Savannah, Georgia

I'd say three APSE section awards and five APSE writing awards during the past three years ain't too shabby. That's all I'm saying.

 

I'm not terribly interested critiquing Bluffton Today, aside from agreeing that it is generally attractive and well-designed. And aside from thanking MU for the shout-out, I am uninterested in explaining or defending the work of my staff or the awards they have garnered in a forum in which the vast majority of participants don't regularly read both publications and thus have no basis of comparison. (No offense intended, folks.)

I do, however, have a keen interest in correcting the notion that somehow our publication is "on the run." We indeed launched a redesign Jan. 29 — a redesign that had nothing whatsoever to do with Bluffton Today. That edition was the first to roll off our new, state-of-the-art press, part of an expansion that gave us an on-site printing plant for the first time in the paper's history. (This new facility has been part of the newspaper's long-range capital improvement plans for about 12 years — 10 years before the Savannah Morning News mothballed the Carolina Morning News edition and replaced it with Bluffton Today.) The new press dramatically improved our color and sectioning capabilities and also was fitted for a 48-inch web, all of which made a redesign logical if not imperative.

Circulation and advertising are not my bailiwick, however, it is my understanding we have penetration figures that are the envy of the industry (insert joke here); a long, long history of circulation growth (in fact, in recent years, our circulation has grown even faster than the population we serve, which is one of the fastest-growing in the Southeast); and paid advertising volume that easily is about four times Bluffton Today's. While we would be foolish to ignore any challenge to our franchise, and while we certainly keep tabs on Bluffton Today, that publication has failed to cut into our advertising base or our circulation.

I also invite EGM67 to e-mail a resume to me at jkidd@islandpacket.com. We have no openings on my staff at this time, but I'm more than happy to keep materials on file should we have one in the near future. In fact, my most recent hire (knock on wood, that was about 20 months ago) came from a stack of old resumes.

 

Well done, Jeff. Very nice.

 

Yeah, but Justin Jarrett's still short. So there.

PS Jeff -- good stuff.

 

Good to hear from you, Jeff. That was a class reply. By no means am I discounting your work — just saying there's a second paper in town that no one mentioned. Keep an eye on them, though, pal....

 

wow - i think i'm starting to get a little man crush on jeff kidd.

one of the most polite nut kicks i've read in a long time.

 

For those who don't know Jeff Kidd, he's a first-class guy. Period.

And while Bluffton Today is a sharp looking paper, it's nowhere near the Island Packet when it comes to covering the area. Sports, for example, in the Bluffton Today is coverage of one high school.

And, if I'm correct, isn't Bluffton given away the paper for free? Or did they stop doing that?

 

Bluffton Today does not exist to compete with the Island Packet. The Bluffton Today product focuses solely on Bluffton (not the greater Lowcountry extending north to Charleston, like the Island Packet and its sister paper in Beaufort), which is why Bluffton Today focuses on only one high school. The premise of the newspaper is total immersion into a small community. And it is distributed free.

The Island Packet is a quality product. Jeff Kidd is the paper's long-time sports editor who is committed to making his section great.