City Spin Cycle on High
And calling up her media buddies at KELO-TV.
In less then 24 hours after I posted about the Sioux Falls Calendar mysteriously Jodi Schwagg (our very own overpaid press release writer) was on KELO-TV (trying) to counter everything I pointed out in my Sunday post about the calendar. It was so blantant, when I emailed KELO reporter Ben Dunsmoor about ‘bogarting’ South DaCola’s stories, I was literally crying I was laughing so hard.
So let’s review;
I said the mailing list was 70,000. But according to the city;
It went out to more than 67,000 households and cost thousands of dollars. For the first time, the City of Sioux Falls sent out a calendar to its residents in an effort to keep taxpayers informed.Â
I said the publication probably cost $50,000 or more. They claim this;
So, how much did taxpayers shell out for the publication? The Mayor’s office put out the calendar and says it cost more than $33,000 to produce.
And Jodi just couldn’t resist to do a little stompy-stompy dance-dance on my brochure idea (which would have saved taxpayers thousands of dollars).
But, city officials believe a calendar is something residents will keep all year, instead of fliers and brochures, which typically get thrown away.Â
You could of also done a magnet for a fraction of the cost that would stay on people’s refrigerators ALL YEAR LONG. I have a feeling half the calendars will get thrown away anyhow. People usually get gift calendars (Sports Illustrated swimwear for instance or Norman Rockwell) Other people use their day planners or PDA’s and some people build their own calendars with that fancy-smancy calendar software you can buy Walmart for $19.99. And instead of pictures of snowplows and mustaches they put pictures of their family and pets. And if you need a city department number, there is always the phone book or internets.
Even if by chance someone USES this calendar, it is still a waste of money. It is taxpayer funded propaganda, and nothing could be a bigger waste.
No where is there a reference that there were under a 1000 respondents to the survey – and that’s what makes this propaganda. When you mislead the public using half-truths and use taxpayer money to do so, it is always a waste – A HUGE WASTE.
Sorry, Jodi, you could have spent 1 cent a piece and it still would have been too much. Please, stop reading my blog and go back to blogging about how hip and cool SF is for young professionals.
I have a little printing/ design background. I call bullshit. They could not produce that calendar for $33K. Maybe if they didn’t include staff time or hid some expense in department budgets. I would like to see a breakdown of the $33K.
This is the type of spin you get for a $100 PR assistant.
You could. If you inspect the paper it was probably printed on a heatset web, which could make it economical. The only problem I have with that, is there are no heatset web presses in Sux Falls, so it was printed out of town. Not sure if that is true?
Also, layout and photography would have put it up in that $50,000 range.
Like most large print jobs in this town it was given to a local printer who sent it out to Minn or Omaha
Did L&S get a no bid design contract for the calendar?
No. The city has Media Services and a full-time designer working for them (which is a good idea). But they still draw a paycheck. It is a good possibility that a lot of the photos were taken by them, but some of them are obviously professional. And since there is no photo credits, they were paid for.
If they are SD Tourism photos do they have to give a photo credit?
If they are bought and paid for, no credit is required. That’s all I know.
Aside from all the things you guys have brought up, you can be rest assured the Post Office did not do this mass mailing out of the goodness of their hearts. I’m guessin the mailing cost for 67,000 pieces is at least 15 grand.
I thought exactly the same thing about her reading this site when I saw ol Jodi finally make an appearence on anything other than the city links channel. She looks several years older now. Too bad. I always liked her as a KELO reporter.
It’s pretty sad. Though this is a satire site, I do try to influence the way people think about their city government. But to go crying to your former employer to debunk a lowly Blogger like myself is pretty petty and a waste of her time. I guess we know what Jodi does now.
I have yet to see any ad put out by the city that would appeal to “young professionals”. The demographic they seem to be targeting is young couples who are looking to settle down and have kids in a good place.
To be fair, this is a great town to raise kids in. But their interpretation of “young professionals” is quite different than the accepted version.
What will attract the “young professional” demographic is an economy in which a recent college graduate can find a job that doesn’t require being a phone jockey for a year or more in a collections department before being able to advance to a decent position that pays more than $12/hr.
It’s a joke really. If you read the post about poverty in SF you will see that 39% of white kids and about 70% of minority kids in SF are getting free or reduced lunches. And the other astonishing point is in order to qualify your family income should be under $33,000 a year and have at least FOUR kids! I can’t imagine supporting a family of 6 on that kind of money. I think it would be virtually impossible. My point? The city keeps encouraging people to move here and start a family yet the jobs pay so low, how can you afford to support your family?
They don’t like to talk about or solicit single people to SF, but they damn well know we support this community and help feed those families and educate those children.
It’s all a complete facade.