Portland, Tennessee Blog

I am not sure why we're arguing over placement of stories in the newspapers. Isn't that a choice and I would say there are probably as many people that think the football coach should be on the front page as there are people who think the urgent care story should be on the front? Think about all of the parents who have children playing football in the youth leagues, the middle school and the high school.

Well, since 2008 has come to a close, here are my top stories of 2008:
10. Baby Daniel
9. Tornados kill many.
8. The firing of the Portland High School football coach.
7. GSI Commerce closing down.
6. Shoals Technology is bringing 400 jobs to town.
5. Highway 52 landscape to change
4. Council votes to bring water to Keen Hollow Road area outside city limits.
3. Trinity Napier story
2. Binkley Trial
1. Hospital closing

YowZa

I said I Couldn't care less if the urgent care was coming to town. It might be important to others but not me. I also never said that the new coach was important I simply said good for hiring someone. (Learn how to read)

I was simply stating my opinion on how I felt about the two subjects. If you don't like what i posted then I really don't give a crap.

My family also knows that if anything ever happens to take me to Gallatin's Hospital. They also fell the same way.

Oh and for the record I'm not a big Portland Football fan. I just said I might go see them play if they get a better coach.

Jaws thanks for being able to read unlike others on here.

the clinic from my understanding is going to be next to Family Dollar on North Broadway in the old pain clinic, formerly Dr Ladds office. I have seen work going on around that bldg for a few days now. There should not be too much required for the opening. It has been a medical bldg for years now.

Happy New Years to all.

Where is the Urgent Care Clinic going to be located?

Happy New Year Everyone!!

YowZa,

Oh Boy you are tough!

How juvenile! (roll eyes)

I just want to say congratulations and good luck to Portland's Chris DeGeorge who will play in the Music City Bowl tonight as a Vanderbilt Commodores.

Go Dores!

Jaws The comment in reference was made in a manner that the poster DC could care less
about something important to the area and putting football in priority.
I saw the comment as digging at others who felt a new football coach was not front page material
as the urgent care facility was as prior comments noted earlier in the thread.
WOW and I fell into his/her ploy.
Ignorant comments are best left ignored as they aren't worth the effort.
However, I felt the need to reply to yours..... hagd!

GO Titans!!
I'm thrilled the urgent care facility will be coming to Portland,
it will definately have a positive impact on the city.
Happy New Year everyone!

Oh good grief, talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill.

It never ceases to amaze me how people fixate on a certain issue and just blow it all of wack.

So the man won't have any use for an urgent care facility, so what! What does his opinion have to do with you anyway?!

jaws,
There is nothing wrong with liking football. But saying one doesn't care about an Urgent Care center or say "I'll never use it" is extreme short-sightedness. Hopefully DC will ever need it, but isn't it nice to know it is there?
People, football takes place what, 10-12 weeks a year? what about the other 40-42 weeks!!
Seems a bit lopsided huh?
Kudos to the Leader for putting the new coach on the Sports page where it belongs

YowZa,

Pardon me but.....did I miss something?

I didn't see anything wrong with DC's comments.

So what, the man likes football.

Bone-headed is putting it nicely, DC's comment didn't take the cake it scraped the bottom of the bowl!! Then again it only shows you the depth of priorities in some of portlands finest football fans. The kind that turns others away from supporting this schools sport for fear of being labeled with the same mentality.

I have read some bone-headed comments with football taking the lead, but that one took the cake!!!!

I was glad to see that Portland had hired a new coach. Now as for the Urgent care opening in Portland all I'll say is I could care less. I wouldn't use it anymore than I would have ever used the Portland Hospital. I might on the other hand go to a Football game again.

Seeking Help
I will tell you if you try to go out for a nice meal most places will be packed. You should be ready for a long wait. I stopped try to go out on new years eve a few years ago. If you want to go out for a party or something go to Nashville.

The Sumner AM section of today's Tennessean has local events (Gallatin, Hendersonville, etc.). I think it might help you find something more local.

Happy New Year!!!

Probably out of luck with much in Portland, unless its church related.

For what you are looking for, your probably going to either have to go to Rivergate or Downtown Nashville.

Hello,

I am relatively new to Portland, but I need to ask a question. My wife and I would like to go do something on New Year's Eve.
We will probably go out to eat somewhere, but we're hoping to find some entertainment, some fun, etc.
Are there any New Year's parties in Portland? Does any business provide live musical entertainment? Does anyone hold a New Year's Party at their farm?
Can you give us a hand? We would like to just find out somewhere we can go to have fun and be entertained.

Thanks.

MDL...Pretty smart. You make a lot of sense.

Curious...if you don't believe sports is a big deal in this town, talk to the football coach who lost his job because he didn't win enough.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

Well I think it's great this town has more than one paper. If you like one better than the other, buy it and don't gripe about the other one. If you like both, buy both. I'm just glad there's a choice, if you need one. I, personally, when I buy the paper, get both. Yea, I'm sure there's competetion between the two, isn't that usually how it is when folks are in the same business?

But if everyone was happy, (like that would ever happen), then what would we complain about? Who would we bash? I swear, some folks would complain about being hung with a new rope!

Well, I didn't see the story because I am out of town at present and am keeping up with things on this Blog.

As usual, this piqued my curiosity so I went and bought the Leader. Boy was I shocked. The Leader had the story about an urgent care clinic opening next week in Portland on the front page top story while the Progressive had the football coach. Yeah, I'd say that shows priority in this town between one editor and the other. I'm betting 60% of the readers don't care about who is hired as the football coach, baseball coach, etc. It's not their call and they have no say. But how many care about an urgent care clinic coming to Portland especially since Portland Medical Center is closed.

I wish the Leader story had said something about what the hours of the clinic will be. Guess we'll find out next Monday.

Happy New Year everybody!

I don't know why the new football coach is a front page story....would a new math teacher at the high school be a front page story ?? It just shows the importance placed on sports over academics, in my opinion. That it's a front page story in one paper rather than another is just the opinion of the editor and what he thinks his readers will think is most important and will sell more papers.

I did not see the story, who is the new coach and where did he come from?

I read the story on the front page of the Progressive about the new football coach at Portland High School...Sounds like he has some good experience...It will be his first head coaching job...Good luck to him...
Isn't it interesting how one of the newspapers thought the coaching story was important enough for the front page of the newspaper and the other one put it in the Sports Section...I wonder how those decisions are made?

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S T O A L L ! !

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas shared with good family, good friends, good food and good cheer. (couldn't find a better place to post this)

I tried a call in show back when I was in radio in the Peoria Illinois area, at first I too had trouble getting call in's, then I took a new approach.

I would let 2 callers, each on opposite sides of an issue, get on at the same time and discuss an issue, many varieties of topics, not always political. I would simply act as a moderator.

This worked like a charm. Maybe this type of format for a talk show would be successful, at least at first, to get folks acclamated to calling in, then once you have a regular group of callers, you could tweak the format just a bit.

I even tried set up calls ocassionally, where I would set someone up to call and start up a subject, this usually worked well also.

Small market radio can be very tedious with this type of format, as many times the person calling is known to the general public, so they are shy about voicing concerns or opinions. I usually did not ask for a name, but usually they would volunteer a name.

It really can be very much trial and error, before you find something that works for a specific market.

I will say this, the music on WQKR does nothing to draw in a larger listening audience. The regualr weekday music format is very tired and old, not fresh at all.

Its one thing to draw an audience for any particular show, the trick is trying to keep the audience, getting them to stick around.

You really have to make them believe that if they tune out, they are going to miss something. You do this with alot of teasing whats coming up, and self promotion. The advantage a radio or TV station has, is they can self promote for free.

The music format on WQKR does not keep the audience, it becomes rather boring after a bit. For those of us with radio experience, it is very obvious that the station is automated much of the time. A radio station can automate and still not "sound" like it is running on automation. This is a tricky thing to do, but if you know your clock, you can do it.

I am sure I am getting a little to technical for many, so I will leave it there.

I think more people would call in to the shows if they were done in a format that assured the caller that their comments would be accepted without them feeling they would end up having to defend or debate them on the air. A lot of people have valid comments and reasons for their opinions, but they aren't qualified or ready to back them up, off the cuff, on the air with statistics and facts, etc. or want to get into an on the air debate and end up sounding dumb.
There is a call in show on tv - I think it's a C-span type show that takes calls from people and the moderator simply says...thank you for your call. It's good to get people thinking about other sides of an issue without debating them.

We tried a 2 hour call in show last year topcat. I had a two hour daily show with a Conservative bent, and Daniel Suddeath had a 1 hour weekly show with a Liberal bent. Almost no one called. I know people were listening to my show because they would discuss the topics I talked about on my show when they saw me out and about. I adopted a policy where told them I'd only discuss it on the air. Still, very few called. I guess people just don't want to voice their opinions over the air. I got a job as a teacher, Daniel got a daily newspaper job in Louisville. So both shows ended.

Even now the morning show and the women's show in the after noon, as far as I know, don't get calls. People are just reluctant to go on the air, I guess.

It would be great if WQKR did live call in one to two hours per day. I am sure the discussions would enlighten many.

It would give the citizens another avenue to voice opinions and ideas of the happenings in Portland and surronding areas.

It would offset the morning shows one sided conversation.

having been in radio for 20 years myself, I can say the approval process can take some time.

Hopefully they will have a different format on the FM side, the music on the station now is horrible. I do like the local programs, but the music format is old and tired.

If I remember right, its supposed to be on 95.9 FM. But the story said the radio station was waiting for final approval from the FCC. I guess we can just program 95.9 into the car radio and keep checking it every day. I know I can't get the AM signal in my home and I wish I could listen from home during the day.

Info according to the Portland website:

WQKR
Suite 201
100 Main Street
Portland, TN 37148
(615) 325-3250 (Voice)
(615) 325-0803 (Fax)
AM 1270.
www.wqkr.com

Perhaps the leader should go online, like most other newspapers.

Lafayette has 2 newpapers, both of which are on line.

I would also be interested in knowing where WQKR is at on the FM dial. Anyone?

The blog is always slow during the holidays, as it is in the middle of the summer, this is not abnormal. Will pick up again in a few weeks when all the Holiday hussle and bussle is done. As for the link, I am not for it as I noted before, The Leader does not have a web site, but it could be linked by Brian as I noted previously, or don't link either. If the post is to provide topics for conversation neither should be linked, I look at it this way, in some ways it is hurting the progressive as why pay .50 when you can read online for free. When it becomes pay or with more complaints we'll look at it further.
Happy Holiday's All

Chuckster -- really -- what difference does it make if both papers put their links wherever? From what I have seen, there aren't enough people blogging here to make or break any media form and even if there were, who cares? A few ads here and there at least break up the monotany; just in case no one has noticed, the blog here is getting pretty dry...the more the merrier!

I'd like to know why the progressive's is linked to their website, when the leader has none? If the leader doesn't have a site then the progressive shouldn't have it's link on there. Brian, weren't you asked by Judy to not do that?

I read the article in The Progressive about the Portland man who opened a restaurant (Jetter's) in Franklin. He said in the article that he tried to open the restaurant in Portland, but that he was told by the landlord of the property he wanted that it would be a waste of time because the city would not allow him to get all the codes worked out.
IF that's true, I am furious that a Portland citizen would do that.
People complain about not having nothing in Portland, why would the local citizens sabotage the city? How does that person know the city wouldn't let that man open a restaurant in town?
I don't understand this town sometimes?

what FM dial number is the radio staion here in town ? the AM signal here is bad(stuck between 2 high power lines).

I like what Brian is doing by putting the papers on the Web, I don't get to see them much anymore. Just from style, I would say the Leader has really improved its layout. Still, I would be more inclined to buy the Progressive due to the lead story, but I would also have played up the recycling program a lot more because I know that has been a big deal for Portland residents over the past year, probably bigger than the dead brothers and the electric rates. That's a good story in the Leader about WQKR, but it's scary seeing such a big picture of Lee Dorman. Just joking Lee, you know you drive the ladies crazy and congrats on going to FM. Merry Christmas youngins!

I actually sent a link to the mayor and a few councilman for www.recyclebank.com as they had a great segment on the early show a few weeks ago and thought, wow that would be great to have here. It is curb side and you get credits for the amount of recycling weight every week, and you can use these credits at local stores, The Mayor wrote back telling me of the current program they are starting and councilman Callis wrote back that he contacted recycle bank for more information on their program. Maybe if this works good they will work on getting something that is curbside. Lets everyone do our good deeds and fill them bins!!

I just hope everyone is considerate and does not leave trash lying around or do like they do to Portland Cares. I think it would be a good idea if the sanitation dept could periodically police these sites to make sure they do not get junked up. Maybe one day we will get to curbside service in this town. Good Luck to this program

Finally!!! Portland is starting back the recycling program!!

I've been meaning to post something about this for a couple of weeks but keep forgetting. Has everyone noticed the cleanup at Today's Tool and Machine on south 109? Did they finally lose the battle with the city, or was there some other impetus for the cleanup? Ah well, regardless of the reason, it is a vast improvement in the view on the way into or out of Portland, hopefully only the first improvement of many that are sorely needed to improve our landscape.

Is everyone aware that the hospital has moved its closing date to Dec 30 at 3p and not mid January?

Wow, great experience. After years of "intending" to go to the live nativity at Union Chapel out on Hwy. 52, we finally made it there. What a cool program it is! They have obviously worked hard on it. They are open tonight until about 9:30 and tomorrow night from 6-9:30 or so. There's no charge but do dress warm. You get to ride through the nativity story on a wagon (they have steps to get up to the wagon--so you can go even if you have bad knees!) and don't skip the youth part of the program in the church afterwards. It was a real blessing and we'll certainly be encouraging everyone we know to go.

Does anyone know about a house fire last night? They supposely lost everything and have a 2 year old daughter.

Wow-- it was such an Honor to be named the Holi_Fest Parade "Grand Marshal". I would like this to be an inspiration to others. I am just the little "poor girl" that was always quiet until I was in my mid 20's. No one really knew that I was around & look at me --a Grand Marshal ! This can happen to anyone. I am just a very open person that loves to share my stories & listen to others & try to help people.Especially since my Breast Cancer last year. I have a new lease on life & proudly wear my pink ribbon pin. Pass this on!! It is great to just make someone Smile --if only for a moment! And I was so happy to have my family ride with me & the other family members behind me in the Parade. There is nothing like Family!! This Holiday Season -- tell your family like I told mine "It's going to be a Real Christmas this Year". It seems like everyone is tight on money so just let everyone know that you care about them. Have everyone together for a nice meal & laugh a lot & sing! It cost hardly nothing & the laughter is a "Stress Buster"! We cannot change much in this world but we can change how we make others feel & be a positive person! It does make you & others feel better.
So "Merry Christmas" to everyone & celebrate the true meaning of Christmas this year -- "Jesus" & "Love" !!!! God has always Blessed me- even when I didn't realize it. Everyday I get to wake up & I can see, & hear, & feel, & breath-- What a wonderful Gift each & every day! Me & my husband aren't getting gifts for each other this year. We are just content & happy to be with Family & be Healthy. May the Grace of God continue to bless each of you daily!

I heard over the weekend that each school is going to adopt a third color to go with the purple and white. (One might use black, one might use gold)

I like the idea of keeping the colors the same for both middle schools as the high school. My middle school son who was reading this with me said, "I would have to buy a whole other wardrobe."

I read in the Progressive that Shoals will be hiring 400. They won't even be in the building until late Dec. or early Jan.

Hiring should probably begin in January.

This is on the Portland Website.

New Factory Moving to Portland

There is a new company coming to Portland: Shoals Technologies. They manufacture solar panels. If you are interested in applying for a job, you may drop off your resume with Janice Ferrett at Portland City Hall front desk. Janice will get the resumes to the company when they request them. This is currently all of the information we have.

Does anyone know how the Shoals plant is hiring? Thru the door or temp service??

concerning math do they still teach kids the division trick 113,001 is evenly divided by 3 ? we were shown by adding the digits together if it was evenly divided by 3 you were good to go. not that it'll ever be used in life but lil tricks like that seem to spike their curiosity.

Kids, you know why education scores look so bad? Because state and federal officials have decided the only thing that matters is passing a standardized test at the end of the year to conform to no child left behind and the like. It's not about actually learning, it's about memorizing. You can't really fault the teachers. If they don't teach that way then their kids make lower scores and on these tests which prove nothing and then the teacher and school looks bad. It's a vicious cycle. I say get rid of all standardized testing and start teaching kids what they need to know and do it hands on. No Child left behind does just that, no child gets ahead either. In the real world, if you can't hack it nobody is going to sit and wait on you hand and foot. Well, unless you are incredibly attractive or have a lot of leverage. I think there are thousands of highly talented teachers who are being held back by federal and state officials.

Cd...that's for sure. Wouldn't you love to see such a lively discussion over reading and math scores ??? It'll never happen...all the majority of parents in public schools care about is "the game"......I think it's pitiful that schools are not focused on education.

I think you people should worry about the education they will be getting and stop worring about and stupid mascot.

With two different middle schools, you can't have two schools and one football team. Or one basketball team or whatever. Have the named the new middle school yet??

I can totally see this town either having two sports departments for two middle schools with the same identities. HOWEVER I think it would be much smarter to have one overall middle school sports department. Ideally in the future I would hope that both middle schools would be able to have separate identities from the high school along with different colors. I think it would be good for the town to have something other than only a panther as a town's educational mascot. If nothing else I think it would really be fun to have a small town sports rivalry between middle schools.

Who likes the names of the new schools? Not Me!!

Tim, but not Tim Coker- Wow that does sound odd, certainly we could do a little better than that for the kids, yes each school should have their own identity even a different name, geesh, can't we be a little more creative than that! Maybe both schools won't have their own sports dept but combined from both schools, now that I have heard of before where there is more than one middle school in the same city. Will be interesting to find out.

I just don't see the difference...if it's going to be viewed as an ad on the day before it prints, why not be viewed as an ad when it's being discussed the day it prints, or the day after? Maybe spoiler will see your request and enlighten us with her or her intentions.

And not Tim Coker, as for the new middle school, it seems that they would come up with something totally new. How confusing it's going to be if they all have the same colors / mascots. I've not heard anything about this so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Ok, lets go a little different direction. I've heard that the new middle school,(Portland West Middle I believe is the name) is gonna have the same colors and the same mascot as the other middle school. I'm not so sure I'm in favor of that. I understand that both schools students will attend the same HS, but c'mon, shouldn't they each have their own identities? The East Portland Purple Panthers vs the West Portland Purple Panthers in middle school football and basketball? Gimme a break! Somebody PLEASE tell me I heard wrong!

Lo, my point was Spoiler released the front page news the night before either paper actually published. For this to be listed on the blog, in my humble opinion, constitutes advertising. Spoiler did not publish this with the intention of starting a dialogue. Perhaps Spoiler would like to clarify his or her intention?

Why would you criticize the Leader for having Franklin advertisers? It only makes sense for those businesses to advertise in Portland. They get our shoppers anyway, they know that, and with the Favorite and the Leader being sister papers, I'm sure they get a discounted ad cost for running in both papers. You can bet that if the Progressive had a sister paper in Franklin, they'd have more Franklin ads AND stories. That's just how it works.

As for the original post with the Progressive headlines, I was not offended at all and didn't take it as being an advertisement. Not when so many of the conversations on this board are related to what we read in the news. How many times have readers here gone out to buy a paper, Progressive OR Leader, because of something they've seen being discussed on this blog? Plenty of times, I'm sure. So, does that mean no discussion of any newspaper or news story can be had because it can be considered an advertisement for that publication?

Well, good job Chuckster! I see that you know your movies.(and good ones at that)
Judy, I am not the spoiler. I would talk about other "community" media outlets, but I very rarely partake in them. I would listen to WQKR but I am not near a radio enough. Look I think that it is a great idea to talk about the things that are going on in town. I am all for it.

So in doing so....I am really glad to see the Solar place coming to town. As place around town are laying off it is nice to see us get a new business. Especially one that is so cutting edge.

Also, I saw in the paper about "Special Friends". I had no idea that sort of thing was in Portland and think it is really great.

Well just so people know, Tyler Durden was the name of Edward Norton's alter ego in the movie Fight Club. In the movie Tyler was someone who wasn't real and orchestrated the destruction of a city. Tyler, you know nothing about me so don't claim to.

Why on earth would I think that the progressive was the greatest thing ever Tyler? What reasoning do you have to think that? Only thing this tells me is that you think you know me and I don't know ANYONE named Tyler Durden.

To Judy, you bring up a great point. Why neither newspaper ever mentions the blog, or even has an editorial talking about it for even a small paragraph.

Tyler - Well, well, well have we uncovered the Spoiler? And just what is your connection to the Progressive? Just curious. As for the Shoppers, my reference to them was papers that are available within our communities, I get many of them just for reading the adds, and is all a matter of personal preference as to what they are referred to. As for the Gallatin News Examiner "FYI" I got a FREE Sumner County Shopper Powered by The "GALLATIN NEWS EXAMINER" in the mail today, the front page was full of news about Portland and Shoals Technologies, sure it was dated 11/26, but it was free..... can't beat that! Especially since Portland got all the coverage!!

I've said it before, discussions about this exact topic have turned into nothing but a bashing session, we're on here discussing the local papers, linking to their websites and giving them free advertising just in doing so, yet not a darn one of them have ever included the portland blog, or the portland community website, out of good gesture as a community sponsored bit of information in their papers. And I thought I'de be the nice guy and be fair....... I put the post where it belonged and held my breath..... should of known better. Somebody slap me next time will ya!

why not advertise,

You are missing my point here. I open up the Progressive every week and notice lots of Portland businesses in it. I open up the Leader and it is mostly Franklin. It seems to me, that at least the people over at the Progressive are trying to stay local. That is all. I don't blame them for taking the Franklin ads. Newspapers are drying up all over the country. So, more power to them for even having some sort of income.

Judy,

The Bargain Browser and the Country Trader are not newspapers. The are what's considered shoppers. If they are delivered by mail they don't even go in to the same postal class...FYI

Also, The News Examiner is NOT a Portland community paper. They almost never have anything about us in the paper. They are supposed to cover happening in Sumner County and they fail at it. They really cover anywhere but Gallatin.

Brian.... If you're going to link to other sites from within the article there should be a link included for ALL media in the area. myself, personally don't agree with using these links on the blog, I think that is where you turn an innocent post about happenings in our town into advertising! BUT... if you do it for one, then ALL deserve the same or none at all!
wqrk = http://www.wqkr.com/ (nice site by the way)
News Examiner = http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=MICRO0601
For the Leader maybe use the http://www.portlandtn.com/newspapers.htm

The intention here (so I thought) was to give a springboard for discussions here, perhaps limiting it to just 4 or 5 of the leading stories from the different medias would be adequate. I don't know where all this will go, I like the idea but have some reservations.

Tyler, The leader is a community newspaper, just like the progressive, news examiner, bargain browser, country trader etc. Why shouldn't Franklin pay to advertise in our paper, we spend enough of our money up there that's the least they can do. Besides that Franklin does have more businesses, you can only get just so much juice out of the fruit in portland. You can always spend your money each week and get the tennessean, try to find any news in that paper among the advertisements.

Welcome to the Blog & Happy Posting

Tyler, would you turn those ads away then, if you were in charge of the Leader? Wouldn't that be professional suicide? No smart business man turns away business unless he's ethically challenged--show me that man and I'll show you his bank account. It would be zero.

why not advertise,

I do not blame the businesses for advertising in the Leader. My point is this, almost all of the ads are for Franklin businesses.I don't think that is very supportive of Portland!I mean, they are supposed to be a community newspaper! Also, I think that they are affiliated with the Franklin Favorite. I am sure that those ads where sold in Franklin and they told the businesses that if they advertised in the Favorite that they would put an ad in the Leader for half price or something. I am just tired of opening a Portland paper and only seeing the things that are going on in Franklin. I don't live there so I really don't care what goes on there, or what type of businesses are there!

Since we've all agreed too many Portlanders shop in Franklin, why wouldn't Franklin business owners advertise in the Portland paper? Sounds like smart business to me. The point of advertising is to connect with your customers. Guess it works!

Wow, How we can take a harmless posting and turn into a blood-sport of sorts! First of all let me make a few comments to "Chuckster".....I really don't think that the Portland Progressive would enjoy your uninformed quote about the financial status of that newspaper. Aren't you a former employee?? Isn't that kind of unethical?? At any rate, you do not work for that paper anymore...I am sure that you thought it was the greatest thing ever then.

I think that the Progressive is a great quality newspaper. They have it pretty much all covered. Now the Leader on the other hand sure does have a lot of news that isn't exactly Portland. I am actually rather tired of seeing all the Franklin ads in that paper. I mean, really??? Why would you turn your back on your local businesses?? Just "Curious"?

And to anyone that thinks that the posting about the headlines was some sort of plug for that paper is very mistaken. It seems hard to think that the paper would want people to know exactly what was going to be in the paper.

Just my nickels worth!

While Daniel's jab was at the fact that the progressive used to always have stories in their paper before it ever appeared in the Leader, that was then. Because now neither paper is obviously better than the other really. Both of them are awful and have been for some time. I really don't see how this town can support two papers with the economy the way it is. Neither paper was making much money a few years ago when things weren't looking so bad. Even if you didn't know much about their money issues just look at a newspaper's ad sales to see how well they are doing. The more ads the better business is. The fewer ads and the more "specials" they come out with for advertisers the worse they are doing. Depending on their printing, salaries, and other expenses a newspaper should be filled with over 50% ads to be doing just so-so.

I will say this much that I didn't feel it was an advertisment for the progressive, actually a majority of this monthly thread (front Page Around town) feeds off what comes out in the papers, so then you're saying that we have all along been advertising for all the papers. NOT! I welcome any of the press in this town to come to this blog, and give a small briefing, my only regret is that none of them ever give this blog a plug in their papers but we are continually mentioning these papers on the blog which I believe generates interest in their publications as well. Unfortunately the competition of these papers and their loyal readers and employees brings out the uglies in some people on the blog and it becomes an ugly attack which will not be tolerated. Everyone is welcome here. Keep it clean and within blog rules or poof.... your comments will be deleted.

Happy Posting - Judy

Shows you ignorant you are Daniel.
Santa comes to Portland every year.
Story on middle school was in last week's Portland Leader.
Who cares that a man was tasered twice. He probablly deserved it.
McDonald adn Black get awards every week.
Names of new schools & libraries was in last week's leader. In fact, this week's Leader names new principals for htose schools.

Brian: sorry your wife and baby are sick. Why don't you contact all the other papers and the radio station and ask them to submit their headlines for weekly discussion. I think its a great idea.

But then the readers would get confused since the Leader's headlines would just be the same ones from the Progressive from the week before...hehe

I took no offense at Spoiler's post...thought it was rather interesting....like Brian said, it could be a good springboard for future discussions. I did not feel like it was an advertisement or in any way trying to coerce me into buying the Progressive...seems a bit of an over-reaction to me from "is this a joke."

I actually think it would be a good idea for someone to post a photo of The Progressive and The Leader front pages and, in the jump, post the major headlines from both papers. It would be a good springboard toward discussion. Slate.com used to have a feature called "In other papers" where they shared the major stories of Newsweek, Time, The New Yorker and other publications and it was one of my favorite features. Such a feature should probably be coordinated with Judy's Front Page posts.

I think "Is this a joke's" jealousy is a little misplaced in his/her comment. They asked me at The Progressive this morning if I had posted it. It wasn't me. I was dealing with wife/sick baby traveling from Beijing to Nashville last night.

Administrator, I am offended by this post because it represents a cheap attempt to get readers to buy the progressive. In other words, it's advertising on a site that is meant to be dialogue and not filled with ads. Are you willing to let the News Examiner, the Portland Leader, the Gallatin Newspaper, WQKR and the Franklin paper post similar messages every week? Please remove Spoiler's post based on the intention in which it was posted.

Comment left elsewhere was Off Topic re-posted here
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Posting out of place sorry, but since I'm cool and have the hookup in town I thought I'd post the headlines that will come out in the Portland Progressive tomorrow before it is printed.

Santa Claus is coming to ... Portland!

Proposal to postpone Portland Middle School renovations rejected

Lack of use spelled doom for Portland Medical Center

Man tasered twice while resisting arrest

McDonald recognized by veterinarian association

School board gives names to new schools, libraries in Portland

McFadden honoring son with fundraising project

City council approves resolution supporting effort to pursue dedicated funding for public transportation

Posted by: Spoiler at December 2, 2008 09:39 PM