The baby ice storm of late last week cost the community a few days of school and a few days of getting around town without slip-sliding away, but it was a breeze compared to the big mess in 2009. My lights blinked off for about 2 seconds Sunday, I believe it was, long after the storm had passed, and the only problem it caused was having to reboot my TV.
Like I said, no big ripple.
It did cause our newspaper carriers severe problems Friday and Sunday, but they did the best they could, even if there was some late delivery and missed papers.
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Along that line, I'd like to encourage all of you who have decent Internet access to get used to reading the newspaper online, at least occasionally, if you haven't already.
Instructions can be found in the lower right-hand corner of Page 7 of most editions of the Courier News.
It's probable that at some point in the future printed newspaper delivery in Blytheville (and many, many other newspapers in the country) will be restricted to just two or three days a week, with the other days available online only.
The reason for this is simple ... lack of advertising support for off-market days other than the continually popular Wednesday and Sunday.
For years and years now, most advertising (other than smaller ads from strictly local businesses) has evolved away from what we call "Run of Press" (ROP) advertising (typical newspaper ads), changing over to preprinted advertising pieces for larger companies such as Hays, Kroger, Wal-Mart, Penny's, Walgreens, Sears, Freds, etc., which are distributed as inserts in the newspaper. These are almost all distributed on Wednesdays or Sundays, leaving only normally smaller local ROP ads for other days, and the fact is, though greatly appreciated, they don't pay the printing and distribution bills, which are significant.
Think about it ... when was the last time you saw an ROP ad from one of those businesses listed above? I'll tell you. About two months ago, Penny's had a series of color ads on Sundays for several weeks in a row ... and other than that ... virtually zip on the ROP for many, many years.
Another factor somewhat particular to Blytheville is the auto market. Not too long ago there was a Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership, a Nissan dealership, a Toyota dealership, a Chevy-Buick-Cadillac dealership, a Dodge-Jeep dealership and an Oldsmobile dealership.
Not terribly long ago there were a couple of new car dealers in Osceola and even in Steele.
Now there is only a Ford-Mercury-Nissan dealership in all of the Blytheville/Osceola/Steele markets and for the local newspapers, that's a lot of lost revenue.
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Consider the Detroit Free Press.
Detroit is roughly 100 times bigger than Blytheville, but it publishes home-delivered editions only on Thursday and Friday, with online editions the other days of the week and a very limited daily pressrun for sales in newsstands.
I know the city of Detroit is bankrupt, but that doesn't directly effect the newspaper business there (at least not that much).
It's just a sign of the times, like Christmas cards.
The Courier News used to receive dozens and dozens of Christmas cards, from all sorts of people and places, but most especially companies who sell us stuff. Nowadays we might get a dozen or so -- plus a few hundred others via email.
So there you go. Times, they are a-changin'.
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I don't think this change is particularly imminent in Blytheville, but down the road it will probably become a necessity, so be thinking about it.
I have, since it will be my decision to make, if and when the time comes ... and I figure one of these days I'm going to have to make it.
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But whatever we do and whenever we do it, we won't be by our lonesomes.
dtennyson@blythevillecourier.com