov. 1, parent company Gannett announced Wednesday.
Nevels-Haun will also serve as Georgia state news director for the USA TODAY Network's two other Georgia news organizations, the Augusta Chronicle and Athens Banner-Herald. In that role, she will coordinate statewide news coverage among the three newspapers and their websites. ...
Nevels-Haun comes to Georgia from west Texas, where she is the USA TODAY Network’s regional news director and the executive editor at the Amarillo Globe-News, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and seven other community publications.
She has managed the Texas publications since February 2018. She previously served as an editor with the Monroe News in Michigan; The News-Messenger in Fremont, Ohio; the News Herald in Port Clinton, Ohio; the Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington, Kentucky.; and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia. ...
Nevels-Haun is a native of Florence, Kentucky, and a graduate of Western Kentucky University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
From the Savannah Morning News | Read more
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Free Times and Post and Courier Columbia make key hires
Free Times and The Post and Courier are thrilled to announce a handful of key additions to the Columbia staff. ...
• As previously announced, David Clarey has been named the editor of Free Times. ...
• Lindsay Teague Conine has joined Free Times’ as our new events and marketing manager.
Lindsay is a Columbia area native and is a graduate of Clemson University. Her previous experience includes corporate sales and event management for hotel groups both in Columbia and in Denver as well as operations, nonprofit fundraising, and statewide political campaigns. ...
• Casey Darnell has joined our news staff and is covering Lexington County news for Post and Courier Columbia.
The graduate of Syracuse University (working as editor for the school paper) interned for Yahoo! News and the Philadelphia Business Journal prior to joining our team.
Casey’s addition to the team is crucial in our mission to more extensively cover all the happenings in the booming Lexington County.
• Nick Reynolds will punch his Southern card after stints in Upstate New York and the Rockies. He takes over the Statehouse/politics beat from Jamie Lovegrove on Oct. 11.
Nick has covered Wyoming politics since 2018 for the Casper Star-Tribune and WyoFile.
Prior to that, he was a city hall reporter for The Ithaca Journal and managing editor of The Ithaca Times, an alternative weekly publication.
• Angie Bledsoe has returned to Free Times as an advertising account executive, a role she previously held for several years leading up to 2018.
By Chase Heatherly, The Post and Courier Columbia/Free Times | Read more
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 | While the newspaper operated at 134 Columbus St. for 70 years, its longest period in one place, the building itself changed signficantly from its original 1951 incarnation.
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| Commentary: Post and Courier is ingrained in Charleston history. Move doesn’t change that.
It was moving day for The Post and Courier on Sept. 1, but who other than its employees noticed? The newspaper showed up on front yards and was delivered to inboxes, without pause or apparent difficulty.
Still, the move to 148 Williman St. is a significant event in the storied history of The Post and Courier and its predecessors.
The newspaper was located at 134 Columbus St. for nearly 70 years — the longest period in one place in its existence. If those walls could talk ...
For most Charlestonians today, it would be hard to recall when the newspaper offices were anywhere else.
By Charles Rowe, former editorial page editor of The Post and Courier | Read more
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Paula Ellis releases book on 21st-century journalism
Paula Ellis, who served as publisher of The Sun News from 1998-2005, has released her first book.
Ellis is a national leader in journalism innovation, transformative change and employee and community engagement. A former foundation executive, senior media executive and journalist, Ellis’ work focuses on civic entrepreneurship with a twin emphasis on reimagining journalism to better serve democracy and fostering more inclusive communities and work places.
In her book, News for US, Ellis introduces to the journalism field a new way of thinking and operating in a connected world, offering a practical guide for news executives to bring citizens together to foster collaboration around solving some of society’s most challenging problems.
This book is a first-ever guide to this new approach—one that enriches the skill set of the 21st-century journalism with the mindset of civic engagement. Readers will meet leading innovators and experimenters in these new forms who will describe their challenges and offer their guidance.
The potential is here to revitalize American journalism—and revitalize American democracy in the process.
Ellis began her career as a journalist at several metropolitan newspapers, and in 1980, joined Knight Ridder Inc., where she rose through the ranks as an editor, publisher and vice president/operations of the Fortune 500 firm she helped to sell in 2006. She remains a sought-after consultant, an in-demand public speaker and respected journalist and change maker, who employs strategic and tactical insights to attack complex, systemic challenges at for-profit and non-profit enterprises.
A former Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Knight Foundation, Ellis is a senior associate with the Kettering Foundation; a trustee of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and a director of the National Conference on Citizenship. She also is president of Paula Ellis and Associates, a consulting firm headquartered in Charleston, S.C.
Learn more about 'News for US' and order a copy.
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By Meg Kinnard, reporter for The Associated Press
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| Meg Kinnard champions self-advocacy, self-exams
Breast cancer has taken many things from me, but it has given far more than it’s confiscated. Among those gifts is confidence in sharing my experience, with the hope it can help someone else avoid the path on which I’ve found myself.
I’m accustomed to telling other people’s stories, not my own. For the past two decades, I have been a journalist, first with National Journal magazine in Washington, D.C., and, for the last 16 years, The Associated Press, based in South Carolina. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know people who’ve trusted me to tell their stories to a national audience, from everyday South Carolinians to people running for president of the United States. I’m grateful for all of those opportunities.
Far more than that, though, is the enjoyment I get from being a wife and mother. Geoffrey and our three children, Alex, Hannah and Adair, are my world. (And I’d be remiss to leave out our dog and two cats, Opie, Gary and Molly.)
Growing up, I was an only child — and an only grandchild. I’ve never really wanted for anything. I’d be lying if I tried to pretend that my life has ever been anything but relatively comfortable.
That changed in February, when, at age 40, I learned I was among the hundreds of thousands of women this year diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. I was young, worked out regularly and maintained a clean diet. This didn’t seem like something that happened to people like me.
But it had apparently been happening, inside me, for years. During a self-exam in 2017, I felt something resembling a small pebble in my left breast. I was "too young" for mammograms, but I sought one. My "pebble" was diagnosed as a calcium deposit, something the doctors said I shouldn't fret about, given my age and lack of strong family cancer history. I went for periodic follow-ups, and, although my entire left breast began to hurt and became inflamed, I was told not to worry.
Read more in the Index-Journal
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By John Foust, Advertising Trainer
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| Catch more customers for your advertisers
My friends Mark and Sandy invited me to spend a couple of days in a vacation beach condo they had rented, about a month before their first child was born. Mark and I decided to do some fishing, so we bought some shrimp to use as bait and waded into the ocean, which was unusually calm and flat that day.
We stood there for several hours in waist-high water. Mark knew a lot more about fishing than I did, but neither of us caught a fish. He may have had a nibble or two, but I ended up with nothing but a bad case of sunburn. When we sloshed our way back to the shore, I still had my original shrimp on my hook. Mark told me that even though the fish weren’t biting that day, my odds would have improved if I had kept fresh bait on the hook.
It was a little embarrassing, because I should have known better. If I were a fish, I certainly wouldn’t be interested in a shrimp that had been hanging around that long.
That lesson applies to advertising, as well as fishing. It pays to make a fresh offer to your target audience. Read more
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