I grew up in the great state of Arkansas. My parents and grandparents were always in-touch with the local and national news and encouraged us to keep up with current events. The Arkansas Gazette and later the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper was read cover-to-cover by the entire family, sparking family discussions on the latest politics and, of course, the Razorbacks.
Now I must say, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper is, in my opinion, the best newspaper I have encountered. I have now lived in multiple major cities in the USA and traveled the world reading local newspapers here and there. But honestly at some point I stopped reading because I found that most newspapers were poorly managed and seemed to lack “heart.” Admittedly though, I may be suffering from nostalgia.
With that in mind, I was looking forward to our recent Thanksgiving trip to Little Rock, where morning coffee with my parents would be mixed with reading and commenting on articles in the Democrat-Gazette newspaper.
However, I was greeted with mixed news. The newspaper, although still available on this trip, would no longer deliver a print edition in the coming months. Instead, my parents demonstrated their shiny new iPad. This wasn’t just any iPad however. This iPad was presented to my parents for free by the Democrat-Gazette newspaper. I then learned that my brother received a free iPad too. And my aunt. And so on.
The newspaper was delivering free iPads to thousands upon thousands of regular subscribers in the state of Arkansas.
My jaw dropped.
Yet, it gets better.
The newspaper further held iPad training and setup sessions at local hotels throughout the state AND would additionally send training personnel to individual homes. My parents needed just such an individual trainer.
My jaw dropped further.
What an excellent example of creative thinking for an old-school business faced with today’s rapid changes in technology, although it is clearly more than that. This business understood how ingrained it was in the community at large. This business took that responsibility seriously and acted upon it.
For additional details and further back-stories on this heartwarming story, please check out this in-depth article.
Go Hogs!
PS:
Photo by Matt Popovich on Unsplash