Ledger Spreads Bad Info About Columbus Daily

by Ronni Mott
July 23, 2009

The Commercial Dispatch in Columbus was surprised to learn yesterday that it was changing format from a daily newspaper to a weekly "advertiser" format. Except that it wasn't true. Turns out The Clarion-Ledger was mailing subscribers in the town, spreading false information to try to increase its own subscriptions in the area.

"We found out when some of our subscribers here in Columbus started calling us frantically, saying, 'Are y'all really changing to a weekly shopper format?'" Peter Imes, operations manager for The Commercial Dispatch, said today.

The first part of the July 17 letter states: "I was sorry to hear your local newspaper in Columbus has changed its format to that of a weekly advertiser. I know how important it is to receive your daily news and I know it is a valued part of many people's morning. We would like the opportunity to service that need."

"We were scratching our heads," he continued, "and asked a couple of our subscribers to drop one by if they were in the area. We got just a flood of these letters. We immediately tried to contact The Clarion-Ledger. For several hours, we couldn't get a call back or e-mails returned."

Sharon Heckler, circulations operations manager for the Ledger, sent the letter, Imes said.

"She eventually called me back and offered to send a correction letter that supposedly was mailed out yesterday," he said, adding, "We received a (draft) copy of that letter in which they apologized for the mistake and then make another attempt to sell subscriptions."

Imes said that Heckler cited a single person in Starkville as the source of her information. In early June, The Dispatch launched a daily in Starkville—the next town over—called The Starkville Dispatch. Heckler told Imes that she was under the impression that the Dispatch was no longer doing a daily in Starkville, prompting her to send the letter.

"What got us scratching our head is that ... we haven't heard from anybody in Starkville who received this letter," Imes said. "Only people in Columbus have let us know that they've received this initial letter."

Imes said they haven't seen any direct negative concerns, but pointed out that the incident has the potential for deepening the problems all newspapers are experiencing.

"Our main concern is that this adds to this air of uncertainty around all newspapers," he said.

"I feel like we need to be helping each other out and reassuring people. This makes The Clarion-Ledger look as bad as anybody—worse than anybody," he added. "It's just not true what they said in the letter."

Imes said The Dispatch is waiting to see the Ledger's response before taking further action, taking on "good faith" that the paper will do the right thing with their response and let their readers know that The Commercial Dispatch and The Starkville Dispatch newspapers are still coming out on a daily basis.

Read the letters here.

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