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INDUSTRY 80 May 15 Business press need not be at odds Continued from 11 heard from business people is that the press has an antl business bios The complaint normally arises when a newspaper reports a story that casta an Industry or a company or an executive in a bad light Stories of consumer fraud labor trouble unethical practices shoddy products exec utive infighting and the sort are likely to be cited as evidence that the newspaper publishing them is I think this pcrceplion of antibus in ess bias stems Tram a misunder standing of what journalist is doing and his motives for doing it The businessman looks at a story and focuses on Its effects Is this story good for my business or bad for my business If it is harmful to his business the business person tends to assume that the mot ivation to do damage must be there other wise why run the story But in my experience at least that Isnt the way journalists think and It is not the way they evaluate stories Report ers and editors tend to think of the story as an end in Itself not a means to the end A story is not Judged by what effect it might have on business good or bad but on Its intrinsic qualities is it Int eresting is It sig nificant do many people in our community have some slake in this sit uation a job or income or some other Journalists dont tend to ask whether this story is good or bad for XVZ Company We ask wh ether a story contains fresh or interesting Infor mation or Insight a many people You may say should look at the presumed ef fect before publishing the story After all dont we care about the con sequences of our work Yes we do care but is not to have one ef fect or the other but merely to publish in formation and analyze its meaning and hen let the chips fall where they may you think about it I dont think youd want newspapers to operate with any other goal The honest neutral newspaperman cannot make judgments based on projected eels of his story Publishing a negative news story about business docs not establish an bus iness bias on the part of the newspaper The journalist is coming at the story with an entirely different mental frame work and different goals than the businessman would and I fear that few people in business ci ther perceive or under stand this radically dif ferent perspective A second and related complaint is that the press concentrates ex cessively on negative stories about business This in fact is the age- old lament about news in general too much of It is bad news about murder mayhem disaster war rape and pillage For business that translates Into too much stress on fraud scandal strikes business failure conflict of Interest What they remember Much of the news Is negative In the sense that it examines societys troubles and woes rather than quiet triumphs or binnd normalcy We rep ort the one airplane that goes down killing Bo peo ple not about he and others that land safe ly every day If ran a story every day saying that airplanes landed safely at Moines air port yesterday how long would it be before you quit reading that story So it is inevitable that news will deal heavily with the surprising the unusual he threatening and the outrageous asp ects of human affairs including business Those stories tend to be the ones remembered by business people especially those pained by them but they are not by any means the total agenda of our bus iness news coverage We are Just as Interested in business success and more positive news If you build a better mousetrap you may dis cover newspapermen arent such rats after all In my view there Is one major overriding problem that unfavorab ly shapes the relationship of the press and business And the fact Is that the most businessmen dont want to have anything to do with a reporter They do not make themselves available to the press and yet later complain that the press does not under stand or reflect their side of the story Many businessmen arc Just plain afraid of rep orters They are afraid reporters wont under stand the complexities their business wont quote them accurately or will take what they say out of context They pre fer to do what that coal official who cal led me wants to do that is hide But hiding doesnt work The press will wr ite about your company or your industry whether or not you decide to talk to a reporter There are plenty of other sources of information If you let outside sour ces shape the story you cant very well complain about the outcome Different goals Business and the press do not share the same goals but our differing goals are not mutually exclusive The purpose of business Is to make a profit by providing some wanted product or ser vice If you do that within the law and within the bounds of eth ics you have nothing to apologize for and no reason to be afraid to deal with the press The purpose of the press is to Inform and to enlighten people on mat ters that arc important to their lives We have a right and an obligation to do that with vigor to the best of our ability Mr Gannon Is executive editor of the Dei Moines and Tribune article a con densation or he gave at Drake in Moines Iowa on October 1918 Three women run it all Continued from ate another smaller warehouse for their book distribution It is a 14000 square foot building also on Armstrong Avenue where John Elliott started the business In 1 while he was station agent for the CNR and a licenced custom broker since The two daughters realize the hard work demanded of their father and mother when they launched the fledgling business and through the years from the time Norma became manager for Publications then Avon and became well known in the book business leading Its present position as sole supplier in Canada for six big publishers The female threesome ore modest about their achievement but theres a suppressed glee in their eyes as they obviously have a ball making It in a mans world COME SEE OUR DISPLAY INDUSTRY 80 Booths MURT ALLISON EQUIPMENT RR 1 Georgetown 8775259 COMMERCIAL TRAVEL across the nation or around the world see you at Industry SO Oil Georgetown Market Place 8770138 THE EXECUTIVE CHOICE