J. TODD FOSTER: BHC Circulators Turn Inaugural Section Into Treasure

Since newspapers are an endangered species, victories these days are rare. But one came Wednesday when we published a 12-page special section on the Obama inauguration.

We could afford to publish such an edition on expensive, premium, white paper only if our advertising department could sell enough ads. It did: six full pages in the section and another 5½ pages in the regular newspaper from businesses wanting to be associated with this endeavor.

In addition to the advertising department, the newsroom rose to the occasion and produced first-rate journalism.

But it’s the circulators I want to shine the spotlight on today. These are the unsung heroes of newspapering, the folks who never get their names printed and who toil early mornings to bring your newspaper to your homes and stock the racks at your neighborhood convenience store.

Our circulation department’s performance not only meant thousands in increased newspaper sales, but staffers seized a unique opportunity that wound up being the greatest testament to the quality of this section.

Several members of our circulation department hawked the Wednesday edition at heavily traveled intersections in our area. Hawking is old school: When America’s employment base was manufacturing and factory workers finished their shifts mid-afternoon, newspapers would send schoolboys out to yell, “Extra, extra, read all about it!”

Hawking is a rare concept today because all but a few newspapers are published in the morning. But the concept proved particularly poignant at Exit 7 on the Virginia side of Bristol.

Vickie Rabon was working near Airport Road and Lee Highway when colleagues suggested hitting up the tour bus that had just pulled into the Golden Corral parking lot. When Rabon drove up alongside the bus and held up a copy of our special section, passengers fled the bus like it was on fire. They simply mobbed her.

These were African-Americans, mostly senior citizens, returning from the inauguration to points South. To them, Bristol was simply a stopping point for lunch. They had no connections to this area or this newspaper.

Rabon and Michael Elswick, our single copy manager, kept the supply of papers flowing. In all, three tour buses carrying African Americans home from the inauguration stopped at Exit 7 over the span of about two hours.

By the time the last bus pulled away, Rabon and Elswick had sold 240 copies of our special section just to the passengers on those three tour buses, some of whom said they had been monitoring newspapers between Washington and Bristol and had not seen full-page Obama photos and thick, white paper until they hit Bristol.

“That’s what sold them,” Elswick says. “They were very impressed, enough that they bought eight to 10 apiece. They’d buy a couple, go back on the bus and then open it up, and come back out waving money at us. It’s the easiest I’ve ever sold newspapers. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. You literally didn’t have to get out of your vehicle.”

The most memorable buyer was a 60-something black man who told Elswick that most Americans still can’t comprehend the significance of Nov. 4 and Jan. 20. He said the front-page photo – of Obama taking the oath on a Bible supported by the hand of the president’s beaming wife – brought back the emotions of that moment 24 hours earlier.

Tears streamed down his face, and it was all that Elswick could do to keep it together.

“He was appreciative that we took the time to do the whole spread,” Elswick says. “He ended up buying 15.”

The bus passengers asked the drivers to unlock the luggage compartments so they could tuck their special editions safely into their suitcases to keep them from bending. Some said they were going to laminate them; others were stocking up for family souvenirs.

“This [inauguration] was an event, and they were treasuring it,” Elswick said. “We weren’t the first newspaper peddlers they had seen. And yet they were stocking up on our newspapers. It made you proud to be a part of this paper.”

This column is a tip of the cap to our circulation department, led by Circulation Director Dennis Stonebraker. The sales effort was organized by Donna Moncrief, office manager; Elswick; Rick Shepherd, city zone manager; and Jack Carpenter, sales and retention manager.

The hawkers were Rabon, Phillip Arnett, Larry Wheeler, Darryl Sword, Kelly Salyer, Robert Alarie and Carpenter.

The staffers who fielded the calls to reserve copies of the special edition were Anita Fletcher, Megan Hall, Sundae Foran, Phoebie Nunn, Chris Morgan and Erica Hill. Charlie Griffin, Jim Malcolm and Sonny Corpus delivered extra copies.

I also want to thank the BHC newsroom and Creative Services Director Deb King for their excellence. This special section was born out of some readers’ perceptions that our Nov. 5 front page on Obama’s election did not live up to the occasion. Those readers were right.

In the words of an older lady who telephoned me last week: “Mr. Foster, I called you Nov. 5 to complain about your front page.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Your newspaper redeemed itself today.”

I hope so.

J. Todd Foster is managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier and can be reached at jfoster@bristol.com or (276) 645-2513.