Latest / Aired Out / Gary Hass & Deb Phillips of The World talk about their partnership with The Times Argus
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I was just saying out in the parking lot here
- 0:04Speaker 1: of the world that Vermont and Vermontters are certainly no
- 0:09Speaker 1: stranger to a little bit of spring snow. Watch out
- 0:14Speaker 1: in the passing lane this morning. If you're going to
- 0:17Speaker 1: be out traveling in the the central Vermont region, especially
- 0:22Speaker 1: the interstate, it is slick in areas Sheffield is, between
- 0:28Speaker 1: Barton and in Linden pretty much, especially in the Sheffield Heights,
- 0:33Speaker 1: reporting some real slick conditions. You get into the hills
- 0:36Speaker 1: and you're going to get at least two inches. They're
- 0:40Speaker 1: saying two to four today, and it will be continuing
- 0:43Speaker 1: to come down, especially up in the Northeast Kingdom. But
- 0:46Speaker 1: here in Berry Wet Roads at least where we are
- 0:52Speaker 1: out and about this morning aired out and about Wet
- 0:55Speaker 1: Roads here on Route three to oh two. But yeah,
- 0:58Speaker 1: we stopped by this morning and we thought we would
- 1:02Speaker 1: just share some time with Gary and Deb who were,
- 1:06Speaker 1: as you know, and I've said this on the air
- 1:08Speaker 1: many times before, two of the busiest people that I
- 1:11Speaker 1: have ever known in my life. And if you walk
- 1:15Speaker 1: through the doors here at the World and you just
- 1:19Speaker 1: look around, you know that this is an office that
- 1:22Speaker 1: is very, very busy. And active. There's a lot happening.
- 1:26Speaker 1: There's a lot going on. There's a lot in the
- 1:28Speaker 1: news today, and of course we're going to be sharing
- 1:30Speaker 1: with you a lot of what's happening. But good morning
- 1:34Speaker 1: to both of you, and I just wanted to ask you.
- 1:37Speaker 1: You know, obviously we're gonna we're going to talk about
- 1:39Speaker 1: what's in the paper, what's coming up tomorrow, but what's
- 1:42Speaker 1: going on with the world and some changes that we're
- 1:47Speaker 1: hearing rumors about that are coming down the pipe.
- 1:50Speaker 2: Well, good morning, j D. Thank you. Yes, there have
- 1:54Speaker 2: been sigtis after.
- 1:57Speaker 3: Debbi s right, almost fifty one years that we operated
- 2:01Speaker 3: in this paper.
- 2:02Speaker 1: Fifty one years, nineteen seventy four for seventy for US.
- 2:07Speaker 4: Yeah, seventy four for US. Okay, starting in seventy two?
- 2:11Speaker 1: Is the world? What's what are the changes?
- 2:14Speaker 2: You tell me? Do you tell everyone?
- 2:16Speaker 4: So along mid March we started partnering with the Times
- 2:21Speaker 4: artists and lots of advantages to that. We have a
- 2:28Speaker 4: new printer with the paper's much larger than it was.
- 2:32Speaker 4: We have a seventeen inch web instead of a fifteen
- 2:35Speaker 4: inch web. Makes a big difference. Also, we are distributed
- 2:41Speaker 4: in the mail on Thursdays, and we've replaced what they
- 2:46Speaker 4: had for the reader. The world itself will not change.
- 2:50Speaker 4: It'll still be all the content that you guys have
- 2:53Speaker 4: grown to love and appreciate, but it will be mailed
- 2:57Speaker 4: on Thursdays to zero five so to households. We start
- 3:03Speaker 4: with our news stands on Wednesdays, distributing all through Washington County,
- 3:09Speaker 4: and then hopefully by the end of this month, we'll
- 3:14Speaker 4: be distributed to in the mail to households to five
- 3:17Speaker 4: six four one, So it will be in how in
- 3:20Speaker 4: the house for Moupillier, Berlin and Barry.
- 3:25Speaker 1: Berlin, Montpelier and Barry, Okay, okay.
- 3:29Speaker 3: Plus all the news stands and all the other areas.
- 3:33Speaker 3: So it's a nice big circulation increase for us. And
- 3:39Speaker 3: and I think, yeah, we're going to reach more people
- 3:42Speaker 3: than what we had been doing.
- 3:44Speaker 1: So this partnership with the Times argus a good thing.
- 3:47Speaker 1: So how did this all unfold? Did they they came
- 3:51Speaker 1: to you and said, hey, uh, let's join forces?
- 3:54Speaker 4: Oh yes, yeah, Well actually they've been talking to us
- 3:58Speaker 4: about it for about three years now. Okay, So they're
- 4:02Speaker 4: general managers and Coats a long time friend of mine,
- 4:07Speaker 4: and he manages Times Argusts, The Rutland Harald and several
- 4:11Speaker 4: of their other publications, and so we just felt that
- 4:16Speaker 4: it was the timing was good right now for us.
- 4:18Speaker 1: Okay, so you know, I guess my question is what
- 4:24Speaker 1: will they What other changes will there be? I mean,
- 4:27Speaker 1: I think you've pretty much maintained that the world is
- 4:31Speaker 1: is going to It might look a little different, but
- 4:33Speaker 1: it's essentially not going to change.
- 4:36Speaker 4: Yes, yes, definitely. So our partnership will involve will be
- 4:41Speaker 4: cross selling into each each other's papers, which is a
- 4:45Speaker 4: benefit for both. Definitely a benefit for both. And you know,
- 4:50Speaker 4: there's some changes where like the obituaries are just going
- 4:56Speaker 4: to be paid obituaries. We used to run unpaid ones
- 5:00Speaker 4: that were just like a paragraph, but now they're just
- 5:04Speaker 4: going to be paid. Oh bitch. Grades are run in
- 5:06Speaker 4: the paper okay, But pretty much the rest of the content,
- 5:11Speaker 4: we're still going to have the nonprofit covers available. We're
- 5:16Speaker 4: going to have the front. You know, the front of
- 5:17Speaker 4: the paper is going to look the same. Good that
- 5:20Speaker 4: that won't change.
- 5:22Speaker 3: Large calendar section, Yes, people love them.
- 5:26Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, I love the calendar section, read it every
- 5:31Speaker 1: every week. What about the the located what about this
- 5:34Speaker 1: building what about where we are? What about this famous
- 5:36Speaker 1: world sign that's that's out in the front that everyone
- 5:39Speaker 1: has come to love over the decades.
- 5:41Speaker 4: So we actually will be moving down to the Times
- 5:45Speaker 4: Argus office, which is located in Bury behind Dominance. Okay,
- 5:51Speaker 4: and we will probably be selling this building.
- 5:54Speaker 1: Okay, what will happen to that famous black and white sign.
- 5:58Speaker 3: I'm determined right now now we're going to try keeping
- 6:01Speaker 3: as long as we can.
- 6:02Speaker 1: Well, it's it's a it's a landmark. I mean, it's
- 6:05Speaker 1: it's such a it's such a staple. I mean, everyone
- 6:08Speaker 1: has loved over the decades to see their their birthdays
- 6:11Speaker 1: announced on that and you got I think Lost Nation
- 6:15Speaker 1: Theater promoted out there this morning. Good stuff. But I
- 6:19Speaker 1: mean that's like, that's part of the woodwork of our community.
- 6:22Speaker 1: I hope you guys can figure out something to do.
- 6:24Speaker 2: With that, That's right.
- 6:26Speaker 1: I'm sure Barry would from a permitting perspective, would would
- 6:32Speaker 1: welcome that that's signed to be out on North Main Street.
- 6:36Speaker 1: But well, I'm putting I'm kind of trying to give
- 6:39Speaker 1: them a little nudge here, as you can tell. But
- 6:42Speaker 1: so any other changes in the world paper that that
- 6:46Speaker 1: you can tell us about.
- 6:48Speaker 4: Actually the rest of everything that is going to remain
- 6:51Speaker 4: the same we've done.
- 6:53Speaker 2: We're going to do more digital.
- 6:55Speaker 4: Yeah, we're going to have the website is going to
- 6:57Speaker 4: be more more digital. We're going to be able to
- 7:00Speaker 4: sell banner ads and such on the website. So right
- 7:04Speaker 4: now that's under construction. We're adding that we're going to
- 7:08Speaker 4: maintain our Facebook page, things of that nature.
- 7:12Speaker 1: Good. So two separate entities, but a welcomed, positive partnership.
- 7:19Speaker 3: Yes, I think so, I really do. The staff down
- 7:23Speaker 3: there has made it very welcoming and doing the best
- 7:28Speaker 3: they can to make the transition easy. We couldn't ask for,
- 7:32Speaker 3: in my opinion, a better group to look up with.
- 7:36Speaker 1: Now, how many staff members do you have here at
- 7:38Speaker 1: the world and how will that change? Will that change?
- 7:43Speaker 4: Yes, Well, they offered positions to six six people of
- 7:49Speaker 4: our nine people that we employed, and five have taken
- 7:53Speaker 4: that on. So you have the same sales staff and
- 7:57Speaker 4: be myself and Gary and Mike, and then we have
- 8:01Speaker 4: our copy editor Chris Myers is continuing, and then distribution
- 8:06Speaker 4: is Jim Elliott. He's doing continue to do that. And
- 8:10Speaker 4: then downtown again, I'm going to still have Chris Foster
- 8:13Speaker 4: delivering to the downtown business wonder.
- 8:16Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 8:16Speaker 1: Love Chris brings brings me as you know, because I
- 8:19Speaker 1: say this every week, but it brings me my paper
- 8:22Speaker 1: every Tuesday, and of course I always am excited about
- 8:25Speaker 1: receiving that and thumbing through that. But that's going to
- 8:29Speaker 1: change too. So distribution is gonna it's going to go
- 8:32Speaker 1: out on Wednesdays now, Yes, yes, yes, starting we started March.
- 8:37Speaker 1: We already started, all right. So the building you might
- 8:45Speaker 1: be moving from this building over or you definitely are,
- 8:48Speaker 1: you definitely will be okay. So this is this is
- 8:54Speaker 1: a positive thing in that it's going to be reaching
- 8:59Speaker 1: many more, I think, right, I do too.
- 9:02Speaker 4: Yes, And I think it's going to make both publications stronger.
- 9:06Speaker 4: You know, as far as you know working together. Print
- 9:09Speaker 4: is not dead. People still love their print paper in
- 9:12Speaker 4: the center for sure.
- 9:14Speaker 2: Definitely.
- 9:14Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, go go right ahead.
- 9:18Speaker 2: No, I was going to say that, what was I
- 9:22Speaker 2: going to say?
- 9:23Speaker 1: I had, Well, just just readership. How many eyes it's
- 9:28Speaker 1: going to mean, right, we've already got that, thank you.
- 9:31Speaker 1: We've already got people that have said.
- 9:33Speaker 3: Hey, I got my world in the in the mail.
- 9:37Speaker 3: You know, I had the inserts in it too. But
- 9:40Speaker 3: it's it's starting to take hold already. And for years
- 9:44Speaker 3: people say, I really miss you know, not getting the
- 9:47Speaker 3: paper delivered. Yeah, but you know it was it was
- 9:51Speaker 3: becoming more and more impossible to sure.
- 9:53Speaker 2: But anyway, this is going to be good.
- 9:56Speaker 3: And when we hooked in as W said that the
- 9:59Speaker 3: towards the end of the this month with Barry and
- 10:01Speaker 3: the other half of Berlin, I think it's going to
- 10:05Speaker 3: be well received, well received.
- 10:08Speaker 1: So every week about how many papers are printed somewhere
- 10:14Speaker 1: in the ballpark with what ten thousand? Okay, so we're
- 10:19Speaker 1: talking well over twenty thousand eyes that the world has
- 10:26Speaker 1: captured the attention of over all of these decades per week,
- 10:31Speaker 1: and that's going to increase.
- 10:33Speaker 4: Yes, definitely will increase with you know, more readership.
- 10:37Speaker 1: Wow. So we're expecting maybe somewhere what in the ballpark
- 10:42Speaker 1: of maybe thirty thousand eyes on the world going forward.
- 10:48Speaker 1: You're right, yeah, yeah, Okay, that's that's tremendous. That's that's
- 10:53Speaker 1: really something else we hesitated. Yeah, that is how many
- 10:57Speaker 1: will be Wow? What about so so folks can still
- 11:01Speaker 1: advertise with the world just as as its own entity.
- 11:07Speaker 1: If because you've you've got some some some real loyal
- 11:12Speaker 1: advertisers that very steady advertising.
- 11:15Speaker 4: You know that we're continue to take care.
- 11:17Speaker 2: Of, all right.
- 11:18Speaker 1: So the bottom line is people will see their their
- 11:23Speaker 1: World mailed to their homes for Barry Berlin and Mott Pilier. Okay,
- 11:30Speaker 1: and that's starting now.
- 11:33Speaker 4: Yes, right now it's more filier and newsstands, and then
- 11:37Speaker 4: by the end of April it should be very more filiar, all.
- 11:40Speaker 1: Right, but still still hit in the newsstands. So we're
- 11:44Speaker 1: still going all of our regular locations where we see
- 11:47Speaker 1: the world will be able to grab one, yes, yes, okay,
- 11:52Speaker 1: and it will still be free. How do you it's
- 11:57Speaker 1: worth yeah, pop being and God, God bless them, God
- 12:01Speaker 1: bless Bob Bannon. But yeah, I mean worth every penny
- 12:05Speaker 1: and more. And how how are you able to do that?
- 12:08Speaker 1: Because that's such this is a real gift, this is
- 12:12Speaker 1: a gem for us. How are you able to do that?
- 12:15Speaker 2: Advertising?
- 12:16Speaker 4: Advertising? Yeah, we have you know, very loyal customers who
- 12:21Speaker 4: advertise in the paper and that that pays the bills.
- 12:24Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing? I can't think of a single person
- 12:28Speaker 1: out there that doesn't love the World newspaper. You guys
- 12:32Speaker 1: do remarkable work and you have survived some remarkable floods
- 12:39Speaker 1: and events that have taken place here in this building.
- 12:44Speaker 1: And I know that you both were in the studio
- 12:46Speaker 1: quite a while ago, But how did how did you
- 12:49Speaker 1: get through that?
- 12:51Speaker 4: Well, we're quick on our feet. It's trying to come
- 12:54Speaker 4: up with different ideas to get people to you know,
- 12:57Speaker 4: continue to advertise and get their message out.
- 13:01Speaker 2: You know.
- 13:02Speaker 4: We come up with creative ideas that you know that
- 13:05Speaker 4: makes it work for them. But no, it wasn't easy.
- 13:09Speaker 4: And it wasn't easy seeing our customers suffering as they did,
- 13:14Speaker 4: you know, and we wanted to support them and keep
- 13:18Speaker 4: them going.
- 13:19Speaker 1: How much water did you have in this building? How
- 13:22Speaker 1: is that possible? With the river right? I mean I'm
- 13:24Speaker 1: looking over my shoulder here.
- 13:25Speaker 2: The river's right there, parking lot.
- 13:28Speaker 4: We actually the river came up right to the railroad tracks,
- 13:32Speaker 4: but and never came to the building. We don't, you know.
- 13:35Speaker 4: I think somebody's looking at.
- 13:37Speaker 1: For Yeah, yeah, big time. And it was yeah. I mean,
- 13:41Speaker 1: you guys are are such an essential part of what
- 13:45Speaker 1: we rely on. And that's remarkable that that you didn't.
- 13:49Speaker 1: And I remember I think you I remember you said
- 13:53Speaker 1: in the studio deb that I think you said to
- 13:57Speaker 1: Gary the day after the flood. Hey, we've got a
- 14:02Speaker 1: paper to put out. We need to we need to
- 14:05Speaker 1: get going here, we need to get this, get this
- 14:07Speaker 1: put out. And that was your priority or for your
- 14:13Speaker 1: own lives, was was making sure that paper got out
- 14:16Speaker 1: on time?
- 14:17Speaker 4: Definitely? Yeah.
- 14:19Speaker 3: Yeah, we had great staff that stuck with us through
- 14:22Speaker 3: the you know that a few people that had to
- 14:25Speaker 3: stay overnight during the floods and make sure that the
- 14:29Speaker 3: paper got out the next day.
- 14:31Speaker 1: So what's the how did how did this all begin
- 14:34Speaker 1: for you guys and the world. What's what's your story?
- 14:39Speaker 2: Well, it goes back to college. We were all in.
- 14:43Speaker 3: College at Eastern Michigan University and we were working for
- 14:47Speaker 3: the student paper out there.
- 14:50Speaker 2: Myself and.
- 14:53Speaker 3: Another person that came out with his named Russ Smith,
- 14:55Speaker 3: also known as Skippy and with the Mountaineers and and
- 14:59Speaker 3: then and Deb Well. Russ and I were working for
- 15:03Speaker 3: the student paper called Eastern Eco fifteen thousand copies a week.
- 15:10Speaker 3: I was a city editor, Russ was the feature editor
- 15:13Speaker 3: deb ran Hoe composition department of this paper. It came
- 15:18Speaker 3: out three times a week and pretty amazing. Russ and
- 15:21Speaker 3: I were both in graduate school. So when this paper
- 15:25Speaker 3: opportunity came up. We stole Debbie out of school and.
- 15:31Speaker 2: The three of us came out. That's a long story.
- 15:33Speaker 1: Short, what's your version of it, Debt, what's the truth,
- 15:40Speaker 1: deb that's the truth.
- 15:42Speaker 4: We were in our twenties. We didn't have anything to lose.
- 15:45Speaker 4: We did and it was an opportunity, and you know
- 15:49Speaker 4: it was it was a long learning opportunity for us
- 15:54Speaker 4: because we didn't know anything about running a business and
- 15:57Speaker 4: you know, then selling and all that kind of stuff.
- 16:01Speaker 4: But yeah, no, it benefit is Russell. After about six
- 16:05Speaker 4: months he said, oh, this paper's never going to make it.
- 16:08Speaker 4: And he's like, so I'm going to go do something
- 16:10Speaker 4: else and uh yeah, So we surprised him and we
- 16:15Speaker 4: just kept going wow.
- 16:16Speaker 2: And he made a great impact on in the community
- 16:19Speaker 2: on his own too.
- 16:20Speaker 4: So well, you know the Mountaineers and they have their mascot, Skiff, sure,
- 16:26Speaker 4: Skip is named after him.
- 16:27Speaker 1: Didn't know that.
- 16:28Speaker 2: I that.
- 16:29Speaker 4: Yeah, so he was very instrumental in getting the mountaineers here,
- 16:34Speaker 4: so that that's why he's named Skip.
- 16:38Speaker 1: I've never known that. I'm just glancing around here on
- 16:41Speaker 1: the walls of the awards that are everywhere. I mean,
- 16:49Speaker 1: i mean, it's just look at this.
- 16:51Speaker 2: Some of the groups of re sponsor and.
- 16:55Speaker 1: Very opera for Ritchie Havens. That damn look at that. Yeah,
- 17:03Speaker 1: you guys, uh, this is really this is kind of
- 17:08Speaker 1: what my desk looks like. I'm gonna be honest with you.
- 17:11Speaker 1: But and that's cleaned up. Seriously. Wow, it's worse.
- 17:16Speaker 4: It can be much worse.
- 17:19Speaker 1: What can we expect in the paper tomorrow?
- 17:23Speaker 4: Well, this issue is all about the kids. We have
- 17:27Speaker 4: kids summer camps, we have the Eastern Coloring Contest, which
- 17:33Speaker 4: is loads of fun for the kids, and then we
- 17:36Speaker 4: also have a new kids activity page in the paper
- 17:40Speaker 4: this week. And plus we have the we have the
- 17:45Speaker 4: Business of the Week which is brag Farm this week,
- 17:49Speaker 4: which talks about all the great stuff at Brag Farm.
- 17:53Speaker 4: Loaded with stuff.
- 17:54Speaker 1: Yeah, anything to add Gary.
- 17:57Speaker 5: No, we are We do want to restart the puzzle
- 18:03Speaker 5: page that we're still playing with a little bit, but
- 18:08Speaker 5: hopefully that will be coming very quickly and coming back.
- 18:14Speaker 3: And you know, people always say, you know, I like
- 18:17Speaker 3: the horsecope, I like the puzzles or whatever. And then
- 18:20Speaker 3: the obituaries of course, so we've got to retake get
- 18:24Speaker 3: that all going back in good style again.
- 18:27Speaker 2: But w's got some good ideas on.
- 18:29Speaker 3: How we can make that possible, right, deb I do.
- 18:33Speaker 3: We'll be talking about that shortly.
- 18:35Speaker 1: Anything else to add.
- 18:37Speaker 4: Deb I think that covers it pretty much for this week.
- 18:41Speaker 4: Look for your paper tomorrow and be sure to grab
- 18:45Speaker 4: one and pick it up and let us know what
- 18:48Speaker 4: you think.
- 18:49Speaker 1: Great stuff. Thank you both so much. There's nothing not
- 18:55Speaker 1: to sound like an old man here. And I know
- 18:57Speaker 1: I've said this before on the air. I don't want
- 18:59Speaker 1: to sound like broken record, but there's nothing better than
- 19:03Speaker 1: grabbing a fresh copy of the World and a fresh
- 19:06Speaker 1: cup of coffee, and for me, putting the readers on,
- 19:11Speaker 1: got to wear the readers and just sitting down and
- 19:15Speaker 1: flipping through the pages of the world without interruption, which
- 19:20Speaker 1: is not easy to do. But it's just we love
- 19:25Speaker 1: the world and we love you guys, both of you
- 19:28Speaker 1: and your team here and all that you do. And
- 19:31Speaker 1: we're going to be watching and paying attention to some
- 19:35Speaker 1: of the changes coming down. But again, if you're just
- 19:37Speaker 1: joining us, yep, it's like Gary just said, it's going
- 19:42Speaker 1: to be better. The world is like Dave Otis just said,
- 19:46Speaker 1: my favorite paper. We're getting a lot of comments about that.
- 19:50Speaker 1: There's a partnership that is underway right now between the
- 19:54Speaker 1: World and the Times Argus. The world will not be changing,
- 19:59Speaker 1: but they're just changing for the better with their distribution.
- 20:04Speaker 1: But keep an eye on it. There's going to be
- 20:06Speaker 1: a lot of papers that are going to be mailed
- 20:09Speaker 1: to Holmes, Barry, Montpellier and Berlin. That's already started. And
- 20:17Speaker 1: just keep watch. You're going to start seeing the world
- 20:21Speaker 1: with the Times Argus in the very near future. But
- 20:24Speaker 1: the partnership is already underway, and we are setting the
- 20:29Speaker 1: record straight here And if anyone has any questions, drop
- 20:32Speaker 1: them right here in the comments and I'm sure that
- 20:35Speaker 1: Gary and Deb will read them and answer them. But
- 20:39Speaker 1: God bless you both for everything you do. And thank you,
- 20:44Speaker 1: Thank you, Ja, have a super rest of you day. Again,
- 20:48Speaker 1: drive carefully if you're out and about today. A couple
- 20:51Speaker 1: of inches of snow up north two to four I think,
- 20:54Speaker 1: and like one to three for the rest of us
- 20:58Speaker 1: throughout the day today. But we'll see you very soon.
- 21:01Speaker 1: And thanks to the World for being a presenting sponsor
- 21:03Speaker 1: of the aired out podcast. We love you guys.