I pledge allegiance

shoptalk /commentary

I pledge allegiance…

By Mike Blinder

Thank you for your service!” I say that phrase so often now, especially at boarding gates, when I’m in the frequent flyer line and the agent announces that retired or active-duty military can board before the “road warriors.” Now, as I watch war break out in Europe and — make no mistake, this is a war — that phrase means even more to me. Because I believe in my heart that these dedicated young men and women perhaps know more about who we are as a country than the average American. This is because those who choose to serve in harm’s way for all of us pledge their allegiance, not to a flag or a country, but a document — The United States Constitution.

Oath of enlistment (10 U.S.C. § 502):

“I, ________________, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me, God.”

Ask yourself, if you, like I, never served in the military or civil service, what pledge of allegiance have you given in your lifetime? The answer for me is that for 14-years (pre-school through my senior year at high school), I was directed to stand and pledge my allegiance to a flag. However, I was not taught about our Constitutional Democracy until middle school.

I guess my point is this, how we expose the American youth to civics and service may be the way we can begin to find some peace here at home for future generations as we continue this endless battle with each other in our culture wars.

The way I interpret the root cause of our homeland conflict lies within our societal fringes. The very, very far right has adopted a philosophy that would prefer a dictatorship over democracy, proven as we all heard at CPAC 2022 in the pro-Putin chants. And the very, very far left refuse to accept the dualism inherent in our democracy by not allowing their leaders to move to the center on any liberal issues, thus avoiding any consensuses between our two parties.

America’s ability to achieve critical consensus is what the Constitution is all about. For centuries, this document that our brave, selfless warriors have fought for — with some giving that “last full measure” for — safeguards the interests of a majority rule while ensuring minority rights of liberty and equality. In short, as Americans, we must all get along. We must look at each other and respect each other — period!

Would it not be interesting in the years to come if we were to see in the front of our classrooms a framed copy of The Constitution (along with the flag) and perhaps change our pledge slightly to begin:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag and the Constitution, of the United States of America…..” 

Mike Blinder is the Publisher of Editor & Publisher Magazine (E&P) and CEO (Chief Evangelist Officer) of its parent company, The Curated Experiences Group. E&P has served as the authoritative voice of the news publishing industry for over 140 years. Mike hosts the magazine’s popular Vodcast series “E&P Reports.” He is also the author of “Survival Selling,” a popular media-based, business-to-business sales guide. He can be reached at MikeBlinder@EditorandPublisher.com. More at: http://www.MikeBlinder.com

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Major Population Trends Mean a New Era for Obituaries

Arecent Editor & Publisher webinar explored four demographic shifts that will impact the obituary market, and covered recommendations of what newspapers can do to secure the future for their most important local content.

“The trends represent a growth opportunity for the industry, but also an existential threat depending on how the industry reacts,” said Stopher Bartol, Founder and CEO of Legacy.com, who has a birds-eye view as the leading provider of obituary software to the news industry.

The first factor is a surge in death rates. Baby boomers are starting to turn 75 and will fuel a 70% growth in deaths over the next 15 years, he said. So theoretically, the obituary category could see massive growth.

But three other trends are working against newspapers if they do not respond: A growing preference for cremation — already the first choice for American families; a more digitalcentric generation with new memorialization options; and an increasingly transient population, Bartel said.

When more than 50% of families elect cremation, there is often no funeral director, and the crematoriums have no relationship with the newspaper. Will this digitalcentric generation simply switch to other easier, less expensive social and digital options to inform their loved one’s community?

Legacy provided a white paper outlining six action steps for their newspaper partners.

Two newspaper executives with proactive strategies show how they are incorporating the proactive ideas to rethink their approach to obituaries, starting with changing the mindset that obituaries are classified ads.

Deseret Media’s editorial department now “absolutely” sees obituaries as local content, said Sally Steed, Director of Sales. The newspaper now publishes a standalone obituaries section, Memorials, including both editorial and paid obituaries, plus a one-page advertorial feature that compliments the section. The advertorial is repeated as a sponsored post on the home page and on Facebook. The extra effort paid off in the first month.

“We just sold out of sponsored content for the year,” Steed said. “I didn’t need to create a sales sheet. All we had to do it say it, and companies wanted it.” Legacy offers a free library

} Clockwise from top left: Stopher Bartol, Founder and CEO

at Legacy.com, Mike Blinder, Publisher of E&P, Michael Fibison, VP of Inside Sales at Advance Local and Sally Steed, Director of Sales at Deseret Media.

of memorial content written and edited by professional journalists available at sales.legacy.com.

Michael Fibison, VP of Inside Sales at Advance Local, said that his team noticed the obituary market change.

“We started to see people placing their obituaries on social media and places beyond. One of the things we’ve pushed out is a social solution,” Facebook Targeted Obituaries, part of the iPublish Obituaries software suite, he said.

The platform uses automation to repurpose each obituary into a tasteful paid ad distributed on Facebook. Anyone can select detailed targets, starting with the age of a loved one, locations the loved one lived, and drilling down to super-detailed factors, “if Dad did his internship at Memorial Sloan Kettering or was on a sports team” to find related people who knew them, Safran said.

People who try to notify friends and family on Facebook only think they have alerted everyone who needs to know. “The reality is that an organic post is only seen by 10% to 40% of their friends list, if that, and they may not have all of Mom or Dad’s friends,” she said. On the other hand, Advance Local’s Facebook obituaries are guaranteed to reach thousands of these hypertarget audiences.

As Mike Blinder, publisher of E&P, put it, “I could still go to a hundred newspaper websites right now, and I’d have to dig deep to find the obituaries. This content is critical. If we lose it, we may never get it back.”

Visit Sales.legacy.com/ webinar2022/ — copy of the white paper, Obituaries at a Crossroads. 