Tag: nevadaappeal

Looks like the Record Courier is readying a redesign of their website. I wonder if this means the Nevada Appeal will be overhauled too? They're both owned by the same company, and they both run the same underlying software. They're basically identical sites right now, actually, along with the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Tahoe Bonanza, Sierra Sun, and Lahontan Valley News. The Tribune has also announced a redesign, so it looks like it's system wide.

The Nevada Appeal has two articles about the history of Carson City today. Sue Ballew looks at the story of Billie Lynch, a black man who was a personal messenger to President Lincoln, and was in Ford's Theater on the night he was shot. Abraham Curry later brought him to Carson City where he worked as a porter at the U.S. Mint on Carson Street. And Chris Bayer continues his story about Major Ormsby, from his moving to the new city of Carson to his death scarcely a year later.

So newspapers live and die by their advertising. And they have to strike a balance. They want to put out big ads that bring in a lot of revenue, but they also need to keep the ads subtle so readers will actually want to read the paper. As time has gone on they've come up with new forms of advertising, like inserts, and even extended ads to the plastic bag the paper comes in. You especially see this around the holidays, like the day after Thanksgiving, the bag will be coated in ads. But today the Nevada Appeal pulled a new one, one I've never seen before.

General Mills must have done a huge ad buy, because my newspaper this morning came with two boxes of cereal! Tucked away into a pouch on the outside of the bag were sample size boxes of Fiber One and Multi-Grain Cheerios. I don't think everybody got them, because the paper at my office was just sitting on the front porch unwrapped. But at my house, the paper was in the box at the curb, complete with breakfast.

Now, as a one-time thing, this is a real novelty. It certainly got my attention, and although I'll probably never buy the cereals at the store there's a good chance I'll toss them into a bowl with some milk later on. So it was an interesting stunt, and maybe a few people around town will go out and buy a box of Fiber One because of it. But what happens if this becomes common? Today it's cereal, but if it catches on will we have to look forward to other free samples in our newspaper bag? Toothpaste? Shampoo? Perfume? Diapers? When does it start to piss us off so much that we consider canceling our subscription? And what about the waste? How many of these boxes will just be tossed in the trash, unopened, which represents a waste both of the food that will go uneaten and the cardboard that won't be recycled? This could be a bad precedent, so I urge everyone not to go out and buy a box of Fiber One today. Even if you normally buy it, try something else this time. We sure don't want to encourage this kind of behavior.

Also, I would have loved to be there this morning when the delivery drivers arrived to pick up their bundle of papers.

Update: We have the Sunflower Group to thank for this.

The Nevada Appeal had a story yesterday by Chris Bayer, about the life of William Ormsby. Chris wrote the book "Profit, Plots and Lynching", and will be speaking at the Carson City Library on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

The paper also has a guide to some of the Sesquicentennial events happening August 16th in Carson City.

The Nevada Appeal had one article today, about Henry Mighels, who was the editor of the Carson Daily Appeal in 1865. That paper later evolved into the Nevada Appeal. Henry stayed at the helm of the Appeal until he died in September 1879, then his wife took over and kept it running.

The Nevada Appeal had an article by Trent Dolan yesterday, highlighting some of the topics that newspapers covered in the early 1860s.

The Appeal today has two articles online about Carson City's early years. Trent Dolan looks at excerpts from the Territorial Enterprise in the late 1850s, and Guy Rocha examines the myth of a stage coach robbery that supposedly happened near Carson City, even though no evidence could be found now or then.

The letters to the editor in the Nevada Appeal are just starting to get weird now.

As a new resident to Carson City, I thought I was in the middle of a citywide contest to learn who could grow the most luxurious facial hair as numerous men seem to have the current, unstylish habit of unshaven faces. Apparently the contest isn't relegated to wannabe cowboys. Most political employees and TV personalities sport this ugly hirsute appearance. When did it begin? Not since the jurists who sat at the trial of Wilkes Booth have so many men suddenly rediscovered the temporary allure of walrus faces. Incidentally, President Lincoln was the first president to grow a beard.

Personally, I hope this is a fad to be dismissed when men discover razors and shaving cream and eliminate the al-Qaida-reject appearances and return to the sanity of civilized, clean shaven faces.

E. ZIMBELMAN

The Appeal today has two articles online about Carson City's early years. Trent Dolan looks at the problems newspapers would have in the early days getting basic supplies. Rolls of paper would have to come over the mountains from Placerville, brought by stagecoach. When it snowed, nobody could get over the mountains so there was no paper. Emergency supplies would be brought by people on foot, carried on their backs.

The other article is a look at Carson City's Lone Mountain Cemetery, and some of the people that are buried there.

The Appeal today only has one article online about Carson City's early years. It's a look by Sue Ballew at one of Carson City's early newspapers, the Carson Daily Independent. She looks at the front page from September 1, 1863, and sees that it contains news on Civil War concerns, and a message from Abe Curry.