Triple Play Presentations
Our first of three speakers today was Rob Young 37 years old and Publisher of the Daily Telegram. Rob grew up in Troy, Missouri, not too far from St. Louis. He's always had a love for journalism. He said that the newspaper business is changing daily as is its content and how it's consumed. Readers, he said, have more options as consumers than ever before. He is happy to know that the information they're getting in spite of all the resources is from the newspaper specifically. He worked for the St. Louis Post Dispatch for a time.
Rob is an accomplished jazz pianist. He went to Detroit following college to train with Bess Bonnier who was blind and she taught Rob to play blindfolded and said that “the piano actually became an extension of my body” and gained much confidence. While at the St. Louis newspaper, Rob said, that same confidence carried over to his job as a leader of that organization and he quickly understood how to monitize content, how to position content in the right way in a product in line with what readers wanted in a fair and honest way that they wanted it to be presented. He left there as their Vice President of Sales and Marketing and was recruited for the job at the Telegram shortly after Paul Heidbreder left.
The biggest obstacle ahead of him, Rob said, with this job was getting the organization to understand how to communicate the value of the audience the Telegram markets to. Printing really is powerful, he said, and has impact. He wants his advertising and sales team to understand that we don't sell quarter page bads, we sell solutions so they need to ask their customers what do they want to do. Rob concluded by mentioning that his dad was a Rotarian. When he last saw his mom, he said she told him to: Find God and join a church, get your feet on the ground, and then join a service club!
Next up to speak was Anne Hinsdale Knisel, Community Relations Coordinator at Lenawee Intermediate School District, spoke on the program “Cradle to College”. The big question she posed to the audience as she started was: “Why aren't our schools doing a better job in educating our kids?” She said that even the educators here are asking themselves the same question. One year ago, all of the superintendents from all schools in the county met with a consulting group from Cincinnatti, Ohio and focused on this very question and working with 90 other communities to form partnerships between education, business, service clubs, and industry. All of the profit and not-for-profit entities who would work together to build an educational system that is second to none.
Following that meeting, all superintendents agreed that this partnership needed to be created and the effort was formalized last December and it was called “Lenawee Cradle to Career: A Pathway to Success” now only 7 months old. This partnership sets a standard for collaboration around a shared set of goals, Anne said. It is driven by data which makes it different from the usual way we go about dealing with education. An example she sited was reading and the effort schools make to insure children can read by the third grade. She said that local libraries do the same thing but are these two groups on the same page when it comes to teaching reading (i.e. are these methods the most effective?) or are we using different strategies and going down two totally different paths? Lenawee Cradle to Career is about “systems” Anne said based on hard data so that a common agenda can be set to insure the necessary strategies are in place to accomplish their goals. Those goals are: That every child will (1) be prepared for school, (2) be supported inside and outside of school, (3) succeed automatically, (4) enroll in college/post-secondary training and (5) graduate and enter a career. Anne concluded by offering members to become involved in this effort by signing partnership agreements should anyone wish to do so.
The third and final speaker today was Chris Miller, the City of Adrian's Economic Development and DDA Director. He began by personally thanking Mark Murray for working with the city to help put a grander vision and plan together in terms of a relationship with Rotary and the City so that we might accomplish goals together in the future. Chris spoke about the Marketing Plan the City is rolling out and to ask Rotary specifically for their help with it. He mentioned the effort back in 2003 by the City to engage with the state and the Michigan Municipal League referred to as the Blueprints for Downtown in an effort to revitalize the central business district. He credited the previous administration and elected officials for working so hard on this project. It laid the groundwork for future visioning by Bob Gibbs and his firm, the premier urban retail planners in this country who, after looking at this plan said that he was very impressed with what the City had accomplished.
However, Chris said, the world changed in 2008 to 2012, particularly in the retail arena. In order to complete the entire revitalization of our downtown, a new retail plan was needed and that's why Bob Gibbs is now involved. He has completed over 500 of these projects world wide including places like Charleston. The study will cost $25,000 and about half has already been collected. In the past 36 months some 20 downtown buildings have been purchased, Chris said. A lot of investment is being made and we are on the cusp of some very significant changes. The goal is to attract national and regional retailers to our downtown. The trend, Chris said, is toward high density living and shopping in traditional downtowns.
Among the City's recent accomplishments has been a Rental Rehab grant approval amounting to $500,000. For every 25 local dollars invested the City will get 75 federal dollars. There are currently four downtown buildings whose apartments will be renovated. The Chomp restaurant chain will be coming to downtown Adrian. The investors are local and know the restaurant business. Comp will be a high end fast food type business Chris said. It will be built on Land Bank property on North Main street.