This week on The Disclaimer, WMSE's weekly cabal with Ryan Schleicher, Matt Wild and I, we turn our attention to an interesting editorial Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editor George Stanley wrote about the paper. He spelled out the latest round of demoralizing trims and cuts to the paper, then made a surprisingly blunt plea: “It may be bad timing to ask at a time when we are making trims to the printed paper, but the truth is we need support from subscribers more than ever before to continue doing the in-depth reporting in Wisconsin that you can trust, that matters most and that you can’t get anywhere else. If you are a loyal reader, please consider buying a gift subscription for a friend or family member who does not subscribe now.”
That refreshing honesty reminded us of a call for support made by another Milwaukee institution, the Riverwest Public House, which earlier this year made a call for members to visit more in the face of slumping sales. It once would have been almost unheard of for a business to make this kind of direct, humbling plea, but in the age of Kickstarter, is it becoming the new norm?
We also talk about Twin Peaks and Dilbert.
As always, feel free to weigh in on our very underused Facebook page. You can stream the episode below and subscribe to The Disclaimer on iTunes.
