You Must Consume, You MUST CONSUME...

If you're a High Country media titan, one of the best ways to give a little holiday boost to your own profitability is to tell your viewers/listeners to SHOP. It's a nice way to scratch the backs of the companies who advertise on your station, or in your newspaper--send shoppers their way to make sure that they will have enough money to advertise some more!

Better still, write a news story about how everyone is out shopping today--and how you should be out there with 'em (from GoBlueRidge.net):

Shoppers to hit the stores

The day after Thanksgiving may start the holiday shopping season- but that doesn’t mean the day after Christmas won’t pack a punch.
Local retailers hope just as many shoppers will be out today as were in stores on Black Friday. Newspapers on Christmas Day were full of sale ads. Additionally, thanks to post-holiday reductions, today may be a great day to start stocking up on Christmas decorations for next year.

First of all, the headline is just strange--one can't help reading the headline and asking "Says who?", or perhaps imagining a slightly revised headline which reads "Shoppers To Hit The Stores--Or Else!"

We must shop, we are told--MUST!

Secondly, this is not a news story--it is an advertisement, plain and simple.

We suggest a more reality-based news story, not one written to satisfy advertising clients--one which examines actual issues and the impact of these issues on actual local people:

• The local impact of the mortgage lending crisis on local residents--and related impacts on holiday retail spending habits
• The local impact of high gas prices on the ability of local people to commute to work--and related impacts on holiday retail spending habits
• The local impact of changes to bankruptcy laws--and related impacts on holiday retail spending habits.

This article could be used as a starting point:

Holiday Spending Growth at 5 -Year Low
Last-Minute Buys Fail to Turn Tide

By Joseph Galante
Bloomberg News
Wednesday, December 26, 2007; D09

A surge in spending over the weekend may not have been enough to rescue Target, Sears Holdings and Macy's from the slowest holiday spending season in five years.

MasterCard's consulting unit said yesterday that sales from Nov. 23 to Dec. 24 gained 3.6 percent. Spending in the week through Dec. 22 declined 2.2 percent, the fourth week of declines, even after sales increased almost 20 percent over the last weekend before Christmas, Chicago-based ShopperTrak RCT said Monday.

We admit, these suggestions may take a couple of phone calls and use of The Google. Pressing buttons and talking--tough stuff--and way too expensive.