March/April 2006
Editorial
The truly free press gets the boot
By Ravi Dykema
RING . . .RING
“Hello, this is Nexus.”
“This is the manager of Acme health company. Please remove your rack from our entry as soon as possible and no longer deliver magazines here,” says the caller.
“Sure, we’d be happy to do that,” I say helpfully. “May I ask why?”
With irritation, the caller says, “Because the free magazine area of our store is a mess and we’re sick of dealing with it.”
My stomach sinks and feels kind of nauseous. A ball of anger rises in my chest and makes my face red. My throat tightens and I feel hot. Try to change her decision, I think, through the roar in my ears.
“I understand what you are dealing with,” I empathize, with effort. “Papers falling off racks. Stacks of magazines left over to recycle. Piles of brochures and fliers left around randomly, without permission. I sure understand why you don’t want to deal with that any more!” Pause to allow her to vent more, I remind myself.
Finally the manager fills the silence. “Yeah, people are constantly asking if they can drop their paper here and then they do things like leave bundles of it in front of our door when we’re not even open, way more than will ever get picked up. So we’ve decided to use that space near the exit for in-store promotions.”
Now, the sales pitch. One chance, make it good. My forehead feels clammy. “Our paper isn’t making the mess and burdening your staff, I believe,” I say reassuringly. “My distributor is really good about leaving the right number and cleaning up. He visits your store often. Also, I think your customers appreciate you for providing them with Nexus. Hundreds pick up each issue. (At the Denver Barnes and Noble store, pre-2001, I recall, it was 1000 per store!) Some probably come in just to get it. And Nexus’s 400 or so advertisers REALLY appreciate you for enabling them to make a living through helping people become healthier, which is what most of them do. Some of these advertisers likely are your customers. You see, my magazine serves the community your store depends on, and if that community is healthy, your business is healthy. I’d love for you to reconsider keeping Nexus in your store.”
Silence... My chest and belly feel brittle, tense and braced for pain. I can’t breathe.
Ninety percent of the time when I get one of these calls (I’ve had quite a few over 25 years) I hear these words next: “I appreciate what you are saying, and I’m sticking with my decision. Please remove your rack.” One day in 2001 the message came in three separate letters from Barnes and Noble store managers telling us their corporate leaders had ordered them to eject free magazines from all their stores nationwide. I appealed to a B&N vice president in New York and received a curt, “We’re sticking with our decision,” reply. (See Chain Store Blues from our September/October 2001 issue, on our website, nexuspub.com. The VP’s name and address is printed there.)
But some corporations do take a bigger view of “community” than the usual one that centers on stockholder value. Here’s what Whole Foods Markets CEO John Mackey says about his corporation’s philosophy of community responsibility (from “John Mackey’s Blog” at wholefoods.com): "We measure our success on how well we meet the needs and desires of all of these various stakeholders. All must flourish or we aren’t succeeding as a business." Stakeholders are, he says, in order of priority, " ...Customers; team members; investors; vendors; community; and environment."
Sounds like Mr. Mackey would agree with my philosophy that 400-plus small business people (Nexus advertisers), many of whom spend their earnings at Whole Foods or provide health services to his employees, are important “stakeholders” for his company. He probably also realizes that a magazine that has promoted healthy living for 26 years helped build and currently helps sustain the health food movement upon which his company’s success depends.
I wish more managers/owners would read John Mackey’s writings. Find two great articles at wholefoods.com, under “Company.” Scroll to: “John Mackey’s Blog.”
If more store owners and managers did read Mr. Mackey, I think they would view free magazines as more than trash, and worthy of the valuable square feet and valuable staff time required to provide them to customers. Free magazines are often grass-roots outgrowths of a community’s diversity and vitality. E.W. Scripps newspapers they are not! Many of these magazines educate and inspire their readers, especially about their own communities—the people who are the vitality and the creativity of their town; the people who offer their expertise to help others, or provide unique products that enrich people’s lives. Think of the Urban Spectrum in Denver, the several women’s magazines in Denver and Boulder, Westword and the Boulder Weekly, Elephant Magazine, Whole Life Pages, Natural Awakenings, The Healing Path in Northern Colorado, The Mountain Gazette, and many others. None could exist without the generosity of businesspeople who see the value to themselves of supporting this vital conduit of energy in their neighborhood, their town, their city, their state.
Why do these magazines depend on business’s generosity? Because most of these papers can’t afford the many hundreds of outdoor news boxes that would be required to reach people on the public thoroughfare (such as are used by the daily newspapers). Moreover, the public thoroughfare has shrunk. Increasingly, stores sit on and are surrounded by private property where no news boxes are allowed.
John Mackey’s views about community-as-stakeholder are even more unique because he runs a large company, the largest purveyor of health foods in the world, according to his website. And, as I point out in my 2001 editorial, Chain Store Blues (see above), large companies sometimes make rotten neighbors. (WalMart is the most famous example of this.) Large new stores usually result in small local businesses closing, and along with them the many community-sustaining mediums they nourished, from bulletin boards to free magazines. If the new store can satisfy its customers with product selection, prices and service, all power to them. But I have never, in 25 years, heard a manager of a chain restaurant, for example, agree to display my free magazine, while hundreds of local restaurant owners have said “Yes.”
I think John Mackey gets it right when he writes (in the same article quoted above), “The terrible reputation of business in the world today is a direct result of the belief that business has no other purpose besides maximizing profits. The average person believes that business should care about its customers, employees, society, suppliers, the environment—as well as its investors... The ‘brand of business’ in the widest sense is pretty terrible throughout the world.”
But destined to change, I think. Because communities which are diverse, creative, entrepreneurial, educated and linked by many communication mediums produce happier and more prosperous customers for any kind of business, whether a chain, a franchise, a big-box, a mom-and-pop or a healthcare provider. “All [our stakeholders] must flourish or we aren’t succeeding as a business,” Mackey says. I say, “Hurray for the free press!”
Some sad community news
On a different note, I want to honor the passing of two wonderful people who enriched Nexus’ staff, Nexus’ readers and our community.
P.J. Birosik wrote our “Mixed Media” column for many years, in which she reviewed many hundreds of books, videos, tapes and CDs. We’ll miss her wisdom and heartfulness, in addition to her timeliness and professionalism.
Bernie Marek taught contemplative art classes and advertised them in Nexus for over 10 years. He usually brought his ad into our office personally and always left some sunshine behind. We will sorely miss him.
Another wonderful artist and former Nexus advertiser has recently suffered a brutal attack while in Santa Fe, and needs our help. Master sitar player Roshan Bhartiya was attacked by a group of men while waiting for a bus. He was on a teaching trip to the city, according to a February 14, 2006 Daily Camera article, which is the source for this story. His hands are so injured from protecting himself from blows from baseball bats and iron rods that he cannot play for at least a month, thus losing the income from concerts and teaching on which he depends. Bhartiya also suffered head cuts and a tooth injury. His students have organized a collection to help him while he recovers. You may send donations to: Roshan Bhartiya, c/o Full Circle Cultural Arts Center, P.O. Box 39, Rollinsville, CO, 80474.
