“Do you see a swamp or castle?”
The other day, I was hanging out with my friend, Rob Curley, executive editor of The Spokesman-Review. I'm drinking black coffee, and Rob is wrestling with a Texas-shaped waffle.
Rob is crazy smart, crazy funny, and simply a bit crazy — just like I like my friends. He is currently leading a historic effort to convert his newspaper into community ownership — a radical concept in our world.
“Did you ever hear about how Walt Disney went around pitching investors to help him build Disney World?”
Rob told me that at the time, in the early 1950s, Disney carried a vision of building a massive theme park to celebrate and expand his franchise of world-famous characters. Rides, exhibitions and, of course, selling merchandise.
“So he bought a swath of swampland in central Florida. Yeah, everyone's dream purchase,” Rob said before placing a piece of Texas Panhandle in his mouth.
Rob is a great storyteller, even over waffles.
According to Rob, the challenge was Walt needed cash to make his dream come true. And much like he did when building Disneyland, he went around getting investors to buy into this dream of raising a castle out of the depths of a swampland.
With a few props and a generous element of theater of the mind, he asked potential investors if they saw a swamp or a castle. Brilliantly crafted appeal: emotive, aspirational and designed to excite those who live to change the world.
And the money showed up.
What can we in the newspaper business learn from this? Plenty.
Too often, we newspaper people walk around licking wounds and trying to figure out how not to be the last one out of the party. You know who I'm talking about — and I'm pretty sure that if you're reading this, you're likely an exception. But doing so takes work.
The newspaper world is not a swamp — but we do need to convince many we are in the business of building castles.
Walt Disney liked to dream. Why can't we? What says we cannot evolve and adapt to a changing world? Why can't we dream our way forward? We must.
Local newspapers are beloved characters, much like Walt Disney's animated family. Everyone has a story, an experience to share. Our relationships are emotive and warm. What we must do, however, is dream how to build new castles — or models to keep today's and tomorrow's audiences engaged, creating a similar affiliation of affection.
So, where do we start? We first get out of our way. We challenge ourselves to overlook a swampy outlook and instead begin focusing on what can be. We dispassionately acknowledge the reality of today and the near future tomorrow. Instead, we use our passion for building new castles for our communities.
We must ask uncomfortable questions of ourselves and those we wish to engage. We must be willing to let go of actions and behaviors not aligned with successful castle-building. And we must always be selling our dream to deliver on our promise to our communities and nation.
We cannot define it by format, frequency or competitors. Doing so only invites Eeyores to the table — and a predictable result.
Interestingly, no two castles will be alike. Different communities require different solutions. However, the goal remains the same — to create a meaningful connection with vetted and trusted information within our communities. And numbers count. We need an audience to address — either through newsprint, digital or a variety of new or emerging technologies that consumers are flocking to.
But castles, our newspaper operations must be.
Walt Disney knew his dreams could only happen if he convinced others to see what was possible. Our industry is in the midst of a historic window of opportunity — a massive technological and behavioral shift. And now is the time for us to begin selling our vision for castles. Each of us must ensure that the world understands our support for us, in terms of advertising, subscriptions and sponsorships, plays a critical role in our castle-building — or in creating trusted local news outlets for our communities. We may see a castle, but we need their help.
So I ask you, when you look at your newspaper, do you see a piece of newsprint or a castle?
Leonard Woolsey is president of Southern Newspapers, Inc., and president and publisher of The Daily News in Galveston, Texas. He also serves as president of America's Newspapers.
