Friday, December 5, 2008

McClatchy newspaper plays Scrooge to 84 year old cancer patient with a Christmas wish

Ebeneezer Scrooge lives on at McClatchy's Tri-City Herald.

A first grade class partnering with a cancer center learned an 84 year old patient had a Christmas wish for a subscription to the Tri-City Herald newspaper. The class contacted the newspaper to ask about a donation. The response from the Tri-City Herald? No donation -- just a measly gift card for a reduction in the price.

This is the email that was sent to the Tri-City Herald. (Note: the email says the cancer patient is 82 but it has been confirmed he is 84.)

Hello my name is Jennifer -- and I’m contacting you on behalf of - 1st grade class at -- Elementary. For Christmas their class has partnered with the Tri-Cities Cancer Center and adopted an 82 year old cancer patient to give gifts to. One of the gifts on his wish list is a subscription to the Tri-City Herald. I am wondering if this is something that the Herald would be able to donate?

Please let me know if this is possible or who I need to speak with in regards to this.

Thank you in advance,

Jennifer


Below is the response from the Tri-City Herald -- and below that is the original email sent from the class.

The latest word is the first graders are collecting donations to buy a subscription.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My Christmas wish is that McClatchy goes under.

The old saying of "what goes around comes around" usually happens. Look at OJ today.

Every TV Station should have this story. Send it to all cities that have a McClatchy paper.

If nobody else will I'll pay for it.

Anonymous said...

I sent the Scrooge article to Drudge, he often highlights newspaper articles. I saw this:
-------------
-Ad losses send industry into a tailspin-
By David Olinger
The Denver Post

Across the United States, [more than 30 daily newspapers are for sale,] and buyers are scarce.

**[Paper Cuts]- a website that tracks newspaper buyouts and layoffs, estimates that at least 14,447 jobs have been lost this year.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_11142071

Anonymous said...

On the one hand, is the Herald, which is dealing with huge budget cuts and layoffs, in much of a position to be doing charity these days?

On the other hand, as far as I can tell, they haven't cut back on their charitable giving - still donating to United Way and continuing to hold in their "Kid's Day" function this year, despite layoffs and drastic cutbacks.

I agree, $85 would go a long way in this case, both for the cancer patient and for the newspaper's public relations. But at the same time, sometimes you gotta just say no. How many of these requests do they receive? Employees don't even get their REQUIRED subscriptions for free.