C-L Distribution Network Plans Irk Free Press
The Jackson Free Press, an alternative news weekly publishing in the metro, is raising cain about plans by Gannett Co. and The Clarion-Ledger to introduce a distribution network in the market for free publications. The story caught the attention recently of the Mississippi Business Journal, local TV stations and is the subject of an online petition the JFP has posted on its Website.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
It is more than the Jackson Free Press “raising cain” about the Gannett Corp.’s TDN scheme. Ten publications in the Jackson area have banded together to form the Mississippi Independent Publishers Alliance (MIPA) in order to fight off this attempt by a major newspaper corporation to control the distribution of free publications in Mississippi. Coverage to date has included WLBT, the Mississippi Business Journal, various radio talk shows, as well as pieces in our newspaper, Metro Christian Living, the Metro Jackson Business Chronicle, and even columns in classifieds and real-estate publications where editorial seldom appears. Some national media coverage is on the way.
I would hope that the Mississippi Press Association would take a long, hard look at what is happening here and take a stand on behalf of Mississippi-owned media. This scheme has been particularly onerous because a list of “accepted” free publications was shown to many distribution spots where free publications already have relationship. The Gannett Corp. led those businesses to believe that they could simply check off which publications they wanted included in their new TDN box. The Jackson Free Press was listed on that, although we had not even been told about the scheme at the time. Then we received an eviction letter from the Gannett Corp. for some 160 locations — including locations that tell us they have not signed a deal with The Clarion-Ledger. It seems no one really knows what is going on here, in this strategy that will hurt independent media immensely. We need the Press Association’s help on this.
Particularly ironic to us is that we are told that we cannot be full members of the MPA, with voting privileges, because we are distributed for free. Meantime, your biggest member in this state is doing everything they can to hurt our publication’s success—including putting a variety of *free* publications out there to compete directly with us. Is is true that only the paid portions of the The Clarion-Ledger are full members, but not the various other free Gannett publications? Do none of those *free* competitors glean any benefit from The Clarion-Ledger’s full membership and voting privilages? We’re confused here and would appreciate clarification.
We will be writing a more detailed letter about this to the MPA, asking for both reconsideration of your rules about full membership, considering that some of your full members are quicking moving toward free distribution models, as are papers around the country. We will also send a detailed letter about the problems of TDN, and its potential for harming Mississippi-owned media.
Meantime, if you’d like to understand more details about this scheme, please see our blog devoted to it:
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/goliath.php
We appreciate any help the MPA can give Mississippi-owned media in this struggle.
Thank you,
Donna Ladd
Editor, Jackson Free Press