Texas Fold'em--updated

UPDATE:  I'm getting some comments from the Keven Willey fans.  Have I made too much of a leap here?  I don't think so. 

Morning News readers expressed widespread outrage at the decision to name the Illegal Immigrant "Texan of the Year."  Willey acknowledged that subscribers were calling to cancel their subscriptions, but she claimed that the cancellations weren't "material."  Now we learn that DMN circulation dropped nearly 11% in the last 6 months.  That's the largest drop in the nation and about 2.5 times the fall off  that the Republic experienced over the same period. 

My main point is stated in the third sentence of the post and I don't think it can be effectively rebutted.  "Obviously there are many factors in play here, but I think you can safely lay a significant portion of the blame at the feet of former Republic wunderkind Keven Ann Willey."

Here's the original post. 

The Audit Bureau on Circulations report came out today and it confirms something that I predicted months ago.  Circulation at the Dallas Morning News plummeted a stunning 10.6%.  Obviously there are many factors in play here, but I think you can safely lay a significant portion of the blame at the feet of former Republic wunderkind Keven Ann Willey. 

Let me explain.  A friend of mine moved to Texas and her co-workers asked her how she liked Texas.  She responded that it is a great place and that she's very happy to be a Texan.  She was met with dead silence.  After an awkward moment, someone said..."you're not a Texan."

Texans are very proud of their state and are very quick to point out that you don't become a Texan by simply moving to Texas.  Your Grandchildren may end up being Texans, but you aren't.

Enter Keven Ann Willey who left the Republic to be the editorial page editor and a vice president at the Dallas Morning News.  Texas readers would probably have forgiven her for not being from Texas--after all, no one is perfect.  Then she committed an unforgivable faux pas.

The Editorial Board of the Dallas Morning News declared that the Texan of the year was...the Illegal Immigrant.  Seriously, you can read about it here.  It never seemed to enter her mind that Texans--who question the credentials of people who have lived in Texas for nearly their entire lives--would be offended when she calls people who just swam across the border Texans.  Much less that she would name them "Texan of the Year".

Keven downplayed the fact that subscribers were canceling in droves. 

The newspaper would not say how many readers actually canceled their subscriptions as a result of the editorial.

"Against our customer base, it's just not a material number," said Keven Ann Willey, vice president and editorial page editor.

Well, my guess is that 10.6% is getting pretty close to "material."

Comments

[Dangit]

This article is pretty snarky. Gotta take the edge off buddy.

[Jean McGrath]

I think the assumption has to be that Dangit did not live here when Kevin Wiley was with the Rag.

[SonoranSam]

As Greg so gleefully points out, newspaper circulation is plummeting across the industry.

Blaming the problems on Dallas is kinda myopic, and beyond snarky.

PS - I never thought Keven was the greatest columnist, but I miss her leadership of the Republic's editorial page.

[NICK]

Falling revenue at the papers means fewer
reporters to write snarky material.

[Travis]

If naming the illegal immigrant "Texan of the Year" doesn't merit a snarky remark, I don't know what does.

Funny no one who is so terribly offended by snarky doesn't mention Keven's snarky remark about the immaterial nature of her own subscribers - I mean former subscribers.

WARNING: You'll probably have to remove your Snarky Filter before you can read this entire post.

[Ann]

Snark away Greg!

[Faith]

"Texans are very proud of their state and are very quick to point out that you don't become a Texan by simply moving to Texas. Your Grandchildren may end up being Texans, but you aren't."

Exactly right, Greg.

Thank you for explaining why George W. Bush is not a Texan.

[ron]

Yadda Yadda Yadda....

[Joe G.]

Journalists seems to have this idea that any skill is transferable because they are journalists.

Thus, they believe someone can hop from sports to news or from business to religion -- because they're journalists, man! There must be some kind of instant wisdom and multi-faceted talents that are imparted when they walk into the building.

C'mon -- you don't need actual expertise in something. Just start talking about it. If you botch the facts or get greasy in your leanings, the paper will start a blog so you can mock your critics there.

And if you get tired of writing about something, just decide to run the whole place instead. Nothing different about those skills.

It's the same kind of hubris that leads news CEO's to give speeches.

[BobH]

Sam: Yopu are, obviously, right that almost all papers have declining circs (of the top 20, only USA Today and WSJ had very slight increases in the most recent report).

However, of the top 20, Dallas Morning News had the largest decrease by a fair margin. Is it all Willey's fault? Of course not. Did "Texan of the Year" contribute? Unproveable, but certainly a possibility.

[Muckraker]

Boy, Keven must have really pissed you off at some point. Why don't you tell us the whole story?

[jdleslie1]

It's a long leap from that selection being panned and causing people to cancel subscriptions to it being largely responsible for the decline. Greg has tried to ride that horse before, and it seems a great stretch. You might not like Wiley, but I highly doubt that selection caused much of that decline. There's not a shred of evidence to support that position. I suppose, as BobH points out, it's possible, but it is unproveable and it doesn't pass the smell test.

I also find it interesting that we find it so offensive. Time magazine often has made man of the year choices on the basis not of popularity but effect on the scene. Illegal immigrants certainly aren't popular, but look at the scope of our national debate. It's hard to argue that illegal immigrants haven't had a large impact on the American (and presumably Texan) scene, whether you consider that impact positive or, as most people do, negative.

[The Klute]

jdleslie1,

"Time magazine often has made man of the year choices on the basis not of popularity but effect on the scene."

Not anymore. Not since their craven, gutless selection of Giuliani over OBL in 2001.

[todd]

jdleslie1 makes some well-reasoned points. Unfortunately, the anti-illegal immigrant fanatics aren't really motivated by reason and wish to blame just about every social ill on illegal (and even non-illegal) immigration. Suggesting the issue may be a little more complicated than that simply can't be tolerated.

[DSW]

Sure looks like a pattern to me. Everywhere Keven Willey works and shows here influence, readers are angered and subscriptions decline. In this case, it appears that the decline was at a rate higher than other newspapers. Statistically inaccurate? I think not.